Introduction:
Our project goal was to create a shoe with unique, stylish and modern design with comfort. We developed the design, tested different materials for comfort and impact resistance and crafted a final product.
Background research:
We researched related work in footwear design, including the use of 3D printing for customization and innovation in design and production. These inspired us to create a modern and unique shoe while focusing on testing for comfort and impact resistance. Additionally, studies on material properties guided our approach to selecting and evaluating materials for the shoe.
https://ijrcs.org/wp-content/uploads/IJRCS202310003-min.pdf
https://www.tlr-journal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/TLR_2024_151_CUI.pdf
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8600303
Process:
Creating the shoe had a lot of trial and error process. First, to design the sole of the shoe, InterpCrv tool was used by tracing an image of a sole. Leveraging parametric design, multiple elliptical curves at varying heights and sizes were created. Next, Loft command was used to generate the inner and outer walls of the shoe and applied BooleanDifference to shape the walls ensuring they slightly overlapped to form the distinctive holes. And finally, the curves were used to design the bottom of the shoe and combined it with the walls using Solid Union to create a seamless final model.
We had a lot of challenges when creating the shoe. For example, when lofting using grasshopper the curves were never aligned and there was no way to align them using AddLoftSrf, when used this caused the shoe to twist and become unusable for printing. Therefore, we tried using the loft and loft options blocks in grasshopper but this caused type errors later down the line. We also had to be extremely careful when creating the ellipses and lofting them because if they were too drastic in size change or too far a part of would cause distortion in the design.
We also had a lot of challenges coming up with a suitable design and had to go back to the drawing board multiple times.
When it comes to fabrication processes the use of PLA caused little to no issues. However, the use of TPU caused a lot of stringing and blobs to form so we had to iteratively fine tune the printing settings to find something that worked. The biggest obstacle was the size of our print beds. Unfortunately, the shoes could not be printed past 200 mm in X and Y directions as this would mean the extruder would leave the print bed. So we had to keep the designs relatively small. Perhaps we can get into the 3D printing baby shoe market or get a printer with a larger bed in the future.
Outcome:
The final outcome is a stylish and modern shoe design that balances aesthetics and uniqueness. The shoe has a material that demonstrates comfort and impact resistance. The design documentation highlights the details of the sole, walls and overall structure. This project reflects a successful blend of creativity and aesthetic in shoe!
Future work:
If given more time, we would explore creating more unique designs and we would also like to look into using lattices to create different sole infills as our soles were a bit rigid.
Reflection:
Creating our shoe was a very interesting experience, especially when it came to material testing. TPU is a rubber like material and although it led to some issues it taught us a lot about printer settings we had never even looked at before. The design process taught us that teamwork/collaboration and the importance of balancing creativity with functionality. The artifacts we created will be used as a stepping stone and inspire us to make more improvements when it comes to future design projects