slush casting is a variation of permanent moulding that uses urethane this process can be used to produce hollow casted parts, which is perfect for my product, because the shell on the out side needs to be hollow, the advantages of using urethane for this process are;

Wide Range of Hardness
The classification of hardness for polyurethane relies on the prepolymer’s molecular structure can be manufactured from 20 SHORE A to 85 SHORE D

High Load Bearing Capacity
Polyurethane has a high load capacity in both tension and compression. Polyurethane may undergo a change in shape under a heavy load, but will return to its original shape once the load is removed with little compression set in the material when designed properly for a given application.

Flexibility
Polyurethanes perform very well when used in high flex fatigue applications. Flexural properties can be isolated allowing for very good elongation and recovery properties.

Abrasion & Impact Resistance
For applications where severe wear prove challenging, polyurethanes are an ideal solution even at low temperatures.

Tear Resistance
Polyurethanes possess high tear resistance along with high tensile properties.

Resistance to Water, Oil & Grease
Polyurethane’s material properties will remain stable (with minimal swelling) in water / oil / grease. Polyether compounds will last many years in subsea applications.

Electrical Properties
Polyurethanes exhibit good electrical insulating properties.

Wide Resiliency Range
Resilience is generally a function of hardness. For shock-absorbing elastomer applications, low rebound compounds are usually used i.e. resilience range of 10-40%. For high frequency vibrations or where quick recovery is required, compounds in the 40-65% resilience are used. In general, toughness is enhanced by high resilience.

Strong Bonding Properties
Polyurethane bonds to a wide range of materials during the manufacturing process. These materials include other plastics, metals, and wood. This property makes polyurethane an ideal material for wheels, rollers, and inserts.

Performance in Harsh Environments
Polyurethane is very resistant to temperature extremes, meaning harsh environmental conditions and many chemicals will not cause material degradation.

Mold, Mildew & Fungus Resistance
Most polyether based polyurethanes do not support fungal / mold / mildew growth and are therefore highly suitable for tropical environments and FDA applications. Special additives can also be added to reduce this in polyester materials as well.

Color Ranges
Varying color pigments can be added to polyurethane in the manufacturing process. Ultraviolet shielding can be incorporated into the pigment to provide better color stability in outdoor applications.

Economical Manufacturing Process
Polyurethane is often used to manufacture one-off parts, prototypes or high volume, repeat production runs. Size ranges vary from a couple grams to 2000lb parts.

Short Production Lead Times
Compared to conventional thermoplastic materials polyurethane has a relatively short lead time with significantly more economical tooling costs.

information from ( http://www.precisionurethane.com/urethane-advantage.html ) and ( http://thelibraryofmanufacturing.com/slush_casting.html )

 

 

 

 

This is the promarker rendering of my final product in context of use, I think it will look great it city centres, I love the way it’s a double act kind of product because it’s functional and has a purpose but it also looks like a modern art sculpture.

Here is the locking mechanism that I will be using on the bike storage, I chose this because it’s simple and effective while keeping the price low, the steel block, that sits behind the locking plate, rotates when Turing the key and slides behind the metal frame causing it to prevent people from trying to rip the bike out of the wheel immobiliser. As you can see I’ve added a few layers of material that will add extra strength and durability.

Here is my rendering of my products function, I used, pencil, promarkers and fineliners to complete this, I like the way it came out however when I was using mountspray to mount the rendering to a piece of card, the whole drawing rippled from the glue.
On this rendering I drew how the bike would sit and look when combined with my product, and the main features off product such as the steel inter frame which protects the bike from being accessed by cutting tools, I also put how the locking mechanisms work and look, which also add more protection but this time to the wheels.

so ive finished my CAD model and rendered it. I used SolidEdge for the modelling and I used Keyshot for the rendering.

I found it hard to CAD as I wasn’t that great at it but after doing the CAD for this model I am more confident with my work, I think it came out very well and defiantly shows the design well with all its little details, I rendered it in solid shiny grey plastic, I finished off all of the locking mechanisms with polished aluminium  and I used clear grey plastic for the shelter.