Mass Production Has Started

Hello! Sustainabiliteam has been off its blog for the last couple of weeks, but we are back with some major updates. As a general two-week progress statement, we have completed the molds for all aspects of our yo-yo and are now proceeding to go into mass production and process control.

Completing Molds

• Inner Casing - After noticing that our inner casing and outer casing did not fit we chose to focus on modifying both aspects. For the inner casing, we redid the cavity in order to minimize the amount of flash. We also decreased the outer diameter by a few thou in order to ensure a good press fit with the outer casing. Our final mold resulted in a significantly less flash. We were successful in making sure the flash was heavily minimized.

• Outer Casing - We redid both the cavity and core for the outer casing in order to ensure a flat inner surface (we noticed an abnormality in the previous one). We had goals of ensuring that the dimensions of the outer casing would be appropriate for a good press fit. We were successful in finally making a set of inner and outer casings that fill well with one another.

• Thermoforming Dies (for Earth) - Both dies were 3d printed and the molds were verified with the laser cut water plates. We noticed that we need to add more vacuum holes in order to ensure the corners of the land were well defined enough for the plate to press into it. We also decided to make rough "mountains" on our land for aesthetic effects. We came up with our design for the color as well.

• Laser Cut Water Plate - The water plates were laser cut at the IDL in Building NW52. They fit properly with the thermoforming dies. We plan to mass produce these soon.

• Wind Turbine - The wind turbine was already verified and ready for mass production.

Mass Production

• Wind Turbine - We finished mass-producing the wind turbines. We focused on recording the diameter of the bearing insertion in order to check control and ensure we were making a correct fit. We chose the color white.

• Outer Casing - We made over 180 different outer casings with a focus on ensuring control of the outer diameter and the inner diameter. That way we could determine whether or not the press-fit with the inner casing would be effective. We chose the color white.

We were able to finally make one side of our yo-yo (although with the wrong colors!)