week12

Composites

For this week assignment, we had to design and make a 3D mold, and produce a fiber composite part in it.

Here are the steps that I followed to complete this assignment:

Starting by designing the 3d mold

Milling the mold

Applying the fiber composites layers to the mold

Vaccum it

clean it and sand it

3d Mold

I decided to make a sunglasses case which I designed using the 3d software Rhino.

composites

Milling

After generating the code using RhinoCAM, I sent it to the Shopbot milling machine to mill the foam.

Two steps to make on RhinoCAM using the machining Operations: Select 3 axis milling operation:

Horizontal Roughing using a 12mm diameter mill bit

Parallel Finishing using a 6mm diameter mill bit

composites

The thing I have learned with the milling in my case is that I had to set the Z point at the highest level of the foam and not the lowest point, as my foam board was not straight.

Fiber Composites

Once the foam is milled, it is time to assemble the composite elements on the mold with all protective layers, apply the resin mix and finally vaccum it.

composites

Result

Here is the final result, after vaccuming the mold and the fiber composites layers for 6 hours, I had to clean it and sand it to have the sunglasses case. It didn't turn out to be as I expected it to be but I think the result is okay and the glasses fit perfectly in it.

composites

Download the 3d file here : sunglasses case - 3d model