Formlabs
Impact
Over the course of my 8 weeks with Formlabs, I completed numerous projects advancing progress and removing roadblocks on our road to prototype 1. Because of the nature of R&D work, details are bounded by concerns about intellectual property, but my work included: working with suppliers to cut lead times and negotiate discounts, designing and implementing testing mechanisms for mission-critical parts, and designing peripheral systems to support prototype 1.
Sheet metal design
Design Choices and Challenges
The above photos show three projects that I completed during my tenure. The first and most complicated was a sheet metal box to hold a HEPA grade air filter. The main challenge was that the filter box needed to be air tight but also serviceable. I needed to design a mating interface that could be opened to replace the filter, then reliably resealed. This was the driving force in the abundance of bolts around the mating face and the rivets sealing the non serviceable interfaces. Mating surfaces were sealed with gaskets and gaps were filled with RTV sealant.
The second project shown is a test bench for a series of air heaters of varying sizes. While I would have preferred to print the stands, the extreme heat required that sheet metal be used. Other design constraints included designing something I could manufacture myself with basic sheet metal techniques. This project was particularly rewarding because I took it from conception through design, DFM, manufacturing, assembly, and implementation.