LED Planter
I was required to design and prototype a functional tabletop LED Herb planter for a kitchen/home environment. The Planter must be fabricated from 1.5mm white ABS plastic only. It has to be left in its raw state, well sanded where needed to a high finish and it must be left unpainted. The Planter must include a section of LED strip light with power cable, above the plant area to serve as a grow light. My design must include a minimum of 3 ‘pot’ areas to house herbs and soil with the volume of at least 100mm x 100mm x 100mm per pot. My design must include at least 1 curve. Light , shadow and overall form have to be considered.
Research
Ideation
The thought process was to explore different shapes, curves as well as cut-outs. This was to get a clear direction of where I want to place the plants, the watering systems as well as drainage. I sketched these designs having those requirements in mind and as well as what would work for me when it would come to developing my chosen idea.
Concept Sketches
REFINED SKETCH
Development
The feedback I received was that the scale of the models were small
Because of the small scale, there would no room for the plant to grow and there would be no space to water the plant when needed
REFINED MOCK-UPS
Following the feedback, I made new mock-ups with the considerations I had to keep in mind.
FINAL CONCEPT MOCK-UP
The reason for choosing this design is because I wanted to challenge myself with the curves because creating curves with ABS plastic is that is hard but achievable.
Manufacture
-To start and make my pots, I drew out the bottom template.
-The bottom template is create a form where I am able to glue the pieces of the pits together.
-After cutting put the bottom template, I cut out the straight pieces for the for the sides of the pots.
-When the straight pieces were cut, they were glued to the side.
-When the straight pieces were glued on, I added the curve of the pot to both the ends of the straight pieces right in the middle.
-When creating the cylinder, I took masking tape and wrapped it around the cut of plastic. This helped with forming the plastic into a cylinder without using heat.
-The glass was used as a reference to cut the circles that close off the top and bottom part of the cylinder. The glass the exact diameter of the circles i needed.
-After drawing the circle, I cut out the circles and glued the circle to the cylinder.
-After the cylinder has been glued to the top and bottom circles, I added the pots to the cylinder.
-I made sure the pots have a big enough gap between them by marking where each pot can fit and will go.
-The remaining space was for the light beam that was going to house the lights.
The LED lights had to be follow the two small thin straight pieces and goes around the round part of the beam.
-After adding the lights along the beam, I made a round 3D structure that can hold the LED lights in there. I made sure to cut out a piece for the adapter so that it can connect a power socket
Outcome
