Brief
Design a 3D printed musical instrument using at least 3 additive manufacturing techniques. My team decided to create a brand new instrument.
Inspiration
BagPipes 
Koto 
Harp
The team wanted to combine these three items into a shoulder mounted harp. By experimenting with a string it was found that by splitting the string by a 1:1.23 ratio would result in a 3:2 frequency ratio.
Test
Before committing to a design a test piece was printed to check the string frequencies and shape. For the test a rubber band was used to simulate a string. This resulted in a “dull” sounding note but was able to confirm our length calculations.
Development
Final Design
All design was done in Fusion 360.
The final design featured an open sound box to same material and 8 notes
Processes Used
- Stereolithography
- Formlabs 2-Headstock
- Fused Deposition Modeling
- Maker Bot Replicator- Bridge, Shoulder Pad, test pieces
- Markforged Onyx One- Soundboxes
BOM
| Part | AM Process | Material | Cost ($) | Print Time (h) |
| Headstock | SLA-FormLabs | Photopolymer resin | 20 | 10 |
| Should Box | FDM-Markforged | Onyx | 45 | 21 |
| Chest Box | FDM-Markforged | Onyx | 31 | 15 |
| Bridge | FDM-Markerbot | PLA | 9.8 | 16 |
| Shoulder Pad Upper | FDM-Makerbot | PLA | 6 | 8 |
| Shoulder Pad Lower | FDM-Makerbot | PLA | 6 | 10 |
| Guitar Strings | Externally Sourced | Nylon/Steel | 14 | – |
| Tuning Pegs | Externally Sourced | Coated Steel | 9 | – |
Assembly
All parts were designed for easy assembly. As the instrument was not printed as one unit many parts were outfitted with pegs. The headstock had pins to attach with glue to the upper chest. The two shoulder pads also had alignment pins and were attached with glue. The two sound boxes were bolted together with the bridge fitting over the joint and held in place by the string tension.
ARK
Spring 2017
Reed Truax
Aishwarya Uniyal
Kevin Reju Shariah
reed 