Sunday, November 5, 2017

3D Printed Glow in the Dark Container


Container with lid
Challenge: To produce a working container for a School display that is functional and able to store items.   Glow-in-the-dark filament was used to create a point of interest/wow factor.  Container would need to feature a working lid that worked in conjunction with the base.
Background: Group was looking for an item to feature as part of their display for a school and cluster (group of schools) showcase taking place for the parents and local community.    The students had a background in design using Tinkercad having spent most of the year working on the projects featured on this site.  Students were nine and ten years old.   Design was created using Tinkercad and Cura for Printing.
Level of Difficulty: Low.  The students design was complicated only by the filament used.  With our experience with the glow-in-the-dark-filament, instead of regular PLA the quality of the print tends to be compromised slightly, we have investigated changing the print settings but tend to get more challenged prints.   The basic Tinkercad interface was used to produce the base, the lid, the drop
Filament 'burn' shown on container
down lid on the inside and the handle.  We ran the print twice to get a better result from the filament with exactly the same design and settings (this was the first of the new roll of filament).
Timeframe: Six hours.   Print times are exactly the same regardless of the filament used.  The shape could have been slightly refined depending on the purpose of the container of what it was holding.
Size: The base design was 8cm across and 8cm high.   The width of the internal walls was 5mm.   The lid had similar dimension being 7cm across, a 1cm depth in total (including 5mm drop down lid) the handle was 3cm high.    As noted these dimensions were created by the students with the design of the container in mind rather than specific for the project.
What we would do differently: The name of the students and the group that they working as part of could have been included in the design - the lid itself while it had a drop down aspect fitted losely.  Both these things could have added considerably to the design and the project. 
Next steps for students: Research the temperature settings for Glow-in-the-dark filament and then experiment with alternative temperature to reduce the 'burn' part of the printing process shown.   As noted above the container could have been more personalised. 

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