Blog 4

 Pratical 5 (Egg Drop Challenge)

What need to be done

• Protect the egg using a device we made using 3D printing
• Design the product using Fusion 360
• Document the process for the report and this blog

What are my contribution to this practical?

• Ideation
• Designing of the box

What did we design?

Our design is a box that comes with a clip on lock

Why this design?

We believe that this design will protect the egg by absorbing the force for the egg on impact. We will drop our box in an angle where the box land on one of its corners. This is a simple sketch on how our product will work.

How we got this idea?

We got the inspiration for this design from 2 things. The first being  a car. When a car crash, the front of the car will crumple which absorbs the force on impact. This protects the driver and passengers by reducing the amount of force that they receive. Our product uses the box to absorb the force and protects the egg. The second inspiration was from a pencil. The pencil is a simple design and can be used in space and on earth. We decided to make our design simple and effective. This led us to design a simple box which serves its purpose in protecting the egg.

How to prepare the 3D printer

1)On the power switch

2)On the filament dryer

3) Cut the tip of the filament such that it is sharp enough to be put into the printer

4)Set the nozzle temperature and hot bed temperature to desired

5)Select file and start printing

6)Pray that your printing goes well

Our product in Fusion 360

DESIGNING THE BOX

1. Firstly, we make a box and create the dimensions of 50mm X 50 mm X 50mm

 

2. Next we split the body in half

 

 

 

 

3. Next on the bottom half of the body, select a side and sketch a 2-point rectangle with dimensions 30mm X 2mm sketch and put it at the midpoint of the side

 

4. Next we extrude it inwards 2mm and at an angle of -45 degrees. Next we chamfer the top by 0.2mm. Lastly repeat all the steps again from step 3 on the opposite side.

 

5. Next we will open up the bottom sketch

6. From then we will extrude the box by 2mm from the original sketch of dimensions 30mm X 2mm.

7. Now we will click on the top and side of the extruded box and draft it by 60 degrees, it should look like this.

8. Click on the highlighted surfaces and combine it.

 

9. Click on the box and extrude inwards by 0.2mm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

10. Click on the inner surface of the box and extrude it out 2mm and at an angle of -45 degrees. Lastly, fillet the end to 0.3. Repeat steps for the opposite side.

THAT IS THE END OF OUR MODEL

THE DROP

Sadly, our egg did crack but it did not shatter and leak out.
From this egg drop challenge, we have learnt the importance and usefulness of 3D printing. Designing the egg drop device was difficult when we were using Fusion 360 for the first few times. However, things got easier for us when we got the hang of the app and we found out that it is actually not that hard. It is as our lecturer has said, we have to learn how to walk before we run. In this case, we learnt how to use the basics of Fusion 360 before we go and make our design. We failed 3 times trying to make the case and we learnt something from each failure. The first failure was because our clip was not strong enough so it broke apart on impact. We then change our design so that the clip that holds the box together is deeper in and more sturdy. However, that failed too so we decided to just let the box break. The main idea is that the box absorbs most of the force which protects the egg and we succeeded. From this practical, we also learnt the importance of prototyping. Our final product would not have been possible without the first few prototypes. The failures allow us to know what needs to be changed to make our device work. This practical also taught us the importance of time management. This is because towards the deadline of the practical, the 3D printers were all taken up. This meant that we should start planning early and printing early to avoid the long wait time.