Initial Stage

• After multiple concepts were explored we landed with our curved hot end that uses the super volcano nozzle.

• Important requirements of the hot end included designing our hot end to be attached to the "slice mosquito heat block" widely know for its good performance, and a large specified heating elements.

Development Details and Engineering

• Maximum flowrate of other heating blocks tested and benchmarked.

• A very thorough engineering analysis was conducted on the final design.

• Material Selection and justification.

• Thermal Analysis simulation and Analytical calculations.

• Structural analysis for multiple possible failure modes (z-hit, x y hit).

• Metallic Part manufactured with the Okuma M460V-5AX, 5 axis CNC machine.

• Cooling system implemented with two cooling fans, and analyzed with CFD simulations for optimal printing performance.

Other aspects included:

• Extensive report documentation and presentation to a hypothetical client.

My contribution in the project was to deliver the analytical calculations of the thermal analysis by determining a theoretical maximum flow rate. I also run the structural simulations (one of my strengths), and assisting the team in other tasks like documenting or presenting.

This project showed me the methodology needed to develop a product that needs to achieve a high performance in a competitive field.