Connor Moelmann Students! (CMS) Blog

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Final Reflection: Michael Frontera

ME250 has, in many ways, been a great learning experience for me with respect to the design and manufacturing process. Perhaps the first thing that became very clear to me was the delicate balancing act that must be performed between choosing a design, and choosing a design that can be manufactured in a given time frame. For this reason, I think all else being equal it is very important to keep the design simple, while still meeting project specifications and requirements. Our design, for example, was a relatively simple one, with the drivetrain being the only actively powered component. Nonetheless, when it came time to move from the drawing board to the machine shop, many unforeseen problems and issues still arose which one might imagine would be even further compounded by a more complex design. A good example of the disconnect we experienced between our design and the final manufactured machine was with regard to gear alignment. While it is fairly easy to make everything line up well in a CAD model, translating that into the real world takes some machining ability. Now don’t get me wrong, Bob and Mark were extremely helpful at answering any questions that I might have had. Despite this, the limiting factor is always going to be the machinist who may or may not be able to get the part within the required tolerance. My takeaway from all of this would be to not fear taking risks in the design process, insofar as they are risks that would yield a benefit greater than the perceived risk while being able to be completed in the given timeframe. With regard to teamwork, I think it is essential to be open to the free interplay of ideas and to not rush to judgment with regard to ideas that may seem outlandish or unconventional. Of course, there are bound to be conflicts and disagreements in any team – that is simply human nature. The key is to handle them in a level-headed manner, letting rational discussion and not emotion win the day. Another lesson learned is the great importance of proactivity when undertaking a large project such as this one. If you don’t stay on top of the task at hand, things tend to compound very quickly and can leave you scrambling to make up for lost time. Overall, I think the course was organized fairly well and I appreciate all of the behind the scenes work that was put in by the professors and GSI’s to get the class off the ground. Several recommendations I would make would be to allow teams to start manufacturing earlier so as to spread out the student load in the shop and I found the ctools site a bit scattered and difficult to navigate as well.

Team Video

Reflections - Eugene Bong

ME250 was the first design class that I’ve taken in the University and it has been quite an interesting learning experience. The class introduced me to SolidWorks, the first CAD software that I have used, and I found it to be a very useful tool in the design process. I think that it’s a good idea to start with SolidWorks, which I have heard is one of the easier CAD softwares to learn. However, it would be even better to teach us how to use the other capabilities of the software, such as the simulation capabilities that I believe was mentioned in lecture. The material covered in lecture made me realize how many things we had to consider when designing a product. While going through the design and manufacturing stages, I realized that the process often involved trying something, and then going back to the drawing board to deal with unanticipated issues. The manufacturing process also taught me to understand the differences that could arise between the CAD and the final product due to our lack of machining skills. We also often had to deal with issues on the fly, and take setbacks in our stride. Teamwork was crucial in this project, and I am grateful that the members of the team pulled their weight, and complemented each other’s strengths. Conflicts were inevitable but we usually managed to resolve them quickly and move forward in the project. The class reminded me of how important it is to be open to ideas and opinions, and also how important it was to have a mediator in the group. It would have been disastrous if the group fell apart. Time management was one extremely important aspect that I feel we did not do too well in. When the project first started out, I underestimated the difficulty of the project and felt like we had plenty of time. As a result, it became a frantic rush towards the end of the project. Luckily for us, it all worked out, and the project ended on a fairly good note. Nonetheless, if repeated, I would probably want to start working on the project earlier, and spread out the work a little better over the semester. I thought that the course was a little disorganized at times, and instructions were sometimes unclear. This was especially apparent in the homeworks, where I often did not understand what they expected us to do. Also, because so much material was covered in during lecture, it was sometimes difficult to find what is needed for the homeworks. Another issue was the apparent disconnect between the machine shop and the GSIs when we first started machining. I understand that everybody is busy, and that they’re trying their utmost, however, it would still have been nice to have consistent instructions. Things worked out as time went on, however. Finally, I found the CTools page to be hard to navigate and it often took quite some time to find the document or information that I was looking for.

Final Bill of Materials

Final Bill of Materials

Final Cost: $15.96

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Pole Adaptive Design

When we first design our machine to do the strategy of getting the red and black balls on top of the tower, we found out that the tower had some kind of flap extension which will cause problems when we are trying to get the black ball. The upper arm will hit the flap, which makes the machine not able to reach the black ball.

Therefore, we came up with an idea of using a spring steel and a magnet which enables the upper arm to deflect when it hits the flap, and then turn it back to the original condition.

We also intentionally made the lower arm tilted at an angle to make sure that the black ball falls to the designated slope area. It also turns out that making it at an angle will help the lower arm to reach the black ball easier.

This is the physical image of the arm after manufacturing process.