index

Principles Practices project management

Computer-aided design

Computer-controlled cutting

electronics production

3D scanning and printing

electronics design

molding and casting

programming

Computer-controlled machining

input devices

composites

interface and application programming

output devices

networking and communications

mechanical design, machine design

applications and implications

invention, intellectual property, and income

project development

final project presentations

Composites

In this assignment I chose to mill a Polyurethane mold inspired in Escher designs to construct one 3D puzzle. The technique chose was: "Manual lamination with Glass Fiber and open molds" First I designed it in vector using Illustrator, so I imported it to Rhinoceros to do the 3D mold. Files here

The technique was: 1. Mill the Polyurethane (Density 100) :

2. I used Polyvinyl Alcohol to seal the mold and to it demold easily ( what didn´t happen);

3. I prepared the GelCoat mixed with Butanox M-50 (MEKP) for the polymerizing the gelcoats resin. Info about Gel Coat here. Info about Butanox M-50 (MEKP) here.

4. After that, I prepared a paste made with Glass Fiber mixed with MEKP in order to fill the mold´s corners. I used 50g Glass Fiber paste with 1ml (MEKP)

5. Then I cut the Glass Fiber and moisturize it with Polyester Resin that was mixed with MEKP.

6. And I filled the corners, the sides and the bottom of the mold. 7. I waited until it polymerized. 8. Learning and results:

The demold process was unsuccessful, the resulting piece was stucked in the polyurethane and I needed to break the Polyurethane mold. Maybe the Polyvinyl Alcohol was not appropriate to demold the piece from the Polyurethane.