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Leaf Blower Assembly Report

Written By: Braden Fontenot, Tanner Moore, Colby Moody,

Tia Johnson, Aidan Grundmeyer, Travis Haworth

ME 1212, Section 3, Fall 2023

Abstract

A leaf blower was disassembled and broken up into three main parts: Fluid, Structure,

and Power. Three groups of two were assigned a part to reverse engineer by making a sketch,

Fusion 360 component, and a combined Word document that accurately explains the ins and outs

of the leaf blower. Fluids oversaw the airflow and the design and understanding of the fan and

noise of the leaf blower. Structure oversaw the handle and the power switch. Power oversaw the

motor system inside of the leaf blower. This is designed to test the teamwork and ability of the

group to be able to use reverse engineering and explain what they saw and did to others with

some knowledge of the subject.

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Table of Contents

Abstract.......................................................... 1

Introduction.................................................. 3

Procedure..................................................... 3-4

Decomposition Chart……………………... 4

Fluid............................................................ 5-6

Mechanisms/Structures............................... 7-10

Power/Thermal........................................... 11-13

Conclusion.................................................. 14

Improvements..............................................14-15

Gant Chart.................................................. 15

List of Figures

Figure 1. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Front Nozzle...................................... 5

Figure 2. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Back Nozzle........................................ 5

Figure 3. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Fan.................................................... 6

Figure 4. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of White Spacer.................................... 7

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Figure 5. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Blue Piece 1..................................... 8

Figure 6. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Blue Piece 2..................................... 9

Figure 7. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Switch............................................. 10

Figure 8. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Motor.............................................. 11

Figure 9 Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Motor Mount............................ 12

Figure 10 Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Electrical Switch...................... 12

Introduction

Leaf blowers are useful tools that are used around the world every day. There are two

types of leaf blowers, gas-powered and electric. For this experiment, an electric leaf blower was

used. The electric leaf blower has an electric-powered motor that is connected to a fan. This fan

pulls in air from one side and forces it out the other side. This air is expelled through nozzles

which direct the air flow.

The objective of the experiment was to understand each part of the leaf blower, including

each part’s fit, form, and function. To accomplish this, the blower was disassembled so that all

components could be measured, weighed, and sketched individually. From these measurements,

the function of each part was determined, along with how each part interacted with the other

parts to create a functional assembly.

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Procedure

1. The leaf blower assembly was disassembled using a screwdriver.

2. Each part was then distributed to its specific team (Fluids, Mechanisms, and Power); the

parts were photographed and had their masses measured.

3. A dimensioned drawing of each part was created.

4. The dimensioned drawings were then used to create a 3D model of each piece in Fusion

360.

5. These 3D-modeled parts were put into an assembly to model the real assembly of the leaf

blower.

Decomposition Chart

the force
leaf created
impeller the nozzel
blower pushes
spins the funnels
takes in the air
air inside the air out
air into the
nozzel
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Fluids

Front Nozzle

The front nozzle is connected to the back nozzle by a clamp, and it has a weight of

136.44 grams. The nozzle narrows farther away from the back into something similar to a flat

nozzle. This helps with the airflow so that the air speed is faster than other nozzles like a round.

Figure 1. Drawing, photo, and 3D model of the Front Nozzle

Back Nozzle
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The middle nozzle connects to the front of the nozzle to the main body of the leaf blower.

The weight of the back nozzle is 156.75. The back nozzle helps with containing the air coming

from the motor and fan into a single stream and direction.

Figure 2. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Back Nozzle.

Fan

The fan is a disk shape with blades on each side, often referred to as an impeller. It's

connected to the motor with a left-hand threaded press-fit screw. The weight if the fan is 91.66

grams. It's used to create the wind that's pushed through the nozzle. It does this by having the

blades take in air and create pressure to which the air shoots out into the nozzle.
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Fi

gure 3. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Fan

Mechanisms/Structures

White spacer

The white spacer is a component of the leaf blower made of rigid plastic and weighs 2.7

grams. It is a rectangular piece measuring 37x30x4 mm (dimensions shown in drawing below).

This piece simply acts as a spacer, sitting between the fan and the top bracket of the motor. No
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improvements need to be made to this part because it only acts as a spacer between functioning

parts.

Figure 4. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of White Spacer

Blue Piece 1

Blue piece 1 fits together symmetrically with blue piece 2 via screws and screw holes,

forming a hollow casing. This casing encompasses the motor and impeller with an airtight seal.
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The front of the blue piece assembly is inserted into the back nozzle and directs airflow into the

back nozzle. This piece is made completely of rigid plastic and weighs 257.5 grams. The

dimensions of the part are identified in the dimensioned drawings below.

Figure 5. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Blue Piece 1

Blue Piece 2
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As stated before, blue piece 2 and blue piece 1 fit symmetrically. These two pieces cover

the motor and the fan, with the back of the back nozzle going over the front of both blue pieces.

The back nozzle connects to the front of the blue pieces by a process of sliding the back nozzle

piece over the blue pieces, which then snaps in by a push down spring mechanism. Once this

spring mechanism is pushed down, the back of the back nozzle piece can slide off and on. The

blue piece 2 weighs 247.4 grams and is made fully of plastic. The dimesons and drawings of this

piece can be found below.

Figure 6. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Blue Piece 2

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Switch

The switch lies on the top of the handle, which is on the top of the blue piece. It fits

right in between blue piece 1 and blue piece 2. The switch weighs 4 grams and is made

completely of plastic. The switch is 52.5 mm long and 21.8 mm wide. The height of the object is

13.5 mm. This part has groves on the top to easily push and pull the switch with just one finger.

When the switch is pushed forward, the mechanism turns on and when it is pushed back it then

turns off.

Figure 7. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Switch

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Power/Thermal

Motor

The motor is held in the middle of “Blue Piece 1” and “Blue Piece 2”. This part of the

motor has been separated into four different pieces: “Bottom Piece”, “Middle Piece”, “Top

Bracket”, and “Rod”. All four pieces together weigh 300 grams. The middle piece is filled with

wires that receive the power allowing the rod to spin. The Rod passes through “Figure 8” and

“Figure 9” holding them together which then connects to the fan disk allowing for airflow to be

created and pushed out through the noise of the leaf blower.
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Figure 8. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Motor

The motor starts when you turn the switch on, and it sends an electric current into copper

wires. This current allows two different poles to become active with opposing magnetic charges.

These magnetic charges pull and push the magnets that are attached to the central rod. The

central rod, magnetic core, and the copper ring under the magnetic core had a combined mass of

about 300 grams. The brick with the copper wire and the bracket weighed about 400 grams while

holding the wires.

Figure 9. Drawing, Photo, and 3D model of Motor Mount

Slide Switch
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When the switch is pushed into the on position, it closes the circuit and allows for

electrical current to be run throughout the motor and opens the circuit when the switch is

pushed to the off position. The switch is attached to two different wires, one extending from

the plug, and the other connected to the motor mount.

Figure 10. Drawing of Electrical Switch

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Conclusion
Overall, the structure of the leaf blower was designed as a cheaper alternative to a bigger

more expensive leaf blower. The mini leaf blower was an electrical model and in comparison, to

a gas leaf blower, the materials used were small metals and cheap, hard plastics as opposed to

steel, and expensive plastic. The pieces used in the making of the leaf blower were 2 nozzle

pieces that connected to each other to compress and control airflow. Then a case that encases the

motor and fan pieces and connects to the nozzle pieces. The case is used to move the air towards

the nozzle pieces, and also to hold the motor and fan pieces on the inside. The motor is the

electrical output of the leaf blower giving it all of its power and is held in place by a white

spacer.

Improvements.

One of the things that could be improved is the nozzle. Since it works more like a

flat, an improvement idea would be having the ability to switch out different nozzles a person

could use or being able to attach the desired nozzle. Another improvement that can be made is
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instead of having a plug, you could have a rechargeable battery. This would allow for the

consumer to take the blower wherever they could carry the blower, and not be limited by the

length of the cord that they would have to carry around. Another improvement that could be

made to this leaf blower is to scale up the entire thing. Once the housing is scaled up, the

components that fit inside the housing can be scaled up also, which means more power and more

air can be expelled. Since the only function of a leaf blower is to expel air out of its nozzle, it is

safe to say that expelling more air is an overall improvement. The last improvement that can be

made is to increase the size of the air ducts. This would improve the cooling on the power unit,

increasing performance and extending its lifetime.

Gant chart
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