Mechanical Engineering Report: Shopping Cart Design Specifications

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the design specifications of a shopping cart, commonly used in supermarkets and other retail environments. It details the design features and attributes, including shape, wheel configuration, and materials like metal and plastic, highlighting their impact on functionality and user experience. The report examines the intended use and potential abuses of shopping carts, as well as the manufacturing processes involved in producing the various components and assembling them. It also touches upon the evolution of shopping cart designs, including motorized versions for accessibility. The report provides insights into the design considerations that contribute to the cart's effectiveness and durability, supported by relevant references.

Running head: DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Design Specifications
A Shopping trolley
Also known as a shopping cart, it is a large basket on wheels, most commonly made of metal that
is provided by shops, especially supermarkets for the customers to use within the shop for
transporting or moving of commodities to the counter for checkout when doing their shopping.
In other cases, customers can still use the trolley to ferry the items they have purchased to their
vehicles in the parking areas (Zwolinski et al, 2011).
Design features and attributes
A shopping cart is suitably built to be wheeled around by the customers around stores as they
accumulate and store goods they purchase.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
 Shape
Shopping carts have been built to fit within each other in a line in order to ease collection and
transporting many at a time. The attendant is able to nest within each other a number of carts and
move them from one location to another with much ease. This also helps in reducing storage
space since it takes up reduced space when folded (Johnsen, 2014).
Nested carts in storage
Most shopping trolleys are normally fitted with four wheels. In any case either wheel fails or
jams, it may become very difficult to handle the cart. Usually, the carts have swivel wheels at the
front with the rear wheels being fixed in orientation. The swivel wheels facilitate easy around the
stores since the customers or attendants will be navigating through the aisles of a store and also
useful when turning around. The wheels always ensure that one utilizes the least power while
moving commodities.
There are as well shopping carts with all the four wheels swivel. This increases flexibility and
hence efficiency.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
 Material
Most recent shopping carts are mostly built of metal or an arrangement of both metal and plastic.
Carts made of aluminium are lightweight as compared to the steel hand carts. This makes it
much easier to push around the commodities no matter how heavy they may be. The steel or
aluminium carts are made from quality products and are durable hence their top quality is never
compromised.
Plastic carts are lighter as well and are easier for users to push, steer and manage. They are easier
to clean and being plastic, they are thus rust-proof.
The plastic carts are equally safer since they reduce the risks of being exposed to injuries like in
the case of children
 Size
The shopping carts always are in different sizes. There are larger ones that are able to carry a
child, others even specially designed to carry two children. A customer is able to choose a
particular type of cart that matches his or her demands. The demands, in this case, can be the
number of products that are to be shopped and so moved around within the shops.
There are also carts designed to be used by children. The carts have much safer and smaller
models that enable children to ride closer to the ground. There are carts designed with a small
model car just in front of the cart.
 Intended use and abuse
Shopping carts are generally designed to help move items shopped in and around the store. There
are as well other inventions that can make a cart useful and equally abused.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Can be used for transportation either by attaching one in front of the bike or at the back such that
as you ride you will have your cart along.
Can be used as a birdcage. Carts with closable baskets can be used to keep birds and move them
around easily without causing trouble or harm to them.
Can be used as an art.
Can be useful in the garden either by creating a mobile garden or by transporting garden
requirements from one place to wherever required

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Used as storage in a garage or even a laundry room. Provides a safer and equally larger storage
facility for your items.
Can be used by adults to move around with little kids when round doing shopping or when
moving items over some long distance (Roussos et al, 2010).
 Method of manufacturing parts and assembly
A shopping basket parts basically include;
A wheeled base assembly constructed mainly from tubings of metal.
A separate handle usually projected upwards and is adjacent to the rear of the base assembly.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
A basket assembly that is rigidly attached to the base of the cart and the handle assemblies. The
basket assembly usually has a one-piece plastic basket (Begum et al, 2012).
A support tube that is horizontal and transversely of the cart and is adjacent to the rear of the
base. The support tube is rigidly connected across the legs of the handle assembly.
Basket side walls having rear reinforcing edges that engage and are held to the erect legs of the
handle assembly.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS

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Figure 1-Images showing parts of a cart and how they are assembled.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
Similarly, shopping carts can be motorized. This can be in form of having electric wheelchairs
attached to baskets to enable the elderly and people with disability navigate around the stores and
collect items (Fiordelisi, 2012).
Shopping carts can only be made from either plastic or metal and in some cases wood which
makes it light and easy to manage. Designing a cart using concrete is unrealistic and majorly
unachievable. Pushing around a concrete cart will be more difficult especially when loaded with
items (Trubiano, 2014).
A shopping cart is built as shown above for various reasons-;
1. The shape is equally streamlined to allow easy movement within the stores. It also allows
for easy nesting when storing or when transporting many carts together.
2. It is built from light materials which makes it easy to carry and push heavy loads.
3. It comes with different sizes to allow the users to carry different sizes and quantity of
goods.
4. Its parts are manufactured and assembled in a simple manner to allow easy repair and
maintenance of parts
5.

DESIGN SPECIFICATIONS
References
Zwolinski, P., Lopez-Ontiveros, M. A., & Brissaud, D. (2011). Integrated design of
remanufacturable products based on product profiles. Journal of Cleaner Production, 14(15-16),
1333-1345.
Johnsen, E. L. (2014). U.S. Patent No. 5,250,789. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
Fiordelisi, L. (2012). U.S. Patent No. 6,435,407. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark
Office.
Trubiano, A. (2014). U.S. Patent Application No. 29/004,011.
Begum, P. G., Beckman, R. A., & Barfoot, J. W. (2012). U.S. Patent Application No.
07/821,600.
Roussos, G., Kourouthanasis, P., & Moussouri, T. (2010). Designing appliances for mobile
commerce and retailtainment. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 7(3-4), 203-209.