Samsung S5 case mold

My name is Kadri Williams, I am an a 11th Grader and this design was a challenge I chose to take upon myself at Windsor High school with my teacher, Mr. Ricci. At first I had planned to simply create a 3D printed phone case for my Samsung s5, as a project. As time passed on I realized the designing process wasn’t as simple as my mind had made it to be. I took the responsibility of using my engineering notebook, caliper, my phone, drawing, and research to complete the task. My first ever print in my 10th grade year of high school was the original phone that I realized was not thick enough, ⅜” too big, and easily breakable. This was my first fail but, I found myself more intrigued in how to correct my mistake with the help of my teacher. The process took my whole year to perfect and totaled to half my notebook filled with writing and drawings, 3 failed prints, 1 perfect print and the determination for this year to make a 3D Mold for the phone case to create a silicone case. During the process I researched the type of material I could use and ended with Oomoo 30 silicone. Mr. Ricci came with the idea to use my phone case design, extract it from a block, and split in half to see what the mold would be. From there, I came to the conclusion of making a three part mold; one part for the bottom layout with a centered tapered hole to pour the material and two ⅛” holes to releasing air bubbles, one for the top edge and facing, and also a phone shaped placeholder to fill the spacing of the actual phone. After printing the design I did even more research on a efficient way of cleaning the parts with NaCl solution. So even though this was CAD and Drafting class, I was able to combine chemistry and mathematics for the project. Then my next challenge was to research the Oomoo 30 silicone for proper usage, precautions, and requirements. In doing so, I tested how much volume the mold took to fill and concluded my research. After a long painful wait, I was able to see the finish product that became the highlight of my day following my long journey. However, there were still minor errors to fix that only took 5 days which is where I heard of this competition. I was recommended by my teacher to join since I have the potential and worked for so long. This design will and has helped solve the problem of finding an actual phone case for Samsung s5’s which majority of my family contains. With this 3D phone case Mold, I can create and provide cases for my family members and my...