Final Update: Ice Bottle

Final Update: Ice Bottle

Print Times

Dead Space Insert (15% infill –  12 hours 5 min)

• Insert to take up dead space to use less silicone
  • This was necessary in order to have enough silicone to make the top and bottom mold halves. If this was not done, we would have needed to purchase even more silicone. Plus, the extra space is not adding any benefit to the mold. It is dead space.

Bottom mold (15% infill – 18 hours with support material)

• Part to make the bottom half of the mold
  • Normally, to make a mold, you would make a model of what you want to cast, cast around it, and then remove the model to have your mold. However, with our design, we needed  two different parts with similar geometries to make our mold. We designed the bottom 3D printed negative to rest on the dead space insert. This provided support to the 3D printed part to prevent it from sliding down into the silicone, potentially ruining the mold.

Top Mold (20% – 12 hr 15 min)

• Part to make the top half of the mold
  • This part was similar to the bottom mold. This part had the shape and thickness of what we wanted our final ice bottle to have. This was inserted after the silicone cured the first time. Then, more silicone was poured over the top to finish the mold.

Silicone Mold 

The 3D prints were used to make a silicone mold of a bottle

Obstacles

• Ice bottle broke as it was removed from the mold
  • It would often snap at the neck
  • Had to refreeze what broke off
  • Had to run a little warm water along the back side of it to pop out
• Air bubbles would get trapped leaving holes in the ice
• The mold would not completely fill up with water occasionally leaving the halves in slightly different shapes
  • I believe this was due to how level the mold was made in the first place
    
• The bottle halves did not line up perfectly leaving gaps
  • Some ice would stick to the silicone mold reducing the size of the bottle slightly
    
• Needed to figure out a way to fuse the two halves together
  • Tried “zamboning” the halves to make them flatter
    • This involved pouring water onto a flat surface. Next, the bottle was placed with the edge down and rubbed across the surface with pressure to smooth and flatten the edges.
  • Tried making a water-based paste to fill in the cracks
  • Eventually used a pipet full of ice cold water to drip along the edges which froze quickly making a seal
    
• Ice takes a long time to freeze fully so making bottles to test took a while
  • Chilled the water close to freezing to reduce the energy needed to lower the temperature to reduce the time to freeze

• Making the mold
  • Put hot glue on the inside of the box instead of the outside. This made it hard for the insert to lay flat.
  • Didn’t mix enough silicone for the bottom mold so we had to quick pour more. Our initial calculation was incorrect.
    
  • The box was made too small initially
  • Air bubbles were trapped inside the silicone.
    • We did not have a vacuum chamber to release the trapped air in the silicone

Steps to make an ice bottle

• Box for silicone mold
  • Laser cutting seminar
    
  • Cut out acrylic
  • Superglue box together
    
    
• Cast the bottom half of the mold
  • Place the insert into the box
  • Pour in silicone
    
    
  • Place bottom 3D printed part on top
    
    
  • Cure for 24 hrs
  • Break box to make sure silicone molded well
    
    
• Cast top half of the mold
  • Reconstruct box
  • Place already formed silicone in the box
  • Place top 3d printed part in
  • Pour silicone
    
    
  • Cure for 24 hrs
  • Break box to make sure silicone molded well
• Make bottle halves
  • Place water into the bottom mold
    • Too much is better than too little
      
  • Place the top mold into the bottom mold
    • Extra water seeps out
  • Freeze
• Remove Frozen Bottle half
• Repeat
  
  
• Freeze bottle halves together
  • The bottles do not line up perfectly
  • Use a pipet to drip ice cold water onto the bottle to make the seal
  • Once sealed, splash around some water on the inside to further seal the bottle

Time to make one bottle = approx 12 hrs.

Next Steps:

Week of 4/22/19 – 5/1/19:

• Trial of methods to have level ice pieces
• Prepare project presentation

• Write final report, due May 1