Purdue Pinball Toy

Each ME 444 team was tasked with creating an innovative mechanical/electrical action toy with a theme suitable for Purdue University’s sesquicentennial celebration. Each toy was required to include two non-trivial coordinated motions, be modeled in Creo Parametric, and be prototyped using rapid prototyping techniques such as laser cutting and 3D printing.
The design our team came up with is Purdue Pinball. The toy’s goal is to use a spring-powered ball-shooter to hit six targets, labeled with the letters P-U-R-D-U-E, which in turn cause six signs on dowel rods, labeled with 150-Y-E-A-R-S, to be displayed.
To add to the toy’s play value, the game can be made more difficult by powering on the Boilermaker Special turntable on the ramp. The turntable and train spin and create an obstacle for the player to avoid while aiming for the targets.
After all six targets have been hit and all six signs have been dropped, a reset cam mechanism can be slid along the back of the toy to simultaneously reset the dowel rods the signs are on and the target sliders, so that users can play again without having to manually reset each component.