Case study

Cooler with Built-In Speaker

A cooler with a built-in speaker, from a team reverse engineering assignment. I modeled the exterior of the speaker and the overall cooler design.

Role: Speaker exterior and overall cooler design
Affiliation: ME 1700, Fall 2025, team of four
Tools: SolidWorks
Status: Status: Designed in CAD

Problem and constraints

The brief was open ended: reverse engineer one item from a given set. We chose a speaker, reverse engineered it, and integrated it into a cooler, because people often bring both to the same places, such as a cookout or the beach. The result is a portable cooler with a built-in speaker.

Approach

We reverse engineered the speaker from online teardowns and collected its measurements and technical specs. This was not a physical teardown: we never took a speaker apart ourselves.

We also studied existing coolers on the market.

I modeled the exterior of the speaker and the overall cooler design. For the cooler, I was responsible for the parametric modeling of the main enclosure. I combined the best features of the coolers we studied into a hybrid unibody design. The goal for the geometry was maximum internal volume with a rigid outer shell.

SolidWorks model of an open-top rectangular enclosure, shaded muted red, on a light background. A stepped lip runs around the inside of the opening. The long side wall has two round openings and the end wall has one. There are small rectangular slots near the top edges and a small rounded boss with a hole at one bottom corner. — FIG. 1Cooler body, CAD model: an open-top enclosure with round openings in the side and end walls.

My other focus was the mechanical integration of the speaker units: their fit in the enclosure and interference clearance within the assembly. I created the master assembly in SolidWorks. The multi-component enclosure integrates the audio hardware with thermal isolation features and speaker mounting interfaces. I applied design-for-assembly principles across the enclosure, mounting hardware, and thermal barrier components to keep a serviceable fit in a compact form factor, and I produced engineering drawings for all custom parts.

Render of a blue cooler with a white lid slightly open, on a light background. Black circular speaker units are set into the long side wall and the end wall. A grey strip on the end wall is marked with minus, plus, and power symbols. Black wheels are mounted at the bottom of that end. — FIG. 2Concept render, control end: speaker units in the side and end walls, a strip marked with minus, plus, and power symbols, and wheels.

Render of the same blue cooler from the opposite end. A white handle bar runs across the end wall with a red rectangular block below it. Two black circular speaker units are set into the long side wall, and a black wheel is visible at the far end. — FIG. 3Concept render, handle end: a white handle, a red block below it, and two speaker units in the side wall.

Result

The design exists only in CAD, as a SolidWorks assembly and concept renders. It was not physically built. The native CAD files are lost, and the three images on this page are the only remaining record, so there is no 3D model or downloadable CAD for this project.

What I’d do differently

I would tear down a real speaker to get a better understanding of it. I would also experiment with different unibody cooler designs, or consider solutions that are not unibody.