3D Printed Oversized Key Ring

Above: Completed design

Challenge: To produce something for a local business that would have a practical use.

Above: Business Logo

Background: We are looking at ways to get the work of the students out in the community to use the technology to increase awareness of our students work and also expose the student to real time business experiences.   One of the ways that we are looking to do this is to create and produce unique items that have a practical use for local businesses for them to use.   One of our key designs that has had a practical use in the classroom and around school has been oversized keys.   This has primarily been used as a technique to ensure that important high use keys are not misplaced by staff or students (by making the keyring with the key so large that the key cannot be easily placed in an individuals pocket either student or staff).    We followed this same principal when we considered local businesses that were in our area and something that we could produce for them to create a 'buzz' or interest in our school projects.   The students decided to target a number of local businesses or places of interest (local Library, shops etc) and look at producing a key ring for them.   The rationale was that this would be producing a high use item that a number of adults or part of the community would be handling on a regular basis.   We have targetted the use of the 3D Printer to do this and not the school laser cutter as these items are being handled repeatedly and potentially need to be cleaned.  We have generally found that the wood when laser cut can be marked and stained from use by people.
Level of Difficulty: Medium High - we were producing something that was original from scratch but was copying a specific logo or design this meant the specifics of what needed to be created were very particular, as a result the design needed a high degree of accuracy.
Timeframe: Eight Hours - this is long for a keyring/badge however this was delibrately oversized so that it became a talking point for the business.
Size:   This oversized design.   It measured 140mm across and was 130mm high.  It was 5mm thick.  The design and the lettering raised 5mm above the base design.   Given the brief this was delibrate.
What we would do differently: If you compare the original design above right to the creation above left you can see that there are some slight variations between the two designs.   The fenceposts are equal and meet in the middle, in our students design the middle is at the 1/3 and 2/3 point.   The family design as part of the keyring differs slightly from the original as the students created it from scratch and they could have had a universal design for the head of the shapes.    This is slightly oversized however this was the intention.