Saturday, October 1, 2011

Mechanical Iris / More Dome Cutting

Today at the MIT Edgerton Center I cut about 50 more acrylic "dome" pieces for the outreach program. I designed this last summer in AutoCAD and the design is still being used for various programs.

After the 'business' portion of sitting by the lasercutter was done, I cut out a design that I found on thingiverse.com. It's a mechanical iris, that is, it tries to mimic the opening and closing of a natural eye. Unfortunately this design forms a star like shape when it opens because the leaves don't overlap. I aim to design one of my own with more than five (probably 12) thin leaves (material TBD) that will overlap and maintain a roughly circular shape when opening and closing.


Daniel operating the iris:


Update: Fooled around with the pieces a bit, found this alternate configuration:

3 comments:

  1. that looks awesome! is there any chance of getting the 2D design of it as I would love to incorporate it within my project at the moment.

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  2. Email me at atanner@mit.edu and I'll send it to you. It used to be on thingiverse.com but I can't seem to find it.

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  3. could you please send me the 2D design file to jamie.d.gledhill@hotmail.co.uk thanks!

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