MIT OpenCourseWare http://ocw.mit.edu4.510 Digital Design FabricationFall 2008 For information about citing these materials or our Terms of Use, visit: http://ocw.mit.edu/terms.4.510 Digital Fabrication Fall 2008IntroductionDIGITAL FABRICATION FOR QUICK ASSEMBLYHypothesisMethodsHaving digital fabrication of accurate sizes of panels and components, the challenge of construction then lies on the easiness of assembly and disassembly. There-fore, it is important to have simple connection principle and keep a small number of components so that the assembly work can be done easier and faster. It also save time for labelling different components and the sequence of assembly. The chance of making errors will also be lowered. Therefore, the goal of the investiga-tion described below is to explore how panels can be connected by one simple connection principle with the least number of components.In each trial of model making, I have counted carefully the number of components that I have used to make a plane and how many more components that I need in order to turn the panels for the corner. Since the form of my design for the water taxi station is rectangular, the focus of the design is to enable the panels to turn 90 degree angle rather than for different angles. The investigation also tests out the elasticities and flexibility of different materials, including masonite, acrylic and aluminium sheet with the use of laser cut and waterjet. In order to simplify the connection principle and number of components, I would expect the joints should be simple enough for easy assembly but at the same time complex enough for connecting panels and fixing them in desired position. If minimum components are desired, the panels should have structural rigidity so that they do not need extra supporting components. tools for design computer models: rhino, sketchup and autocad apparatus: materials: 1/8 inch thick masonite, 1/8 inch thick aluminium sheet, 1/8 inch thick acrylic sheet and 1/16 inch thick acrylic equipment: lasercut for masonite and acyclic sheet, waterjet for aluminum sheet design: the size of interlocking parts between panels and joints depend on the thickness of the materialsFIRST APPROACH figure 4 testing with acrylic sheet-the test is very successful with acrylic as 1/8 inch thick acrylic has good flexibility for joint2 figure 5 testing with aluminium -using 1/8 inch thick aluminium for joint 2is not very successful as it does not have enough flexibility, so joint 2 are made of acrylic sheet.figure 3 connection methodfigure 1 three types of componentsfigure 2 actual dimension for testingThe first approach is to design a joint that can combine four panels easily. In this experiment, there are only three types of components being used as shown in the figure 1. The panels are hold up by two joints from both sides and locked together by a key shape component (figure2, figure3). However, the connection rely on the flexibility of joint2 to be squeezed into the slots of joint1. I first test with 1/8 inch of acrylic and the joints work very well. In order to make the joint very tight, I try to have rectangular angle around the turning area and it do help to hold the panels better in place. However, when testing with 1/8 inch thick aluminum, the flexibility of aluminum for such a short length is rather limited. Therefore, this connection system is difficult to develop. As a result, I change my strategy to explor-ing the rigidity of frame so that it does not require extra support. panel1/16 inch thick acrylic sheet joint 21/8 inch thick acrylic sheetx inchy inchdepth of panel +depth joint 1x 2 1/2 inch1/2 inch1/4 inch1/8 inch1/2 inch1/16 inch5/16 inch joint 1: 1/8 inch thick aluminum sheet1/8 inch thick aluminum sheet 1/8 inch thick acrylic sheetx inchy inchdepth of material joint2basic form : octagon potential configurationfigure 7. exploration of potential configuration octagonfigure 8. connection principlefigure 6. exploration of potential configuration triangle and hexagonlocation of potential connection pointlocation of potential connection pointrelationship of frame and jointMy second approach focuses on the exploring the rigidity of the frame so that it can minimize the extra support as well as keep exploring a simple connection principle. After testing with different configurations with triangle, hexagon and octagon and their potential location of the connection point, I choose to explore the octagon frame. It is because when the frame and joints are overlapped as in the triangle and hexagon configuration, it is more difficult to turn angle in the later stage of design. SECOND APPROACHA) FIRST TRIALThe first trial mainly focus on testing the rigidity of holding the octagon frame by the joints in between. With this configuration, each octagon frame is held by four sides only and they are connected to the joint in-between with the same connection principle as the joints are connected (figure 9 and 10). I first test with 1/8 inch thick of masonite. The principle of system works very well and the assembly work takes less than 1 minutes for each joint (figure 11). However, the laser cut cuts off some material and the joints are not tight enough. Therefore, I try to use to 1/8 inch thick aluminium sheet for making the joints by waterjet (figure12). I also test out several tolerance level for cutting the aluminium sheet. For that time of cutting, the aluminium joints are loose if the tolerance is 0.9, but they can be very tight if the tolerance is 0.15. However, we need to test every time for a suitable tolerance level as the exact figure varies in the next time of cutting. figure 9. connection principle for the jointfigure 10. connection principle for the joint and the frame figure 11. first assembly by masonitefigure 12. testing with aluminium sheet for the jointtwo basic components of frame and jointfor turning cornerextra components for turning cornerframejointz= 0.45 x + depth of materialframe jointxxxxxxxydepth of material of jointxdepth of material of jointydepth of material of jointxdepth of material of framedepth of material of frameB) SECOND TRIALThe second trial focuses on modifying the form of the octagon so that the overall shape can be more coherent. Also, I try to explore if the panels can turn around the corner with the same connection principle and how many extra components that are required. With the separation of the frame and the joints,