Back to the Futurecraft

Mechanical engineering perspective of the green movement. Lots of numbers. Interesting links too

2.813 Environmentally Benign Manufacturing

thought #1 - can you de-technologize things in the process of product design? This refers to the tools and methods by which designers and engineers execute the process. My conclusion is that it is a case-by-case basis. There is need for lo- and hi- tech solutions, from post-it notes to Solidworks.

thought #2 - this deals with potential final products. Transfer Scenarios deals with the concept of using both inquiry and innovation (or user needs and technology push) to create novel products. Scholar google search “Transfer Scenarios:Grounding Innovation with Marginal Practices” to find out more.

ok, so scratch the project on the mechanical turk. still a neat idea.

something that I just remembered was how I get frustrated at bathroom products, especially the ones around MIT often.

it’s great if it is automated, but i have two problems often:
-it’s not intuitive
-it doesn’t work

somehow when I was in Japan for two weeks this summer, the bathroom products, automated or not, always work. when you hide away all the function to a product and it doesn’t work, that’s not good.

for something as simple as pumping soap, dispensing paper towels, or turning on water, wouldn’t you rather have something that is simple, mechanical, but reliable?

I’m thinking about the Amazon Mechanical Turk.

It goes at human pace since humans are the ones doing the work, yet it is sped up by working n number of people at the same time. I can’t imagine the software architecture/infrastructure needed to facillitate this is too hard. They are trying to find Steve Fossett using this, having people look at satellite images.

Perhaps I will look into this as an example of de-technologizing.

This week’s assignment was definitely a tough one. Transmaterial was full of inspiration, but probably not of anything I could do in such limited time. After getting some advice from Amanda, I looked to food. Then, suddenly, while getting up on Saturday morning, I had the inspiration of using cereal foods for this project. Breakfast is usually the first meal. Then there’s the notion of breakfast in bed.

The first cereal that came to mind was one of my favorites, Frosted Mini Wheats. Out of all cereals, this one probably ranks up there in size of individual pieces:

Source: mine

A friend then suggested investigating marshmallows too

Source: mine

I will link you to my flickr and YouTube pages to see the many videos and pages of my explorations with gluing together FMW and melting marshmallows.

(Yes, now I realize that playing around with melted marshmallows is like playing around with the goo in Rice Krispy Treats)

Frosted Mini-Wheats
I call this “Breakfast Table”. I originally thought it would be cool to have a to-scale breakfast-in-table bed made out of mini-wheats. Then when I got to gluing the pieces together, I realized how it wasn’t feasible to do so given the nature of FMW and also that I didn’t have the patience. Rubber cement and Elmer’s Glue-All weren’t effective enough and took too long. I resorted to using a hot glue gun.

Because of the nature of the structure of each mini-wheat, there are variations in dimensions across the bits. Therefore, the surface area for adhesion is quite inconsistent. You could wet the grain so that it could conform, but then you lose strength of the mini-wheat.

With regards to the topic for the week, there is the idea that food can be represented as art or perhaps even functional objects. Irony is found in an object that is both the ends and means to a goal (eating in this case). I also though about using cereal (like Rice Krispies) as filling for pillows. I’m not sure how uncomfortable that would be. Maybe someone should try.

FMWs are strong but brittle.

Observations on marshmallows
Lack of water will start to brown or burn ‘mallow.
Five minutes after heating, will harden and become brittle.
Water will make it more gooey.
Freezing doesnt do much.
After heating, time constant is small, with hardening happening quickly.
Trying to use it as an adhesive doesnt work, but google “marshmallow adhesive” and see that something similar to ‘mallows are used for an edible adhesive for cereal bars

Future work for the curious
-Try different methods of melting marshmallows, i.e. old-school camp fire, steam, baking.
-Add corn starch or flour to reduce stickiness.
-Make your own marshmallow and vary the ingredients

Informational links
How cereal is made
How marshmallows are made
Make your own marshmallows Read the rest of this entry »

Well, in a rush, here is my first instructables! Could have done more field and user testing. Things learned.

It’s neat going through the experience of having to document the process completely so that someone else can follow my steps. In reading other people’s instructables, sometimes I was frustrated because things weren’t clear. I tried to fix that with my own, but I know in the frantic rush of getting this up in time for the assignment, I’ve probably left things I thought were obvious.

With the paper wallet, a friend pointed out the affordance that comes with the paper wallet. One wants to write on it! Since it is so cheap and quick to make, why not use it as a scratch pad? Phone number, bus schedules, to do lists, expenses. One commenter on the paper wallet instructables that I based mine off of said you could put the layout of the cuts in Illustrator or Publisher. Then, you can throw in whatever information you want neatly printed out.

Wallet preference is so key. Some friends said that as cool as it is to have a paper wallet, they like the feel of leather. Some wanted to see all the cards at once. Others like the compactness. I like my solution of a piece of tape with a tabbed portion to open and close the outside pockets. Someone else found it bothersome. You cant please everyone when you design a product.

All this was made possible because of the wealth of knowledge and experiences of people making things (collective invention or innovation?). Hopefully someone can take what I did and be inspired into going into a direction of his or her own.

The instructables interface is so cool!  Once I decided to stop designing and stick with a version of the wallet, I snapped pictures, uploaded, instructed, and bam, a beautiful looking DIY page!  So user friendly.

I will venture into the world of paper wallet making for assignment #2, with testing the product “in the wild”, that is, my everyday life.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Paper-Wallet/

How can people and computers be connected so that-collectively-they act more intelligently than any individuals, groups, or computers have ever done before?

http://cci.mit.edu/research/index.html

Reminds me of the BLS article from last week.

p.7 “…process can be thought of as a ‘just-in time’ educational model, teaching on demand, rather than the more traditional ‘just-in-case’ model that covers a curriculum fixed in advance in the hopes that it will include something that will later be useful.”

Having just gone through the MIT undergrad education system, I can empathize with this statement. Most if not all of useful experiences I had were from doing, many times things unexpected, rather than from chalk talk or going off a checklist of concepts to learn. I barely remember how to apply forumlas and equations, but the act of machining a part or the struggles of going through the process of design in a project-based class are lasting experiences.

A slight tangent, but this idea reminds me of (Prof) Woodie Flower’s talk on education for the 21st century.

http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/373/

Summary of what I said in class:

-mostly injection molded

-this means of manufacturing allows for complex parts made of plastic

-laser tag is inherently simple, in terms of electronics

-but the touch and feel of shooting a gun provides the experience desired; this comes from the mfg. process

-hand assembly still required (hot glue, solder, electrical tapxe)