Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr Donnelly, I'm one of the Design Technologist teachers here at Oak Academy.

If you've been following along with the lessons in this unit, you'll know that this is less than five and between lesson one and four we've been designing something for a para-triathlete.

I've been working on developing a cup holder, so that the para-triathletes can be on the move with a cup of tea or coffee.

This lesson, I'm going to focus on choosing the correct material to make my products from and hopefully, I'll introduce you to some new materials that you might not have heard of.

So in this lesson, there were three things that we're going to do.

Firstly, we're going to produce a developed idea.

Once we got to the point of developing an idea, the next thing that we're going to do is test some materials and investigate the property of the materials that we test.

The last thing is that we're going to make a decision about which materials we could use for the products that we've designed.

It's really important when you've got a design in mind that you start to think about which materials will be the best.

Some materials I've got certain properties which will suit the function of the product that you designed.

Others really will not be suitable.

Hopefully, the lesson will help clear up some of those issues and you'll start to think about the material that you'll use to make a product as you go through the development journey.

As always you'll need two things for my lesson, the first one will be some paper, ideally this will be plain and then you'll need a pen or pencil as well.

If you've not got those things, pause the video go and get them and then come back and we'll crack on.

So as always there are some key words that I will use during this lesson.

If we understand them now they will make understanding the lesson far more easy.

So, the first one is a smart material.

You may have heard the word smart that associated with your smartphone, that's not this.

A smart material is a material that will actually change and react to its environment.

I'll give you some examples during the lesson.

The next term is composite material.

Each material has got a property and if we get two different materials mix them together so that we end up with one material that's got a superior property than each individual one that would be a composite material and I'll show you some during the lesson.

The last one is a laminated material.

You will have seen things at school that are laminated.

If you have a poster that's made from paper but it's been laminated in a plastic pouch then that layering up between plastic, paper and plastic.

Make sure that the poster can remain looking good, easy to wipe down and to stick to the wall.

So it's got a better property because it'd been laminated.

So, materials that are laminated together they're in layers, composite materials can be mixed together and smart materials will change depending on that environment.

All really exciting and we're going to talk about these and how you could use them to develop a product.

I'll set the scene for the lesson so that you know where I'm up to.

If you've done less than four you'll know that we used a worksheet that was called a scamper worksheets and my example is below.

The picture right in the middle, there's a five boxes, if you look at the middle one, that was my starting point and then I use this acronym scamper which was to substitute combine, adapt and modify and put to another use, eliminate and reverse.

If you like the look of that and you've not done the lesson, do lesson four now and then pick up with this once you finished.

So this scamper worksheet forced me to develop my idea to come up with something that was better.

The key developments, I've added a roller ball to the bottom of my cup and I've removed quite a lot of material, so that is light in weight.

I've developed a specification and this started right back at lesson one.

And to go through some of my specification points now, I'll just read out the bits that were in bold but I'd encourage you to read every part.

Then you'll understand what it is that I'm going to do next.

So I'm going to design to make a cup holder to go on the residual limb of a para-triathletes and these are the points.

It's got to be able to fit onto the residual limb of the client and I've got the dimensions that I've worked out below.

It's got to hold a coffee cup and I've got the specific sizes and it's got to be adjustable in size.

It's got to be lightweight and not cumbersome.

So the word cumbersome means it's not going to be bulky or get in anybody's way and we don't want it to have any sharp edges.

So that's where I'm up to with the specification for the design of the products I'm working on.

I've got now one statement and I'd like you to commit to whether you think it's true or false.

So once a designer has finalised their idea they will always know which material to use.

What do you think? Pick one, commit to your choice and I'll show you now.

It's false.

So quite often the designer will test materials to check their suitability.

All right to have a think now and what material could be used for your product.

So you should be at the point now where you've designed your item.

And what I've got to do is think now which materials could be used for the thing that I'm designing.

So I'm designing a cup holder to go on the residual limb of a Para-triathlete and there are so many materials, which ones will be suitable? So pause the video and have a think.

Now that you've had time to have a think.

I know that mine needs to be lightweight, not cumbersome, have no sharp edges and to be adjustable in size.

It's quite difficult to start to think which material would be suitable without actually gathering some materials to experiment with.

It always helps so you can pick up the material maybe even try to bend it, cut it, join it together.

The more you get to work with the materials the more you'll understand something about their property and suitability for the task.

So choosing materials, if I want something which is lightweight and not cumbersome and have no sharp edges and be adjustable in size, then some materials that you have already familiar with they might not be suitable.

So if you think about the materials that you might use at school, things may be like timbers.

So softwood, hardwood, different manufactured boards, polymers such as acrylic, a high impact polystyrene.

Some of those are quite bulky.

Some of those would be maybe brittle, not suitable at all, be very difficult to make the products I have in mind to go on the residual arm of a para-triathlete to hold a cup and yet to think of making it out of pine and MDF.

So what I've got to do now is think about which materials are at my disposal to design and develop to make my product.

I've got one here, which is a smart material and this one is called polymorph.

I've got some thermochromic paper and you can see on there that if you look closely just by my thumb that it actually changed colour as I touched it.

So the paper was black and then depended on the heat from my hand that changed the colour.

I've got a piece of kevlar and kevlar is a material which is made up for stab-proof vests and they also use it in protective clothing that fire brigade wear.

It's really tough, it's heat resistant and the fantastic modern technical textile.

And then the last one, one of my favourite materials is carbon fibre.

This is used in a lot of sports equipment and top end sports cars, it's strong and lightweight.

So to recap quickly, the first one was polymorph This is a polymer, it's a plastic and it looks white in my hand but if you heat it up, it will become clear and soft.

At 62 degrees you can shape it whichever shape you want and then as it cools it would return to being white and hard.

You can cut it, file it, sand it, join it to other parts.

It's a great product so a great material to use to make ergonomic products which fit the form of a hand.

We've got the thermochromic color-changing material, kevlar and then the carbon fibre.

So they're the ones that I'm going to have a look at and see if I could use any of those new and exciting materials to develop the product.

Look my materials, we have polymorph, thermochromic material, kevlar and carbon fibre.

Polymorph, thermochromic film, kevlar fibre and carbon fibre.

So now we've got our first task.

I'd like you to pause the video, read the contents of this slide so you know what to do.

Basically, you got to try to find some examples of products that are made of the materials that I've shown.

I'd like to investigate how these materials have been used to manufacture some products.

By doing this, you will make a connection between the material property and the material use.

So you can go back a slide, look at the materials that I've chosen and see what you think of them and what things have been made from them, so that you understand a little more about them.

So pause the video, investigate the use of those materials and then we'll carry on.

So here's my example of the task which I just set.

I've got my four materials, polymorph, thermochromic film, kevlar and carbon fibre.

You know that kevlar can be used for fire brigade clothing, is heatproof, really hard-wearing.

Carbon fibre can be used for top-end sports cars and sports equipment.

It's a strong and lightweight.

Thermochromic film can be used for foreheads thermometers and thermometers on the fish tanks.

And polymorph is a difficult material to find a use for.

But what I tend to use it for is developing forms that you could use in the hand that are ergonomic.

So if I was working with students at school and I was wanting to develop a ergonomic grip on the handlebars of a bike.

I would get some polymorph heat it up, mould it around the handle bars at the bike.

Then squeeze it with my hand, let it cool down and I'd end up then with a perfectly formed ergonomic shape that would fit my hand specifically when riding a bike.

I believe also it can be sprayed onto the paint work of cars, just to give the paint work a protective finish.

So there's lots of uses for these different materials.

I hope you found some good ones as well.

I've got now a couple of questions, which material is used because it is lightweight yet strong? Do you think it's polymorph or carbon fibre? Make your selection, commit to your choice and I'll show you the answer.

It's carbon fibre.

So if we're wanting something which is lightweight and strong, you're think that things like formula one cars or top-end sports cars.

They're often made from carbon fibre because they are really light and incredibly strong for their weight.

Next one, which material can be shaped when heated? You think it's kevlar or polymorph? So make your choice, commit to your response and here's the answer and is polymorph.

Some moments ago I explained that you could change the shape of polymorph by heating it in water to around 62 degrees and then you can change the shape.

Which materials are not considered smart? So kevlar and carbon fibre or polymorph and thermochromic pigments.

So which ones of those are not smart materials? Make your choice, stick with it and I'll show you the answer.

So it's kevlar and carbon fibre.

They will not change their appearance or state depending on the environment they're in.

Wherelse polymorph that will go from being hard white plastic to a clear multiple plastic to then back to hard and white depending on the temperature and thermochromic pigment they change colour normally from black to a different colour and then back to black, depending on the temperature.

The other two materials kevlar and carbon fibre they don't change form.

They're just technical textiles which are superb for making particular products.

Now I'd like you to pause the video for this task.

Can you develop your idea and label it with the materials that you would use? So I've got an example that follows this slide, but now you know a little bit more about some new materials you might decide that these are good choices for the product that you've come up with.

If these products aren't suitable for applying to the learning that you've picked up and think well, I can now design my product and use a smart material or one of the technical textiles.

You might have investigated a suitable material that you could use instead.

So whichever materials you pick make sure you've investigated them thoroughly and then you can apply that to your annotated sketches.

So all you've got to do now you'll work out which materials that you think would be suitable for making your products with.

So pause the video, have a good think and maybe recap over a few of my previous slides.

So you clear on the materials that I picked.

Here's my example, so I've got in the middle a developed picture that I've done from, I started off making a model, I've drawn over the model and by now I've got the form just right.

I've got a picture of a coffee cup.

So you know that the coffee cup can fit into the form, which is left.

I've decided to incorporate thermochromic film so that the prosthetic arm could actually change colour, so that the user would know if the drink that's been held is too hot or it's getting too cold.

I've decided to use carbon fibre as the material because I can make sure the wall thickness is thin, lightweight and not cumbersome.

So that's my annotated design with the material choices that I've decided upon.

I hope you really enjoyed the lesson, I hope it's been great for developing a product as complicated as this.

When selecting some really new and exciting materials.

So now we've got towards the end of the lesson it's time to review some of the key words which we began with.

The first one is a smart material.

So you know that these reacts to changes in their environment, such as the polymorph and the thermochromic pig.

The next was a composite material.

An example of a composite material would be a carbon fibre.

We've got the carbon matting which is just like a piece of cloth and that's been mixed with a resin, normally polyester resin and that's like a glue which will set the carbon fibre matting together.

So we end up with one material which has got a good compressive strength and one which has got good tensile strength and when you combine those two to make a composite material you end up with a material which is superior in property than just one of the materials on their own.

The next term was a laminated material.

So if you could see from the photograph of my carbon fibre, it looked like one single piece of cloth.

That wouldn't be enough to make the wall thickness of my arm for the prosthetic cup holder or for the body of a formula one car.

So you need to laminate together the different layers of carbon fibre.

So as soon as you get some materials and you layer them up, that becomes a laminate.

So we've now got smart material, composite material and laminated material and there are layers.

Okay, so I hope you've learned loads this lesson.

It's been fantastic to work through this lesson with you and try to incorporate some really new and exciting materials into the lesson that we've done.

All right, thank you very much.