Tuesday, October 16, 2018

3D Printed: Photo Frame Stand

Above: the design photoframe shown with stands
Challenge: To produce a stand for a photograph.    The frame has been laser cut to a students design.  This is a display piece for our Schools Lamb and Pet Day, where we have a significanat number of parents and visitors to our school to see students display work.
Background:   As part of the this annual display at our school we have traditionally had a photographic display.   To enhance the presentation of the photographs, which have traditionally been presented stapled to the wall, the school made the decision to print frames for the photographs, using the Schools Laser Cutter.   Once the frame had been created we needed to find a way to have the photograph stand for display purposes.   Initially we searched for a basic stand, relative to the size of a regular photograph, that would be able to use to have it stand up.    Once we had the frame produced it became obvious that two of the stands would
be required to hold up the photograph.
Level of Difficultly: Low - this was a free sourced design that we needed to produce in large numbers in a relatively short timeframe.  As a result of this the usual process of prototyping and problem solving was not completed.   We ideally would have liked the opportunity to produce original work - but it was not feasible.
Timeframe: Each of the inidividual stands have a forty minute timeframe to complete, obviously multiplied by the number of stands required.   The stands themselves are hollow as can be seen in the photograph shown on the left.
Size: The design has a width of 90mm.  It was 35mm high.   The thickness of the design was 5mm across.   We could have look at modifiying the size of the stand to hold more weight.  Some of the laser cut frames were particularly large and needed additional support.
What would we do differently/next steps for students:   
We had a very short time frame to complete the design and produce the stand.   In normal process we would undertake a significant amount of testing and checking relative to the strength of the 3D Print to achieve the best result for the size of the print - in this case it was not possible.   We also allowed the studenst to have some freedom with the width and height of the laser cut design, and while this was produced in MDF Wood, so it was relatively light, it also meant that producing a stand was challenging. 

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