Day 8: (Mon Feb 14, Week 5) Research Study Part B

Notes for 2022-02-14.

New Assignments

1. New assignment, due by Wednesday: prepare a draft of a 3D-printable mold set suitable for open molding (single part molds). Please design your mold blocks to fit within an 80 mm square and your total part volume no more than 50 cc.

This was formalized after the fact as Part A: Open Mold Design.

Agenda

1. Discussion of open-mold design.

   1. Design Example: Open Molded Soft Silicone Actuator

   2. demo photos (not online).

   3. draft notes on Small Batch Mixing Protocol (Non-Vacuum).

2. SolidWorks open mold workflow demonstration.

   1. Model a part with internal cavities to be fabricated in silicone. The outer faces will need to be flat as they will be formed by the open top of each mold.

   2. Choose a splitting plane and divide into two separate parts. The split surfaces should be concave with no overhangs, as they will be each formed by a mold.

   3. For each separate mold:

      1. Model a mold part larger than the part to fabricate.

      2. Create an assembly from the mold.

      3. Add the fabricated part to the assembly and add mates to align inside the mold part.

      4. Edit the mold part in the assembly context and add a Cavity feature to subtract the part.

      5. Open the mold part, inspect, and export as a STL for fabrication.

3. Mid-class break.
   
   

4. Review of research study part B resuls.

5. Discussion.