Don't get it twisted, Injection molding is tricky Part 1

Don't get it twisted!

If your injection molded part is not what you expected then there are many things you may not of considered in the design stage as well as the fact it is such a complex process where many aspects can affect the part and it is hard to get it perfect first time.

Different thickness sections of a part will cool at different speeds.  A thinner section, such as a rib will cool quicker than a large thicker surface.  So a rib cooling quicker can twist or bend the section of the part that is yet to be fully solid.  This obviously creates issues, as you want a part that is the same as the CAD and therefore needs to be analyzed before the manufacture stage to see if you could have issues with the design with a software package such as Moldflow from Autodesk (which is free for students).

http://www.gpsx.co.uk/images/moldflow_warpage_analysis1.jpg

A lot of the time you don't want to sacrifice the designed-in ribs and thin sections as they are normally therefore a reason.  Therefore a part will be overcrowned.  By running Moldflow analysis it is possible to predict how much the part will bend in the injection molding process.  With this information you can then reverse the bending so ideally when the part does bend, it bends into the correct position that you want.

In a perfect world you would just want a constant thickness part.  To achieve this practically you need to core out sections.  Cored out sections reduce the thickness of features.  Coring out is explained as well other techniques on Protomold's website.  Where you can also get quotes for injection molding for prototypes (which is good for students to estimate costing for course work!) 

For help with ribs and bosses, Protomold give a way a free Cube.

Next week: Honey I shrank the Molding, Injection molding is tricky Part 2

Street Art

When we think of street art, mostly we think spay cans and marker pens.  However there are some street artists that take a thinking outside of the box approach to street art.  This post is just to show that there are alternatives to the ugly graffiti done by people who are not trying to make the street look better, but just purely damaging property.

"Yarn Bombing" may look like a Granny gone bad with her knitting needles, but actually it has now become a form of street art.

http://ministateofmind.wordpress.com/tag/street-art/

http://ministateofmind.wordpress.com/tag/street-art/

While Banksy uses stencils to speed up the time it takes to put up his work and Shepard Fairey uses pre-printed posters to plaster up on walls, Max Zorn makes semi transparent pictures using brown packaging tape and then takes the pre-prepared images out on the street to stick them up as a sticker.  The video below shows the process of making the art.

http://www.maxzorn.com/?page_id=22

http://www.maxzorn.com/?page_id=22

http://www.maxzorn.com/?page_id=22

Check out more at http://www.maxzorn.com/

Another street art project I like is the Favela painting project which not only makes art, but creates jobs and helps the community.

If all street art was this positive, there would never be complaints or any painting over/destroying.  Growing up in Bristol where there is a strong street art scene I have been lucky to see some excellent painting from Bristol based artists and regularly visit the Weapon of Choice gallery for street art.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3072/3071787950_03a4705da7.jpg

Project feature on BikeHacks

A Cycle trailer Project I did a while ago has been featured on this website:  http://www.bikehacks.com/bikehacks/2012/07/not-just-your-average-cycle-trailer.html

Here is a taster of what the feature is about...

Why do side projects?

fter my last blog post about doing personal projects in your free time with an emphasis on Graphic and Web design, I thought I would expand on it and write about why do people do side projects, both paid and for free.




After seeing my friend Emily's Fairy Letters side project, that she is carrying out in her free time whilst working at the design consultancy Seymourpowell and selling using the online homemade gift store Etsy here I wondered why people want to side projects.  You work so hard at your job, only to come back and work some more.  So I wanted to look at some other designers who do side projects and why they do them.

http://www.strawbug.co.uk.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/HOME.html

http://www.strawbug.co.uk.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/HOME.html

Maybe doing something like this is similar to being a part time eBay seller, however you still need to find the time to manufacture and package these home made items.  A lot of people these days have an eBay account, 14 million in the UK alone and 223 million users in the world compared to the 17 million users worldwide on Etsy.


So why do people do side projects?


For Fun?  For the extra money?  To fill spare time?  For exposure?  To do what YOU want?


Jessica Hische a Designer and Illustrator who creates daily illustrative initial caps for free personal use.  This is not a side project to make money as she gives away her work so she must do it for fun, however with that comes exposure and personal promotion.  I do like her free to use caps, there are many to choose from and they look great, I have used they a couple of times on this blog post.

http://www.dailydropcap.com/

http://www.dailydropcap.com/

Another ex-Brunel designer that enjoys side projects is Duncan Shotton.  I met him when he was working at Kinneir Dufort and I was unsure whether to do a BA or BSc in design, and he has since helped me with applying for jobs and with my CV.  Duncan used to work for the design consultancy Kinneir Dufort but is now moving to Toyko.  In his free time working at Kinneir Dufort Ducan designed the Key cloud.  The Pecha Kucha video of Duncan explains about the Key cloud and about personal projects and I think it shows that he does it for the fun.

onclusion to this post is that I think people tend to do a side project for fun, to do something different from the design work they do as a paid job.  Where they set the brief, the deadlines and the working hours.  No doubt it is tough, and that is shown in Duncan's Pecha Kucha video above, but it is fun.  We just want to have fun and enjoy ourselves.  If that can also get us money and exposure as well as take up some free time, then that makes it just the more perfect.

Graphic Design

Graphic Design and Product Design has a lot of crossovers and with a similar process and a final product, we are very similar.  In Product Design we have to do our own Graphic Design for branding, layout and presentation.  Some Product designers will even freelance Graphic design as well or just even do it for fun.


KJ, a Product Designer for Braiform, has an extensive Graphic Design gallery on his Deviantart profile, all freelance or personal work done in his spare time. 

So, I could try to become an all-rounder and be a product, graphic and web designer, or just end up being low skilled in a lot of things.  I am however currently trying to learn web code, with the end goal being to create my own website so that I can put my own work on it ready for graduation and getting a job.  However my pace is slow as I have a lot of other more important things to do and trying to squeeze it in is hard.  I feel I have got to grips on HTML, but CSS I feel is harder and I have spent less time on.


The front end Web Design tends to fall under Graphic Design meaning some Graphic designers can web code too, allowing them to offer more services and the skills for self promotion.


Joe Kozak and I went to college together and both did Product Design, however he went on to study Graphic Design.  I am jealous of his web design skills that enable him to make regular updates and new personal websites.  

Maybe I feel this as my design course does not teach web design and only touches on Flash.  Self promotion I believe is such an important thing, showing what you can do, and that you are out there, I feel makes you more employable.  I know that you can get jobs without even leaving a trace of yourself on the web, or in print.  But I know I am not that type of designer.

New Designers

I am now back from my trip up to London to go to new designers, it was great to see the guys from Made In Brunel and was a nice surprise to see a picture of the installation that my team and I created for the show up on one of the Brunel boards.  I preferred the Brunel stand layout this year to last's as I thought it definitely flowed better.

The One Year On exhibition that showed work from designers that were exhibiting at the show last year was inspiring, showing excellent work.  I really liked the wood/concrete lamps that reminded me of my wood/ceramic dish brush I designed.  I like the flush transition from soft, sanded wood to rough concrete.

As New Designers show not only Product Design and Furniture, but also Digital media I went to check out the Brunel work again to see my favorite media project, by David Paliwoda, and the winner of Brunel University Digital Media most outstanding project award.

I love how this imitates claymotion so well and could accelerate and modernise claymotion films.  It is an amazing dissertation that is a must to watch. 

Heading back to London

After coming back home to Bristol for 2 weeks for a much needed rest, I am going back to London today until Sunday to go to New Designers and see friends.


I have tried to make the most of my time off, whilst trying to sort out accommodation in Portsmouth for my job at SMR Automotive.  I have been riding my bike when I can and catching up on all the films I have missed out on.

I forget how nice of an area I live in, where I am so close to the center of Bristol and so close to the country side.

As I have only been commuting by bike and haven't done any distance I decided to go for a ride along the Avon cycle path and see where I ended up.  The Avon cycle path keeps you off main roads and follows the old Bristol to Bath train line and the Avon & Kennet Cannel.  It rained through the whole day but not even my smile could be washed from my face riding and splashing through all of the many puddles that were scattered along the canal on the path.  I ended up riding past Devizes and back home, 66miles in total, but it far further down to the the bumpy tow paths.  Had such a great time I decided to ride to Chew lake the next day.  Only 31.6 miles this time but I needed a rest and the route has far more hills.

Anyway in 45 minutes I will be on a train hurtling towards London!  See you at New Designers on Saturday.

Made In Brunel Installation

Before it comes up to new designers I thought I would show a collection of pictures of the Installation at the Made In Brunel exhibition...

Making the Installation

The Installation
The installation I have been working on was finally unveiled on the 14th June at the Bargehouse as part of the Made In Brunel design show.  This show reveals the freshest design talent from the top Design University in the UK.  The entrance hall of the Bargehouse has a high ceiling with plain walls and the space can look large and empty, I was asked to create and installation to combat this problem.  I decided to create a hanging origami feature that fitting in with the Brunel brand guidelines.




The Process
Folding over 2000 pieces of paper was not something I could do alone and needed the help of people from other teams within Made In Brunel.  Without the help of Sophie Randles, George Williamson and Mitch Gebbie from the Events team, the Made In Brunel Directors, Ben King and Emily Riggs, Neethu (my partner) and I could not of created this installation.  Even once the paper was folded, threading the carefully folded paper onto the practically invisible fishing wire was a colossal task.  This task took Neethu and I a couple of days, only to be sped up by the help of Sophie Randles and Ben King, whilst watching the Queens Jubilee to keep the boredom of such a repetitive task at bay.  To hang the paper I built three white boxes to be hung from hooks in the Bargehouse ceiling.

Creating the shape
After spending some time discussing what the shape of the paper should be in to create the best swarm effect with Sam Whyman we decided on an eye shape that tapered more to the right, if being looked at from the front.  The exact shape could only be finalised whist being created in the jig (pictured above).  The hanging paper was used as pixels to create the shape desired.  By sliding the paper up and down the wire and changng the number of folded paper on each wire the shape could be controlled and created.

Keeping tension
Weighting the wires down were M8 nuts, these nuts created a blanket effect that were all the same height.  As the installation is designed to be walked under it was very important to get all the nuts hanging from the same height.  The jig I built to work on the installation without having to hang it allowed me to get the correct height accurately. 

Installing the installation

Having the installation sponsored by Nifty Lift allowed the use of a scissor lift to install it safely and efficiently.  Brunel technicians, Paul Josse and Paul Barrett did an excellent job putting it up on the scissor lift which I am very grateful for.

The tangles

Once up I did suffer a couple of tangles, mainly on the middle one due to removing the packaging before we should of, causing extreme tangles. Thanks to Emily Riggs, Neethu Mathew and Paul Barrett for helping me out untangling the wires.

The final thing

The general consensus was that everyone seemed to really like it, and just standing around by it people would ask questions and want to know more and how it was made.  I spoke to Dev from rAndom International (The top guys in the Installation design world) about the installation and he seemed to like it, "The orange was great! Nice work =D".

Packed up and ready

The Installation is done and now bubble wrapped up ready to be transported tomorrow along with all the other Made In Brunel stuff, and installed on Tuesday.

Big thanks to Niffy Lift for sponsoring the Installation and helping install it!


Pictures of the Installation and the build to come.

Blood, Sweat and Paper Folding

The Installation is nearly complete with a very busy last two weeks.  The Installation should be finished by tonight, packed up tomorrow and transported Monday to be put up Tuesday.  The Made In Brunel Exhibition will be open Thursday to Sunday at the Bargehouse.  


There has been a lot of late nights and hours of fine tuning, and a lot of waiting on parts to arrive.  Any photos that I could show now would give it away so photos will be up only after the show.


The event I am most looking forward to at this years Made In Brunel Exhibition is the Pecha Kucha. There are some awesome speakers lined up and it's not one to miss, check it out on Thursday at 6pm!


More to come next week from the show.

Visit to SMR

Visited SMR Automotive today and got shown around the factory. It was my first experience of seeing an injection molding machine in action up close. It was really interesting to see the cell manufactoring going on and how the assembly line was set up and how quick everyone is. Also got shown Autocad Mouldflow, a really cool piece of software I really must learn. Compared to Pashley, another UK based manufacturing company I have been to, it was very similar, however much larger and more modern. SMR take advantage of lots of jigs and tools to speed up asembly.

Update on the Made In Brunel Installation

The Installation

As Made In Brunel (14th - 17th June) is getting closer I am working more intensely on the installation.  The structural part is now complete and the paint is drying.  Need another visit to the Bargehouse before ordering the final parts, but it is getting there.  My team and I will start the main paper section on Wednesday and I will be folding paper for a couple of days with a short trip to SMR automotive in Portchester on Thursday in between long paper folding sessions.

The design has changed a lot from the initial concept/s but it still carries this years Made in Brunel theme which can be checked out at http://madeinbrunel.com/  I am being perticularrly secretive about the design as I don't want anyone to see the installation before the show, so far anyone not involved has only seen Team shots of idea generation workshops and prototyping and I refuse to tell anyone what it will be, so come along to check out the real thing!

Also check out the Made In Brunel video for this years show:

Gravity Defying Land Art

Gravity Defying Land Art by Cornelia Konrads
With the Made In Brunel event date looming closer and the Installation not finalised yet I have been looking at Cornelia Konrads work.  I really like it and thought I'd share it incase you haven'y seen it.  Check out more on her website http://www.cokonrads.de/situ/site.html

Pics from http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/04/gravity-defying-land-art-by-cornelia-konrads/

Smartphone Virtual Shopping

Virtual Shopping

Tesco's Korean brand Home plus have been trialling a virtual store where posters of their products are put up in places such as subways that have QR codes on the items.  it the person would like the item, they scan the QR code with there smartphone and it puts the item in their online basket where once all the items are scanned thy can check out and the items will be delivered when they user gets home.

Design Driven Innovation

Human/User/Innovation Centred Design

User Groups, What User Groups?
Ok so user groups can be helpful of couse, they can tell you what the market wants.  However people see the future throught their current lives and therefore can not give you new innovations and can only help you make incremental change.

Market? What Market?

"Market? What market? We do not look at market needs.  We make proposals to people."  - Ernesto Gismondi.

Radical changes do not happen by answering the market need, but by proposaing new ideas.  Proposing new ideas leads to technical innovation and meaningful innovation.  As Steve Jobs said: "People don't know what they want until you show it to them."  Who would of thought a couple of years ago that we needed a laptop, a tablet and a smart phone, they all do a similar thing, yet we have them?

Designers are the Key

Designers are not just stylists, or ergonomists, they are the people who envision new senarios.  These new senarios create the need, and the proposals create the need for innovation.  This is Design Driven Innovation.

My New CV

All done
After a another busy time with hand in's, I am now finished with all my coursework for the year.  Which means now I can finally work on my CV and Portfolio to get a placement.  Thanks Splinterbike for the retweets helping with my survey for my final project.  Check out his website and what he does at http://www.splinterbike.co.uk

CV
After seeing all these nice graphical CV's online I wanted to give mine a spruce up.  

I still need to work on it some more to be happy with it, but heres the basics.  Any constructive feedback would be great, bear in mind I am a product designer and not a graphics guru.  I made this CV more for appling to service design placements rather than Engineering and product design placements. 

Designers MX
Something has helped me thriough the last of my projects has been Designers MX music playlists made by designers for designers, great music, great playlist cover art.  One of my personal favorites is Let's make sweet sweet pixels pt 2 Check it out!


On the look out for placements
I am currently looking for a placement so am appling to many product design companies trying to get a a year's worth of experience.  However as I have an interest in service design (plus more free time now to learn and redo my CV) I am going to try to apply to a couple of service design compaines, how that will go, I do not know, but I know for sure I will try hard and work even harder to get a responce and maybe even an interview.  It worked to get me an Interview at rAndom International.

Photos from San Francisco
A couple of the photos I took when I went to San Fran.
 

Help from my readers? Please

Olympics + Social Interaction in the workplace?
This is my current project that I am working on, which I am calling on my readers to give me a hand with.  I have made a survey that needs filling in, 10 easy questions, mostly yes/no and a little bit of one word typing.  Can't give away too much about it yet, but future posts will explain more.

Survey

4 Days untill I am off to San Francisco

Pretty excited to have a real break from work and to go to America, as it will be my first time.  Normally either a Mountains or Carribean holiday person.  I plan to get a little hiking done as well as exploring the city on the Costral trail on the Marin headland, I will try to get some nice pictures to post up when I am back.

Made in Brunel

Off to the Bargehouse tomorrow for some measuring for the installation, looking forward to getting in the workshop to do some making for the installation, hopefully I will finally have a project where I can do some welding, it has been 2 years since my last proper metal project, where I first learnt to braze.

Kitchen Project done

Done
Finished the Kitchen Project last week and have been mostly relaxing and working on a C code program, which is now finished.  The final model from the Kitchen project is below, the dish scrubber.

Doing

Going to the Bargehouse to measure up for the Installation in a couple of days, The Made in Brunel Installation has taken a back seat whilst I finished off the report for the kitchen project recently, but my time has free'd up now so I will be able to work on it some more.  Updates will be more regular. 

The Bargehouse entrance

I need to work on a banner design with a photo from Shane Standing for the climbing club I am part of, which shouldn't take long, but I still have a fair amount of work on and when I am not working I am trying to make the most of the Easter break. 

 A photo by Shane Standing (not the one for the Banner though).

Whilst trying to make the most of the weather and my free time I walked along the canal path from Uxbridge to Southall and back, 14.6 mile walk which was slightly longer than my 2 hour lunch walk that I planned on going, however once I realised Southall was only 3 miles away from where I was after an hour I decided that I would make a visit as I have only travelled through Southall by Bus and it looked interesting, for those that don't know Wikipedia says "Southall is primarily a South Asian residential district, sometimes known as "Little India"."

 http://goodfoodshops.blogspot.co.uk/2010/11/indian-food-walk-in-southall.html

Currently working on a sustainable promotional product that I designed a couple of months ago but not needs a redesign as I tried to make is biodegradable, but it just won't last long enough so I am redesigning it to make it tougher and recyclable instead.