Week 9 and 10: Machine and Mechanical design.

Overview

For this week's assignment, It was required to design and automate a machine. This was a group assignment, so all Fab Lab Egypt's team participated in this.

The chosen machine is Hot Wire foam cutting machine , and you can check the full documentation of the machine here

Introduction

The work on the machine was divided into several phases and several teams as well to work in parallel. We had to research first for machine idea, then we divided ourselves into 3 teams: The CAD team, the Electronics and Programing team and finally the operation team.

The main tasks for each team was described.

the CAD team: will handle the redesign of the machine structure.

The Programing team: will work on the motors control and the system impelemtation.

The logistics and operation team: will be handling the logistics, implementation on machines and assembly.

My Contribution:

My Main role in this project was in the operation team. I was one of the people handling implementing the desing on laser cutter machine.

The design was made ready by the CAD team, and so we were ON. We used plywood sheet of thickness 3mm for the implementation. Some parts needed to br strong enough to handle weight, so we used 2 sheets and bonded them together to get 6mm.

During cutting, We faced a problem with the laser cutter. There was a problem in the lenses first of all, and then it was fixed. Moreover, because of hot temperature these days in Egypt that reached almost 45 degrees, the laser beam had to be cooled off every almost 30 seconds, so we had to pause and resume till we finished the designs.

This was while cutting.