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Work Experience: by Bradley Hawkins
3d Model design of mobile phone
When I first arrived at Casting Technology International, I was introduced to a man called Graham, who learnt me a lot about designing. When we got into the Design Centre, he showed me some of the models that he had to design for the company and also showed me what program to use and how to use it.(ProEngineer)
When he had shown me the basics, he gave me a booklet to read through which had some more skills in it and it showed me how to build a mobile phone on ProEngineer. At first I found the task quite hard but when I was getting in to it, it was getting easier.
When I finished the mobile phone, I moved on to something else and never got the chance to colour it in and make it look realistic.
Modelling of a pair of headphones
After I finished the mobile phone I got another booklet, which had more advanced skills in it, and showed me how to build a pair of headphones. This one was a lot trickier and I had to ask Graham for some help on this one. But once he had given me some advice I was able to complete the design of the headphones.
3d Model of truck
When I had finished the headphones, I started making my own design, which turned out to be a truck. I also designed this on ProEngineer, which I could now use pretty well. I started this model with just the basic shape of the truck and just added more features and parts to make it more truck like. I found that trying to get the wheels on the truck in the right places was the toughest part of the task because I couldn’t get them lined up right.
When I finished the truck and coloured it, I had some help from a man called James who helped me set my truck up for the 3D System Thermojet. When the Thermojet had made my model, I had to clean it up because it was made out of wax and the finish on some of the surfaces wasn’t that good.
| 3D Truck |
Finished Wax Truck |
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Work shadowing in Stereo Lithography
When I was working with Graham, he had to go down into the Pattern Shop and do CMM. This is, when a part has been made out of wax, wood, polystyrene or any of the other materials that they used, Graham had to put them on to a machine and make sure that they are the right size that need to be casted. So he did this by touching a laser around the part and it would show you on the computer how close you were to the actual design.
When I was working with Paul Anwar, he showed me how they casted the parts in the foundry and how they set them up ready to be casted.
Making a build of the truck for laser manufacture
| This is a picture of the 3D System Thermojet, which I made a model of my truck on. It makes the models out of wax so that the wax can be burnt out when the part comes to be casted. (Mine wasn’t casted) my model took around three hours to me made on the Thermojet as it makes the models layer by layer. The picture on the top right hand corner shows the plate that the models are made on. It will start by doing a layer on the plate then the plate will drop down doing another layer on the top of that. This process keeps happening until the model is at the right height. |
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Work experience in Shelling Room
When I worked in the Shelling Room, I was working with two men called Paul and Lee, which I got on with really well. In the Shelling Room, what you have to do is get the parts that have been made in the Pattern Shop (out of wax, wood, polystyrene or any of other materials) ready to be casted.
E.G. The parts cannot be casted as soon as they come from the Pattern Shop. They have to be coated in Ceramic Slurry, which is a none reactive mixture so that when a part is casted there will not be any explosion caused by reacting things. When coated in the Ceramic Slurry, the part has to be coated in special sand and when it dries, its like pot. Then they are left to dry. But most parts need at least three coats, so you have to repeat that process.
They then have to be put in an oven and heated around 1600 degrees pharenheight. This hardens up the Slurry.
Then they have to cover up most of the air holes with Tin Foil accept the large hole on the top where the metal will be poured down into the part. The Tin Foil is also none reactive. Then the part is now ready to be set up for the cast. |
