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16. Wildcard Week

This is the assessment for this module:

Design and produce something with a digital fabrication process (incorporating computer-aided design and manufacturing) not covered in another assignment, documenting the requirements that your assignment meets, and including everything necessary to reproduce it.

Laser cutting Bioplastic

I decided to create a basic bioplastic and to cut and engrave it with the laser. This is the recipe I followed:

First attempt - Sieve

I started pouring all the ingredients into the pot.

Once the mix started to become thicker, I poured it on a sieve.

Then I waited few days and checked the result. Unfortunately the sieve was not the proper method for the bioplastic drying process. Cloth and gelatin mixed and became a unique thing.

Second attempt - Solid surface

So I started the whole process again, but this time I poured the mix on a solid surface.

This time the bioplastic dried in 24 hours, and this is how it looks:

Laser cutting

I made a simple file on Illustrator and then I prepared the bioplastic for the cutting process.

I made multiple cuts, since I started with very high cut speed. I kept the laser cut power at 60%, then I moved from 30 speed to 1, doing 5 cuts. This is the final result:

Conclusions

I really appreciate the fight against plastic in order to save the environment, but I think that I wouldn’t go on producing my own bioplastic. I’ll let the professionals do the work, since this material stinks like wet dog. It is a really useful material and I believe that biomaterials are going to be the future, but I’m sticking to the more common materials for now.


Last update: May 19, 2021