Second class, third partial.

In this second class, we continued sanding our model.
We also went to Acriplast to buy the PET we will be using to thermoform the models.

For last, we went to the High Technology laboratory with Raúl, who explained to us how does the Z-printer works. I was very interesting because you now can realize how does your mad or good modelling can impact directly on the final result.

We also check out how to make more efective the impresion times by niveling, rotating, scaling and moving your model, this is because in real life you may have a case in which you have to deliver your project on an specific due date and by doing this little changes you can achive it more quickly.

The cost of the material it was also an interesting topic, because you have to save as much raw material as you can, you can do this by giving a thin thickness on surfaces, making a hollow volume, and saving an collecting as much powder as you can since it is reusable.

Finally we saw the resin application in the models, which has to be done on specific proportions between the resin and the hardener, and on correct times between printing and resin aplications, since the model has to adjust to externar presure and humidity.

I think this is a very interesting process that will help us to made effective rapid protoypes, but that we have to be very careful with the process so everything goes right. In the next weeks we will select a final car, which we will model correctly and use the Z-printer, I will show you then our final results.

Until then.
JP

First class, Third partial

In this first class for the third partial we finally had our models prototyped, last Friday we program the file as we already learned and let the machine work. We did not do the “acabado” process because of the time that was going to last and because we are a lot of teams to do that. I present you the photographs of the final result.

Now we have to sand the models because the next process will be to thermoformed the cars once they are smooth. When we have this we will paint those plastic models so the user can see how its going to be seen the “actual models” and apply a survey to the potential users to analyze which one is their favorite so we can focus on it and pimp it.
We develop the survey, which now I present:

De las siguientes opciones, ¿Cuál es tu compañía de autos favorita?
· BMW
· Audi
· Mercedes Benz
· Volkswagen
· Ford
· Chrysler
· Ferrari
· Otros ¿Cuáles? ______________

¿Qué aspectos de la forma del coche llaman más tu atención?
· Aerodinámico (Corvette, Lamborghini, Ferrari)
· Formas fuertes (Mustang, Charger, Camaro)
· Formas elegantes (Audi, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo)
· Formas robustas (Jeep, Hummer)
· City Cars (Toyota, Seat, Ford, Nissan)

¿Cuál de los siguientes 4 modelos te gusta más?
· A)
· B)
· C)
· D)

¿Qué te transmite el auto que elegiste?
· Velocidad
· Elegancia
· Fuerza
· Otra ¿Cuál? _____________

¿De qué color te gustaría que fuera?
· Rojo
· Negro
· Blanco
· Azul
· Plateado
· Otro

¿Qué le modificarías?
· Alerón
· Salpicaderas
· Estribos
· Parrilla
· Tomas de aire
· Faros
· Calaveras
· Facia

I hope that next week I can present you the plastic models, untill then take care
JP

3rd class. Second partial

In the last week we finished the 3D modeling of our cars, we deliver 3 different proposals in order to choose the best one with our team and to prototype the 4 cars (one per team member).

For the last class we had to validate the files using VisCAM View and send the STL files to our professor. You will see in the images that the files has green meshes and red meshes, I posted before that the red surfaces represent errors on them, nevertheless, for this activity it won’t matter because is not a 3D printer, we will use Roland MODELA Player 4 for programming the processes in order to manufacturing our rapid prototypes.

I now present some quick renders of the three proposals, with an extra image that illustrates the validation of each file.

For the next week I will choose a final redesign which we will prototype. I will post some pictures of the process as it evolves.

1ST CAR

2ND CAR

3RD CAR

2 class 2nd partial

This class was divided in two different parts. In the first one, we got the opportunity to try out for the first time some of the programs we are going to be using during the rest of the semester.

The first one was VisCAM View, the main purpose of this program is to validate our files that we previously created in rhino. This program works with STL files, so in order to work in here we have to convert our rhino surfaces into meshes and then export the file converting it into stl file.

After this we can open it in VisCAM View, here our modeling will appear on screen, showing the surfaces in red or green, depending on the validation given by the program, if the surface is showed in red this mean there is a problem on them and you have to fix it.

The other program we used was MODELA player 4, which allow us to program the different processes that are going to be done in the machine.

We will do this processes with the car, so I will post some of those images as the process continues.

JP

Sketch

The black outline is what we obtained from the sketch.

The lines just help us to understand the dimensions of the original model, we sketch them again, that’s what is shown in the red sketch, the lines are straight and we based on the red lines to start our redesign of the car.