Panasonic designed these lockers to be a kind of Amazon drop-off locker, specifically created for heated & chilled produce or other items that rely on temperature-controlled storage. The full cabinet could not be created in time for a series of trade shows, and so I was tasked with reproducing a scale replica for use as a display piece for the trade floor, and as a prop for investor and customer presentations.
Development
Panasonic were kind enough to provide the original CAD files for the cabinets, but unfortunately these were designed for specific manufacturing processes and were unusable in their original form for 3D printing. I ended up recreating the entire cabinet design from scratch, including a redesign of the internal structures, so that a final printed prototype could be assembled and displayed with sufficient rigidity and strength to survive an extended display life cycle.
Creation
Other than a complete redesign of the internal structure, I also had to accomodate for the scaling-down of various components of the model. One main area in need of an update were the door hinges, as the original hinge mechanisms would have been too small once scaled down to be functional on the prototype. A new set of hinges using long metal rods were used, allowing for all the doors to be opened and closed independently. The doors on one set of cabinets were also outfitted with custom-cut acrylic ‘viewing windows’, as per the original specification for one of the cabinet designs.
The cabinets were mostly assembled using overlapping panel plates and secured with bolts and epoxy resin.
