The Prototype as Product: Designing a New Business Model for Future Designers (original) (raw)
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Creativity, 3D Printing and Design Education
abstract The core of this paper outlines and reflects on a project set as a challenge to final year Product Design Students. The project is used as one approach to explore the possibilities of new manufacturing technologies within an undergraduate curriculum. The paper explores how these technologies can be introduced creatively as well as formally. Within this the current purpose of product design is touched upon. Its starting point is observations of how the landscape for manufacture is changing due to scale and cost of new technologies to the point that citizen designers can manufacture at home. The question of 'What is the mandate and role of the modern professional designer?' is explored. Universities are training the next generation and it is important that they address these issues both from an understanding of the technology but also the new creative possibilities through practical projects. The introduction places design in the context of manufacture from a traditional perspective allowing new technologies to be considered as both evolving and divergent to this knowledge. The project, 'designing a three dimensional business card utilising new 3D Printing technologies' allows students to explore the possibilities of these machines with a physical outcome while also considering how business cards can be used to attract attention and therefore promote themselves as creative designers. 1 Introduction This research paper considers the integration of the relatively new technologies of 3D Printing and Additive Manufacturing within a Product Design undergraduate curriculum. More particularly it outlines how the author and colleagues have progressively introduced these technologies both from a knowledge base and through practical project challenges. Initially, and in line with their capabilities, these new technologies were understood from a modelling or prototyping perspective whereby complex 'one-off' objects could be more quickly and cheaper when compared with traditional model making procedures [1]. As the capabilities of the technology improved, however, there followed a realisation that complex forms could be manufactured directly which otherwise would be impossible to produce. As these technology platforms have descended in price to the point, currently, whereby basic machines are available for less than £1,000, there has been a notable shift from 3D printing being available as a specialist service only, to more general and widespread availability. This facilitates manufacture at home and could potentially change the landscape of production and consumption. All of these possibilities impact on the education of future product designers. With manufacturing capability being shared with the consumer, the role of 'professional' designer is being re-evaluated to include facilitator, catalyst and co-designer. Central to this paper is the superimposition of new possibilities on existing knowledge sets and methodologies within undergraduate design education. This superimposition is crucial if the next generation of designers are to understand and contribute effectively to paradigms of consumption and production. Through a focussed design project students are challenged to demonstrate creativity
Role of 3D Printing in Promoting Grassroots Level Innovation
3D Printing and Rapid Manufacturing and Sustainability in Design, 2017
Studies have shown that development at the grassroots takes place more effectively if there is a motivation and desire for the local people to create value for themselves, rather than depending on the assistance and subsidies provided by centralized or external organizations. Innovation at the grassroots can be a key enabler of this creation of value. 3D Technology has emerged as a disruptive technology accessible at the DIY and consumer level in the last few years. This technology has demonstrated the potential to have a major impact in the times to come. Due to the availability of 3D printers at a DIY level, it is now possible to envision innovation hubs at grassroots level, which provide the innovators the chance to explore a multitude of technologies through this single channel of 3D printing. These rural hubs can be supported by a simple set of infrastructure requirements in order to effectively work as largely unmediated 'minimally invasive educational centers'. This proposal of innovation hubs or 'Avishkaar Chaupals' can become a catalyst to introduce leading edge technology and manufacturing paradigms into the grassroots levels.
Dossier Design as a Social Production, 2024
This work is derived from research that establishes the relationship between Additive Manufacturing (AM) and Social Innovation, from Design perspective, and aims to propose guidelines for inserting 3D Printing in socially beneficial projects/businesses, especially in interior communities. It is characterized as applied in nature, with a qualitative approach, exploratory in objectives terms and bibliographical. Its procedures include case studies, these being multiple, selected for generating 3D printed products and causing social impact in a given context, which are presented and analyzed, and research documentary. As preliminary results, the advancement of AM Industry was verified, the increase in 3D printed prototypes, the increase in demands regarding co-design, Design presence in the cases analyzed and the emphasis on disadvantaged contexts.
Barriers and Opportunities for 3D Printing in Danish Schools: A Qualitative Study
EDULEARN proceedings, 2017
In September 2016, a workshop on design and materials was held in São Paulo. It was aimed at design undergraduate students and dealt with the experiments with colours and textures for the creation of ceramic products. This workshop was part of the event Materials and Creation in Design and Architecture: sharing experiences for the creative economy, which was organized through partnership between LabDesign from FAU USP and Materiali e Design, from Politecnico di Milano. This activity belonged to the research project on Materials and innovation for application in the creative industries in the fields of design and architecture: the Politecnico di Milano experience brought to the Brazilian context. The experience of the Italian institution with workshops that involve companies and academia in the development of innovative proposals in design was used as a reference to the planned activities at FAU USP. Grupo Fragnani, a Brazilian ceramic coverings industry was the partner in this entrepreneurship. Their product development team supplied information on their materials and characteristics of the ceramic tile manufacturing processes. The workshop outcomes resulted in the production of ceramic prototypes according to some fabrication parameters given by the company, in relation to the size of the products and the equipment die. Some experiments with different materials were made to provide varied visual and tactile features for the ceramic tiles favoring the students´ direct contact with both the clay and its plastic properties and the transformation of the material caused by the firing phase. During the workshop, students developed projects of ceramic tiles with reliefs and textures for application on facades and walls in order to accentuate and value their aesthetic qualities by the incidence of light on the vertical surface. Eighty-five prototypes of tiles of 100 x 100 mm with several colours, textures and reliefs were created. Two strategies were used for the creation of the ceramic pieces: digital and manual, both of which were applied for the development of the design and the moulds manufacturing. The students could create relief patterns making use of Photoshop and Rhinoceros softwares, as well as the setup of the CNC milling equipment. They also created textures and reliefs by pushing and pressing objects against a soft clay surface. Then they developed moulds of plaster of paris from the negative of the surfaces. The visual evaluation of the prototypes showed a huge roll of potentialities for the development of new products by the ceramic industry.
Suitability study of desktop 3d printing for concept design projects in engineering education
INTED2016 Proceedings
Rapid Prototyping technologies have demonstrated the capacity to help and improve the product concept design and development process. However, the cost of these technologies has been excessive to be integrated into design engineering educational programmes. This limitation has been reduced due to the existence of a new low cost 3D printer market, opening the possibility to integrate the prototyping culture into educational laboratories, thus the materialization and physical evaluation of design ideas However, in the field of product design not only functional but aesthetic aspects has to be taken into account. In this sense low cost technologies not yet offer professional quality thus the evaluation of design concepts could be affected. Therefore the main objective of this study presented is to evaluate the suitability of desktop 3D printing technologies for design concept evaluation, as well as the two most common postprocessing techniques through a group of 22 students of the Degree of Product Design Engineering The results show a positive assessment of the technology but the need for a postprocessing of the parts is recognized. This factor highlights the necessity to improve this aspect in low cost 3D printer systems.
Some Experiences from Using 3D-printing in the Modelling of a New Product
2016
In the development of new tangible (hardware) products, creative modelling can be used in the chain from the ideation (idea generation) to the testing of user and customer opinions of new product concepts. Practically seen, creative modelling means to iteratively make and test models – and prototypes - so that the result in the end can be new sustainable innovations that meet a large number of product values. For the development of new complicated and/or complex products, 3D-printing or Additive Manufacturing offer especially useful modelling alternatives. To test modelling with 3D-printing, this paper describes the development of a welfare product for disabled children. The test contained ideation in different loops until a ready product fulfilling different product values was reached. Some conclusions are that, in this case, the creativity was boosted by the 3D-realization possibilities as there were few limitations in how the product could be designed to meet different demands. T...
3D-printing as a Creative Modelling and Prototyping Tool
2018
3D-printing offers possibilities to quickly and cheaply play with different body shapes, material texture, and the functions of objects as well as to test, compare and judge which of the different iterations to settle on or to combine as a final solution. In the development of new tangible (hardware) products, creative modelling can also be used to obtain retailer, user and customer opinions of new product concepts. To experience using 3D-printing as a modelling tool, we made a strict copy of simple plate product from which we could "play" with different creative solutions. We found that realizing extended product functionality that gradually emerged in the creative process had been (extremely) expensive and long-lasting using classical modelling and prototyping methods because complicated tools had had to be manufactured and changed before each test iteration. Using 3D-printing, it was easy to make changes, and new ideas could easily be tested, which increased not only the functionality but also other product values.
Design interaction with industry through rapid prototyping
J. Soc. Portuguese …, 2001
The answer to the new market demands requires industry capacity to design new products with just-in-time response. Considering this challenge, the recent Rapid Prototyping and Rapid Tooling technologies must be included in the development and manufacture of new products. Using a LOM (laminated object manufacturing) rapid prototyping machine, paper models can be made very quickly, allowing a wide industrial sector the possibility to quickly develop new non-functional prototypes, or through the conversion techniques to obtain metallic prototypes, pre-series of quality and tools in a short period of time. It is the purpose of this paper to describe an initiative that involved an Institute of Mechanical Engineering and Industrial Management (INEGI), a College of Technology and Management (ESTG) and two companies. ESTG Product Design students have undertaken professional training in which they designed and developed new products, lamps and shoe soles, supported by the LOM and foundry processes. RESUMO A resposta às novas exigências do mercado exige que a indústria apresente uma boa capacidade de adaptação ao design de novos produtos e resposta rápida (just in time). Perante este desafio, os fabricantes necessitam, cada vez mais, de integrar na fase de desenvolvimento e de produção de novos produtos, as novas tecnologias de prototipagem rápida e de fabrico rápido de ferramentas.
3D Printing as Learning Activity in Higher Education A case study in a robotics’ prototyping course
2017
I would first like to thank all my professors and especially my two thesis supervisors, professor Monika Baerøe Nerland and Crina Damsa, associate professor of the University of Oslo. They were both very helpful and supporting and they would always help me, putting their valuable time into feedback for the thesis or appointments for discussion whenever I needed to. Furthermore, they both provided me with valuable directions and reading material whenever, during all this time. I would also like to thank the students and the professor who were involved in the course I conduct my research in, for their time, their always welcoming attitude and the opportunity they gave me to collaborate. Without their participation and input, this research could not have been successfully conducted. I would also like to acknowledge my friends Bernhard, Christina and Marta for they have been my second family, supporting me when I was stressed and also giving me their valuable feedback. Last but not least, I must express my very profound gratitude to my mother, my sister, my grandfather, little Marina and Manolis for providing me with unfailing support and continuous encouragement throughout my years of study and through the process of researching and writing this thesis. This accomplishment would not have been possible without them. Thank you.