3D Printed - Personalised Animals Tag

Challenge: For students to create something that was unique and personalised.

Background: This task came from a brainstorming sessions with the junior school students about projects that they could work on related to the use of the 3D Printer.   The students identified that the pets they had that they were interested in producing something for.   When they looked at what they could potentially do one of them mentioned an ID tag or some form of identification to be attached to the collar.  The 3D Printer is ideal for this as we have identified that the prints do not weather over the long term (instead of something like the laser cutter and the MDF which would not last).   The early prototype of the design shown left had the student opting to use scribble to create the shape, the name of the animal (in this case Rosie, a dog).    

The students are intending to complete numerous print runs to ensure that they can attach to the animals collar and do in a way that is secure.

Level of Difficulty: Low - the students are working form basic designs with a small number of pieces and additions to the print.  These are junior school students who are eight years old who are working independently to complete this task.

Timeframe: As these are small prints the time taken to produce them is reflected in this, by their nature they cannot be too cumbersome for the animals.  Both prints are under forty minutes.

Size: The early version of this measures 65mm across and is 90mm high.  The current design measures 5mm wide.   The Trouble design is 50mm across and 50mm high, and is 5mm thick.

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: The students have some questions about the finished product.  They need to complete testing to ensure that it works correctly, and that can feasibly work in conjunction with a collar etc.   Given the dimensions the project will stay manageable and small scale, but it will remain independent and be resolved.