Computer Integrated Manufacturing II CAD/CAM : Snowboarding Basketball Toy

During the computer integrated manufacturing course and inspired by the imagination of my very own team, the injection molded snowboarding basketball toy was born. Our goal for this project was to create CAD model parts from sketches, model their corresponding molds, use Siemens NX CAM to create their manufacturing program, program a CNC mill to machine the molds from aluminum blocks, and injection mold the parts.

Our initial design was composed of five parts: the two halves of the basketball body, a skateboard with wheels, and legs that connected the basketball to the skateboard. After discussion within the team and the instructors, the designed was modified to the two halves of a basketball and a snowboard. The two basketball halves are connected with two pegs on each side and when put together, a longer peg extends out of the bottom, which fits into the snowboard with a hole in the center. This was done to limit the complexity of the design itself to make machining easier and to simplify the assembly process after injection molding.

I worked on the CAD and CAM for the snowboard and both the cavity and core of the snowboard molds. Working on the CAM required many iterations through program variations as I encountered new obstacles. I led the CNC milling of 3/4 mold. I also worked on the injection molding for both parts, which also required many iterations at different temperatures, pressure, and injection time in order to optimize the process.