Saturday, March 17, 2018

3D Printed Short Term Emoji Badge

Above: Emoji design, yes it is.
Challenge: To demonstrate the 3D Printer with a quick personalized print, that could demonstrate the capability of the 3D Printer.  (Ahem).
Background: Most of the prints on this site have an extended print time due to the size, purpose and nature of them.  Occasionally the students want to demonstrate something the opposite of this, a short term print that can produce something quirky, or humours.  One example that students had come to me with was the emoji shown in the photograph.  The students were able to show that it would have a purpose, as a label and were able to personalize the design, and argue that they could use it as an exemplar, which would allow a quick print (in the twenty minute range for each emoji).   Its a bit of 'fun' if nothing else and was given consideration before the decision to print was made.   Apparently a student would use this to mark their bag or their possessions.
Level of Difficulty: Low - this is a generic design, which has been re sized for purpose and has the addition of the students name on the top, as a consequence the student who designed this was able to achieve all these things in an extremely short space of time.  A small design note - the rafting on the back of the design was deliberately not removed as it allowed the eyeballs to hold in place. 
Time frame: twenty minutes was enough to complete the print.  They are relatively small (see notes on dimensions).  We printed a group of six of these designs (each a copy with a variation of the students name) on a single print run which had a combined print time of four hours. 
Size: 60mm wide, a height of 60mm and 5mm thick.  The purpose of this design was to produce something that was recognizable, and could be massed produced quickly so while it could be re-sized it would somewhat defeat the intended purpose.
What we would do differently:  The students wanted something for a specific purpose and could have experienced with something slightly more appropriate, however students wanted something humorous, recognizable and small and like all the best prints they completed the process. 
Next steps for students: Something that was original and not a stock copy.


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