39-245
Rapid Design through Virtual and Physical Prototyping

Carnegie Mellon University
Spring 2000

Thursday February 17

• During class, we will form into groups of three. Each group will be given a part to be manufactured.

• With your group, figure out which manufacturing process you think is best for the part you have been assigned.

• Before next Tuesday, find as much information about your process as possible. I have created a preliminary list of rapid manufacturing resources on the Web (but it is now slightly out of date). You can use your favorite web search engine; the databases on the library web site , such as INSPEC; interviews with people on and off campus -- whatever you need to find information about the manufacturing process.

• The possible processes for making your part are:
  • Fused Deposition Manufacturing (FDM)
  • Stereolithography (SLA)
  • Shape Deposition Manufacturing (SDM)
  • JP Systems (Layered object manufacuting)
  • LaserCamm
  • CyberCut
  • CNC Machining
  • Molding

• The part files are in the parts directory in the class project space. You can view the parts in IronCAD. You need to use File -> Import to open the sat files. The units for the parts are inches.

Tuesday February 22

• One person from each group should make a short presentation explaining why the group has chosen the particular manufacturing process, what other processes are possible, and what attributes of the part make some processes impossible and other processes preferable.

• During class, we will discuss the parts and the processes and, as a class, assign each group a process for its part. (So you may end up with a different process than the one you initially chose.)

Tuesday February 29

• Your group should prepare a presentation on your assigned manufacturing process. The presentation should answer the following questions:
  • How does the process work? How are parts built?
  • How is design information transmitted to the manufacturing process?
  • What materials does the process use?
  • What are the size and shape limitations on the parts?
  • How much do parts cost? How quickly can parts be manufactured?

• The goal of your presentation is to educate the rest of the class about your manufacturing process, paarticularly about process selection. Your group should prepare a set of 5 to 10 transparencies. (If you need color transparencies to describe the process, let me know.)

• A different group member must make the presentation on February 29. If the group has 4 rather than 3 members, two people can make this presentation.

Thursday March 2

• Write a report that covers all the questions above. Make web pages of your report and put them in one group member's course directory. Since your report is web-based, you can include links to other sites.

• Be sure you include instructions on how to use the process. Your instructions should be detailed and complete enough that another student in the class would be able to make on part without having to ask you more than one or two questions.

• Send me the path to the files and I will make a page that links all the files.

Tuesday March 7

• Bring your part, manufactured on your process to class. The person who has not yet presented must give a short presentation, showing the part, explaining problems encountered during manufacturing, and discussing what was learned in the process of manufacturing and what the group would do differently next time.

• We will put the assembly together during class. (For some processes, you may not be able to get the part in time. I'll talk to these groups and make alternate arrangements.)

When you are gathering information, you may work with the corresponding group in the other section. I will give you the list of people for both sections.

           

sfinger@ri.cmu.edu