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Mechanical Winch Project
During this project, I used a motor to power a mechanical winch that carries a heavy payload. The goal of the project was to create the most efficient winch by maximizing force or weight of the payload and speed to electrical power used. When creating a final solution, our team kept the goal of having the best efficiency in the back of our minds. When dissecting the Power Out equation “Power Out = WorkTime,” a constant would be the distance of the string holding the payload at about 45 cm. The time (seconds) and force (grams) are the two main factors that would directly affect the overall power. Having a big barrel would decrease the amount of time it takes for the string to wind up due to a high linear speed (decrease in denominator), but the overall torque force would decrease as well (decrease in numerator). On the other hand, having an extremely small barrel would result in the winch taking longer to wind up the string due to a smaller linear velocity (increase in denominator), but the winch would be able to lift a lot more weight (increase in numerator.) The solution to maximize power input would be to find the best ratio between linear speed and torque output. By using the NetLogo simulations, our team found that the current gear ratio implemented into the final prototype would optimize efficiency. Our system input was 1.08 watts, with the voltage being 9V and the current 0.12A. When obtaining measurements for our machine, we found that the system consistently took about 73 seconds to bring the weight (attached to 45 cm of string) to the top, despite increasing weights. We used this to our advantage, and after increasing the weight to 11.214 N, we found that our mechanical winch machine had a mechanical output power of 0.0691 watts and an efficiency of 6.4%. After reviewing other winches in the class, our build was the most efficient model, with a sturdy frame and a realistic torque to speed ratio if I was to create a life-size scale of the winch. Additionally, this project could be applied to a real life scenario, using mechanical energy to create the winch and industrial engineering to optimize the efficiency. The parts of the project that I specifically completed include finding the optimal gear ratio for the highest efficiency as possible, building the model winch system, finding a mounting solution for the Fisher Tech motor to Vex parts, as well as documentation.
Bridge Design Project
For this project, our team was asked to design the best bridge that spans the set length of the Bridge Designer 2016 application at a price under $300,000 and an elevation of 12 to 24 feet. After completing research on different elements of successful bridges, I created different archetypes of bridges to test. After creating a decision matrix highlighting criteria such as overall bean stress, aesthetics, stability, and design originality, different elements of the two top designs were used to create the ultimate bridge. My cross bridge and my partners arch bridge were used when considering which archetype to build upon. The pier on my bridge was deleted after noticing that the bridge would move on either side of it, conserving money to reinforce the affected beams. My partner’s arch was condensed, saving material and weight while keeping strength. The leftover money was used to create a top arch to bear any extra stress on the bottom beam, keeping the beam members under minimal stress while keeping the bridge from any sort of sagging in the middle. The bottom and top arches bear the weight and stress of the bridge while the beams directly under the road are under virtually no stress, resulting in the smoothest ride possible for the drivers. I was very proud of my work as it represents my love for civil engineering as well as my competitiveness and determination to put my best work forward. My documentation can be found here.
The Industrial Dryer
This project showcases the use of four simple machines including sprockets, simple gear trains, compound gear trains, and a pulley belt. This machine is powered via crank, and models a prototype for an industrial dryer which dries clothing manually. The clothing is brought up on a belt, dumped into a funnel, squeezed by the crushing gears, then air dried on a slower moving conveyor belt. This project was the first time in which I had used Vex parts before, so learned how to use all of the parts, including the ones used for each of the four simple machines. I learned how to build the frame out of the C channels and flat metal. I introduced myself to bearings, which decreased the friction between the axles and the frame, which substantially increased our efficiency overall. Some of the specific parts of the project that I completed were designing the majority of the dryer, building the components of the dryer, as well as fining the overall efficiency of the model. Overall, this project took a very long time, as we had underestimated how long it takes to assemble each component to the frame of the machine. Overall, it was extremely fun experimenting with the different stages of the model and have learned valuable experience on building techniques!
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