Mechanisms Skillbuilder

Project Overview

In this project, my peers David Bai, Elden Liu, and I worked in a group of three to design and fabricate a model of a mechanical movement. This project enhanced our abilities to 2D model in AutoCAD, laser-cut, utilize and build off of low fidelity prototypes.

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Chosen Mechanism

We chose to model mechanical movement #157. This mechanism involved four parts. The circle rotates causing an arm to move one of two ends of an L-shaped block that pivots around its corner. This motion transfers into an up and down motion for the last arm.

The first part of the project was for each member of the group to design a low fidelity prototype . These involved manual cutting of cardboard and the use of quick construction methods such as the use of tape and hot glue

David's Prototype

This low fidelity prototype utilized brass fasteners and many strips of cardboard. It was able to complete the expected motion.

Elden's Prototype

This low fidelity prototype utilized tape and brass fasteners. There was an issue as it could not complete the full range of motion due to a small L-shaped block.

My Prototype

This prototype was roughly cut utilizing a boxcutter. It used brass fasteners and hot glue. One idea from this prototype that we ended up really liking and adding to our final design was a small wooden peg with a 0.25 inch diameter to make it easier to turn the wheel and start the mechanical movement. It was barely able to complete the expected motion as the rough use of hot glue made it easy to get caught

Prototype Evaluation and Final Product Planning

After evaluating the prototypes, we decided to use a design very similar to my prototype. However, we would laser cut the cardboard to create it. To accomplish this, we drafted the parts in AutoCAD.

AutoCAD File 1

This AutoCAD file was almost a prototype in itself. We drafted a bunch of extra pieces that we were not sure if we would need or not. We ended up not using many of the pieces displayed here. One of our pieces here also caused a major issue.

Autocad File 2

This AutoCAD file was created after we built a prototype utilizing the first file and realized it could not complete the full range of motion due to the L-shaped block not being long enough. We did some measuring and made this file to laser cut the piece.

Final Mechanism

This is an image of our final mechanism that we created after our second laser cut. It utilizes a very similar design to my prototype with a wooden peg hot glued to the wheel to make it easier to turn. Parts are fastened utilizing brass fasteners and hot glue. The base was made out of the extra cardboard from the second cut. Overall, the final design works very well and completes the expected mechanical movement.

Video

Here is a video displaying the motion of our final design.

Video_2.mov

Conclusion

After building low fidelity prototypes, evaluating them, drafting our laser cuts in AutoCAD, and putting together the final design, my group and I completed this skillbuilder project. By partaking in this project, we learned and practiced valuable engineering design process skills such as protyping, evaluating, and generating ideas. We learned how to laser cut, find materials in FYELIC, and learned a lot about the process of modeling motion and how certain factors may limit it. Overall, this was a fun and informative project that helped us gain experience and knowledge toward becoming better engineers.

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