This weeks class started with an excellent cursory overview of 3D Scanning, taught by Arielle Rausin who is actually a former “alum” of Digital Making Seminar, herself. We had the opportunity to watch the power of 3D scanning go to work on both a student’s watch as well as a student’s whole entire head. The scanning of the watch began to unravel the relentless opportunities 3D scanning could bring to both the business world and everyday human life. For instance, 3D scanning allows any uniquely crafted piece or part of manufacturing to be easily replicated. For instance in the educational and museums industries, 3D scanning can enhance virtual exhibitions, augment exhibitions, and provide physical replicas of statues and historic figures. Even from a project perspective, a simple prototype that any student builds can now be easily scanned and placed into any 3D printing software system (such as Fusion 360). From there that prototype can be easily manipulated and crafted into the desired product of any consumer’s choice. Arielle Rausin did an excellent job of illustrating 3D Scanning and the implications of 3D Scanning. Here is a picture of Veronika and how excited both her and myself were to hear about all the great things happening in 3D scanning:

From here, Team Supra jumped to the atrium and Olivia, Veronika, and I picked right up where we left off from the previous week. Having decided to work on perfecting a doorstopper and making it highly desirable by all consumer, Team Supra envisioned a prototype that would sit in the middle of the door in close proximity to the door handle. From here the door stopper would have some form of a sliding mechanism that allows for the door stopping functionality to “turn on and off.” Additionally, Team Supra recognized an opportunity in the market to generate a doorstopper that was both low costing and universal to all doors in order to maximize the value our product would bring to the consumer. Because of this, Team Supra anticipated a magnet to be placed on both the door and the base of our doorstopper, in order to allow for the flexibility to move this door stopper from door to door.

With all this being said Team Supra decided to pay a visit to Fab Lab in Urbana, and let me just say I am very glad we did. After receiving feedback from full-time employees in the Fab Lab, it became evident that no everyday “consumer-use” magnet would be able to withstand the impact of a slamming door. The only magnets that could would be dangerous for household use. Because of this, Team Supra decided to explore the possibility of utilizing heavy-duty command strips to hold the door stopper in place. Furthermore, Fab Lab recommended the utilization of wood as the physical “stopper for the door.” Our original plan was to utilize metal and coat it in rubber resin. While this is certainly still an option, wood coated in rubber resin would provide the same stopping effect at a much lower cost. From here we took Fab Lab’s excellent constructive feedback and created this model in tinkercad:

Click here!
From here, it’s time to get our prototype 3D printed and put together and begin impact testing on our prototype. I’m excited to get back to work this week with the greatest team ever: Team Supra!