Kite Workshops
The KITE Workshops provide a working and teaching environment for designing, building, developing and testing prototypes and products. Skilled staff can provide a workspace, tooling and assistance in design and fabrication for internal and external clients. The KITE Workshops also support KITE Labs and KITE facilities, helping to develop and maintain research devices, equipment and environments. The workshops can produce specialized, high-precision, low-volume parts for laboratory or research instrumentation.
The KITE Workshops have three main work areas for project development: the Mechanical Workshop, Wood/Plastic Workshop and Electronics Workshop. Each area provides a complete compliment of machines, tools and accessories required for the production of high-quality parts, components or products in many different materials and processes.
Design
The workshops have computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) computer workstations available with Autodesk (Fusion 360) and Dassault Systems (Solidworks) software. The CAD software can be used to aid in the virtual creation, modification, development, or 2D or 3D visualization of the design of a part or assembly. This provides the freedom to change and perfect a design before manufacturing. AutoDesk Fusion 360 is used to fabricate parts or assemblies with CNC milling, routing and 3D printing in the KITE Workshops. Experienced workshop staff are available to assist with software aided design development, or staff can fabricate client and researcher generated designs.
Electronics Workshop,
IDL (Instrumentation Development Lab)
The Electronics Workshop is used in the repair, manufacture or assembly of electronic equipment, instrumentation and systems used in KITE research projects. The workshop provides workstations with soldering stations, oscilloscopes, multimeters, power supplies, waveform generators and various tools for project testing and assembly, including precision hand tools, wire cutters and strippers, crimping tools and small vices or clamps.
Mechanical Workshop
This workshop provides a variety of metal fabricating equipment including computer numerical control (CNC) and manual milling, turning lathes, vertical and horizontal band saws, drill presses, grinders, sand blaster and metal sheet and tube forming equipment.
The workshop provides work benches with power, clamping and hand tools for measuring, manual fabrication and assembly available for KITE users or collaborators.
The mechanical workshop also provides rapid development in the form of 3D printers for design testing and prototyping. The Ultimaker S5 is a fused deposition modeling (FDM) machine with dual extrusion capability with a build volume up to 330 x 240 x 300 mm. It is capable of printing in a wide variety of materials including PLA, PETG, PP and TPU. A second 3D printer, the FormLab 3L uses stereolithography (SLA). It has dual resin capability with a build volume of 335 x 200 x 300 mm.
Wood/Plastic Workshop
This workshop provides a variety of equipment to construct designs from various wood and plastic materials. Equipment includes panel, table, mitre, scroll and vertical band saws, CNC and manual router tables, thickness planer and, belt, disc and oscillating sanding stations.
The workshop also provides work tables and hand tools for fabricating, clamping and assembling projects.