Need ideas

[eric]

Ironically enough, I've been given a task to come up with ergonomic friendly things that can be made or improved by a 3D printer. Any ideas? Prefer something that appeals to a college bound high school student.

[The Dharma Bum]

Some type of accessory for personal electronics? Like an awesome case for an iPhone or something? You might need something a little more original than that.

[The Dharma Bum]

This one is printed:

http://www.shapeways.com/model/207226/4 ... rizon.html

[The Comrade]

http://mariabbw.tumblr.com/post/3297727 ... ad-docking

what about something like this?

[eric]

Those are good ideas.

Focus is on ergonomics.

So I like your suggestion comrade, but idk if that in particular will work.

Keep in mind it has to be built by a 3-d printer, so I think the max size is like 1ftx1ftx1ft or something like that

[Spider]

Do you have to be able to model it? Any Solidworks experience, for example?

[eric]

We're modeling them with auto cad, but we don't have to. We have to provide a sketch/drawing and explanations and stuff like that.

The main concern is actually coming up with ideas.

[Spider]

Ah. Well the things to bear in mind with a 3D printer is wall thickness and orientation. Remember that it lays down material in thin beads on only one plane, and that you can't have a lot of enclosed areas that will need to be filled with support material. Its hard to actually improved on something that is usually injection molded or extruded with a 3D printer...

Perhaps you could do a flow study and improve the blades of a fan of some sort, since you can be pretty wild with the geometry. Also, anything that is cast with the wax mold process can probably benefit from rapid prototyping trials. Think titanium parts on an aircraft or something...

[eric]

Thanks for your help. It's not very technical in regards to the 3-D printer.

Here's the problem:

Identify two items that you can “print” with a 3-D printer that will
demonstrate key ergonomics principles. You will need to
take these props with you to show that ergonomics can make a
good product better and more useful.

Each of the items you “print” may have a “before” and “after” to show the
difference in traditional design and good ergonomics design

The key factor here though is ergonomics. Not necessarily the technical capabilities of the 3D printer, though we've established general guidelines I suppose in some sense. Like the size obviously can't be as big as a truck.

[The Dharma Bum]

How about a coffee cup with an ergonomic design?