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I am currently in the middle of working on my fouth year design project, and my group has decided to create an open-source accesible Schlieren imaging system. These systems are used to observed fluid patterns that cannot be seen with the naked eye, and using a technique called background oriented schlieren (BOS), properties such as fluid density, temperature and flow patterns can be observed. Given we are in the early stages of the project, we don't have any physical prototypes of our final setup, but we have done trials and are developing experimental results. Some general examples of BOS can be seen on the right.
A school project that was assigned to our class last year was to work in groups and find a way to move a 20-sided die from point A to point B. My group decided to build a robot, as pictured on the left. This project was a lot of fun because of how open-ended it was, and were able to successfully complete the challenge then present our solution in a symposium. We designed and manufactured our robot, as well as programmed the path that it was required to move the die along in Matlab. The arm rotated using a large bearing in the base of the robot, and the design allowed for 4 degrees of freedom of movement, and it was powered using servo motors. This project also included a heavy portion of project management, including the use of a Gantt chart and risk register.
One of my projects at a recent co-op placement was to create a stop on both sides of the cart, shown to the right, that will prevent a pallet from rolling off when it is not in use. The stops are supported by 4-bar link mechanisms, and are held in the raised position by springs. To lower the pallet stop, the team member will push down on one of the foot pedals, compressing the springs. When they require the stops to be up again, they simply release the pedal and the springs are rigid enough to support the mechanism.
Below is another one of my projects from a recent placement. This is one of the corners of a floater base for a transfer press, and some issues were presented with the old clamping mechanism (shown on the left). With this mechanism, to allow the green portion of the floater base to move along the shaft there is a clamp, shown in orange, that is bolted to the top green plate. Engaging the threads by tightening the bolt would cause the clamp to move upward, creating tension with the shaft, which would stop the green portion from sliding side to side. One of the issues presented with this is that the workers at this station would not release the tension before trying to move the green part along the shaft, therefore damaging the shaft and weakening the clamp. The other issue is that since the clamp kept becoming looser and looser from the first problem, the operators would have to tighten the bolt to the point where the threads became stripped. This has happened multiple times, and so the bolt has gotten larger and larger (from an M8 to an M12, which is also becoming stripped).
To fix these issues, I worked alongside my boss to develop a new method to clamp the green part of the floater base. To the right is the newly designed corner, that includes a new top plate shown in blue, a D-wedge collar to be used as the clamp, and a casing for said clamp, shown in purple. We decided to leave the orange clamp on and remove the bolt so that these modifications can be done quickly, and leaving the block there will have no effect on the mechanism. The collar pictured below is not the exact one that will be used, but it is the closest CAD model that could be found. The actual clamp has a quick-release handle so that adjustments can be made quickly and smoothly. The purple casing is to keep the clamp secured, with the spacing between the top of the clamp and the bottom of the casing calculated to allow for some rotation of the clamp, but not enough for the clamp to rotate over 5 degrees. Lastly, the new top plate was designed to hold the new and pre-existing pieces together. I was able to help with the manufacturing of this new mechanism by milling the clamp casing myself.
This is a cart that is used to carry doors horizontally. It has three parts, the metal frame, the wooden piece, as well as the UHMW piece. I created the drawings on the left from pre-existing variations of this cart and was in charge of fabrication and assembly. The final product is shown in the image below.
This cart is used to move large doors and windows (up to 8ft wide and 12ft tall!) from assembly tables to an industrial wrapper, and on to the shipping truck. I created the drawing and managed the fabrication.
This cart is an optimized version of a pre-existing one at the site. It was created to have an optimized base which improved the movement of these carts. The size of the base was decreased by 45%. I created the drawing and managed fabrication.
This is a paint shaker stand and rolling table which was designed to make an ergonomically safe environment for the operators in the paint department. This stand creates a safe base for the shaker to sit on, and the rolling table is used to roll the large barrels of paint into the shaker.
These parts are used in combination with a barrel lifter, which will raise the barrels of paint to the height of the roller table. This removes the risk of injury of the operator from having to lift these heavy barrels manually.
Below is a stapler sled, created to help the operator control the stapler when it is used in the position shown in the photos below. The stapler was used in this position for about 90% of the total usage time. The drawing is one of the more complicated drawings that I completed, due to the required shape to fit on the stapler. This sled was made of UHMW.
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