Alexis Bishop

Bryce Bernales
Joaquin Arellanes
Landon Antonio
Reverse Engineering Report
Zippo Windproof Lighter

Device Description:
The Zippo windproof lighter is a simple yet slightly mechanically complex item that
produces a stable flame. The Lighter consists of the brass outer casing which holds the stainless
steel inner casing that contains all of the smaller parts.
Bill of Materials:
-Outer Casing(bottom):The Bottom of the Outer casing is made of brass and holds the inner
casing.
-Outer Casing(lid):The Outer lid is for putting out the flame and keeping the lighter
closed.(Made of brass)
-Outer Casing(hinge & hinge pin):The hinge/hinge pin makes it so the lid is connected to the
bottom and can open and close easily.(Made of stainless steel)
-Inner Casing: Body that holds all other components(made of stainless steel)
-Screw: Screws in at the top of the felt pad.
-Flint Spring: Attaches to spring tip and screw, which allows the flint to be pushed to plate
-Spring Tip: Holds the flint at the end of it.
-Flint piece: The flint is essential, when the wheel strikes it, it creates a spark.(Made of flint)
-Tube and Tube Insert:The Tube holds the flint piece,the spring tip, the flint spring , and is
capped off by the screw. The tube insert is what holds the tube in the lighter inner casing.(Made
of brass)
-Rayon Balls:The Rayon balls are what hold the fuel or the lighter fluid making the lighter
produces flame easily.(made of Rayon fiber)
-Plate: The plate lays a foundation for the wheel and rivet to lay on.(stainless steel)
-Cam & Cam rivet:The Cam allows the lid to close and open or holds the lid open(stainless steel)
-Cam Spring:Part of the cam to cause it to be spring loaded.(stainless steel)
-Flint wheel & Flint wheel rivet: The Flint wheel is the thing that when struck produces sparks
which produces the flame.(flint) The Flint wheel rivet holds the Flint wheel in place.(stainless
steel)
-Eyelet:The Eyelet holds the wick in place.(brass)
-Wick: The wick, when soaked with fluid, catches spark created by flint, and administers the
flame.(fiberglass yarn)
Sketches:
Procedures:
The device is rather simple and straightforward. First, the inner casing has to be exposed,
this is done through flipping the outer casing open. After this, all that needs to be done to ignite
the flame is push your thumb down on the flint wheel, creating a spark from the flint, and
provided that there is lighter fluid in the device, the wick should catch this spark and administer
the flame.

Design Process:
It started when we first disassembled our object in August to see how it worked and how
it could potentially be improved on. Our group talked about how interesting it would be if we
changed the color of the flame. We brainstormed for awhile about how we could change the
color of the flame. Afterwards, we spoke about times when your sitting around a fireplace and
having special pinecones covered in a certain chemical that causes a reaction with fire to change
the color of it. Then we realized this is how we could do it; use the chemical or item we needed
to change the flame to the color we wanted. Consolidating the chemical or item within the top of
the lighter where the flame resides. We began focusing on the cap or lid for contraption that
would sit on top of the lighter to hold the chemical. Therefore, coming to an agreement on a cap
that has a metal ring with mesh or paper material on the inside of the ring holding the chemical.
The ring matches with the top of the lighter so it could easily fit on top of the edge creating a
filter. Lastly, our group needed to figure out what chemicals and items we needed to accomplish
our task. We found that for a yellow/green effect we needed Borax or Boric acid, a yellow flame
needed just table salt, and for a red flame we needed epsom salts. Overall, we have all the
information needed for our idea in order to bring into reality.

Conclusion:
 Although a zippo lighter isn’t in itself very complicated, it has many moving parts that all
have to play a very specific role in order for the whole mechanism to work. It honestly wasn’t
too difficult to come up with the redesign, so that was an aspect that went well. One of our
biggest challenges was figuring out how to distribute the workload, at many times, we were a bit
at odds with each other, but in the end, we figured it out. I suppose, if we end up working on the
redesign together, something that we could work on would be planning with each other better.

Sources:
-​http://www.madehow.com/Volume-7/Lighter.html
-​https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjF4a
uI69XkAhVpGDQIHTuMD6kQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pinterest.com%
2Fpin%2F583356957957660493%2F&psig=AOvVaw1QDouOEPR_dfZVGHUCDvis&ust=156
8740242747187
-​https://lifehacker.com/these-diy-fireplace-pine-cones-change-the-color-of-the-5873640