Making blog
Our designer, Steve, is working on modeling the house for illustrations that will tell the story of Lily's inspiration and plans for her Tallhouse. We are also working on fabrication of the base that will support the model.
It's all starting to come together!
The design team decided the best way to feature the Tallhouse was to get a model kit home and design around it so that it would have a clean look and feel. Lily liked the house being blue so Steve custom painted the home.
Steve has been designing and printing support pieces for the Talllhouse infrastructure.
3D printing is a great way to quickly produce parts, although sometimes you don't quite realize the time it takes! These support pillars have been printing for 21 hours and as you can see by the photo there are going to be 1057 layers of material used!
After meeting with Lily, the design team set to work modeling parts for the mechanicals of the scale model of Lily's house. A housing has to be built to hold the actuator that will lift and lower The Tallhouse model. We're making progress!
PTI's design team selected Lily's idea and scheduled a Zoom call to learn more about Lily and what motivated her to design "The Tallhouse". We discussed overall design, some details to incorporate in the scale model, and also other ways "The Tallhouse" could be used in the future. Designs come to life with collaboration!
It was such a pleasure working with Emma to bring her idea to life. The team at STARBASE One really enjoyed this opportunity. Great idea Emma!
It was a great event this week to reveal the Auto Tree Planter at the Meet the Makers event! Our team was so excited to work on this invention and see it come to life. Hunter's idea was inspiring and it was so fun working with him. Thank you!
The Picker Upper Monster Autobot or P.U.M.A. was revealed last night at the Little Inventors Celebration in Macomb County!
Our team was honored to work with our inventor Charlotte to bring her invention to life. She has been a great partner and collaborator and we look forward to seeing what she does in the future! A big shout out to her incredible teacher Ms. Bloomhuff for inspiring her students and giving them the opportunity to explore their ideas!
We are in the final days of the Trash Monitor project, our team has been putting the finishing touches on The Trash Monitor, testing sensors, the conveyor system, and adding the touch screen which will display a recycling presentation.
Several Fori teams, including mechanical engineering, controls engineering, marketing, human resources, and the manufacturing shop came together to work on this project. Everyone involved truly enjoyed the opportunity to exercise their creative muscles and bring Sa-niya's amazing invention to life.
In the images, you can see the final CAD design for The Trash Monitor along with one of our engineers wiring a board for the receptacle sensors. One of the reasons we liked this design was its practicality and how we can see it used today in many applications from a school hallway to an office complex or a bustling shopping mall.
Emma really has our creative juices flowing. Our makers are hard at work, preparing for the big reveal. Here are some samples of their progress.
After completing our recycling research we moved on to sourcing the parts we would need for "The Trash Monitor" and creating the design. We had to find a trash receptacle we could modify and sensors to detect various items and materials being thrown away. Many of the other parts such as the project logo, recycling logo, and conveyor could be 3D printed in our shop, here in Shelby Twp., Michigan. Jordan Zak, one of our mechanical engineers who specializes in 3D printing, created a design concept using CAD software and designed the conveyor model as well.
The idea for the trash monitor is someone drops what they think is a piece of trash in the bin, and the sensors in the bin detect if the item is trash or if it is a recyclable material. If the item can be recycled or reused it moves onto the conveyor and back to the user. If the item is truly trash it stays in the bin. If an item is recyclable "The Trash Monitor" alerts the user with a buzzing noise and the recycling symbol will light up green.
Another final aspect of the trash monitor is the information panel on the front of the design. A screen is attached to "The Trash Monitor," this informational screen helps the user learn more about waste, recycling, and how we can all make small changes with our trashy habits for a better community and better world.
To start this project we dove into the world of recycling. As an automation company, we had an idea of how we would bring The Trash Monitor to life but we needed to learn more about recycling and the materials the project would filter.
Many products and items that we throw away can easily have a second, third, or forth life and we are excited to conceptualize this design which helps people identify items that are not actually trash.
Designer Steve Elliott is putting finishing touches on the exhibit display boards
Stay tuned for the project reveal on May 31st!
We're getting closer to the finish and it's all about creating details to bring the Picker Upper Monster to life!
Printing continues and details are coming to life.Steve is printing the rims that will be attached to the wheels of the monster and taking the project details even further by designing and printing trash pieces!
Designer Doug has been working hard to bring the Auto Tree Planter to life in 3D design software.
Sanding is complete and the primary coat of paint is being applied! Eye details and body details are also getting second and third coats, we're getting closer to a finished model!
The body of the Picker Upper Monster is done printing and now it needs to be sanded and prepped for painting. Any imperfections can be worked out here before a primary coat of paint is applied.
As parts continue to be printed the paint process is beginning. Painting takes a lot of time as several coats need to be applied and there is a lot of attention to detail!
Part printing continues with the main body of the monster and graphic ideas are coming to life. Stay tuned for an enhanced name and "acronym" for the Picker Upper Monster !