Zephyr
A foldable electric longboard that collapses to ~15″ for a backpack without sacrificing structural rigidity. No portability or theft issues with the compact design, tailoring it to commuters.
Dimensions
Performance
Power
Drivetrain
I designed and built the longboard's locking and sliding components, including the central load plate. The prototype's outer halves are birch plywood, with the central piece machined from 6061 aluminum on a waterjet. Because the sliding mechanism adds thickness to the board, I used spring-loaded aluminum locking pins internally that drop into detent slots at both the folded and extended positions, holding the board rigid in either state.
I sized the load plate using FEA to roughly 4 mm of deflection at 800 N with around a 3x safety factor. This was confirmed with physical load testing, and there were no major structural issues with the load plate. The main issue experienced with the initial prototype was that the plywood didn't hold well. Repeated use of the board wore the pin holes larger over time, loosening the fit and throwing off key tolerances we had designed around. The next iteration will switch over to a stiffer wood composite to eliminate that wear path.
