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Soon you will be creating the design ideas for your project. one of the Aspects to consider will be the material you will use for them? This will have many factors and choosing a material isn't always as obvious as you think. not only will You will need to be clear about the potential material for the designs, but to make the selection you will need to be knowledgeable about the surrounding issues:
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Environmental impact
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aesthetic value
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surface finish opportunity
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manufacturing ability (machineability)
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properties and characteristics
You will need to know about and be clear on specific timbers, metals, polymers and other materials.
Assessment criteria says
Exceptional consideration of relevant materials and possible technical requirements when required throughout the design process.
Which materials to research?
Start off by looking at the products you have been analysing and the materials they have been manufactured from. What are the reasons for their choice? Which key properties have meant they were used over other materials?
Then explore some potential alternatives - what might work well
for your project, now you have a better idea of what the user/ stakeholder/ solution needs/ wants/ requires.
this is another opportunity to utilise the swot analysis method.
What do you need to discover about materials?
What to evidence in your portfolio?
Researching materials and technical requirements
You could present your page like this:
Currently used materials/ components
Alternative materials/ components
Elements of your materials exploration can be completed through secondary research, but some of it should be conducted through primary methods - this is you physically testing materials to explore their properties. Think about how you could test materials, e.g.
> density tests
> abrasions tests
> impact tests
What to evidence in your portfolio?
You could present your page like this:
Material testing
Summary
Details
photos
findings
Tests
Outcome
What's next?
Remember, as always this is a working document and it is likely you will keep coming back to it and add information - you need to keep researching/ testing/ exploring appropriate materials throughout the design and development stage. Decisions can not be made without justification.
Design Technology @ NCB
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