Final Design

The Integrated nozzle is used to change the direction and the speed of the air flow comes from the Mammoth blower. Combining with the rotational feature of the Mammoth blower, both the direction and the height of the air flow can be changed with respect to the movement of the vehicles and also vehicle profiles. Therefore, the air flow is able to reach the triangle area on the back window and to improve the drying of the vehicle.

Figure 1. Integrated Nozzle with a bending angle of 160 degrees

The material used will be vulcanized rubber in order to have desired ability to withstand the humid and high-intensity working environment while ensuring the nozzles are soft so that they will not damage the surface of a vehicle.

The production method will be Injection Molding to gurantee the precision of the dimensions, the smoothness of the inner surfaces of the nozzles, and the reliability. Though it would be a large expense to manufacture a mold, the marginal cost for producing an extra nozzle would be low compared to 3D printed nozzles.

The mold consists of three major parts: top mold, bottom mold and core, which are shown in the Figure 2. Two rectangular extrusions on the left and right side of the core are designed for adjusting the position of the core in order to fill the inside space of the nozzle. Bolts and nuts are used on holes on the front and back sides of the top and bottom mold; therefore, the mold can be combined together to complete the injection molding process. The liquid inlet and the vent on the left side of the mold is designed for filling the mold with the liquid rubber-like material and ejecting the gas inside the mold.

Figure 2. Mold of the Integrated Nozzle With Annotations

The prototype nozzles manufactured and tested were the Attachment Design, which could effectively reflect the performance of the final design. The test results showed that there is significant increase in the wind speeds at the center of the undried triangle area. During the tests, it is clear to see that water sprays were removed when those nozzle attachments are implemented. Coherent with the results shown in the table, when one 160° and one 150° nozzle on each side are implemented, the water sprays are removed most effectively.

Figure 3. Air flow rate change of prototype nozzles

The final design would be using Integrated Nozzle with a bending angle of 160 degrees, in consideration the setup of the nozzles and also the cost for manuafacturing the nozzles.