Week 3

Overview of Status of Analysis, Design, Fabrication, Tests, etc.

• Further and more complete strain gauge analysis and design has been done

• Old hard drive tester has been tested and works, waiting on a power source

• Friday fabrication on the ice dish will be done

Accomplishments from Previous Week

• Contacted more strain gauge companies including semiconductor strain gauge company (Vishay,  (Daniel C., Bryan)

• More bending beam analysis (Daniel W. , Daniel C.)

• Alternate measuring methods – optics (Daniel W.)

• Obtained sample shim stock (Paulo)

• Ordered variety of shim stock (Daniel W.)

Goals for Next Week (list names after each item). Use specific and measurable objectives.

• Dish fabrication (Bryan, Daniel C.)

• Finalized strain gauge (Daniel W., Bryan)

• Finalized beam design (Daniel W.)

• CAD drawing of table and strain gauge set up (Daniel C., Paulo)

• Smooth ice creation in the dish (Paulo)

Sponsor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments

• Sponsor’s assistant was worried about the vibrations of the motor from the finalized design

• Sponsor provided an old hard drive tester which features a smooth rotating turn table with a RPM reading mechanism.

• Wants us to run deflection tests on beams (to compare to our calculations)

• Ordered shim stock to begin deflection tests

• Finalize design and pricing before we get any money

• Further research on optimal strain gauges and practical deflection tests to prove our calculations

• Sponsor would like the team to obtain free power source.

• The machine is old with no power supply. We talked to various lab assistants to acquire this and one seemed confident he could find one.

• Sponsor wanted a physical dish attachment

• We have designed a dish and will be fabricating it on Friday

• Sponsor said the selected load cell was not sensitive enough for our application. Sponsor  recommended using bending beam with strain gauges

• Actively researching strain gauge and beam combination suitable for this project also looked at alternative methods

Instructor Comments from Last Meeting and Actions Taken to Address these Comments

• Look into strain gauges. Are strain gauges able to measure such small amounts of force? Research several companies which specialize in selling load cells and strain gauges. (Vislay, Futek, Omega)

• Actively researching strain gauge and beam combination suitable for this project.   

• Ask the sponsored about the noise and data

• Noise will be reduced with such a smooth rotating device. Sponsor also noted the higher the deflection of the beam the lower the noise. Incorporation of Wheatstone bridge.

Risks and Areas of Concern

• Selecting a strain gauge and beam combination to get the most accurate reading for friction

Resources or Information Required but not Available

• We would like to use a large freezer to test the hard drive tester which was provided. We have no knowledge about the tester because it is so old and would like to see its performance at low temperatures

Schedule

• Purchasing strain gauge (Bryan, Daniel C.)

• Dish fabrication (Jorge, Daniel W, Paulo)

• Request Sample from Professor Jin

• Brainstorm modification idea of the Hard Drive Tester (All)

Budget (list amount spent and amount remaining)

• Working with Professor Talke and Professor Jin and will have a better idea next week

Progress on Report and Webpage

• Webpage has been launched  

• Report?