Foam compost test
I saw this as my only time to really test the compostability of my foam and so first thing i did was take 4 of my samples, all with different strength and compression levels and buried them in a dorment compost. These were by foams before:
I will revisit them in two weeks to see what the difference is like.
Sole development
I revisited an earlier concept and made a model to help me decide which sole i will use.
Between my two soles i decided to go ahead with the voronoi speackled sole from my final design presentation as it gave me more room to work with.
The sole form works best for creating a shell where the tailor made voronoi structure can fill in. I am also able to use the cells individually to change for the best overall function, Such as; using the larger cells in the center of the heel and forefoot as these will absorb most impact, they also reduce wear from traction as appose to smaller pieces, I can remove the cells in the arch to help with flexibility, I can speckle the cells around the heel and forefoot to represent the dispersion of the force while walking, and i am also able to utilise the top row of empty cells along the edge for stitching the upper onto.
Next I needed to work out how this will be printed, i ran a test to see what it would be like printing with no support and separating the tread from the shell.
This worked a lot better than trying to print in one go, a few tweaks were made by increasing the height of the tread so it pushed through and held better. To glue the tread on i simply used superglue and thought once the foam was poured in this will also help keep everything together.
Rik Olthuis Design 