Industrial Design · Product · DFM — 2022

Project 261 —
THUDPUK

A low-cost flying toy engineered for injection moulding. Thirty prototypes in three days. Production-ready design.

Studio

TwoSix Design, Aberdeen

Role

Product Designer — Intern

Discipline

Industrial Design · CAD · DFM · Rapid Prototyping

Year

2022

The Brief

TwoSix Design needed a product they could manufacture and sell directly — a small throwing and flying toy that could retail at £10 while keeping unit costs low enough to be viable. Recycled plastic. Simple geometry. One or two-part tooling. Safe flight behaviour that a non-expert could reproduce with a casual throw.

That's the whole brief. Clean in theory, genuinely difficult in practice. Aerodynamics are unforgiving and injection moulding geometry has very specific demands. The two constraints don't naturally want to cooperate.

£10

Target retail price

30+

PLA prototypes — 3 days

2

Max mould parts

1

Final production-ready form

Problem

Aerodynamics and
DFM don't get on

Flying toys work through specific relationships between edge geometry, thickness, weight distribution, and spin. The shapes that fly well tend to have thin asymmetric profiles, complex curvature, and variable cross-sections — exactly the properties that make injection moulding expensive or impossible. The brief required both things working simultaneously within a £10 retail price ceiling. That's a real design problem, not just a styling exercise.

Insight

Symmetry is the
manufacturing shortcut

The key insight from early testing was that radially symmetric forms — discs, rings, boomerang profiles — could achieve consistent flight through symmetry alone, without needing the complex asymmetric wing profiles of a traditional frisbee. Symmetry reduces the number of variables, simplifies the tooling geometry, and makes flight behaviour more predictable for a casual user. The design language of the toy came directly from that manufacturing logic, not from aesthetic preference.

Design Intent

Let the constraints
write the form

Every formal decision had to justify itself against one of two criteria: does it improve flight, or does it make the mould cheaper? The intent was to never resolve that tension arbitrarily — if a shape change helped aerodynamics but complicated tooling, it had to earn its place through testing, not assumption. The constraints were:

  • Recycled PLA / injected plastic only
  • 1–2 part mould geometry — no side actions
  • Consistent, safe, catchable flight path
  • Brand integration without adding tooling complexity

Outcome

Production-ready,
studio wasn't

The final form hit the brief. Manufactureable geometry, predictable flight, TwoSix branding resolved into the surface without additional tooling complexity. High-resolution CAD outputs and KeyShot renders were prepared to support tooling conversations. The design was ready for production. TwoSix Design folded due to financial difficulties before that conversation happened. The project stands as a complete design process — right up to the point where production would have started.

THUDPUK final Keyshot render — recycled plastic boomerang-form flying toy with TwoSix branding

The Process

01

Research & Ideation

Early exploration mapped how changes in geometry affected flight — edge thickness, chord width, weight distribution, spin axis. Collaborative sketching with the team ran alongside solo CAD modelling to test assumptions before committing to physical material. The goal was to fail fast and cheaply — in software, not plastic.

02

Rapid Prototyping — 30+ forms in 3 days

3D printing in PLA was the test bed. Over 30 prototypes across three days — each one a small variation in profile, edge taper, or diameter. Testing with university students and staff assessed flight consistency, catchability, and safety. Not a lab test — just repeated throws across a corridor, which is exactly the use case. Insights from each throw fed back directly into the next CAD iteration.

03

CAD Refinement & DFM

As the form converged, CAD geometry was reworked for injection moulding. Undercuts removed. Part geometry simplified. Wall thicknesses rationalised to maintain structural integrity while minimising material use. The brand mark was resolved into a surface feature that didn't require a separate tool insert. Each change was checked against both flight test data and mould cost logic.

04

Final Render & Handover

High-resolution KeyShot renders and fully resolved CAD files were prepared to communicate design intent to a toolmaker. These were the production-ready deliverables — everything a manufacturer needed to start cutting tool steel. The studio closed before that conversation took place.

Manufacturing Constraints — every decision filtered through these

Recycled plastic only — material cost ceiling tied to £10 retail

1–2 part injection mould — no side actions, no undercuts

Simple, symmetric geometry — manufacturable without specialist tooling

Safe flight path — no sharp edges, consistent behaviour for casual users

Brand integration — resolved into surface geometry, no added tooling cost

THUDPUK very early ideation — pencil sketches exploring flying toy archetypes Sketch 01 — initial ideation
THUDPUK refined sketch — flight profile and edge taper exploration Refined sketch — flight profile
THUDPUK outdoor sketch and test — annotated field notes during flight testing Field sketch — outdoor testing
THUDPUK Rhino CAD — boomerang profile development with edge taper specifications CAD — boomerang profile
THUDPUK mortise and tenon pin joint detail — modular assembly study CAD — pin joint detail
THUDPUK 30 slot iteration — DFM exploration for branding and surface features CAD — branding integration
THUDPUK PLA prototypes — full batch from three days of 3D printing PLA — full prototype batch
THUDPUK PLA prototypes — discus-form variations testing aerodynamic profiles PLA — form variations
THUDPUK PLA prototypes — late-stage profiles approaching final form PLA — late-stage iterations
THUDPUK final form in hand — surface and weight in real-world context In hand — final form
THUDPUK final form — alternate view showing branding integration In hand — branding
THUDPUK final form — edge profile and material finish detail In hand — edge profile
The shapes that fly well are exactly the shapes that make injection moulding expensive. The project was about resolving that. — Project 261, TwoSix Design, 2022
○

Studio context: TwoSix Design closed due to financial difficulties before THUDPUK entered production. The design reached production-ready stage — resolved CAD, KeyShot renders, DFM-compliant geometry, brand integration complete. The same internship also delivered Project 262 — Greene King Ceramics, a 40-unit slip-cast tableware commission completed within the same period.

Specification

Brief Low-cost flying toy. £10 retail. Recycled plastic. Injection mould, 1–2 parts. Safe, consistent flight.
Role Research, ideation, CAD development, rapid prototyping, DFM engineering, render delivery.
Prototyping 30+ PLA 3D-printed forms over 3 days. Informal user testing with staff and students.
CAD Full 3D model refined for injection moulding. Undercuts removed, geometry simplified, brand mark integrated.
Renders High-resolution KeyShot outputs prepared for tooling conversation and client presentation.
Outcome Production-ready design. Studio closed before manufacture commenced due to financial difficulties.
Studio TwoSix Design, Aberdeen — Product Design Internship, 2022.

Related Project

Project 262 — Greene King
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