XI Международный конкурс научно-исследовательских и творческих работ учащихся
Старт в науке
Making acrylic formicaria
Автор работы награжден дипломом победителя II степени
Полная версия работы доступна во вкладке "Файлы работы" в формате PDF
Introduction
Nowadays, there are a lot of people who start breeding ants instead of cows or cats. But what is the profit of breeding ants? They give neither meat nor milk like cows nor wool like sheep. But there is a profit! Ants breed fast, so having bought a dozen ants of a rare species, you can make good money on them. In 2 months, their number will increase by about ten times. After that, you can sell insects at auctions, which are currently very popular.
The relevance of the research: Ants-keeping is getting more and more wide-spread. But why should you buy an ant farm? You can build it yourself!
Object: acrylic formicarium
Subject: making a design and drawing creation
Purpose of the research: to summarize information and to design an optimal formicarium model.
The tasks of the research:
to design a formicarium and make its drawing for a laser installation;
to conduct research and select the best material for the formicarium filler;
to study the properties of various materials and choose the best one for making the outer layer of the formicarium.
Stages of the research:
the material search;
choice of the filler material;
obtaining the desired consistency;
design development;
drawing creation
CHAPTER 1. Theoretical Part
Ant Farms
Any person, no matter a child or an adult, will be interested in watching an active ant colony. The walls of the formicarium are transparent. It makes it possible to see the tunnels system, so you can easily follow what is happening inside. The life of the whole anthill is at a glance!
The farm is small enough to fit any place you imagine to set it at: on a shelf, a writing table, or a small bedside table.
All farms are bright and unusual. So, they will become a beautiful element of the decor in your room or a memorable birthday or Christmas gift for a child.
An ant farm helps children to develop their observation skills. They can observe live ants at work. Besides it introduces the amazing world of insects, encourages a love of life science and helps to teach children responsibility.
The formicarium design gives the ants a homey feel because the living conditions for insects are as close to natural ones as possible. Especial chambers create high humidity inside the formicarium, at which the ants feel great. You do not have to clean the tunnel system from the inside because hardworking insects themselves take out the accumulated debris into the built-in arena. In this place, you should leave food for the ants. They will be grateful to you for the treats!
With proper care, the inhabitants of an ant farm can live up to 20 years!
But if you wish, you can always buy ants of a different species and populate them in a second formicarium to compare their behavior.
With the number of ants increasing, you need to increase the size of the farm. The more ants there are, the faster their number increases. In order not to spend much money on branded formicaria (places where ants live), you can learn how to make them yourself.
The Materials for the Formicarium
Below are the materials that we considered. We studied both the advantages and disadvantages of the materials in question.
Gypsum is a mineral from the sulfate class. The fibrous variety of gypsum is called selenite, and the granular fibrous one is called alabaster. In their basic properties, the considered types of semi-aquatic gypsum are mainly the same. The difference is primarily in terms of strength.
The setting time of gypsum depends on the properties of raw materials, manufacturing technology, storage duration, the amount of water introduced, the temperature of the binder and water, mixing conditions, the presence of additives, etc. The setting of gypsum is significantly accelerated when we add it to a reduced amount of water compared to the required for a necessary density dough, and vice versa.
The quick setting of semi-aqueous gypsum is, in most cases, its positive property that makes it possible to remove products from the mold fast.
Wood is one of the most wide-spread materials. It has centuries of experience in construction, furniture production, car building, and other sectors of the national economy.
The main advantages of wood as a material are:
environmental safety of usage;
high lasting properties;
chemical resistance;
low density;
low thermal conductivity and low coefficient of linear expansion;
easy workability.
The only reason we refused to use the wood is that the ingress of moisture on the material (and in our case, the ants need humidity) forms mold. Ants can die because of it. But it is worth noting that wooden formicaria are suitable for the ants that do not require moisture.
Organic glass (plexiglass) is an acrylic resin. Its other name is polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). It is a synthetic vinyl polymer of methyl methacrylate, which is a thermoplastic transparent plastic, also known as acrylic glass, acrylic, metaplex, etc. It can be colored and toned.
Its main advantages are:
• Its light transmittance is 92%, which does not change over time, keeping its original color;
• Its impact resistance is five times higher than that of glass;
• With the same thickness, plexiglass weighs almost 2.5 times less than glass, so the structure does not require additional supports. It creates the illusion of open space;
• It is resistant to moisture, bacteria, and microorganisms;
• It is environmentally friendly. It does not emit any poisonous gases during combustion;
• Its mechanical processing is carried out with almost the same ease as wood processing;
• It is resistant to the external environment, frost resistance;
• It transmits 73% of ultraviolet rays, while UV rays do not cause yellowing and degradation of acrylic glass;
• It is subject to disposal.
Its key disadvantage is that it is subject to superficial damage.
Why did we choose organic glass? Both wood and plastic have one big drawback. The humidity on the ant farm will be very high. Neither wood nor plastic can contact moisture. Wood starts to rot, and plastic loses its transparency, which is not well for both ants and the owner of the farm. So, organic glass was our only choice.
Aerated concrete is a unique high-tech material for the building industry. This material has both insulating and load-bearing properties. It successfully combines the strength of stone and ease of processing. It is environmentally friendly.
Aerated concrete combines the best qualities of building materials because it has high strength, fire, moisture, and frost resistance. This material is not subject to destruction, shrinkage, or decay. And due to its heat and sound insulation properties, it practically does not require additional insulation and soundproofing.
The mop is a sponge used when cleaning floors.
The main advantages of such a mop are:
• it absorbs moisture well;
• the mop is hard when it is dry, and it is very soft when it is wet. Due to this, it is possible to determine whether the farm needs moisture or not;
• low price for a large amount.
The mop has got the following disadvantages:
• When the mop is in a soft state, ants can gnaw the sponge;
• It will be necessary to cut it to the required size all the time.
Nevertheless, we can use the sponge of the mop as a filler because its advantages cancel out the disadvantages.
The filler material choice.
We used gypsum as the best material for the filler. Why did we take gypsum?
1. It keeps moisture for a long time.
2. It absorbs moisture quickly.
3. The strength of gypsum can be different, which makes it possible to experiment with it.
We also considered wood (we rejected it for the above reasons), organic glass (the material is too hard and slippery, so it is difficult for ants to move on it).
Obtaining the required consistency
In order to obtain the required consistency of gypsum we used the instructions to G-16 plaster. The instructions suggested the following options:
1: 1 - hard plaster, ants will not be able to gnaw it
1: 2 - soft plaster, ants can easily gnaw it and escape from the farm
1: 3 - very soft plaster of Paris, which will not create a significant barrier to the ants.
We don't want the ants to run away, so we chose a plaster with a 1: 1 ratio, which is moderately hard and practical.
During the work, we tried 3 samples:
The plaster turned out to be too hard (1: 0.5), so after a minute we could no longer work with it, it hardened too quickly.
Creation of exactly the same formicarium, but only from plaster. The gypsum ratio is 1: 1. As the gypsum hardened, it began to heat up, so the acrylic container began to burst, freeing the ants.
A good option that you can contemplate, consisting of acrylic glass on the outer layer and 1: 1 gypsum on the inner layer.
CHAPTER 2. Practical Part
2.1. Design and shape development
According to the form, formicaria are:
1. Horizontal. These are the so-called "recumbent" formicaria, in which the chambers are oriented along the horizontal plane, as in natural ant nests. They imitate natural structures best of all. Their chambers are more spacious due to the large bottom area. In such formicaria, the sight glass is least dirty, and it is much more convenient to observe the ants.
2. Vertical. In contrast to the horizontal ones, these are formicaria with a vertical orientation of the chambers. They imitate tiered anthills. Their main advantage is that they take up less space. These formicaria are good if you have many families.
3. Hybrid. These are formicaria, combining both the nest itself and the arena in one block. Such formicaria usually resemble an aquarium. For the convenience of observation, a vertical plate is usually used in such structures for an anthill. Such structures in the interior of your apartment look the most presentable.
We stopped at this shape since it is not too large, there is nothing closed in it, so it is convenient to observe and shoot ants.
2.2. Drawing creation
Drawing creation is one of the most crucial stages of all work. Small gap or inaccuracy and the ants will not be on the farm but in your bed. We are very grateful to Trufanov P.A., who helped us here a lot. The drawings were so accurate that everything fell into place perfectly in the final product.
The blueprints we were developing had some problems before becoming accurate. These are both errors from a couple of millimeters to five centimeters, and an incorrect image of formicaria in different planes due to inexperience.
At first, the drawings were developed on A4 paper, since paper is easier to work with, and the eyes do not get tired of the screen. To cut the formicaria with a laser, the drawing was photographed perpendicular to the table and transferred to the CorelDraw2020 program, after which the drawings were loaded into the "brain" of the laser machine, and then cut out.
CHAPTER 3.
Conclusion
We developed a unique optimal model of acrylic formicarium. In our work, we used the advanced technologies, which ensures high accuracy of implementation. The design we developed is universal natural. We hope that ants will love it as well as humans.
LIST OF REFERENCES
http://antshop.ru/node/5
http://www.ytong.ru/_1189.php
http://www.bibliotekar.ru/spravochnik-72/16.htm
http://www.wood.ru/ru/lpsvoy.html
https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9E%D1%80%D0%B3%D0%B0%D0%BD%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%B5%D1%81%D0 % BA% D0% BE% D0% B5_% D1% 81% D1% 82% D0% B5% D0% BA% D0% BB% D0% BE