Justin Chang: Week 8 3D Printing

CONCEPT

As an automotive enthusiast at heart and a weekend warrior mechanic, naturally, I decided to use this opportunity to create something related to my passion. The inspiration that influenced my design came from one of my favorite cars, the Mazda RX-7. The car was unique not because of its aesthetics but what was underneath the hood. Mazda made a unique and bold move by equipping the vehicle with a turbocharged rotary engine. A rotary engine is unique because it is a pistonless combustion engine. The rotary engine has always fascinated me and after hearing how people were able to produce 700+ hp from a 1.3-liter engine, it really began grabbing my attention. I recreated a simple design of the actual rotor within the rotary engine which is the heart of the engine. The rotor’s job is to rotate inside the engine and produce the combustion within it. Without the rotor, the engine would not be able to operate. When built right and maintained by a proper rotary engine specialist the engine is a force to be reckoned with.

 TECHNIQUES

Initially, I was debating which software to use, the choices came down to AutoCad, SolidWorks, and Rhino. I ended up choosing Rhino because I felt that it produced cleaner renderings. To create the triangular shape, I used the arc feature to create the first arc, then I mirrored it to create the other two. The gears were created by first starting with the polygon star feature. Then I created two circles within it, placing them right below the points of the star. I then used the curve boolean to remove the tips of the star. Lastly, I used extrude curve to turn my project from 2D to 3D.

MATERIALS

One of the world’s most famous car shop’s that specializes in the rotary engine is RE Amemiya, located in Japan. They have built numerous world-renowned RX-7’s and the paint schemes from their builds was what inspired the color selections for my project. Since this was an automotive part, I didn’t want to use color’s that appeared overly polished so I chose materials that had a brushed looked.