Over the past few weeks, we've been given the opportunity to tinker with these 3D printers known as RepRaps. They are a type of 3D printer that is remarkable by any person that knows these systems. Also, instead of buying a whole contraption to put together, once you have one and know how to use it properly, you can remake a lot of the parts for another one.
The design of these machines vary depending on the builder. However, the one that I've been working with currently, I enjoy. My RepRap design is standard among all of them, including a moderately tall z axis and a descent sized y and x axis. I like my RepRap because its very maneuverable and pleasing to the eye because there is so much going on in one little contraption. Its very simple to use, just a plug and play system, which we've been getting better at using every week. Also, I like the design of mine because it's made of simple parts. Some parts which include a basic motherboard, 3D printed blocks to attach other parts to, four stepping motors, zip ties, rods, and belts.
However, my RepRap does have two downfalls to it, being the tip or extruder and the bed. Our extruder is slow compared to most. In this I mean it just takes a while for it to heat up, which it needs to so every time you print. Also, once it is heated up to the correct temp., it likes to jump around a little to much and start to create smoke during the printing process. The only problem with the bed is that it's small. I would enjoy to print many things, but with the bed on it currently, the choices are limited.
If I were to do anything to my RepRap, I would first, get a new extruder. One that heats quickly and is very accurate. Also, I would follow that up by getting a bigger sized bed and expanding how far, left and right, the extruder can travel. In similar terms, just making the RepRap a little bigger. Along with that, I would also try to figure out a way to code the extruder to angle itself. If this would be possible, the amount of objects that could be printed with accuracy would be incredible. Maybe we wouldn't have to worry about angles bigger than 45 degrees or how any angle would turn out to begin with. Currently, there is no design on the market for what I have in mind.
We might modify 3D printers to someday print food or medicine. I was doing some research and saw that food has been produced using additive manufacturing starting in 2012. Also, medicine is currently being tested on the printers, but they would do so by using chemical inks. Pretty cool stuff.
Thursday, February 26, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Scenario Thinking
As a designer, I would inform my co-workers or assistants about scenario thinking and start to work around the idea. I would base my work around the idea of "what can I make that will impact the future in a positive way and not just tomorrow." In today's society, many large corporations use the idea of scenario thinking, such as car manufacturers. These companies are now working towards the more "green" aspect of the car so we can lessen the damage to our environment to improve or at least not hurt our future anymore.
One of the biggest problems in our world today is non-recyclable goods. In today's society, we have manufacturers making products for consumers. Yes, these products might be everyday necessities but, a lot of times they aren't. Regardless, every product being manufactured isn't being manufactured based on recyclability but rather how can we make something to sell it the best. Once a product is bought, it is obviously put to use, but for how long? Sometimes a year or two, or a few months. However, there is products that only get used once then thrown away. Once something is thrown away and not recycled, it goes to landfills. Currently, there are landfills all over the world, and they just keep growing. These landfills give of terrible fumes that can be hazardous but were not doing anything about it? If we were to start basing every design around being green and recyclable and then manufacturing these products, our world someday could possibly stop being hurt. By not doing so, we are simply hurting our own futures. Maybe someday with this way of thinking, we won't have to worry about our air quality or land quality as much as we do today.
Scenario thinking to me is simply pondering the fact that what we do today will impact tomorrow. Thinking about it as an idea made me think of where I used it most recently. Most recently we used this idea in EDSGN 100 to come up with ideas that will help make a car more green, connected, and safe for DELPHI.
One of the biggest problems in our world today is non-recyclable goods. In today's society, we have manufacturers making products for consumers. Yes, these products might be everyday necessities but, a lot of times they aren't. Regardless, every product being manufactured isn't being manufactured based on recyclability but rather how can we make something to sell it the best. Once a product is bought, it is obviously put to use, but for how long? Sometimes a year or two, or a few months. However, there is products that only get used once then thrown away. Once something is thrown away and not recycled, it goes to landfills. Currently, there are landfills all over the world, and they just keep growing. These landfills give of terrible fumes that can be hazardous but were not doing anything about it? If we were to start basing every design around being green and recyclable and then manufacturing these products, our world someday could possibly stop being hurt. By not doing so, we are simply hurting our own futures. Maybe someday with this way of thinking, we won't have to worry about our air quality or land quality as much as we do today.
Scenario thinking to me is simply pondering the fact that what we do today will impact tomorrow. Thinking about it as an idea made me think of where I used it most recently. Most recently we used this idea in EDSGN 100 to come up with ideas that will help make a car more green, connected, and safe for DELPHI.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
Reflection Of Peers
After browsing through some of my classmates work, I decided to review Dylan Comb's, Nichole Doherty's, Yupeng's, Srivattsan Ramesh's, and Christopher's blog.
Dylan has a very similar view on design as I do, "Anything that has been planned by a person or group of people in order to create something that does not yet exist whether it is an artist painting, a seamstress making clothes, or an engineer created a new invention or way to do something. As a verb, my definition for design would be relatively the same except including "to plan out or create something" instead of "Anything....something"." I like the way he thought out his design definition. He went ahead and pulled sources to combine them all into one, which I think is good. However, I disagree with the fact that you don't see technological disobedience anywhere in the US or around where you live. Sometimes you just have to look at something close enough to realize it isn't what you think it is. Great use of outside websites to express your ideas throughout your work. Extra XP should be awarded for all the great blogging.
http://psudrc.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html
Nichole's definition of design wasn't as straight to the point but more based off of who the designer is. She says how design can differ depending on people, material, mindset, or anything like that for that matter. I can completely relate to that and that is a very unique way of putting it. Also, very good description of technological disobedience and different objects pulled from the video clip shown in class. However, I believe that your own experience's with technological disobedience isn't what you talked about. Just using an object for something other than it's purpose I don't see as being technological disobedience. What about something you've seen where you were like "what the heck is that?" Having no clue what something is just because it's made out of so many different things, but being used for a purpose you have seen before.
http://psudrc.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html
Yupeng doesn't really give a definition of design but merely says how design isn't creating, but creating is a part of design. Also, he says once again that he hasn't seen technological disobedience. I can't agree with that. The world is so big and even here at Penn State we have people using this term to the fullest. Even college students do this themselves! Look around, just closer, and maybe you will start to see it more often.
http://iamliguangming.blogspot.com/
Srivattsan's definition of design is the effort and representation of an idea. Even though very short, I can agree with this. Design to me is the idea's and action behind a product. Therefore, our way of thinking of design is quite similar. He goes on to say how he created objects of scrap materials and so forth which I applaud because I do the same thing ever day I don't have school or work responsibilities. Great to hear that someone else has some sort of the same interests as I do. Extra XP awarded for hands on work, also I know he goes out of his way to do other events or work opportunities.
http://vatsan-edsgn015s.blogspot.com/
Christopher says that design is a creation that is influenced by something or someone in a specific way. I would argue to say that I don't believe design is a creation but more of the idea's behind a creation. However, I do agree with the fact that someone or something has an impact on design. Unfortunately, Chris gives no personal views of technological disobedience and therefore all I can say Is take a look at the world around you. You can be surprised by what you see.
http://cjt5273.blogspot.com/
Dylan has a very similar view on design as I do, "Anything that has been planned by a person or group of people in order to create something that does not yet exist whether it is an artist painting, a seamstress making clothes, or an engineer created a new invention or way to do something. As a verb, my definition for design would be relatively the same except including "to plan out or create something" instead of "Anything....something"." I like the way he thought out his design definition. He went ahead and pulled sources to combine them all into one, which I think is good. However, I disagree with the fact that you don't see technological disobedience anywhere in the US or around where you live. Sometimes you just have to look at something close enough to realize it isn't what you think it is. Great use of outside websites to express your ideas throughout your work. Extra XP should be awarded for all the great blogging.
http://psudrc.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html
Nichole's definition of design wasn't as straight to the point but more based off of who the designer is. She says how design can differ depending on people, material, mindset, or anything like that for that matter. I can completely relate to that and that is a very unique way of putting it. Also, very good description of technological disobedience and different objects pulled from the video clip shown in class. However, I believe that your own experience's with technological disobedience isn't what you talked about. Just using an object for something other than it's purpose I don't see as being technological disobedience. What about something you've seen where you were like "what the heck is that?" Having no clue what something is just because it's made out of so many different things, but being used for a purpose you have seen before.
http://psudrc.blogspot.com/2015_02_01_archive.html
Yupeng doesn't really give a definition of design but merely says how design isn't creating, but creating is a part of design. Also, he says once again that he hasn't seen technological disobedience. I can't agree with that. The world is so big and even here at Penn State we have people using this term to the fullest. Even college students do this themselves! Look around, just closer, and maybe you will start to see it more often.
http://iamliguangming.blogspot.com/
Srivattsan's definition of design is the effort and representation of an idea. Even though very short, I can agree with this. Design to me is the idea's and action behind a product. Therefore, our way of thinking of design is quite similar. He goes on to say how he created objects of scrap materials and so forth which I applaud because I do the same thing ever day I don't have school or work responsibilities. Great to hear that someone else has some sort of the same interests as I do. Extra XP awarded for hands on work, also I know he goes out of his way to do other events or work opportunities.
http://vatsan-edsgn015s.blogspot.com/
Christopher says that design is a creation that is influenced by something or someone in a specific way. I would argue to say that I don't believe design is a creation but more of the idea's behind a creation. However, I do agree with the fact that someone or something has an impact on design. Unfortunately, Chris gives no personal views of technological disobedience and therefore all I can say Is take a look at the world around you. You can be surprised by what you see.
http://cjt5273.blogspot.com/
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Design and Technological Disobedience
Design, as I said before is the ideas and actions behind the creation of an object or product. Technological disobedience is the ideas and actions behind the creation of objects or products from reused materials, specifically in Cuba.
For example, the Cuban people made children's toys out of different household materials. Also, common across the island, people made aluminum tray antennas because they were a common resource laying around. Cuban's also made transportation better by taking bikes and adding carts on the back of them to transport more than just a single person and also holding boxes to have somewhere to store stuff when riding. Anything during the crisis time period that a Cuban wanted, they made themselves using any materials they could get there hands on. Today, this is looked at as artistic.
In my time, I have seen technological disobedience, right in my hometown, I remember when I was younger, I asked my mother why the old run down house at the end of the street had big aluminum pans hanging from the roof. Also, a few years later, we got a dog and loved to go biking. Not being the richest of families, my father decided to make a riding crate for my dog to be pulled along the back of his bike. He used scrap metal, my old tricycle rear end, and also a pillow to make a towable crate. Until now, I never had an actual term to describe what he did, but now I know it was technological disobedience.
To me, when someone says hack or hacking, I immediately get drawn to computer programming, as does everyone I believe. However, there are multiple meanings for hack outside of computer programming. First of all, to hack at something, such as a tree branch. Hack in this context is the rough chopping action. Secondly and more importantly, hack can mean a trick or tip, such as a life hack. In that context, hack is something you can do to make your life easier.
For example, the Cuban people made children's toys out of different household materials. Also, common across the island, people made aluminum tray antennas because they were a common resource laying around. Cuban's also made transportation better by taking bikes and adding carts on the back of them to transport more than just a single person and also holding boxes to have somewhere to store stuff when riding. Anything during the crisis time period that a Cuban wanted, they made themselves using any materials they could get there hands on. Today, this is looked at as artistic.
In my time, I have seen technological disobedience, right in my hometown, I remember when I was younger, I asked my mother why the old run down house at the end of the street had big aluminum pans hanging from the roof. Also, a few years later, we got a dog and loved to go biking. Not being the richest of families, my father decided to make a riding crate for my dog to be pulled along the back of his bike. He used scrap metal, my old tricycle rear end, and also a pillow to make a towable crate. Until now, I never had an actual term to describe what he did, but now I know it was technological disobedience.
To me, when someone says hack or hacking, I immediately get drawn to computer programming, as does everyone I believe. However, there are multiple meanings for hack outside of computer programming. First of all, to hack at something, such as a tree branch. Hack in this context is the rough chopping action. Secondly and more importantly, hack can mean a trick or tip, such as a life hack. In that context, hack is something you can do to make your life easier.
Design
Design is a very broad term and can be hard for many to describe. To me, design means the ideas and actions that are used create something, whether that be an object, machine, floor plan, house or anything we see.
The most interesting design domains to me are engineering design and design of experiments. Engineering design interests me because of it's broad foundation. In that, you can create components for machines or systems to help better them by using software such as Solidworks. Also, you can see the overview of a current operating system or process and then analyze what could use improvement. once you have done that you can come up with ideas to improve the system. Furthermore, you can then put those paper ideas into action whether that be making something or simply changing the order or refining the current process with vocal ideas. Secondly, i think design of experiments is also fascinating. I would love to be apart of a team that comes together to collaborate ideas. With those ideas then sorted out to the best ones, put them to the test by creating those ideas using new technology such as 3D printing or even the old fashion way of hand crafting.
On the other hand, the least interesting design domain to me is retail design. In retail design, you create a space in a store that holds products such as a floor plan, that will benefit the sale of products. Also, you create the overall layout of stores so that the consumers will be most likely to buy product. In my eyes, I want to create objects based off the buyer's needs so whatever I can make will be 100% beneficial to the consumers.
Last semester, in EDSGN 100, our final project was to design something something safe, connected, and economically friendly to improve cars for DELPHI. In groups, we did decided to focus on safety and did external and internal searches to see what was a common problem in cars. Next, we make surveys for consumers to take to get direct feedback on what would help according to them. Following that, we proceeded to brainstorm ideas that were relevant to our topic including some wild ideas. After choosing a single idea we went ahead and made a model representation on Solidworks. Also, we made a virtual display of what our idea would do. Finally was the presentation. An overview of our idea was a weather tech sensor with a windshield display. The sensor, mounted under the front wheel well would read road conditions and the rotation of the tire. This information would then be transferred onto the display and translated into useful information. Such information would include safe stopping distance, dryness/wetness of the road, and also the amount of grip your tire has on the road.
The most interesting design domains to me are engineering design and design of experiments. Engineering design interests me because of it's broad foundation. In that, you can create components for machines or systems to help better them by using software such as Solidworks. Also, you can see the overview of a current operating system or process and then analyze what could use improvement. once you have done that you can come up with ideas to improve the system. Furthermore, you can then put those paper ideas into action whether that be making something or simply changing the order or refining the current process with vocal ideas. Secondly, i think design of experiments is also fascinating. I would love to be apart of a team that comes together to collaborate ideas. With those ideas then sorted out to the best ones, put them to the test by creating those ideas using new technology such as 3D printing or even the old fashion way of hand crafting.
On the other hand, the least interesting design domain to me is retail design. In retail design, you create a space in a store that holds products such as a floor plan, that will benefit the sale of products. Also, you create the overall layout of stores so that the consumers will be most likely to buy product. In my eyes, I want to create objects based off the buyer's needs so whatever I can make will be 100% beneficial to the consumers.
Last semester, in EDSGN 100, our final project was to design something something safe, connected, and economically friendly to improve cars for DELPHI. In groups, we did decided to focus on safety and did external and internal searches to see what was a common problem in cars. Next, we make surveys for consumers to take to get direct feedback on what would help according to them. Following that, we proceeded to brainstorm ideas that were relevant to our topic including some wild ideas. After choosing a single idea we went ahead and made a model representation on Solidworks. Also, we made a virtual display of what our idea would do. Finally was the presentation. An overview of our idea was a weather tech sensor with a windshield display. The sensor, mounted under the front wheel well would read road conditions and the rotation of the tire. This information would then be transferred onto the display and translated into useful information. Such information would include safe stopping distance, dryness/wetness of the road, and also the amount of grip your tire has on the road.
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