The process
Group assignment:
I'm working directly with Musaed Al-Kout who is my husband and mentor. Becuase he is more experinced than me, he lead the group assignment in this link.
01: Lab's safety
01| We are using the XTool fiber laser 50 Wat
02| Wearing Gagols and keeping fire distingusher close to us while someone keeps an eye on the device as long as its working
03| using air assist to blow air on the cutting path and make sure the smoke is moved to the filter faster
04| We also use Xtool filter connected to the laser machien to make sure smock and gases are been treated immediatity
05| We used a carboard 2mm
06| Fixing the cardboard on the bed to make sure it does not move during the cut
07| Having the tool checking the hight of the material used on XTool
- Feedback: It was not dificult to get to know XTool.
- Challenge: Using carboard increase the risk of burning and fire but its the most enviromental friendly material in addition of being cheap for training and practice.
02: Characterize lasercutter's
01 | Testing the scoring guide on paper
02| Testing the cut guide on paper
03| Testing the engraving guide on paper
04| Aligning the designs on the print space as it was defined
05| The results of cutting was clearn and best power between 45% and 50% and speed is between 45 and 50 (mm/s)
06| The results of Scoring was clearn and best at power of 45% and speed of 150 (mm/s)
07| The results of Engraving was clearn and best at power of 40%-50% and speed of 300-350 (mm/s)
08| I designed trangles and compared the cut with differnet kirfs: 0, 0.3, 0.5
09| Even visually the differenced from the kirfs is clear
10| While fixing the peices, the size of the joints was too tight at 0.5 kirf and lose at kirf of 0.
11| We also tested the joints
- Feedback: The design rules will help alot in any project to select the best speed and power with a kirft of 0.4
- Challenge: the cardboard has a bend in the middle and that might effect the performance of the laser cut.
Individual assignment
I also have basic experince in designing some of the items that I needed for my work speacilly designing and printing medals and awarding plaks
Option 01: Parametric Design on FreeCAD
01 | I followed this tutorial to create a parametric design
02| I added a pad to the X-Y plate and a pocket on the top surface
03| I created a spreadsheet to connect main values of length, width and depth
04| I added aliace name to the values of length, width and depth
05| I switched to the part Design page
06| I added equation the box to the values on the spreadsheet referencing it to the aliase name
07| Then I changed the values on the spreadsheet to see how will it be applied
06| The dimentions of the box changed as expected but the reference with the pocket added at the top did not work
06| The dimentions of the box changed as expected but the reference with the pocket added at the top did not work
- Feedback: There are many nice features on FreeCad and it seasm interesting. the paremetric design was interesting and I can see how valiable it is in future projects
- Challenge: as a new IDE, the learning curve is very challanging and I really dont have much time to learn now. I am planning to keep using it for a while before I try Fusion.
02: Vynile Cut
We are alsready suing Cut create the stickers we give away to all teams particiating in WRO Kuwita
01 | The design is made in Canva and exported as PDF and imported to SignMaster application on windows and strat defining the cut areas
02| After printing the stickers, we fix it on the cutting board
03| The stettings of the cutter and defining the forsce to make sure the stickers are not completetly cut off
05| We have prepared hundresds of sticker sheets for season 2026 of WRO KWT
- Feedback: once of the most useful tools we are usingin a cost effictive process. Labor cost in Kuwait is very high. doinging it ourself made a huge difference in the cost.
- Challenge: We wtill didnt find a way to have a role of stickers feed in to the machiene and we have to fix each stiker page on the cutting mat
Option 02: Sholder Pads
01| I used Adobe Illustrator to create the vector 2D deisgn on the sholder pad prototype for my final project.
02| I defined the size in "mm" and also connected the main shapes in one
03| then I strated created a 2mm cutout shapes in this pattern to make the cardbord flixy in this area
04| I repeated the same process for the strap that will go around the arm
05| I selected all the shapes and created a compound shape
06| there where some errors and I was fixing them as I go, I knotices here that the paterns are not correct and need to be changed
07| I notices that the paterns created on the strap is not corrrect and the cardboard will be cut in to peoices
08| When I was done, I exported the design in SVG and imported it to Xtool Software
10| I settthe speed to 50 and power at 45 for a clear cut
08| This is the results, and as I said aprototype that need to be improved more
- Feedback:because I'm making a waerable device, I really need to make sure my design and size willfit different bosy sizes and shapes.
- Challenge:making a universal sholder pad is the most challaging part at this point of the project