SPIRAL STAIRCASE A report for Space Solutions

By IDM GROUP 5

1. Introduction As a consulting company in engineering of international class we are very pleased to present you our solution for a design and a manufacturing process of a spiral staircase. The designing process began with an extensive research on the customers requirements to specify the attributes of a spiral staircase. By using Quality Functional Deployment matrices for the design as well as the installation process the present design was developed. Insofar as there is a potential need of spiral staircases in the private sector our design is as customizable as possible to satisfy each individual demand. The modular design ensures that all parts can easily be transported even into small or contorted rooms. A clear structured user guide and the simple assembly of the staircase result in an easy and without any specific knowledge to assemble design. Since most of the parts are supposed to be manufactured in-house our manufacturing plan tries to ensure this. However, it is considering that a start up firm does possibly not have the financial support to equip a factory on the highest technological level. Additionally it will presumably not be able to run a mass production from the very beginning of their enterprise. Please find both Quality Functional Deployment matrices as well as the complete part and assembly drawings in the appendix. Yours sincerely IDM GROUP 5

2. Table of contents Page: 1. Introduction 2. Table of contents 3. Design 4. Manufacturing considerations 4.1 Bill of materials 4.2 Machines and tools required 4.3 Manufacturing Process 5. Appendix 5.1 Design Quality Functional Deployment matrices 1-4 5.2 Installation Quality Functional Deployment matrices 1-2 5.3 Assembly drawings 5.4 Part drawings 5.5 User guide 2 3 4-5 6-8 6 7 7-8

3. Design Choice Insofar as all customer requirements were supposed to be satisfied the current design was chosen. The requirements for a Private Stair (according to BS 5395) were subdivided in the six categories Safety, Quality, Competitiveness, Ergonomics, Manufacturing and Maintenance as well as Sustainability. These are including several attributes like fire protection, long design life, a modular design and a variable height (cf. QFD Design). Moreover most of the requirements were quantified to comply with the British Standard (BS). Afterwards functions of the staircase, whose compliance was also quantified, were considered to ensure that the final design satisfies all requirements. Some functions are for example to hold a vertical load or to prevent the user from falling down (cf. QFD Design). The chosen modular staircase-design fulfils all customer requirements and is easy as well as without any specific knowledge to assemble. It consists of several different parts. The column (to be seen in Fig.1), which is connected to the ground by a flange (Fig.1), stabilises the entire staircase, holds parts of the load and can easily be extended to span at least two floors. The flange has a rectangular area, because with this it can be mounted to a concrete floor as well as to a timber joist floor construction.
Fig. 1 Column and flange

The Collar (to be seen in Fig.2) is the most important part to hold a vertical load. It is also important to locate and fasten the stairs, which are connected to the collar with bolts and nuts.
Fig. 2 Collar

However, one has to distinguish between a normal stair and a landing stair. The landing stair is broader and has therefore a wider angle compared to the normal stair. It is either a top stair or a landing stair in the middle of the staircase. The top stair is a stair at storey levels with an angle of at least 60 to ensure that the user can easily leave the staircase. The landing stair in the middle is an intermediate or rest landing with an angle of at least 45. It should according to the British Standard BS 5395 generally be inserted after 16 normal steps. The present design provides every kind of landing, just depending on the customers requirements. Customized and specifically ordered landings can if necessary be manufactured. To prevent the user from falling down, the staircase has an outer handrail. It consists of a hose made of an elastomer. The elastomer makes the handrail safe to use, because it is easy to grab and does not slip. Additionally rods are connecting the handrail to the stairs. The rods are also ensuring that no small children could possibly fall through the stairs. One rod per stair secures one stair to another, as it is poked through the upper stair and fixed to the stair below (seen in Fig.3).
Fig. 3 Handrail Rods

Thus all steps are located and fastened, because the landing stair on the top is fixed to the upper level and the step at the bottom is fixed to ground. On the final level an extra handrail is needed to make sure that nobody could possibly fall from this level. It also consists of the same parts which were used for the normal handrail. To damp vibration and to adjust the collar to the column in an appropriate way the Collar Connection Element (black element in Fig.4) was designed. It consists of an elastomer and fits very accurately to the different surfaces of the collar and the column. To adjust the height of the staircase two different Spacers were designed (metal ring in Fig. 5), one with a height of 10mm and another
Fig. 5 Spacer Fig. 4 Collar Connection Element

one with the height of 20mm. Insofar as the rise of the stair could, according to the BS and depending on the customized problem, vary between 170mm and 220mm the spacers are needed to adjust the height of the staircase. With these two sizes of spacers a gap of less than 10mm at the final floor will be guaranteed. The Top Nut (to be seen in Fig. 6) is screwed on top of the column to secure that the collars are fixed and fastened. Additionally a rod for the handrail of the final level is screwed into the top nut. Further to this the customer can chose different top stair covers. As the normal stair is made of steel, it is probably not very convenient to have it in your private house without any stair cover. A carpeted stair is as well provided as a Fig. 6 Top Nut laminated, which could look like a wooden stair for example. Also a vinyl covered stair with a lot of different patterns is available. All covers fulfil the BS fire protection requirements and fit with the provided different colour options for all other parts of the staircase. Please find the entire Quality Functional Deployment matrices for the staircase-design in the appendix.

4. Manufacturing considerations

4.1 Bill of materials

Assembly Level 1 IDM_2011_001 Sub-assembly Level 2 IDM_2011_004 IDM_2011_045 IDM_2011_015 IDM_2011_042 IDM_2011_040 IDM_2011_041 IDM_2011_023 IDM_2011_003 IDM_2011_045 IDM_2011_014 IDM_2011_024 IDM_2011_023 IDM_2011_041 IDM_2011_042 IDM_2011_040 IDM_2011_005 IDM_2011_046 IDM_2011_015 IDM_2011_024 IDM_2011_044 IDM_2011_050 IDM_2011_006 IDM_2011_062 IDM_2011_061 IDM_2011_036 IDM_2011_035 IDM_2011_034 IDM_2011_002 IDM_2011_060 IDM_2011_061 IDM_2011_030 IDM_2011_031 IDM_2011_016 IDM_2011_017 IDM_2011_033 IDM_2011_043 M10 M10 M16 Part Level 3 Quantity 1 VARIES 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 7 2 1 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 VARIES 1 1 OPTIONAL OPTIONAL 1 1 VARIES 2 4 Material N/A N/A EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL ELASTOMER N/A EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL ELASTOMER ELASTOMER EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL N/A EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL ELASTOMER EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL N/A ELASTOMER EN3B MILD STEEL N/A EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL N/A ELASTOMER EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL EN3B MILD STEEL N/A N/A

Part No IDM_2011_001 IDM_2011_004 IDM_2011_045 IDM_2011_015 IDM_2011_042 IDM_2011_040 IDM_2011_041 IDM_2011_023 IDM_2011_003 IDM_2011_045 IDM_2011_014 IDM_2011_024 IDM_2011_023 IDM_2011_041 IDM_2011_042 IDM_2011_040 IDM_2011_005 IDM_2011_046 IDM_2011_015 IDM_2011_024 IDM_2011_044 IDM_2011_050 IDM_2011_006 IDM_2011_062 IDM_2011_061 IDM_2011_036 IDM_2011_035 IDM_2011_034 IDM_2011_002 IDM_2011_060 IDM_2011_061 IDM_2011_030 IDM_2011_031 IDM_2011_016 IDM_2011_017 IDM_2011_033 IDM_2011_043 M10 M10 M16

Description SPIRAL STAIRCASE STAIR ASSEMBLY STAIR COLLAR MIDDLE ROD LOCATING ROD LOWER ROD COLLAR CONNECTION FIRST STAIR ASSEMBLY STAIR FIRST COLLAR FIRST COLLAR CONNECTION COLLAR CONNECTION LOWER ROD MIDDLE ROD LOCATING ROD FINAL STAIR ASSEMBLY FINAL STAIR COLLAR COLLAR CONNECTION LANDING STAIR ROD TOP BRACKET LANDING HANDRAIL ASSEMBLY LANDING HANDRAIL HANDRAIL INSERT FLANGE ASSEMBLY THREADED BOLT PLATE HANDRAIL ASSEMBLY HANDRAIL HANDRAIL INSERT COLUMN TAILORED COLUMN 10mm SPACER 20mm SPACER TOP NUT TOP NUT ROD COUNTERSUNK BOLT NUT BOLT

Fig. 7 - Bill of Materials

4.2 Machines and tools required CNC Milling machine working envelope circa 1000x500x500mm Pillar Drill to avoid the CNC having a backlog of work to do Metal cutting band saw to cut maximum 20mm thickness 22mm circular cutter /corer M10 tap M16 die M20 tap M70 x 6 die M70 x 6 tap MIG welder Operations for manufacturing the collar connection elements and the handrails are to be outsourced as the start-up cost of purchasing injection moulding machines etc is too high.

4.3 Manufacturing Process

Flange assembly, columns and spacers The flange plate will be cut down using the band saw from a mild steel plate to the correct dimensions and the holes for the M10 bolts drilled on the pillar drill. The threaded bolt will be cut down using the band saw from a standard length of mild steel pipe. The thread will be tapped manually using the M70 x 6 tap. The plate and the threaded bolt will then be welded together. The columns will be cut down to size (1500mm for the standard column and the required height for the customer for the tailored column) using the band saw. A CNC or manual lathe with a large enough working envelope to fit the column in would be prohibitively expensive for the number of operations that it would perform. Hence the threads have been chosen to be cut manually despite the expensive of the specialist tap and die. The spacers are made to order by cutting a standard length mild steel tube down to either the 10mm or the 20mm size as required by the customer. The top bracket will be bought in as one component then the holes added manually using the pillar drill. Manufacturing it in house would require purchasing a sheet metal folding machine for just the one operation so is too expensive.

Stairs, collars and rods The collar is made up of three parts that are welded together. The circular element is cut from a standard length pipe on the band saw and then undergoes an operation on the CNC mill to machine a slot onto the outer profile. The plate that connects to the stair is machined in the CNC mill to shape the circular profile. To free up the CNC machine the holes are drilled and counter bored manually on the pillar drill. The supporting triangular plate is cut on the band saw and then all three components are welded together to make up the collar. 7

The stairs are machined from mild steel in the CNC mill to get the circular outer profile the holes drilled on the pillar drill and then tapped using the M10 tap. For the landing stair to be solely manufactured in the CNC mill the mil would have to have a very large working envelope making it too expensive. To counter this problem the landing stair is manufactured in two halves which are then welded together allowing a smaller mill to be used. The collar connection element is injection moulded out of an elastomer, this process would be outsourced due to the cost of an injection moulding machine being too large for the amount operations it would perform. The rods are cut from a standard length rod using the band saw and the external thread is then cut using the M10 die.

Handrail Both of the handrails comprise of two distinct components. The handrail its self and a tapped insert to facilitate its attachment to the rods. The tapped insert is made out of mild steel and tapped manually using an M20 tap. The handrail will be manufactured by extruding the outer profile to give the length tailored to the customers stair requirements. This is another process that would be outsourced due to the excessive cost for machines for just a single operation. The elastomer handrail would then have circular inclusions manually cut and the insert bonded in with an adhesive.