In a previous blog post, I mentioned that we had 2 summer interns working with Autodesk long-time Senior Designer, Arthur Harsuvanakit.
Jack Reinke |
Jack Reinke is majoring in Mechanical Engineering at the University of Florida. He will graduate in May 2020. He was the leader of a 3-person team that created the first carbon fiber composite fly fishing reel and has a patent application in progress. Jack has been using Autodesk Inventor since 8th grade. His high school had a large engineering lab that allowed him to use CNC mills, lathes, laser cutters, and 3D printers. Jack started his internship fully versed in Fusion 360 as he had been using it for almost a year. |
Brice Dudley |
Brice Dudley is majoring in Mechanical Engineering at Stanford. He will graduate in May 2018. He was a key member of a 4-person team that designed, made, and used a Two Towers Project — a tower system to transport multiple buckets of Ping-Pong balls within specific constraints, and a pinball machine with working mechanical parts built out of foam cord, hot glue, tape, dowels, string, and marbles. And similar to our previous interns' Handtriloquist glove, he designed, built, and helped code an exoskeleton robotic arm to help research rehabilitation methods for stroke patients. He also helped engineer a haptic bicep curl machine. |
Last week, the interns gave their end of internship presentations. Here is Jack and Brice's story. It's a little ditty about Jack and Brice, two American kids doing the best that they can.
The goals for their project were:
- Apply Fusion 360 and generative design to real world problems.
- Provide feedback on Fusion 360 and generative design to those development teams on the ease of learning how to use the software, documenting any problems encountered, and suggestions for how to make the software better.
Their project ventured into the medical field:
Jack and Brice wanted to create casts for two individuals, Seth and Nick, who would wear these casts in place of traditional fiberglass ones. This was a great project to test generative design software because it forced real world constraints on the designs like manufacturability, comfort, and aesthetics.
Both Seth and Nick had broken bones in separate bike accidents.
- Seth wanted a cast that would make having a broken bone much more tolerable, unlike the bulky cast he had been wearing.
- Nick, who was at a later stage in his recovery, wanted them to create something more along the lines of a modified splint.
Both disliked how clunky their current casts were and wanted something slimmer.
First, they scanned the patients' arms:
After importing the scan data, they sculpted casts using Fusion 360.
They used their Fusion 360 designs as the seeds for 3 approaches:
After evaluating all 3 approaches, they decided to overlap the results to maximize the casts' strength. This resulted in a unique design that was not only aesthetically pleasing but accomplished what their patients had requested. They then implemented binding mechanisms that allowed each cast to interlock so it could be assembled on the wearer's limb without causing any damage to the current break.
The end result is 2 happy patients. Both like the slimness of their casts, and Seth really likes that he can take a normal shower and not have to worry about the cast getting wet.
Way to go, Arthur, Jack, and Brice. Jack and Brice had some great suggestions for improving the Fusion 360 workflow even more. It's always great to get feedback from millennials with a fresh perspective.
A casting call is alive in the lab.
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