Mandarin collaboration project

Project Description: Design and make a chocolate for the mandarin 1A class to highlight and celebrate their heritage/culture using Autodesk Fusion 360, 3D printer, and silicone plastique mold-making technique.

Project requirements:

• Use Autodesk Fusion 360 to model the chocolate and then fabricate it using the 3D printer.

• Chocolate will be a circle with 2.5 inches in diameter and 0.25 inches for thickness.

• Use this project to show the heritage of the Mandarin 1A class

• Chocolate must have one side with design on it, and one side flat for the mold

• Use project Steps:

Brainstorming: In order to make a model for the chocolate, we needed to use the information our partner in Mandarin 1A gave us. After receiving the information that my partner gave me(Chinese Name, panda, and bamboo), I researched some pictures of bamboo and pandas online to trace and put onto my model. I then quickly sketched out 3 different designs that incorporated all the ideas and themes and sent all three of them onto a shared google doc to wait for my partner's approval:

Procedure: After my partner picked the design that she liked the most, I started using Fusion360 to create a more refined model of the sketched chocolate using given the dimensions(2.5" diameter, 0.25" thickness). Then I started printing it.

After looking at the first prototype, I decided that it looked OK. All the details were there, however , there were 2 major problems with it. First of all, it was too tall, with the thickness of around -.28" to 0.3", against project requirements. Second of all, the small indents of the details for my chocolate was too deep, meaning that if I were to mold it, some of the mold might be stuck into the model, which would be a really big problem. To counter these flaws, I lowered the panda decoration to the correct height of the requirements, and then decreased the indentations, significantly reducing the chances of the mold being stuck onto it. I then printed my second prototype and after reviewing it, I felt satisfied with the results. 

The next stage to our project was to create the silicone plastique mold. It consisted of 2 colored clay and after mixing it together and putting it onto any object, it hardens and takes every specific detail of the object. I first measured 17-18 grams of each clay, and twisted them together and kneading it until the two colors mixed together. I then took small clumps from the combined clay and pressed them into my final(second) prototype. I repeated this step until the detailed face of the prototype was done. I then added clay to the walls of my prototype. However, I did not work fast enough, and the mold hardened before taking the shape of the prototype. And so, I started again, making sure to work faster this time and successfully made the mold on my second attempt.

Then, before making the chocolate out of the molds, was to clean the finished mold with hot soapy water and prepare the chocolate.

We then took out giant blocks of chocolate and melted it, one pan with white chocolate, one with dark chocolate. We poured the chocolate into our molds and refrigerated it.

CHOCOLATE!!!! >:D

Reflections:

S-(strength) - I feel like that I designed the chocolate pretty well given the requirements(both from my teacher and my partner). I think I also did well in following the printing instructions for  the Bambu 3d printer. Lastly, I think that I did well in the prototype stage.

O-(opportunities to improve)- I felt like that I could've done better in the mold-making process. The first time I made the mold it didn't work well since I didn't work fast enough and I didn't push hard enough for the walls in order to get the detail in, resulting with the mold being hardened before i got all the details.

U-(Understanding) - While sketching and constructing the chocolate model using Fusion360, I feel like that I understood all the tools that I used extremely well. I also understood and learned how to use the Bambu 3d printer as well as learning to create the mold.

L-(limitations)- In this project, I don't think that there were many limitations that bothered me, however there was one limitation. That is the amount of time for making the plastique mold. making the model for the chocolate was not a problem, however, in order to try and create a near perfect mold was a time challenge especially when you have only one class period to make a single mold.

WISCR - I think the I(Insightful and Critical Thinker) & C(clear communicators) in WISCR stood out to me in this project as for the C, I communicated with my partner in Mandarin 1A pretty well. For the I, I think that my thinking strategies for  designing the chocolate was good since I managed to get all the details on the panda by indenting in some places and not denting in others.