Hello, thank you for joining me for your design technology lesson.

My name is Mrs. Conway and I will be guiding you through your learning today.

So, today's lesson outcome is, I can use quality control to ensure the manufacturer of my design is successful.

So, we're gonna look a little bit in detail at quality control and how we use that when we're manufacturing.

So, today's keywords are quality control, accuracy, and tolerance.

We'll go through all of these in detail as we work through the lesson.

So, first thing we're gonna look at then is accuracy ensures quality.

Now, quality control checks are put in place just to ensure that a product meets the required standard.

And quality control checks are really important.

We want to make sure that the product is fit for purpose, and those quality control checks are going to help us to do that.

The quality control checks are done throughout the manufacturing process, not just at the end, so it's a constant kind of process that's happening whilst it's being made.

Now, the reason this is done is this just makes sure that the quality is really consistent throughout the manufacturer and also throughout the actual product itself.

So, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What are quality control checks? Are they A, assembling instructions used to guide the manufacturing process, B, prototype testing to explore new design concepts before production, or C, checks put in place to ensure that a product meets the required standard.

Pause the video here just to take a moment to think about that.

And the answer, it was C, quality control checks are checks that are put in place to ensure that a product meets the required standard.

Well done if you got that right.

So, when quality control checks actually take place, they are there to ensure accuracy.

And accuracy is when you are being correct and precise, and I'm sure your teacher has talked a lot about accuracy as you've worked through design and technology units before.

Accuracy when manufacturing is really important, it's vital in fact.

If a process is being rushed or not enough attention is being given to it, then that accuracy can suffer, and this can really affect the quality of a product or a prototype.

A really common term that, again, you may have heard before is measure twice, cut once.

Basically what that means is you need to check your measurements twice to make sure they're correct before you start to cut or remove, which is to subtract material, and this just helps to ensure that accuracy.

Now, quality control checks are set up as systems by the manufacturers themselves, and the systems involve monitoring and inspecting the parts during the manufacture as I mentioned before.

The reason they do this is just to ensure they meet the set standards and also the thing called tolerances.

Now, tolerance is a little bit different in design technology to how you may have heard the meaning of this word before.

So, tolerance is the acceptable range of variation in a product's dimensions.

So, for example, the mechanical pencil that I'm about to show you needs to meet set standards to ensure that all that are made are exactly the same and meet the quality control standards put in place.

Now, the mechanical pencil must be no shorter than 18.

5 centimetres and no longer than 19.

5 centimetres to be within this thing called tolerance.

This is the mechanical pencil.

Now, you can see I've put a little ruler at the bottom of there, and you can see that that's that kind of tolerance outlined there in red, and that is between that 18.

5 centimetres and that 19.

5 centimetres.

And you'll also be able to see that the mechanical pencil falls right in the middle of that at 19 centimetres.

So, it measures halfway in between the two measurements of 18.

5 and 19.

5 by being exactly 19 centimetres long.

That means it's within the tolerance and would pass the quality control check.

Now, a product's tolerance is shown as a number with a plus and a minus sign in front of it, so you've got the plus on the top and the minus below it, and that's there to show a range of possible values.

So, for example, the tolerance of this mechanical pencil we were looking at before is 19 millimetres plus minus 0.

5 millimetres.

So, the acceptable size range of this mechanical pencil is 18.

5 millimetres and 19.

5 millimetres.

And again, we know this, we can see this on the ruler, so hopefully that kind of makes sense.

So, let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

What word means a range of acceptable measurements? Is it A, calibration, B, precision, or C, tolerance? Feel free to pause the video here, just take a moment to think about that.

And the answer, it was C, tolerance.

Well done if you got that right.

So, the more accurate you can be when measuring your product for quality control checks, the better.

Accuracy is always key.

Using small units of measurements such as millimetres are always the best way to ensure accuracy.

Now, here we've got an example of a tool that can be used to conduct quality control checks, and this is a digital vernier calliper.

And it can measure to an accuracy of 100th of a millimetre.

So, extremely accurate.

You might wanna ask your teacher if they've got an example one in the classroom.

It can measure outside of dimensions as well as inside dimensions and depth.

Now, another way to ensure accuracy is using a jig, and this can be used just to ensure that quality and accuracy during manufacture.

Here's an example of a jig, and this is a pewter casting pouring jig.

Again, ask your teacher for some examples that they may have in the workshop.

Jigs can be homemade and they may have been made by your teacher or by a technician.

You might also wanna consider in your own manufacturing creating your own jig sometimes A jig is a tool that's used to hold and guide a piece of material or part in place whilst it's being worked on.

And again, that just helps to ensure accuracy, but also consistency by controlling the location and the movement of the part drawing processes such as drilling, cutting, or shaping or forming.

All right, let's just do a quick check for understanding.

Which one of these images shows a digital vernier calliper, is it A, B, or C? Pause the video here, just take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was B.

You can just see the top of that calliper there.

Now, quality control checks are decided upon and identified at specific stages of the manufacturing process.

And here we've got a section of Laura's time plan for manufacture.

Now, Laura previously wrote a time plan for her manufacturer using a Gantt chart layout.

Now, Laura has added a column for quality control checks that she now needs to complete, but she's started it here by completing the first one.

And you can see that column, it's just labelled QC checks going down.

Now, quality control checks, a lot of the times, they are things that you would be doing subconsciously anyway.

So, the example Laura has given here is check for dents and scratches in surface when she's sourcing the cardboard.

Now, the likeliness is is that you would naturally be doing that as you're picking out your cardboard, so it's a case of just really thinking through those checks that you would be doing anyway, but really making a note of them and doing them consciously.

So, before we go on, what quality control checks do you think Laura could do for the next steps? And her next step is complete drawing on CAD.

So, take a moment just to think about your answer.

You may wish to discuss it with a partner and feel free to pause the video just to take a moment to think about that.

Okay, so you may have come up with that Laura would really need to check all of the dimensions on her CAD drawing are correct.

And she can do this by checking against her orthographic drawing.

She would just go through each of those measurements and make sure they're the same as what is she's drawn on CAD.

And she would make sure that she carried out these checks before moving on to the next stage of manufacture.

So, the quality control check list or column that she's put into a Gantt chart are almost like a little tick list to make sure and ensure that she's completed it and that she's happy with all of those checks before she moves on to the next stage.

Right, time for you to have a go at this.

I'd like you to look at your time plan and just consider what quality control checks you can put in place throughout your manufacturer to ensure that the standards are met.

Once you've had a little think about this, I'd like you to add your quality control checks to your time plan.

Okay.

Good luck with this task.

Pause the video here to have a go.

Right, how did you get on with this task? You can see Laura's just explaining what she's done here.

She says, "I've added quality control checks on to each stage of my manufacturer so that I know what to check to make my product accurate so as to ensure a quality product." And here is an example of Laura's Gantt chart with those quality control checks column now completed.

Feel free to have a little look at this in a little bit more detail, but you can see, just as we discussed, for complete drawing on CAD, she's putting sure dimensions are correct, into a correct scale.

The next one, when she's actually just testing the quality of the cardboard and the laser cutter, that's actually part of her manufacturing process, but she's actually just confirmed that in the quality control checks, test cut settings on scrap of same material.

As I said, feel free to pause the video if you would like to just read some of those in more detail, but just compare that with yours.

Yours will have slightly different answers of course, as it's your specific product and it's gonna have slightly different manufacturing processes and hence slightly different quality control checks, but hopefully that gives you an idea to compare against.

Okay, so next, we're gonna look at quality control in manufacture.

Now, quality control checks can be implemented whilst using the laser cutter.

And Laura is planning on using CAD/CAM in the manufacturer of her herb planter, and she's outlined really specific quality control checks that she will need to do to ensure accurate and high quality prototype.

And we just looked at these previously, but this was Laura's Gantt chart or her time plan for manufacture with the quality control checks added in specifically for when using the laser cutter.

So, Laura now needs to manufacture her product using her time plan and her decided upon quality control checks.

Now, Laura needs to check her CAD files of the correct dimensions and she was doing that against her orthographic plan.

She next needs to check her settings are correct on the laser cutter to cut through her chosen material of corrugated card.

So, this is her next stage and her next quality control check that she needs to carry out.

Now, Laura would do this by cutting out one singular piece of her product on scrap card, card of the same material that she's planning on using.

This would help her just to check the cut settings as well as the dimensions of her product.

So, this is an example of Laura's test piece.

Now, the checks to make on this test piece then, she wants to check the thickness of the cut line as well as the position of the cut line, whether the cut line has gone through all of the material really cleanly as well as the size and the shape of the test piece.

And she'd wanna check all of those as part of her testing and quality control checks.

Now, the first one, the thickness of the cut line, might seem a little bit strange, but if your laser cutter isn't focused correctly, that cut line can be quite thick and then it loses a little bit of its accuracy.

Let's just do a quick check for understanding on that.

Which of these would not be a check that would need to be carried out on a test piece on a laser cutter? A, the thickness of the cut line, B, the colour of the engraved line, or C, whether the cut line has gone through all of the material cleanly.

Pause the video here just take a moment to think about your answer.

And the correct answer was B, the colour of the engraved line is a check you would not need to do when testing a cut piece on a laser cutter.

The test piece can be measured using those digital callipers that I showed you previously, and that would help to ensure that the product is the size that has been drawn on the CAD file and falls within tolerance.

So, here's an example of Laura using the digital callipers just to check that it is within the tolerance.

Laura also now needs to check her next stage.

So, her next stage was produce final component, and she has said that she needs to ensure all pieces cut to the same quality and the card has not slipped.

Now, to make sure that card has not slipped, she needs to just check the masking tape is holding her cardboard in place and it's not slipping whilst the lays cutter is in use, as this, again, it could affect the accuracy of the cut.

Now, not all materials need to be held down with masking tape and a laser cutter, but card can be quite lightweight, and sometimes it's needed.

Now, if needed more masking tape could then be applied or a better placement of masking tape may take place.

So, as part of the quality control checks, not only are you actually checking things or working in the way that they should, but you are then making those corrections where they are needed.

Now, it's only when the test piece has passed the quality control check would you then move on to run off a batch of the panels at once.

You wouldn't immediately go on to run off a whole batch of panels unless were really happy with how the test piece had gone through and all those quality control checks had been passed.

Right, time for you to have a go.

Using your time plan and your quality control checks that you've recorded on there, I'd like you to manufacture your product using the laser cutter or other processes that you've selected and carry out those quality control checks that you have recommended as you manufacture.

It's a really good idea to record your manufacturing through photos and explanations, so I'd like you to do that during this task and also just make a note of any quality control checks that you've carried out.

Okay, pause the video here to have a go at this task and good luck.

How did you get on with that task? Hopefully you've now got a finished prototype that you're really happy with and that you're especially happy with the accuracy because you followed your quality control checks during the manufacturing of it.

Now, below is an example of the quality control checks that Laura carried out just for this specific part.

I'm just gonna show you one part of it.

So, this particular part of our manufacturing process was to test the lamination joining technique and then batch glueing.

And her quality control check for this was to test set up of jig and use of jig to ensure correct lineup of layers during the lamination process.

And you can see in the picture, she's actually just used a try square to work as a jig here, and this is perfectly fine.

Sometimes, jigs might be things that you've just got lying about and that will do the job quite nicely.

And she's just using this jig or this try square just to ensure that the layers are all lined up correctly, and she's explained this here.

"I've used a try square as a jig to ensure all of my pieces line up with each other when glueing them together." Now, yours is going to be slightly different, but this is just to give you an idea to compare against.

Okay, so let's just summarise today's lesson.

We've been looking at quality controls specifically for papers and boards.

Now, quality control checks are put in place to ensure that a product meets the required standard.

And quality control checks are done throughout the manufacturing process, not just at the end, and this is to ensure that quality is consistent throughout.

Now, accuracy when manufacturing is vital, and if a process is being rushed or not enough attention is given, the accuracy can suffer and this can affect the quality of a product or a prototype.

Quality control checks are set up as systems by the manufacturers, and the systems involve monitoring and inspecting parts during manufacture, ensuring that they meet standards and also tolerances.

Well done for all your hard work on this lesson and thank you so much for joining me, and hopefully you're really happy with your finished prototype.

Thank you very much and I will see you soon.