Digital Commons Network^™

4wd Baja Upright And Wheel Hub, Nathan Thompson, Jonathan P. Larson, Spencer D. Compan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The University of Akron Zips Baja Team has switched to a 4-wheel-drive (4WD) vehicle as per the 2023 Baja Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) rules. The 2022 Baja Vehicle was 2WD, thus the upright and wheel hub were designed exclusively for a 2-wheel-drive (2WD) Baja vehicle. This report entails the design process and methods of verification for the design of the 4WD upright and wheel hub.

Design Of Force Indicator For Ballistic Armor Trauma Pad, William Keenan, Anthony Cinalli, Patrick Kennedy

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of the Force Indicator for Ballistic Armor Vests is to obtain an approximate value for the impact a bullet delivers through a trauma pad after the Kevlar layer stops the initial bullet. This approximation will be applied in the field to assist in medical treatment of gunshot wounds. The indicator is made from a pressure-sensitive film located behind the Kevlar layer and trauma pad, and it can be easily removed in the field for examination. The impact vest and force indicator are self-contained for ease of implementation. The device will be tested with 9mm, .22 Long Rifle, and …

Hendrickson Lift Kit, Matthew Rozmajzl

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research project will be completed with Hendrickson Trailer as the sponsor. The goal of the project is to create a lift kit for a newer suspension system. The lift kit must provide enough lift force to lift an axle off the road and suspend it off the road while in transit. There are similar systems offered for different products at Hendrickson, but the configuration of this system is such that new brackets must be designed. The benefit of such a system is a reduction in wear on the lifted tires, and thus an increase in the life of the …

Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, Bryce Towne, Ethan Andrews, Carter Moore, Andrew Sobel

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge is a competition held by the National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) that challenges students to create a hydraulically powered vehicle to compete in four different races over two days. The vehicle has to be fully powered by hydraulics, with human power (such as pedaling) being used to move the hydraulic fluid. Electronics and pneumatics can be used to control the flow of the hydraulic oil. Vehicles also must have an energy storage device to take advantage of regenerative braking. The final competition was at the Norgren facility in Colorado from April 12th to April 14th. …

Space Force Design Project, Emily Greene, Ashton Orosa, Julia Patek, Nathan Doty

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of our research project is to develop a lab testbed composed of a curved surface to represent a spacecraft hull, a mobile robot equipped with repair tools, and a robotic arm equipped with a laser 3D scanner. This project is part of a larger grant to the University of Akron from Space Force and Air Research Labs. The lab testbed developed in this project will be used to assist in creating and testing a software and algorithm to inspect and repair spacecraft while in orbit. The project will involve researching spacecraft hulls to create an accurate simulation bed, …

Frostflex, Isaac Edmondson, Caleb Edmondson, Joey Esker, Nadine Salem

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Research has shown that the majority of heat lost during physical exercise leaves the body through the hands, feet, and the face. Our design project seeks to develop cooling glove technology to increase the rate at which heat leaves the body during recovery from physical exertion. The goal of this project was to investigate different ways in which heat absorption through various mediums can be manipulated and scaled into an adaptable, flexible design in which athletes of all levels, from recreational to professional, can improve their physical performance with the use of our gloves. Deliverables include a functional prototype, product …

Landing Gear Sealing Solution, Andrew Milligan

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

XYZ Landing Gear Solutions has been tasked with redesigning two internal components of the landing gears for the ABC-123 aircraft program. The customer, ABC Aeronautics, informed XYZ Landing Gear Solutions that a particular system of the landing gear does not meet the necessary performance requirements of the program. As a result, the entire system will have to be removed, facilitating the need for a redesign of the two components that the system interfaced with. The focus of this project will be completing the redesign process for both of these components. “Redesign” and “design” will be used interchangeably in this report. …

Nidec Automated Winder, Michael Pugh, Ben A. Swartz, Andrew Leonard, Garrett Dostal

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Nidec Drive Systems is a leading electric motor manufacturing company with several facilities in the US and around the world. However, as of recent, Nidec has started to see some signs of old and outdated production machines affecting their production numbers even though the demand for electric is ever increasing. In an attempt to repair some of these issues, Nidec reached out to the University of Akron to look for senior design groups to help design and standardize better production machines. We were tasked with redesigning a new winder, which is a machine that winds the copper coils to the …

Distillery, Clare Nicholas, Patrick Hanlon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal for this project is to make a cost effective still. We will be implementing cost saving parts to create a cheap but effective still. From initial research conducted, we will try to combine a stainless steel still and copper still together so that the cheaper material (stainless steel) and the component that removes sulfur compounds (copper) are both implemented. The ME side of the project will focus on the actual design and construction of the parts that will be implemented into the still. Included in the design process will be calculations of heat transfer for the current and …

Timken Black Oxide False Brinelling Project, Elizabeth Kotzalas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is a known issue that occurs in wind turbine main shaft bearings, among other bearing types and applications during transportation or while the turbine is powered on, but the bearing is not spinning. This issue is damage that is confined to mostly the raceways but can damage the rollers over time. It is called false brinelling and is a material removal from the raceways due to repeated tiny vibrations of the rollers over the same area. A question was posed on whether black oxide surface treatment could reduce false brinelling wear on bearings in this application, and as a …

The Passing Board, John Fitzgerald

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For my Honors Research Project I am taking a more personal route and looking to solve a childhood question/issue by designing a board that is small and easy to transport while also giving the best bounce pass possible. My proposed project would be a board that a soccer player can play a bounce pass onto and receive the ball from. The base of this design sounds simple enough, however, I would like to implement a way that the board can be adjusted to alter the angle of return of the soccer ball after the bounce. I also want to design …

Coaxial Beam Eaxle Modeling And Analysis For Gawr Limits, Alexander Cebriak, Jackson Foster, Chris James

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project was to design three different models of a coaxial beam eAxle for a range of electric vehicles. The requirement was to satisfy three different loading conditions, each characterized by a GAWR. These three loading conditions were 3000lb, 7500lb, and 10,000lb. This was done by first creating a model based on a basic outline given by Schaeffler. This model was then analyzed using Ansys®, and then iterated upon by designing new models using the 3D design program Solidworks. The iteration process was continued using more Ansys® analysis, as well as calculations to determine things like bolt …

Dome Tester, Clark Bates, Nikolas M. Kulin

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

We are reconfiguring and modifying the previously built dome tester to be more user friendly and mechanically applicable. This has a long-term goal of being a usable teaching tool for manufacturing education within the college of engineering and polymer sciences. The dome tester pushes a metal dome into a clamped sheet of metal to test its forming limits and where necking occurs. We have implemented a better method of viewing the sheet sample as it is being deformed, and improved measuring methods for the distance a sample is deformed. By introducing these changes in conjunction with improved documentation of the …

Zip Shoes, Derek Ford, Garret Freund

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

For our honors project we intend to create a new urban mobility solution. They are called Zip Shoes; they will be a pair of shoes with built in propulsion. We plan to use our cumulative engineering knowledge to modify an existing pair of shoes such that they can safely propel the user on wheels. We hope to achieve this by adding an electric drive train and necessary structural components onto the shoes. We are pursuing this project because we have seen the popularity of other electronically driven personal transportation devices. These include the hover board, electric skateboards, and electric scooters. …

Recycled Printer Filament, Charlotte Hyland, Troy D. Molinar

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The purpose of this research is to examine the effects of recycling PLA filament for 3D printing on its material properties. After examining these effects, PLA and carbon fiber additives were mixed with recycled PLA pellets in different ratios to attempt to regain material properties lost in the recycling process. To complete these findings, an experiment was design and executed.

The research found that tensile strength during multiple iterations of recycling remained mostly unaffected, however, the strain degraded exponentially. In the PLA additive study, high ratios of PLA additive were able to increase the strength and strain properties of the …

Ballistic Impact Mitigation Pad, Adam Pianalto, Nathan Mayer, Wyatt Smith, Nick Green, Douglas Wild

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

In our senior design project we have decided to work under Dr. Jon Gerhardt on creating a gel pad to mitigate blunt force behind bulletproof vests. Extensive research on injury, materials, manufacturing methods, and NIJ standards was completed during this project. Through the use of advanced modeling software and additive manufacturing, we prototyped a functioning pad to test and compare to a pad that is currently available in today's market. The results proved to be very successful, but there are many areas to improve upon down the road.

Golf Club Cleaner, Owen Roach, Chris Wertenberger, Michael Skerlong

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Cleaning golf clubs can be a tedious process, however a necessary one to maintain equipment. Clubs are normally cleaned by filling a bucket with soap and water, soaking all the clubs to be cleaned, then scrubbing each one individually. An automatic club cleaner would make this process much easier and more enjoyable. Using electric motors, the club cleaner would have spinning brushes in soap and water to quickly and easily clean the club head. The machine would have different sections for cleaning the club head, polishing the club face, and cleaning the grip. The cleaner should be inexpensive and easy …

Innovated Manual Wheelchair Propulsion, Jacob Eveleth, Abigail Steineman, James Murray, Garrett Best

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The goal of this project is to provide a manual wheelchair propulsion system that provides an easier way of moving the chair for the user. Our already-defined set of constraints and goals provides a clear end-goal for our group in accomplishing this task. We plan to have a 3D CAD model of the design by the end of the Spring 2022 semester. The first half of the Fall 2022 semester will be dedicated to developing a plan for prototyping, and the second half of the semester we plan to have the prototype created for use. So far, we have utilized …

Refrigeration & Pressure Circuits For The Test Apparatus On Triaxial Properties Of Polymer Foams At Arctic Temperatures, Nathaniel Ackerman

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The objective of this project is to modify the previous testing apparatus used by Dr. M. Hoo Fatt for exploration of Crushing Behavior of Polymer Foams in Sandwich Structures Operating in Arctic Regions commissioned by the Office of Naval Research and performed under the University of Akron’s Mechanical Engineering testing facilities. To do this, it is required to design a system capable of operating at a constant temperature during a testing cycle, reaching down to -60⁰C. This apparatus must also be compatible with prior equipment, facilities, persons, samples, and media.

Primarily, a copper-tube refrigeration coil design was considered to lead …

Zips Racing Electric 2022 Brakes Subsystem Design, Nicholas Thomas

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will include the design, manufacture, and assembly of the entire brakes subsystem for the Zips Racing Electric (ZRE) 2022 car. Goals of the brakes system include a lightweight, modular, machinable, and rigid design. The project will begin in the Fall semester with the design of the pedals and rotors as well as calculations to specify master cylinders, calipers, pads, etc. Software such as SolidWorks CAD, SolidWorks FEA, and Mastercam CAM will be employed. Next, the second semester will involve manufacturing or purchasing necessary components. Prototype pedals will be manufactured for physical testing.

The project will be completed individually. …

Energy Analysis Of Heating, Ventilation, And Air Conditioning Systems, Erica Ferguson

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project studied Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems for commercial buildings. I completed an energy model Raleigh County Sheriff’s Department in West Virginia. This building’s HVAC has been completed by the consulting engineering firm: Scheeser Buckley Mayfield. I intern at this company, so they allowed me to use their original design as a basis for comparison. Load calculations, utility costs, energy consumption, and carbon footprint were derived from this energy analysis. The energy model compared three systems: variable air volume (VAV) with electric reheat, variable air volume with hydronic reheat, and variable refrigerant volume (VRV). Based on the …

Sintering Of 3-D Printed Metals, Adam Shuppe, John Griffiths

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

There is a 3-D printer which prints metals such as 17-4 PH. In this project, we will learn how to use the machine to print samples, create a sintering graph for the material, and compare the properties with materials sintered using the machine. We will try to get as close as possible to the properties of the samples sintered using the machine. There will be a lot of samples made and tested, and we will learn how to use a testing machine and all other testing equipment in the department.

Chemical Clean Automated Loader, Jordyn Bryner

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

TTM Technologies (TTM) is a global printed circuit board (PCB) manufacturer. The work described in this report was completed in the TTM North Jackson, Ohio location. This plant focuses primarily on the manufacturing of rigid and rigid-flex PCBs for the aerospace and defense industry. TTM North Jackson has an ongoing labor dependency issue due to the shortage of workers the nation is facing. To solve this problem, TTM has focused the efforts of their new engineers and interns on automating processes that are labor dependent. The goal is to provide design guidance to be used later by TTM to automate …

Schaeffler F-250 Bev Conversion: Power Electronics, Leslie Sawyer

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This report shows the work that was done on the power electronics system in the industry sponsored Schaeffler demonstration truck project. The goal of the project was to convert a combustion Ford F250 into a battery electric vehicle, while using as much Schaeffler technology as possible. After the vehicle is converted it will be used as a demonstration vehicle to show potential investors. While this project is still in progress, the work that was done during this time was substantial to the development of this project. Progress that has been made on the power electronics system includes developments in selecting …

Npt Test Machine, Lauren Cash

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Located at the Research facility at The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company, the Non-Pneumatic Tire (NPT) Program is currently in the prototype phase. However, airless tire structures are quickly gaining popularity as an alternative to a traditional pneumatic tire. The NPT Test Machine is a measurement fixture that will perform a series of evaluations to determine the stiffness of an NPT; this will allow the program to expand and evolve more rapidly into a manufacturing phase. In this Senior Design Project, a complete test solution was researched, designed, built, programmed, and validated so that data can be collected, and tires …

Schaeffler E-Motor, Jenne Harasin, Zachary Zatta, Christopher Tvaroch

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will be focusing on the work accomplished at Schaeffler to convert an existing internal combustion engine, Ford F-250 truck, into a battery electric vehicle. This report focuses on the vehicle's integration with an emphasis on the bearing design, e-Axle housing's method for mounting, bus bar design, resolver design, differential options, wiring for low and high voltage, and oil pump and cooling system for e-Beam. The bearings for the differential as well as the power transmission system from the electric motor to the e-Axle will need to be specified. By late summer 2022, Schaeffler will have a working prototype …

Grinding And Super-Finishing Test Machine Project, Michael Simon

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A research project in The University of Akron to study grinding and super-finishing of silicon nitride ceramic was initiated by Dr. Siamak Farhad and sponsored by the Timken Company, with the assistance of undergraduate students Michael Simon, Ryan Hosso and Mathew Rozmajzl. The study required analysis of forces and scratches generated during grinding processes of silicon nitride samples. A testing assembly was designed and constructed to record the forces generated during grinding and super-finishing of silicon nitride samples in a computer-numerical-control machine. Silicon nitride samples were subjected to desired grinding and super-finishing operations and all forces generated during the process …

Adjust-A-Ramp, Taylor Sharrits, Courtney Banks, Emily Beck, Jazmin Buenrostro

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Adjust-A-Ramp is a portable ramp designed to ensure the safety of consumers and prevention of damage to cars, specifically towards low profile cars. A low-profile vehicle includes any vehicle that has a clearance off the ground of 6.5 inches or less. Advantages of low-profile vehicles include improved handling, better braking, increased fuel efficiency, increased stability, and an overall luxury aesthetic. The reduced tire size increases grip on smooth surfaces with better wheel response, creating a fast, more efficient ride. The simple tire tread patterns and the stiff sidewalls allow for lower rolling resistance which increases fuel economy. The Adjust-A-Ramp can …

Human Powered Vehicle Team Challenge, Sydney Nedlik, Spencer Brodie, Maria Griffin, William Schell, Ryan Serraglio

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Design and build a Human Powered Vehicle in a team of five. Compete at the ASME HPVC competition in March of 2022. Re-establish the Human Powered Vehicle Team at the University of Akron.

Quickcut Waterjet Cutter, Kennedy Dunn, Jacob Storrow, Benjamin Laughrey

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

The QuickCut Waterjet Cutter was created in 2019 as a senior design project. This is the third iteration of the waterjet cutter. The goal of this project was to create an operable CNC waterjet cutter that is able to cut 1/16” tensile specimens consisting of nonferrous metal or plastic. This machine will be utilized in the Manufacturing Laboratory at the University of Akron to provide education to interested students on the waterjet cutting process, how it operates, and industrial application of the technology. Waterjet cutting is a subtractive manufacturing process which is recognized for its specialized applications such as cutting …