Design and Development of an Automated Pottery Wheel for MSME

India is a vast country with 68% of the population living in rural areas as per the 2014 survey. A wide majority of the rural people are still practicing their traditional family vocations like creating artefacts in wood, stone sculpture, earthenware and pottery. As per the survey, it has been estimated that over 150 lakh potters are presently practicing the traditional art of pottery making. The proposed project was initiated to design an automated pottery wheel for MSME focusing on functionality, usability, safety and ergonomics. A literature survey was carried out to study the variants and the evolution of the product. Ethnography and questionnaire survey was conducted to understand the needs of the user.

Analysis of research inferences from the collected data were carried out to translate customer requirements into technical requirements. Preparation of Quality Function Deployment and Product Design Specification from the analyzed results were carried out for listing out customer needs and technical voices, according to the importance of rating. The generation of the Quality Function Deployment and Product Design Specification involved using various methods including mind mapping, brain storming and analysis of collected data. Various design concepts were generated and the final concept was selected using the Weighted Ranking Method.

The final selected concept was modelled and rendered using digital modelling tools like, Pro-E, Rhinoceros, Photoshop, KeyShot and others. A full scale working model of the finalized concept was made using appropriate materials. The feedback was collected from the user group by Validation method and the results were positive and satisfactory.