Week Seventeen

~ Wildcard Week ~

Key activities / Learnings / Inspiration

This week I learned more about composite materials and how to use them.
A composite material also known as composition material or just composite is a material made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties that, when combined, they produce a material with characteristics different from the individual constituents.

Here are some examples of composite materials that I learned:
* Concrete
* Carbon-fiber-reinforced polymer
* Fiber Glass (fiber-reinforced plastic)
* Paper composite panels

Benefits of composite materials:
* They are non-corrosive
* Nonconductive
* Flexible
* Durable
* Lightweight

Composites are used in constructions, medical applications, oil and gas, transportation, sports, aerospace, and many more products.

Assignment: Design and produce something with a digital fabrication process (incorporating computer-aided design and manufacturing) not covered in another assignment


I chose to design and produce a penbox container. With CorelDraw, I designed different parts that make the container:

pen
pen

After I cutted all the parts with laser cutter:

cut

They are 8 parts in total as shown below:

cut

After I assembled all the parts together:

box

Here is the result:

box

In order to make my penbox durable and hard but also lightweight, I made a composite material to cover it. I first covered it with carbon-fibers:

pen
pen

Next, I prepared the matrix material: Epoxy Resin + Hardener in 1:1 ratio :

They both came in big buckets, it was hard for me to know the exact specifications. I consulted my colleagues to know the mixing ratio and they informed me that it is 1:1, I followed this instruction to prepare my matrix material and it worked well. The Resin is the one on the Left and Hardener on the Right.

me me

I mixed both solution with 1:1 ration:

me

Then, added it on the carbon fiber:

me

Here is the final Result: it is hard, light, resist to pressure and can't easily break!

pen

Front View:

pen

Back View:

pen

Side View:

pen

Files:


Penbox