Provided a car seat schematic, my team designed a compatible handle assembly and switch cover. Our goal was to develop an assembly with a factor of safety greater than 2 and a low manufacturing cost.
I was responsible for designing the seat handle. My original design for an injection molded handle was made of ABS plastic and had a mass of 10.946g and an FOS of 0.67.
In an effort to reduce the mass while maintaining the factor of safety, I used topography optimization to redesign the handle with a slimmer but more reinforced profile.
The ribs on back and the closed profile on one side allowed the handle to be lighter while tripling the previous factor of safety.
The new handle had a mass of 10.911g and an FOS of 2.04.
Sam Deadrick 
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