User:Ypc5015/Blog
Main | About Me | Class Blog
For this class we write weekly blogs on a variety of topics that have to do with 3D printing.
Blog 1: Thingiverse
We need to search Thingiverse and explore some printed items witch satisfy these descriptions:
A) Something amazing/beautiful
This Gyrornament is such a cool deco that let me think of two ancient Chinese item; The first one is Hexagon Cap Bottle, a Yuanmingyuan precious pottery vase with a smaller one inside but cannot take out; The second one is the Universal instrument(maybe you can only see the picture), this structure can let the core layer sustain the same direction regardless of the outside direction and position change, which can easily use to navigation.
Still, I love this design because of its beautiful, interesting and amazing.
Highly recommend to watch this video!
B) Something funny or strange
This Strawberry Stem Remover is a good idea to invent tools to remove strawberry stem, because if we use our hands to do so, the strawberry will embed into our fingernail which is pretty uncomfortable and hard to clean. But this design is a little strange, because I think the manipulation is not comfortable and easy to slide. if this item cannot make people feel comfortable and convenient, people will not try to adapt it and change their habit.
.jpg)
C) Something useless
In fact I used this Cable Holder (Cable Clip) 2 years ago, just curious about its design and experience, but I feel very bad. First, a plate surface stuck on a projected item looks like strange and inconvenient; Second, the double side tape cannot perfectly connect the table and holder, because the holder is made by rubber, the tape can move on it; Third, if I want to remove the holder, the table will leave a black stain and hardly clean it. I prefer to simply use tape stick the cables directly on the table.
And I think the material should be soft, so normal hard plastic 3D printer may not available.
As to solve the problem of mass cables, maybe the second picture about Diagrid Bracelet can be a good idea. Using some soft elastic material to build that kind of structure which can be easily elongate and recover its original shape by itself.
There is a good TED about a kind of fantastic material: Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of "4D printing"
D) Something useful
One of the most inspiring things that 3D printing brings to an engineering student is printing gears of any shape, so we no longer concern much about the gear modulus and size, so the motion transmission design becomes much more easier, and it also reduces the limitation of products shape that standard gears bring to.
Look at these fantastic examples:
Nautilus Gears With Modified Bar
E) Something which surprised me
Watch this Escher's "Penrose stairs" carefully!
The world of 3D printing is full of innovation, I'm eager to know more about this technology!
Blog 2: OSE project
We were asked to research about OSE projects and respond to the following:
A) I want your general impressions of the OSE project; positive, negative, utopian, etc. Please do a bit more research than just viewing the video, as it is now several years old and they have made some progress since then. Links to more recent videos and media will earn you a better blog.
B) The New Yorker magazine recently had a fairly critical article regarding Marcin's OSE project. Find/link that article and summarize its critique. Marcin had a response to that: I'd like your response to both of these pieces.
C) Imagine we want to create capabilities similar to what Marcin has made at PSU (something like an OSE student club, or another effort). I don't think the administration or trustees would support such a thing, but there might be professors who are interested in supporting such a thing. Do you know any of them? What do they do, and why do you think they would be interested in such a project? Imagine you are looking for allies to do such a thing. Whom is on your list and why?
Here are my answers:
A) My general impressions of the OSE project is not positive. I would not say that I totally disagree with their idea, but I don’t think that should be the way to do. Marcin stated his inspiration was from the broken tools in his own farming business. Because of that, he wanted to look for a more efficient and durable product and decided to make his own. Many engineers followed his idea and made their contribution to this open source product design. However, unlike the open source 3D printer, I don’t think tractor can be replicated perfectly through the open source sharing. Two critical reasons are: 1. Durability and safety issues. 2. Sustainability and environmental impact. If you mess up with your 3D printer, the worst thing probably happens may just be that your printer is broken. However, if something wrong when you operate these hardware, you may get injured. Even Marci’s team can have their open design blueprint with enough safety consideration. There will be a lot of safety issues when people try to DIY their products. Another thing I thought may be problematic is about environmental impact. Although I consider economics concepts are not very useful in a real world, but I do agree that the specialization could make this world better. What I see from OSE project are they trying to make an individual capable of doing all the stuffs. In small-scale production, that can be effective. However, it won’t be efficient in resource distribution if this project becomes a mainstream production.
B) http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/12/23/131223fa_fact_eakin In general, the author thought the OSE project was too utopian. For more details, the environmental condition of e farm village was too hard to handle by project volunteers. Project volunteers were less skilled compared to expectation. The whole project was really struggling rather than the beautiful and efficient image in Marci’s head. The author consider the OSE project is too idealistic and Marci always try to use passion to solve the problem which is not appropriate.
C) I think the ecocar team probably will have interests on auto parts DIY sharing. However, I still feel negative about this idea and think the open source sharing should be limited to simple mechanical parts and systems.
