Moulding For The Masses
Useful information
- Team members
- Jacob Storey
- Country
- Ireland
- Keywords
- Injection moulding open source distributed design circular design polymer production
Short Description
An open source, hand built injection moulding process to allow batch production of polymer parts
Detailed Description
HOW : By hand building an injection moulder from on off shelf parts found in hardware stores and injecting into 3D printed moulds.
WHY - To provide small buisnesses or individuals batch produce polymer parts who otherwise could not afford to. To be used on design courses for hands on injection moulding experience. To allow polymer parts to be quickly reproduced in crisis zones.
This process is better than the existing alternatives due to its ease of construction, its transportability, its manufacturing cost and its production cost when compared to the current potentially financially prohibitive industry standard.
Project Details
- Does your design take social and cultural challenges and human wellbeing into consideration?
Many countries have restricted shipping regulations or are dangerous for courier services. However these locations are often where specialized parts such as humanitarian or medical aid are needed most.
'Moulding For The Masses' could act as a system where parts for items (such as tourniquets, splints) etc could be quickly produced in the locations they are needed, potentially saving lives.
- Does your design support sustainable production, embodying circular or regenerative design practices?
The 'Moulding For The Masses' injection moulder uses 3D printed moulds, which can be broken down, "pelleted" and repurposed when they come to the end of their useful lifespan.
- Does your design use principles of distribution and open source?
The full required material list and detailed instructions of how to build and use the 'Moulding For The Masses' injection moulder are available on the popular open source maker website 'instructables.com'.
Meaning this project can be recreated and iterated upon by anyone, anywhere with access to the internet.
- Does your design promote awareness of responsible design and consumption?
Some top design universities and the majority of college design courses do not have programmes where students can learn hands on how to injection mould despite it being the most commonly used polymer part production process in industry.
'Moulding For The Masses' could provide a cheap way for educational design institutions to provide this hands on learning.
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