3D Printed Prize Giving Trophy Repair

 

Challenge: To repair a thirty year old school trophy.

Background: We are always looking for opportunities to have our students solve problems or involve themselves in practical related activities - such in this instance this trophy.

The trophy is awarded in the sport of Netball - the trophy has an engagement plate on the back which has been awarded for thirty years.   Despite its sheen and appearance the figure that is on the top of the trophy is plastic - which has had a coating applied to it to make it appear different.   When examined in detail it has been repaired at the base of the players feet already several times.

Netball in itself produces a challenge - Netball is something of a niche sport.   We have been searching for a Netball figure that is available as an .stl file and are currently unable to locate one.   This has meant that the students have experimented with using other figures or concentrating on really generic figures.   We are specifically looking at mounting something on the top of the trophy in the middle, at the highest point.   As a classroom challenge this is something the whole class could easily get involved with.   While the output of the project is a single print.

The montage left shows a design that has then been AR/VR into place using the Tinkercad App (this feature is available to iPad users, not browser users of the Tinkercad online page.

The design left was created by a pair of nine year olds from our classroom in one ten minutes session.  Once they had completed the basic design they then took the original trophy and experimented with background so they could successfully AR/VR the design.

The filers from Pic Collage were then applied to a screenshot from the Tinkercad AR/VR to show the different affects that might be possible with the design.   Not all of the filters were successful as some have a tendency to overwhelm the designs.   The next step with the process for the entire class is to refine their original designs.

The audience for this task is exceedingly important.  We have created a range of trophies in the past.  This year we have already created various trophies and awards and we also have last years exemplar masterclass project which is available to be viewed here.

In the design left students worked on something that looked like it might fit based on size and then once this proved viable or not were intending to expand the process to include more detail.   

The person who commissioned the project is going to review all of the designs and from there select three or four of the designs that they feel meets the brief of the project the best.  Once these have been identified they are going to be printed and then the physical designs will be evaluated and looking at selecting one or two as final projects.  An important aspect of the success of this project is the colour matching - that will be finding a spray painting colour that matches the shine and the appearance of the original design.