From RC Car to Pirate Ship

Brief:
Take existing toy/product and use additive manufacturing and reverse engineering to produce something entirely new, using the electronics from said toy/product.

Solution:
The group was given an RC car with 2 motors, one for each pair of wheels. It was decided we were to make a pirate ship.
The motors were to be used to produce a rowing mechanism for an oar on either side of the boat.
The entirety of the boat was designed in Siemens NX 11.0. Due to its size it was printed in two halves, and to ensure it was water tight, a cylindrical gasket made from TPU (due to its flexibility) was placed between the two PLA surfaces to prevent water seeping into the hull. This was done in one step using the Raise3D printer which can print two materials at the same time.
Initially, the boat was too heavy to float, so topology optimisation was utilised to reduce the weight of the thicker support sections, bringing weight down by 20%.
The rowing mechanism faced issues with high friction that resulted in the motor struggling to move. It was printed in PLA and Nylon to see which produced less friction, with Nylon winning and being selected for the moving parts.
Moreover, the mechanism was designed to be put snap-fit constructed as no adhesives were permitted, this allowed of easy assembly and disassembly if needed.

The project was a fun one with lots of creativity involved, as well as the production of a 'Pirates of the Caribbean' inspired trailer to go alongside it. It taught me a lot about the applications of different print methods, printers, and materials that could be used to overcome certain challenges. Additive manufacturing is incredible and its so interesting to see its capabilities of producing parts that traditional methods would really struggle with.