made to fail?

[Bill Wright]

What's the purpose of this hole in handle at the stress point, other than to break?

Bill

[dennis]

Its not a hole that's been designed in, its a problem with the plastic flow while moulding the part. Its why it broke. Take it back as the fault was there when you bought it.

[Johnny B Good]

I'm guessing it's the same reason for designing the plastic wishbone linkage from the on/off button to the auto-shut off/anti-boil dry switch in the electric plastic jug kettle having sharp edged corners where it has to negotiate 160 degree 'bends'.

For f*ck's sake! Any fool knows the last things you want when injection moulding plastic parts are sharp edged corners when smoothing such 'bends' not only makes the injection moulding process itself easier but also results in a stronger product - deliberate act of sabotage!

BTW, I've no fekin' idea what that item is, so it might have some obscure function other than to, as I think you've correctly surmised, fail prematurely.

[Johnny B Good]

It looks to me like the hole is a designed in feature to me. In this case, failure was not an option but a guaranteed feature of the design.

[Bill Wright]

No it's a deliberate hole.

Bill

[Nightjar]

It might be easier to say if we knew what the item is and could see all of it. However, it looks as though it is designed to take a pin or similar; perhaps something that should run in the shaped groove visible in the yellow part.

[T i m]

I think it's a hand-gripped ratchet clamp (as the picture is called 'clamp')?

The black bit that's broken off is one half of the handle. The curved 'notch' in the side needs to be there to fit into the body of the clamp but the (2) hex shaped holes don't look like they need to be there.

That said, the formed holes are in the 'in compression side of the handle 'beam' but the fact they were there didn't help, along with the air bubble in the plastic, right where you wouldn't want it (in the tension side of the beam).

Cheers, T i m

[Andrew]

Cheap plastic clamps will always fail when used for any serious work. Ok for holding bits of balsa wood together for modelling, and that's it.

best get a collection of metal G clamps.

[tabbypurr]

if the item is worth repairing, melting some metal wire into the plastic could do it.

NT

[dennis]

Which hole are you saying it is?

[Bill Wright]

The one in the middle of the break.

Bill

[Bill Wright]

But there's no pin. Bill

[Chris J Dixon]

I have had a Panasonic bread maker for some time.

The first part to fail was the plastic catch for the dispenser tray, so I fashioned a metal replacement, which was partially successful.

When the rather abrasive seeded mix I use eventually wore off the coating on blade and pan, it was better value to get a complete new unit from ebay.

When the second dispenser latch failed, I came across

Which is just the job. You'd think Panasonic could have done this themselves.

Chris

[Andy Burns]

250 replacement latches sold, presumably Panasonic would prefer 250 new machines ...

[The Natural Philosopher]

Modern consumer design is not done by engineers with a view to product longevity, but is done by hair stylists with a view to saleability.