Furniture design and CNC

Furniture design and modern manufacturing in European context

REPORT OF LEARNING, TEACHING, TRAINING ACTIVITIES 7 Colmar, France

Transnational meeting for Erasmus+ project
Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices


Project No. 2018-1-DE02-KA202-005058


Project title: Furniture design and modern manufacturing in European context - development of key competences for trainer, teacher and joiner trainees.


Learning, teaching, training activity No.7 for Erasmus+ project in Colmar


Date: Monday, 11.11.2019 - Friday, 15.11.2019

 

Time: 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

 

Place:

Lycee Blaise Pascal de Colmar, Rue de Logelbach 74, 68025 Colmar France


Members:

Marie Cuogo, Pekka Pirttiniemi, Ismo Pentinlehto, Lauri Vartola, Jonas Carlqvist, Joel Ojalehto, Hans Janßen, Volker Claußen, Andreas Frenz, Arkadiusz Kulon, Hernan Berhamondes, Pascal Michel.

The design work started by sketching different shapes of the three projects and forming little models from white paper. In the late afternoon we finished work and drove back to the city of Colmar.

Monday, 11.11.2019:

On Monday we took the train to Munster, where Pascal, his wife and his daughter picked us up with three cars and we spent the whole day at his home in the mountains. The French schools were closed that day because of the celebration in France.

Pascal presented three project plans from which we should start to work. The topics included making

 

  • a CNC cabinet-desk (similar to a kitchen island) for a CNC machine,
  • a chair for sitting and half standing near by the CNC machine,
  • a modern fold-out shelf for an office space for the school Lycee Blaise Pascal.

 

After the break, we went to see the local mountain scenery and listen to the cow bells.

Programs:

We went to the college for a workshop, from where we continued to the classroom and continued to design in 3 groups. The groups had different tasks: The shelf group   made a miniature model and Arek had also made a miniature paper version of his own. We both had similar features in the miniature model. Volker drew a 3D image of his own suggestion that we were able to explore. The CNC cabinet-desk group made a specified analysis of the needs for that desks and then they started to make different sketches, e.g. with rounding for the board, with different colors.

Tuesday, 12.11.2019:

The CNC chair group had some quick sketches and went directly to the workshop to start a first 1 to 1 prototype of this chair. After lunch, we visited the Lycee Blaise Pascal's chemistry, tailoring, nursing and home economics departments and got a taste of various educational programs of the school. Later on all groups agreed on the design of the project furniture and they started to make some CAD drawings on Solid works, AutoCad, Pytha and Rinocerus CAD.

Wednesday, 13.11.2019:

In the morning every group presented the drawings of the furniture they had planned and they told about the idea of the design, about the measurements and about the specified construction. The other teacher had some questions concerning the presentation and made suggestions, if necessary. The CNC chair group made some constructive suggestions, the CNC cabinet-desk group showed their drawings with 4 drawers on one side of the cabinet and 2 doors on the other side. And they decided to work with orange and blue colored laminate. They took some ideas from a female art teacher from the classroom next to their room. The shelf group presented two different shelf designs with a CAD 3D program and every participant asked some questions about their design. The problem for this group was that the customer canceled the meeting with the group in the morning. In the afternoon, we had a meeting about the Stockholm schedule and activities there, because the students are at the same time in S:t Eriks gymnasium Stockholm. The job of the whole Stockholm team is to get them to work in groups with different nationalities.  The shelf customer suddenly appeared at the meeting and so the shelf group got in contact with him. After presenting their suggestions and after reflecting this he voted for a more traditional-looking, two-piece shelf. He hoped for colors that would brighten the whole shelf in his room. In the late afternoon the cnc cabinet-desk group made a material list for the furniture and for the 1:5 model. At 4:15 p.m. we finished working at school.

In the morning the shelf group started designing shelves more precisely because they now knew what to aim for. The shelf would be made of light wood either solid wood or veneered board. Veneers would have more to do, but massive wood panels would be more expensive. However, colors were wanted inside the shelf, so the group designed colored boxes that could be placed inside the shelf. The parts list and the 3D drawing were put in Dropbox. The group thought about making a prototype today or tomorrow. The CNC cabinet-desk group completed the drawings in 2D and 3D drawing and in the workshop they started to make a 1:5 model of the furniture.

Thursday, 14.11.2019:

The CNC chair group made a new prototype of the chair and optimized some details on the design and the construction. At 3:30 p.m. we left school and went to the Bartholdi Museum, which displays versions of various memorials by Louis Bartholdi, but probably the most important of his work is the Statue of Liberty in New York.

All participants later worked on the self-evaluation and after lunch the members of the project took the train and bus to go to the airport and back to their home countries.

Friday, 15.11.2019:

We started at 9:00 with a discussion based on plans for the Stockholm meeting.

The groups then refined the models. The CNC cabinet-desk model was painted by the group members with the colors the group chosed. The CNC chair group made a more polished model of the chair, modifying the previous one. The shelf team completed the material list and began to work on a prototype of the shelf as a module part of the whole shelf. The models will be stored on the premises of the school for the next time.

Reports of Learning, Teaching, Training activities Colmar from

 

11.11.2019 - 15.11.2019

and

20.01.2020 - 24.01.2020

Acquired skills for trainers and teachers:

 

Improvement of freehand sketching ability and the competence of implementing customers design ideas to the own sketches. Programming capability in the CAD 3D area with software Solidwood, Pytha and AutoCad. Moderation of design process in the classroom with skilled advices for the students. Competence of making cardboard models and prototypes from solid wood and thin MDF or chipboard.