Blog Entry 4

 Hello guys!!! I am back for another interesting blog!!! Well, this time my group members and I did activities that we probably had not done in our lives before. Well, are you interested to find out more? So my group members and I embarked on Practical 5, the quail egg drop challenge. Well, hey!! I know you are probably thinking that it is just dropping a quail egg from a height to the ground while being covered by a a material. Well, you guys are not wrong. But however, this time we had to come up with the structure using 3d printing!!! This was extremely scary for my group members and me as we had never done anything like this before!!! 

Well, you guys might also be wondering the number of attempts it took us, just to come up with a confirmed structure. Well, yeah, it did take us a lot of attempts and calculations. 

Initial ideas for Design 

We wanted to reduce the distance between the egg and the bottom part of the structure to ensure that there is reduced impact when the structure reaches the ground. However, the impact would also cause the egg to bounce out of the 3d structure , increasing the chances of the egg to break. Therefore, this idea was rejected. 

Coming up with the structure

 

 We had to accurately measure the quail egg to ensure that the quail egg can be fitted into the structure.The above picture shows the bottom part of the structure.

 Here are pictures of more calculations !!!

The finalised structure 

Well, we had decided to finalise on 1 design. 

Well, here are the three components of the 3d print

Cap/ Top component of 3D printed design 

The first components acts like a cap, preventing the egg from rolling out of the 3d printed design.

Here is a screenshot of the cap facing upwards.

Here is another screenshot of the cap facing downwards. 

Egg holder/middle component of 3D printed design

Egg holder/ middle component of 3D Printed design

The second component acts like the egg holder. It prevents the egg from rolling over into the sides of the 3d printed design.

Here is a screenshot of the middle component facing upwards.

Here is another screenshot of the middle component facing upside down.

(insert the 360 fusion for the middle piece)

Pyramid bottom/ bottom component of 3D printed design

The bottom component behaves like a base, which protects the egg from the fall impact. 

Here is a screenshot of the bottom piece

(insert the 360 fusion for the bottom piece)

Stub connectors of the 3D printed design

There are 4 smaller stub connectors which connects the middle component of the 3D printed design to the top component of the 3d printed design. 

Here is a screenshot of the smaller stub connectors. 

There are also another 4 bigger pairs of stub connectors which connects the middle component of the 3D printed design to the bottom component of the 3D printed design. 

Here is a screenshot of the bigger stub connectors

Step by step guide on the component of the 3D print design

Step by step guide of bottom piece

Step 1: Create a sketch and draw a 30mm by 30mm centre rectangle with an offset of +5mm. 

Step 2: Draw centre circles of radius of 5mm at each point of the inner rectangle/square.

Step 3: Create an offset plane 25mm above the previous sketch.

                                        

                                   

Step 4: Draw a point on the offset plane directly above the centre point of the rectangle/square drawn previously.

Step 5: Finish the sketches and use the LOFT feature and select the entire rectangle and offset point as profile 1 and 2 to create the pyramid shape.

Step 6: Orientate the page upside down and use the HOLE feature to create holes at each of the inner rectangle/square vertices of 5mm radius and 2mm depth.

Step by step guide of the top piece/ the cap

Step 1: Create a sketch with 36.667mm by 36.667mm centre rectangle.

Step 2: Use the middle point to create 27mm radius circle.

Step 3: Repeat on all corners, draw a diagonal line from each vertice of the square to the circle.

Step 4: Use the point to make a point at the midpoint of each line.

 

Step 5: Finish sketch and extrude by 22mm.

Step 6: Orientate upside down and use the HOLE feature to create hole at the middle of the bottom of the cuboid that is 27mm radius and 20.5mm depth. Use the point created at the middle of the centre triangle.

Step 7: Use the HOLE feature again to create holes at the points made in the first step. Each hole is 5mm radius and 3mm depth.

Step by step guide of the middle component

Step 1: Create a 50mm by 50mm centre rectangle.

                                         

Step 2: Finish the sketch then offset the plane by 30mm

                                    

Step 3: On the offset plane, create a point at the centre using the centre point of the centre rectangle

                                   

                                    

Step 4: Use the LOFT feature and select the point and centre triangle as profile 1 and 2 to create a pyramid.

                               

Step 5: Offset plane of the centre rectangle again by 8mm

Step 6: On the new offset plane, create a sketch and create a semicircle of 13.5mm radius

Step 7: Finish the sketch and select the semicircle and use the ARC feature to create a hemisphere at the bottom of the pyramid.

Step 8: On the same plane as the semicircle, create another sketch and rectangle of 50mm by 50mm

Step 9: Finish the sketch and use the LOFT feature again and select the new rectangle and the point created earlier and select the operation to be cut

Step 10: On the same plane as the semicircle, create another sketch and create diagonal lines from the edges of the square to the circle ,then create points in the middle of the lines.

Step 11: Use the HOLES feature to create holes of 5mm diameter and 3mm depth at each point on the lines

Step 12: Go to the bottom of the body and create 30mm by 30mm centre rectangle around the circle and create points at each vertice of the centre rectangle.

Step 13: Use the HOLE feature again to create holes of 3mm depth and 5mm diameter at the points created are the vertices. 

Step by step guide on how to prepare the printer

Step 1: Get a filament from the dry cabinet located in workshop 3

Step 2:  Insert the filament into the heater

Step 3: Turn on the filament

Step 4: Press the green button on the heater

3D printing the components

Printing of the cap of the 3D print

Well, here are some behind-the-scenes footage for you guys to enjoy!!

Here is a picture of the printer that was used to print the cap

And here is a short video of the printing of the cap

(insert the egg holder cap first part video)

Here is a picture of being 15 minutes into the printing process. 

Printing of stub connectors and the middle component

Here is a picture of the top view printing of the middle component

Here is a video of the starting moments of printing the stub connectors and the middle component. 

( insert the video)

Here is another video of the middle process of printing the middle component with the stub connectors

(insert the video)

Printing of bottom piece

Dropping of 3d printed product

Here is a hero shot of the 3d printed product

Well, it was finally time to drop the 3d printed design down!!!!

Here is a video of the egg dropping for the first time!!!This video also contains the illustrations on how to use the 3D printed design. The egg yolk came out a bit, causing it to spill on the inside of the 3d product design. 

Well, we failed the first time , and we were definitely going to do it again. However,this time, we made a minor modification to the design, such as the mini hole in the middle piece, to slighty increase the grip of the quail egg.  Overall, the results were better as the egg had only slightly cracked. No leakages were visible. 

Here is the video of the second try

Reflection

This experience of the quail egg challenge was extremely new and unique for me. I had not done this before in previous modules and thus, I was equally excited and nervous to indulge in this challenge. I knew that the journey was definitely not going to be an easy one. There were a lot of difficulties we faced as a group, and as an individual. For example, the structure of the 3d printed design was not limited to any shape or size, other than the only limitation that the structure had to be 3d printed. Therefore, we had variety of options, based on the size and the shape. A lot of thinking was required to ensure that the design was the best. For example, my group had come up with one prototype which had a slightly exposed top, larger in area, with a flat, covered base at the below, smaller in area. Many small connectors, acting like pillars, connect the smaller bottom to the larger top, to prevent the egg from rolling off the sides of the 3D printed structure.  Although it made a lot of sense at first, we had realised that a lot of post-processing would be needed. Moreover, after the first drop, the small pillars would break apart due to the fall impact, destroying the design of the 3D design. This taught me that foreseeing is an extremely important skill. Moreover, I had also realised the importance of team discussion. When we had come up with this idea, my group members had thoroughly discussed about the cons of the design. Through this, we were clearer on aspects of design that should be avoided, such as an exposed-top, as an exposed-top would make the egg bounce out of the 3d printed structure, causing it to break. After printing the product, we had realised that some of the details of the product were not printed clearly. For example, out of the four mini holes that were meant for the connectors, to connect two components of the 3d printed object, only 2 holes were properly drilled. The other 2 holes were little too shallow and small, causing the group to result to drilling. Moreover, some of the connectors could not fit into components, causing us to result to filling. Moreover, 3d printing the product was also not an easy task as many pairs from different classes were also present in Workshop 3 to 3d print. There were minimum to no 3d printers available for printing as most of the pairs were using the 3d printers for their printing. This taught me that I should have done the printing earlier, and avoid procrastination. In the chemical engineering, there will be many tasks to do, and I cannot be procrastinating as failure to open or close a valve out of many valves in the plant during shutdown might result in an exposure of harmful chemical in the environment, which might lead to explosions. This experience definitely prepares me for future modules, as I would be able to tackle problems with lesser difficulty together with my future group members. To improve my skillsets, I would browse the internet for tips for improving skillsets or watch Youtube videos on how to showcase these skillsets.