Recently our group has been working on figuring out what materials to use for our device and we’ve also been working on prototypes. I could tell right away our group was going to have some problems with building the prototype. We all have individual ideas that we think are the best out of everyones in the group. The fact that we also have two very creative artists in the group, we tend to disagree on the design aspect and how the device will physically look a lot. I can tell you that Julia doesn’t see eye to eye with Eleanor on a lot of creative aspects.
Building the prototype was not as easy as it seemed. Because of some of the conflicts, the group divided into two separate groups, one group was Adeila and Eleanor, the other was Mariana and Julia. So all together we had two prototypes. There was a lot of trial and error that really helped Julia figure out how to make the prototype more protective. Julia added padding to her sleeve which was made out of a sock, and told mariana to hit her elbow against the table. Mariana hurt herself, which meant that Julia had to add more padding. Although Julia hurt Mariana in the process, they eventually got the perfect amount of padding for the sleeve. After that Mariana complained of there not being enough compression throughout the sleeve. SO you know what Julia did? She added ANOTHER sock over the first sleeve (with the padding on the outside of the elbow).
On the other team with Eleanor and Adeila, they worked to include elasticity in their prototype. Lots of stretchy bands and tape were used to create their prototype. Two very strong elastic bands were added to the ends of their sleeve. Then there was some padding taped over the elbow for protection. On that day two similar prototypes were created but each had different aspects to them. The team came together and presented each oth their prototypes. Adeila complained that her sleeve that she had worked on with Eleanor was too tight and limited her movement. The team concluded that Mariana and Julia’s was the best one.
Base on the building experience will we had during last two class periods, we decided to incorporate sewing into our future versions of our prototype because it will allow our device to be more sustainable and allow better support. We don’t plan to use 3D printing because it will restrict movement that is one thing we do not want to do. Throughout this process we’ve learned that while creating our prototype it will be trial and error. That’s the only way we will be able to improve our device in order to meet our customer needs.
In the past couple days we also visited the Hancock Fabrics where we got to see all the different fabrics from cotton to spandex mixture. According to Cyclist Ville spandex benefits in recovery by allowing compression and heating up the body and assisting blood circulation. Its also very comfortable because it gives that “second skin” feel. Deadspin mentioned that it’s tighter elastic to better hold its shape, and greater blood flow means better oxygenation of muscles, and improved performance. This allowed us to have a better view or understanding of what material will really be essential to our product and allow it to perform the best. Some of the things we saw beside fabrics was different types of padding such as bra gel inserts and Sew Perfect Nu-foam.
StarPathDesign 
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