Week 5

 

 Chapter 5:

Design for Materials

Hello, and welcome back to our 5th chapter of Group 3 in Introduction to Chemical Product design CP5095! This is also our first week every to be temporarily instructed to move the rest of our in-class lessons to online. As community cases of Covid-19 is on the rise, there has been many plans that are required to postpone, but we can't postpone our blog!


So, let's get started in what we did for Week 5, shall we? 

Our task this time is quite simple: Changing the design of the product with a suitable material that can be used to further improve the product. We're required to find a material with property attributes that meets or exceeds the requirement of a product. At the same time, it should not possess manufacturing difficulties and be costly. 

Mr Kok, our lecturer for our CP5095 module shared with us the evolution of a hairdryer, as they first have a machine that enables our hair to be dried. However, not only was it bulky and too much of a hassle to use, it is costly as well, and most likely a nobility to use in a premium barber store, as this was invented in the late 19th century.

But as years went by, it improved to the modern hairdryer that we have used today. Not only is it portable, it is affordable for everyone in the public. 

Now it's our turn! From our previous week in Week 4, we chose polycarbonate as our material for our face shield itself, with its material called "Lexan". Our question now is that, what else can we use this material on in our every day lives? Polycarbonate has properties of being resistant to impacts, hard and not brittle, as well as having other properties that has better function and traits than, let's say for example: glass!

So we think of how polycarbonate can replace glass. When we think of glass, we think of windows. So, how can this material be used as a direct replacement to a material in an existing product without any significant changes in the design? Well, polycarbonate can exist as a sheet of material that is able to be installed easily to the window. Polycarbonate compared to glass is more tough and impact resistant so as to resist user handling of the window as well as giving heat resistance and being light weight for economical use.  But if polycarbonate can be used to replace glass in windows, shouldn't there be a mass manufacture of windows made out of polycarbonate instead? That's where we learn two flaws: One is where polycarbonate will turn yellow when exposed to sunlight, and that it can conduct electricity if a live wire is near. Thus, Mr Kok always share with us, that there should be traits which enhance the functionality of the existing product, even when there are necessities in few changes with the design. We came up with two solutions: adding additives like benzotriazole based stabilizers to prevent colorizing, and creating an insulator.
Well, week 5 has been a bit dry, but there's where we have learnt the most thus far yet in this module! Thank you for reading all the way here! Community cases are increasing, so let's hope that we can keep ourselves and our families safe!

About the Author:
Willie Tan is the Team Leader that will be leading the team for Group 2 of "CP5065: Introduction the Chemical Product and Design"

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