Reverse Engineering Project
Evidence of Work:
(Expand Out On Report Seen Below Will Bring You to a Google Doc)
Breif Description of Project:
The reverse engineering project was one of my favorite projects to date. We started off the project by choosing an object to take apart, study, and re-design. We chose a nerf gun. We were asked to analyze our objects using the different steps of reverse engineering. These steps include functional analysis, strcutural analysis, material analysis, and manufacturing analysis. The other part of the project was to create a new and improved version of your product. The researching component was the biggest part of the project though. For example in the functional analysis you are required to analyze the electrical and non-electrical components of the gun and state how they work together. Although this may seem like an easy task let me re-assure you it is not. The information aroud the ner guns electrical components such as the circuit board and thermistor was exremely hard to find. And you didnt just have to find the names you had to figure out what components interact with eachother in what ways to complete a task within the nerf gun.
Content:
The main engineering content that we went over this unit was the concept of reverse engineering. The definition of reverse engineering is a strategy used to find answers to questions about an existing product that are used in the design of another product. Some of these questions could be questions like what makes this product a product that consumers love or other things in that spectrum. We asked this question when we were inspecting the nerf gun. We came up with the hypothesis that the spring potential energy is what attracts consumers since it controls how far the nerf dart goes. There are many reasons for reverse engineering in the real world such as to make a more competitive market, to determine what is causing failure, to provide documentation, or even to develop CAD and CNC electronic data.
Reflection:
Overall I think that the reverse engineering project went very well for me. I learned how to surf the internet extremely in depth for information I don't have about objects such as circuit boards or the components of those circuit boards. I also think that me and my group both got a lot better in communicating our skills to eachother which truly allowed to full potential of our group to arise. I believe that everyone got a part that they were passionate about working on which makes it alot easier for you to do good quality work. One thing that I think could have gone a little better was the detailing of our blue prints. Our blue prints on our presentation were very miniscule and hard to see. If we would have blown them up and added more labeling I think that the audience would have been able to percieve our object much easier, and that can be important if your selling your item especially.