Week 5

DESIGN FOR MATERIALS 🔨

In today's lesson, we continued the exploration of the inter-relationship between materials and design, week 4 was on materials for design, while this week is on design for materials. Before the start of the lesson, we were wondering, what does it mean by design for materials? What is the difference between design for materials and materials for design? 🤔

During lesson, we went through case studies on hair dryer and ceramic knifes. During the discussion on the hair dryer, we were given the timeline, from the very first hair dryer design in 1890 to the one we are all currently using. With this case study, we learnt about how hair dryer design was modified so that the desirable attributes of a certain material can be enjoyed. 

First hair dryer in 1890:

The third hair dryer design in the 1930s: 

After discussion with the class, we did a mini activity as a group. Whereby, we need to choose 1 out of the many materials in the materials exploration in library resources and fill up the worksheet under week 5 resources in blackboard.

For our activity, we chose lunabrite from the library resources given.

Design for Materials – Worksheet for Activity

Class:	DCHE/FT/2A/03	Group:	2
Name (Admin Number)	1.       Aye Pi Ti Paing (2015046) 2.       Cyane Low (2016159) 3.       Andrew Sim (2013226) 4.       Tan Junheng (2016654)
Name of material	Lunabrite
Chemical Name	Photoluminescent phosphor-hydrogel composite
General Description	Lunabrite® is a high performance photoluminescent material that illuminates fully when places in darkness. Easily recharged by UV light (natural; daylight, lamp or black light) in only 5-30 minutes, Lunabrite® will emit glowing light for 8+ hours until fully recharged again. Available in a variety of versatile formats, Lunabrite® is nontoxic and can safely be used around children, water and pets.
General Properties	– Excellent reflective light – A multitude of options available – Energy-saving – Non-toxic – Weather resistant
Opportunities	Flexible, Luminescent, Weather-resistant, Recyclable
Discuss among the group how this material can be used as a direct replacement to a material in an existing product without any significant changes in the design. Product: Glow Sticks Conventional Material: Mixture of fluorescent dye and diphenyl oxalate with hydrogen peroxide solution. The solutions mix after the glass tube is broken. Plastic Casing.  Not recyclable.   Toxic when inhaled or ingested. Figure 1: Typical Glow Sticks        Lunabrite has the capacity to be used for a long time and is recyclable and flexible. Therefore, the glow sticks can be used longer in concerts or night traffic control and can be reused for multiple times. It is also non-toxic which means there is no issue of it poisoning the user and is child-friendly.
Discuss among the group how this material can be used to enhance the functionality of an existing product through some changes in the design.   Product: Sports Wear/Normal Outdoor Clothes Conventional Material: Polyester, Nylon/Cotton. Non-luminescent Figure 2: Lunabrite on Sportswear Figure 3: Lunabrite on shoes Lunabrite can be used as a fabric and woven onto the pockets/logo/sleeves of the clothes for better noticeability in the dark. Due to the flexibility of the material, lunabrite can also be added and sown onto apparel itself. This doesn’t hinder the performance of athletes when it is attached to sportswear because lunabrite is considered light. The luminescent property of the material can help them to be identified better in dark areas or at night.
References: Eliser.lib.sp.edu.sg. 2021. Login - ELISER - Library - Singapore Polytechnic. [online] Available at: <https://eliser.lib.sp.edu.sg/xmlui/bitstream/get/16059/1/Lunabrite.pdf> [Accessed 20 May 2021].   New Atlas. 2021. Lunabrite, the completely unpowered night light. [online] Available at: <https://newatlas.com/lunabrite-the-completely-unpowered-night-light/7472/> [Accessed 20 May 2021].   Slideshare.net. 2021. Design your own outfit using Lunabrite Glow material. [online] Available at: <https://www.slideshare.net/jpdecicco/lunabrite-ppt-feb> [Accessed 20 May 2021].

 

What have we learnt? 

After doing the activity, and discussion during lesson, we learnt how to use different materials to enhance or bring new uses to the product. 

For example, the hair-dryer that was invented in 1890, due to the design of the product, is was heavy, big, bulky and even made out of metal.

After 30 years, handy hannah was created. Made from metal fitted with a wooden handle, heavy- weighing close to 1kg, not safe- several accidents involving overheating and electrocution, very weak airflow.

In the 1930s Hawkins Supreme was designed, with the use of plastic as an outer insulator so that users will not burn their hands accidentally.

Fast forward to 2016, Dyson Supersonic hair-dryer was launched. It is a bladeless hair dryer with a quiet air-flow technology and different attachments for styling of hair.

Thus through this we learnt how a product can increase its ability with different materials used, bring much convenience to users, and also new uses of the product.

With this guidelines of how to design for materials, we were able to come up with ideas and complete the worksheet for that week.