Mass Manufacturing: "Allen" (IDEA 213)

The final project for a class in mass manufacturing. I took a small robot, "Allen," from a hand sketch to a CAD model, then to molds for casting his parts in volume. The project required 5 injection molded parts, a hinge, and a snap-fit per unit.

Process

I split the robot into parts and designed 3D printed molds for each, using FDM and SLA printing. I cast the parts, then trimmed, drilled, sanded, and assembled them into a lineup of robots.

Where it failed

Some PETG molds failed and several early casts came out badly as we did not have a defined operating procedure for the new injection molder. Those failures drove the mold revisions.

Measuring the run

I measured part dimensions across the production run (shaft diameters, the chest, the boots) and plotted them to see how consistent the parts were and to spot outliers.