Week 4

 Week 4 Blog,

For this week, we were tasked to select appropriate materials for our chemical product, the non-electrical air-conditioner. To be precise we were focusing on the transparent sheet on the face shield of our product.

To figure out the desired materials we had to take into account the possible materials that would be sustainable and productive. In this century, the few most admired materials that are used are nanomaterials, biomaterials and green materials. Then there are the conventional materials that are used widely, which are natural materials, metals, ceramic, polymers and composites each with their own advantages and disadvantages.

Hence to select potential materials, we had concluded certain criteria that were essential for the selection of the potential materials. These criteria are cost, density machinability, opacity, tensile strength and polluting effect.

Cost to be cheap as face shields are to be made in bulks.

Density to be low to be kept lightweight for easy portability 

Machinability to be a high-value easy change of shape to be shaped to cover the face 

Opacity to be transparent so it can be used for its purpose

Tensile strength to be strong enough to withstand a fall

Polluting effect to have low-value as to minimise harm to the environment when disposed of.

After consideration of the above statement, we had thought of 3 potential materials that could be used and put the 3 materials in a COWS matrix to determine the best material to be used.

As seen for the COWS matrix above, we have come to the conclusion that the material used for the transparent sheet on the face shield to be Acrylic. Although a major disadvantage is that is it more expensive.

Next, we had to decide on the material used for the headband of the face shield so it can be worn. Again 3 materials were thought of and a COWS matrix was used to determine which was the most suitable. 

So from the COWS matrix, we had decided to use polycaprolactone as it had the highest point value compared to the other 2 materials. Although it has the same disadvantage as the material used for the transparent sheet of the face shield which is cost.

Thank you for reading!