Segway Drift W1 e-Skates Teardown

219 Design has a special interest in last mile transportation, having worked on both scooter and bike solutions. In this teardown, we explore the possibilities for the Segway Drift W1 e-Skates. These skates are the latest innovation from Segway, the company that brought us self balancing personal transportation. They’re like mini-hoverboards for each foot. Currently selling for $389 on Amazon with a battery life of about 45 minutes, a top speed of 7.5mph, and a weight of 7.7lbs, could these skates be a last mile solution? Let’s find out!

Here are the areas of interest we’re exploring for this teardown:

1. Toy or Transportation– Are the skates durable enough to be a last mile transportation solution?

2. Short Run vs. Mass Market Product– Are these skates designed to be mass produced?

3.最大有效载荷辩护– What features drive the weight limit of 220lbs?

玩具或Transportation?

• The chassis is die cast in magnesium and post machined, a material and process allowing tight tolerances and light weight. For a lower cost, injection molded nylon with inserts would support the loads and threaded fasteners; however, this would not be as durable, nor would it hold alignment (particularly in drafted areas) as well. Metal also provides a better margin of safety for battery issues; it will dissipate heat and contain expanding cells much more effectively than plastic. The choice of metal for the chassis and foot plate suggests that this product is intended to last a long time.
• An extra 5 pieces (1 cast part, 4 grommets) add suspension. This is a significant expense in tooling and parts to improve the ride, a quality only valuable over longer distances and higher speeds.
• The wheel hub is a single steel tube for extra rigidity, particularly to keep the motor magnets from contacting the motor coils. A plastic hub would be less expensive but would require larger gaps between the motor coils and magnets, reducing the efficiency of the motor. High efficiency would not be a important in a toy, but is crucial for transportation products.

• The heat from the motor driver chips dissipates to the chassis via a piece of thermally conductive tape. Effective heat removal from electronics extends their life. It’s a nice design touch to use the cover as both a heat sink and structural element.
• 设计师注意防水电线段落。橡胶垫圈，定制垫圈和丁基橡胶粘合剂密封件均允许溜冰鞋在一些水中存活。实际上，他们取得了IP54评级。

• Blue (not red) thread lockers on all screws.
• Bearings, while more expensive than simple bushings, provide smoother ride and longer life in high-impact conditions. Bushings would be sufficient for a toy with a shorter expected life, but bearings speak to a longer-lived design intent.
• A white caulking compound hardens the electronics against vibrations. Shock loads are particularly aggressive on electrolytic capacitors and will eventually break their solder joints with the board. Adding the white caulk by hand to select electronic components demonstrates a design effort for longer-term reliability.

With the exception of the chassis, all the castings use simple molds without side actions, reducing the tooling costs and improving mold cycle times. Once out of the molds, two castings required no post-process machining; the chassis requires only simple tapping to finish the part; and a lathe can finish the motor end caps in one fixturing. A good deal of design effort went into optimizing these parts for manufacture, an effort that pays off only at larger production runs. A shorter production run would have seen some of these components machined from stock to keep tooling and design costs low.

霍尔效应传感器是一种定制版本，具有绝缘和超长铅，需要与传感器制造商密切协调。此外，它们从板上的距离可能需要手工焊接。这些元素在一起需要与电子供应链密切协调。

Last mile E-transport is dominated by a small set of off-the-shelf motors. These were custom designed for the Segway e-Skates to achieve a high torque within the limits of the wheel hub, with its unusual smaller diameter and larger length.

Taken together, these parts show a pattern of deeper design for manufacturing and an intention by the manufacturer to produce these skates in larger quantities.

Segway has tooled their assembly line at a level that is only justified for larger-scale production.

Both motor bearings are pressed into interference fits. The high forces in such a fit require a press and tooling to achieve bearing alignment and smooth rolling.

电动机轴的螺纹端是空心的，以穿过导线，这会干扰可以拧紧螺母的传统插座。组装需要特殊的扳手来实现正确的扭矩。

The main body part has several areas with selective powder coating. This process is generally cost-effective at larger quantities, as it requires at least one, likely a few, masking fixtures, and careful application of the powder coating.

Max Payload Justification

最大有效载荷可能由最大扭矩设置：电机不足以获得220磅+上坡。

The cast metal chassis, with its ribbing around the axel seat and arched internal structure, steel drive axle, and wheel hub are certainly strong enough to stand up to higher loads.

The top plate transmits loads from the rider’s feet to In our estimate, the structure is not a limiting factor.

Main Takeaways

A close look at the parts of the Segway Drift W1 e-Skates suggests that they can be a transportation tool, intended to be made on a large scale.

金属，而不是塑料，形成所有负载携带部件，它们增加了几个部分，以改善长距离的乘坐质量。该电机专为该应用而设计，若干努力得到了优化其效率。许多零件也被加工和设计，以最大限度地减少加工步骤。

连同，这使我们相信SEGWAY打算漂移W1 E-Skates持续很长时间作为真正的交通选择。