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4wd Baja Upright And Wheel Hub, Nathan Thompson, Jonathan P. Larson, Spencer D. Compan Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 …


Nidec Automated Winder, Michael Pugh, Ben A. Swartz, Andrew Leonard, Garrett Dostal Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 Jan 2023

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 …


Dome Tester, Clark Bates, Nikolas M. Kulin Jan 2023

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 …


Landing Gear Sealing Solution, Andrew Milligan Jan 2023

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. …


Coaxial Beam Eaxle Modeling And Analysis For Gawr Limits, Alexander Cebriak, Jackson Foster, Chris James Jan 2023

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 …


The Passing Board, John Fitzgerald Jan 2023

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 …