Their story, in their words…
For our project, we decided to create a 3D printed hovercraft, where the main body would be 3D modelled on Onshape and 3D printed with PLA for the prototypes and PETG for the final model and they electronics and fans would be bought separately.
During the creation of this hovercraft, many unexpected challenges had to be overcome, the first of all being 3D modelling inexperience. Many sloppy first drafts were created in order to look appealing while being functional and easily printable. The first printed prototype had many design flaws, ranging from being way too large to having almost no holes required for any wiring.
Disaster struck during the summer where an overnight print had gone disastrous, the 3D print had accidentally fallen off the print plate, therefore leading to the nozzle of the printer jamming itself and doing almost irreversible damage. Therefore, a 0.8mm nozzle had to be implemented rather than the 0.4 mm nozzle, which took a few weeks to arrive. We had decided to move to a much larger nozzle size in order to cut down the already long printing days of a few days to just a single day due to the severe. Whilst achieving the speed we wanted, the 0.8 mm nozzle had awful structural integrity and visual appeal compared to the 0.4 mm nozzle, therefore, we had to borrow another printer from a relative in order to print the hovercraft, adding to our very tall pile of setbacks.
We have learnt many things, not only from a physics standpoint, but also as a team. From a physics standpoint, we had to learn from our mistakes of implementing the wrong type of fans due to our lack of knowledge about intake and exhaust fans, but also choosing which type of glue to use, whether we’d choose between the more sturdy but heavy and ugly hot glue, or the less reliable but more visually appealing super glue. However, we have also learnt much about being a team such as on sports day where we had set up a snow cone stand (which had eventually devolved to a slushie stand after the snow cone machine broke mid service). After getting almost double the expected customers, we had to recruit other sixth form members for help with supplies and marketing, however the end result was worth it making 143.50 pounds in total.
In the end, we are decently happy with the end result, however there are still a few regrets that we have, including adding more visually appealing elements and character such as painting it a different colour, or creating a sleeker look. Despite all the setbacks, the hovercraft is still functional in the end and works as we expected.
We are very grateful towards the Mark Evison foundation for their extreme generosity and patience. They have allowed us to challenge ourselves in ways that we had never before and enabled us to learn many important skills about physics and teamwork.
