Sunday 24 November 2013

Designing a safe electric Kettle

The brief for this group project was to create a kettle that responded to the ever increasing burns and scalds that are becoming ever to common with the very young and old persons.  Below are extracts from the design brief that we were given for the project. And give a detailed outline of what is expected in the final design and how the designers (us) should address the problem.


The Monash Injury Research Institute is an umbrella organization for a range of
associated research groups that cover transport, workplaces, homes, sport, etc.
Within the group that addresses home and sports safety is the Victorian Injury
Surveillance Unit (VISU) which publishes Hazard, a bi-annual journal which examines
injuries due to hazards in everyday life.


Reference: Hazard no. 57 Unintentional burns and scalds in vulnerable populations:
the very young and the very old, Victoria July 2001 to June 2003. These injuries are
common and although they occur through a range of causes, the problem age
groups are at both ends of the life spectrum.


Electric kettles are only one source of hazard and although they are not a major
agency for burns and scalds, they are still an inherently hazardous product and a
designer would not want to overlook the potential for these hazards if ever they were
to design a portable, electric, boiling water appliance.



What should be the design for a kettle for people who, across the population of the
very elderly can be generalized as having…?


- limited grip and arm strength
- poor co-ordination
- limited fine motor movements
- unsteady limbs and poor
- accuracy in targeting

- poor vision
- slow reactions
- reduced sensory response
- poor hearing
- lapses of attention and memory
- erratic and inconsistent decision
making processes




Below is some pages from the folio for the design. Enjoy!























This was a design by Kirby Masterman, Aileen Ng & Rowan Turnham.
Monash Industrial Design 2013.

Monday 18 November 2013

Plastic Extruder - 3D print

For our studio class we had to make an plastic extruder from off the shelf parts and materials. The aim of the class project was to make a extruder that is cheap to manufacture with simple tools and machines that people can access in one way or another.

With one class making 3D printers and the other coding the software for Rhino. These studios were very interesting. I wish I saw more of the other classes work though.

The idea that a person can walk down their own street. And pick up plastic bottles (something that is sadly prevalent in all suburbia and cities) and shred the thermo-plastic. Any plastic bottle that has a recycle symbol with the numbers 1-7 will do. And then feed it through the extruder producing a filament which is dictated by the die head on the end of the tube. Its just amazing to think that methods like these are now easily available to just about anyone.

I also just want to state that this design is not ours. It was a project by our teacher Robert Eales, he did it for his PHD research project.  And he was just allowing us to make it for our class.






Porcelain heat plates for the extruder!



Spinning the die........for the 2nd time!

Had to mill out a pocket to allow the heat plate to set flat

Assembly of the extruder in workshop



Aluminium Filament Die to the left, Brass Nut to the Right.

Die head is spun Aluminium, 2.5mm filament hole, inset Brass threaded nut.

This is Engineering guys extruder!

They got theirs hooked up to the electronics

In the end it did push through some fragmented Filament


Final product!


We didn't actually get to see the extruder we made in action. But hopefully it does get used in the studio at uni. Big shout out to Taylor Zhou, Caitlin Wood, Aileen Ng and Jon Wee! Good work guys!

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Maya - Objects in Space Project

So its been a very testing semester at university, but I managed to pull through. As I haven't done any posts in a while I thought I would share with you my 3D modelling project. 

The aim of the brief was to create a scene which we had to construct in real life with real objects. In doing this we can study how light reflects and reacts with certain materials. And also study the forms and shapes that make up each object.

Below is the final renders for the project. And then following are some pictures from the photo shoot that I did initially to get an idea for the scene. Enjoy!







After countless hours using Maya, I am going to say its a very good program. But at the same time I feel it has so many settings and adjustments that it just takes forever to get something right. 




Now that you can see the real deal. You can easily tell the difference. There are aspects of the scene that aren't perfect but I am pretty happy with what I produced.