The Design Of A Quick Release Attachment Mechanism For A Hydrofoil Board

The primary objective of this project was to design a quick attach and detach system for use with a surfing foilboard. Foilboards are comprised of a board, mast, and fuselage, onto which wings are attached. These components are generally held together by long bolts, which makes the overall board tedious to assemble and disassemble. Research was conducted on the general concept of attaching components rigidly as well as on the market of current foilboard quick attach mechanisms, and a series of conceptual designs were created from it. All design concepts were rated using metrics generated from both the project objectives and market research, and the top-rated concept was then drawn up in Solidworks. Several design iterations were developed in order to meet both the minimum 300g weight, tensile and compressive strength, and attachment/detachment speed requirements. The design iterations were first validated using a series of Solidworks simulation analyses. Subsequently the final design candidate was analysed using a series of ANSYS Static Structural simulations. The final design can withstand the loads and torques during regular usage as well as cases of the rider standing on the side of the mast while the board is at rest. The design can be attached or detached within one second. It can survive up to 8.769x105 cycles of maximum cyclical loading and is easy to clean.