Phone Case: Protect my iPhone from falls and damage. 

Design: My design inspiration (on the back of the phone case come from the sci-fi series "Star Wars". This ship in particular is one of my favorites, being the Venator Class Star Destroyer of the Galactic Republic. This is due to a multitude of reasons, including ship versatility, ship usage, complexity of ship function, and fleet construction, however it mostly relates to me thinking the ship looks awesome. 

What is PLA?

• PLA (polylactic acid) is commonly used for filament 3D printing and injection molding. It should be noted that PLA has a relatively low melting point (at 60 degrees Celsius is softens, and melts at approximately 170-180 degrees Celsius), hence its usage in 3D printing. 

How is PLA Made? 

• PLA is a polyester made from the fermentation of plant based starch pulp. These materials are left to ferment until they turn into lactic acid, then turned into polylactic acid (the result, PLA). 

How Sustainable is PLA?

• PLA, unlike petroleum based plastics, is a renewable resource and its production is completely sustainable, as it is made of biomass and is far more biodegradable that its petroleum based plastic. 

• The sourcing of PLA allows for sustainable production and consumption of PLA products (compared to petroleum based products) for the foreseeable future. This is due to the nature of production, as petroleum based production require fossil fuels, while PLA merely requires plant starches. 

What constraints are there for the Phone Case production? 

• My phone case needs to have precise and proper dimensions to properly grip and protect my phone case. Improper measurements may cause errors in dimensioning and 3D design, resulting in improper sizing and a deficient product being produced. Having this problem may require reprints to fix, wasting material. 

  • To fix this issue, measuring multiple times is very important, to avoid numerous measurement errors and reprints. 

• Implementation of a physical design constraint (the phone) into a digital CAD environment is a challenging process. Precise measurements and checking is required to make sure measurement mistakes were not made and that a reprint will not be required. 

Why make a phone case? 

• The purpose of this project is to further hone and refine our CAD skills, further develop our technical drawing skills, and deepen our understanding of implementing physical design constraints into a digital setting, as well as creating a nice and customized phone case for us to use. 

• My phone case will protect my phone from sudden and possibly damaging impacts, as well as from scratches and other everyday occurrences that have potential to damage my phone. 

OnShape is a powerful online program that allows users to construct detailed and complex CAD designs. During this process, I used my technical drawing measurements to construct a phone case that properly fits my phone and using my thumbnail sketches created the proper designs on the back and sides of my phone. 

3D printed phone case out of PLA plastic. This process took around 2-3 hours to complete. This specific printer that we printed on used red PLA filament to print. I printed with a friend of mine on the same printing bed. This was done to save time. 

After printing my phone case out, I slipped it onto my phone for testing. While it was a little difficult to slip on (as PLA is much more rigid than other printing filaments, such as TPU), it fit very nicely. There was a small amount of wiggle room, but it was very hard to tell. All the buttons able to be accessed by the user, as well as the charging port and the speaker. I considered this a successful print!