Mechanical Design, Machine Design

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ASSEMBLING GESTALT MODULES

I was in charge of the assembly of the Gestalt Modules of the machine that makes designed by Nadya.. and making the pixel planter. I proceeded to download the data from the MTM website. You can find it in HERE (MTM) Due to the difficulties finding the 3mm conventional cardboard, I turned to another reference of a cardboard: a 3 mm thick Bookbinding cardboard, in grey. (http://www.modulor.de/en/bookbinding-cardboard-grey.html) Using the same specifications of the original data of the gestalt modules. As a result, the material was bent previously, changing the cutting and engraving areas. Because of the hardness and thickness of the material, I couldn’t fold the cardboard as expected. Therefore, I had to look for other options. The most common cardboard that you can find in Germany is the 6 mm cardboard. Therefore, I edited the measurements of the cardboard thickness using the Rhino and Grasshopper data. In the panel of thickness, there are some modifications that you have to check before cutting but in general it doesn’t work so well, doing the folding shape.

Laser CUTTER

Well, I finally found the right material for cutting the gestalt node, the following steps , we will cut and assemble the cardboard parts. In the following picture you can find the cutting values for the Epilog laser that we used for cutting and engraving the folding parts: Assembling the gestalt nodes, and testing the mechanics: Finalizing the soldering of the small board and following the Fab Academy tutorial, we finalized the assembly of the nodes and the first test on them.

PIXEL PLANTER FRAME

As you can see in the video, the movement of the gestalt modules axis is very reduced in comparison to the size of the pixel planter frame and the behavior of the pixels will grow. Also, considering the attachment of the and weight of the extruder, we decided to change the design of the whole frame and look for other option. Looking the projects for the last semester we found the project of the Zen Garden from open Dot Milano and their construction. We took this as a reference for making the machine. You can find the DXF data of the FRAME in the following link: (http://www.fabacademy.org/archives/2015/eu/students/silli.saverio/exercise16.html ). Using Saverio’s data for cutting ours. I tried to modify directly the data for our local material, also, the similar problem of the materials thickness is 4 mm and we didn't have the material: First of all modifying the material thickness measurements in the illustrato data , well no beeing parametric caused a (dop­pelt­ge­mop­pelt) job. Trying with the same material thickness in this case with plywood. This material was too bendable creating an unstable frame. Although the machine frame was almost finished the extruder was a bit heavy for the costruntruction of the frame. In this case Jonathan Yen began the design of the frame on basis of this frame with the 6 mm MDF.

CONCLUSION

2 Changing the material in the short time could create a big delay in the design process and also you have to consider in the first design conception, The cardboard is a wonderful material considering the friction and mechanical stress I would suggest to find a nice Looking for the design the machine from wood maibe in the first steps. Experimenting with materials gave us a nice whole conception of the machine.