Reconceptualizing - Week Three

After purchasing materials, including a large piece of glass, we realized that the size of the oven needs to be smaller for the conceptual design. The materials were too large to transport, so we are going to create an oven around the size of a shoebox (about 12x10) for the prototype instead.

We considered using styrofoam, concrete, wood, or clay for the insulation materials. The melting point of styrofoam is too low to withstand the temperatures that this oven will reach so we had to consider other options. Concrete would have been difficult to work with and not very accessible, and wood would have absorbed a lot of the heat from the oven. After much contemplation and research, we decided on using clay as our insulation material because it will keep the heat in and is easily accessible just about everywhere. 

For the reflective materials of the box, we have a lot of options. The interior of a juice box is reflective, so that is a possible reflective material for this design. Using the juice boxes would also provide another opportunity to recycle and maintain a sustainable design. We could also use foil pans as our reflective material because they are durable and accessible. We need to consider the options further and test out which material will produce the best results. 

This week allowed us to finalize a lot of the design aspects of this project to make this device as efficient and accessible as it can be. Moving forward, we will build our prototype and begin testing to improve the design as much as we can.