Task to be carried out this week

1. Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered, answering:
• What will it do?
• Who's done what beforehand?
• What will you design?
• What materials and components will be used?
• Where will come from?
• How much will they cost?
• What parts and systems will be made?
• What processes will be used?
• What questions need to be answered?
• How will it be evaluated?
2. Your project should incorporate;
• 2D and 3D design
• additive and subtractive fabrication processes
• electronics design and production
• embedded microcontroller interfacing and programming
• system integration and packaging
3. Where possible, you should make rather than buy the parts of your project.
4. Projects can be separate or joint, but need to show individual mastery of the skills, and be independently operable

Action Plan

What Will I Do?

Pottery is one of the 13 art forms/ craftsmanship known as zorig chusum in local bhutanese language which has prevailed in the country for years. However, this art form is declining and from among the 13 art forms it is the least popular with very few people still practicing it. One of the main reasons for its decline is the lack of accessibility to resources such as kilns. Very few kilns are available in the country and majority of those are in villages which are unaccessible to the interested youths in the urban regions. Those prevailing kilns in villages uses traditional heating through firewood which is not environmental friendly. It is also difficult to get firewood for the kilns since the country's constitution states that 60% of the country's land must be under forest coverage. On the other hand One of the major source of revenue for Bhutan is its hydro-power sector. Bhutan has the potential to produce upto 30,000MW electricity using is natural river sources. Currently the country produces about 1614MW power with a surplus of 80% being exported to India. As of 2017, 99% of the the country's population has accesssibility to electricity and more than 95% of the country's electricity comes from hydro-power. Bhutan ranks at 9th position for the cheapest electricity cost in the world with a price of 2 US cents per kWh. With these statistics in mind, I felt that shifting to an electric kiln would not only be environment friendly but also cheap.
Thus, the idea for my final project is to build an electric kiln that is safe, portable, functional and semi-automated. I plan to use a temperature sensors to regulate the temperature inside the kiln. As for the heating element I plan to use khantal/nichrome wire and an LCD screen to display the temperature sensed by the temperature sensor. I also plan to case the body for the kiln.

Who’s done what beforehand?

The concept of Electric Kiln is not new. We can find a number of electric kilns in the market and online stores. The type of electric kilns depends on its usage. There are ceremic kilns, glass kilns and metal kilns. Each of these kilns have different usage and different level of temperature tolerance. For example, ceremic kilns are used specially for pottery and ceremic/clay works and the temperature is usually kept within 1828 F and 2345 F while for glass kilns, they are used by glass blowers and tempertaure is never allowed to go above 1700 F. The commerial kilns can be found in online stores and the cost can range between Nu.45000 - Nu.500,000 (exclusive of tax and transportation charge) depending on the quality.

However, there are no electric kinlns being manufactured in Bhutan and it is rarely found in the local market and importing them has a huge cost attached to them. When I opted for this project, I looked into the Fab Repository to check if similar projects were carried out by past Fab Academy Students. I found that no one has carried out a project specifically for electric kilns but there were som similar projects done. One of them were by Liam- a graduate from FabLab Leon who did a project on solar kiln. In her project, she build a kiln that uses solar energy to dry woods. However, the temperature requirements and functionality were quite different from mine. Another porject was by Kamlesh- a vigyanasharam graduate who build a heat retention lunch box. Though the functionality bwere different from my project, I could refer his page for some of the component.

What will you design?

I will be designing and fabricating most of the components for my Project. The following are the components, I will be designing;

1. Controller Board/electronic Board: Design using Autodesk Eagle Software and fabricate using Roland SRM-20 PCB Milling machine
2. Kiln Controller box: Design using Autodesk Fusion 360 software and fabricate using Makerbot 3D printer
3. Logo Design: Design using inkscape and cut using Roland CAMM-1 vinyl cutter.
4. Kiln Table: Design using Fusion 360 and cut using Shopbot CNC machine
5. Overall Kiln Design: Autodesk Fusion 360
6. Relay box: Design using Fusion 360 and cut using Laser Cutter

What materials and components will be used?

For my project, I require the following materails and components;

1. Electronics
• AtMega328p microcontroller
• K-type thermocouple with MAX6675 module
• 16*2 LCD
• I2C module
2. Kiln Body
• Galvanized steel sheet
• Plaster of Paris
• Sand
• Nichrome wire
• Spray Paint for logo
3. Wood/particle board for Kiln table
4. Filament for 3D printing controller box
5. Electrical Wires (4 sq mm) for connections
6. Plug
7. ply wood for relay box

Material Source and Material cost

All of the electronic components requires for making the controller board was available in the lab. The only things I had to purchase and aquire were the output and input components and the materials required for buinding the kiln body. Those materials are listed in the table below;

What parts and systems will be made?

As stated above, majority of the project will be fabricated at lab. I will be making the following parts in the Lab;

1. Design and fabricate Controller board using PCB milling machine
2. Kiln table will be made using Shopbot CNC machine
3. The controller box to be 3D printed at lab
4. Relay box will be laser cut in the lab
5. Steel sheet will be welded
6. Insulating kiln body will be made/casted using PoP and sand
7. Brand Logo will be designed and cut using vinyl cutter.

What processes will be used?

The following processes will be involved when making my project;

1. Designing using various softwares such as Fusion 360, Eagle, Inkscape and Gimp.
2. PCB milling
3. Soldering
4. 3D printing
5. Vinyl cutting
6. Laser Cutting
7. CNC machining

What questions need to be answered?

Now that I have decided on the project topic along with the component requirements and processes to be included when building the project, I need to know the following;

1. What is the optimum temperature for my kiln operation?
2. What is the corresponding current and power required to heat my kiln?
3. How/where do I weld the kiln body?
4. How do I cast the insulting part of kiln?
5. How to I make the kiln safe and portable?

How will it be evaluated?

The main objective of taking up this project was to build a kiln that I can use to bake my pottery in. As long as the kiln functions and maintains the temperature required for pottery, the project can be considered successful. However, it should be noted that when developing this project if not all, majority of the things learned during fab academy must be incorporated to be considered as successful.