Engineering Commons^™

Rinse Tank Salinity Automation, George Pahoundis

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Manufacturing processes are often consisted of many different processes and sub-processes. Each of these carries its own level of importance and impact to the overall picture. In this particular sub-process, salt is rinsed from a product via a rinse tank: a tank whose salinity may not exceed a certain level and whose temperature must not fall below a certain level. This setting is a prime opportunity to implement an automated control system to allow these parameters to be met with upmost efficiency. With potential savings in excess of $20,000 per year and an estimated payback period of 8 weeks, the …

Automated Runout Measurement Tool, Ethan Tisch

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

A new measurement process and tool is to be developed to improve the existing method for measuring runout on the commutators of brushed DC product.

After an armature is manufactured, the commutator is inspected by placing the completed rotor assembly in one of several non-standard measurement fixtures. An indicator is then positioned on the commutator. A trained operator proceeds to rotate the armature while taking runout and bar-to-bar measurement at various positions along the length of the commutator.

This existing process is slow, costly, and unreliable. For these reasons, there is substantial economic pressure to develop a superior method for …

Zips Precious Plastics: Plastic Extruder, Patrick Cole

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project's goal was to design and build an affordable desktop filament extruder that can precisely and consistently extrude filament to a certain tolerance acceptable for 3D printers using wasted printing material. The group is partnering with an on campus organization focusing on engineering applications for sustainable futures. Zips Precious Plastics is a student run design group that intends to bring an innovation space on campus to help educate students about the importance of a closed looped system within plastic manufacturing.

Automatic Seeder, Zachary Bunting, Nicholas Muscarella, Trevor Tout, Dalton Denny

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

Our Senior Design Project is the construction and implementation of an automatic seeder that is to be used in the agricultural industry. The automatic seeder is being designed to eliminate prevalent issues within the process of planting seeds by hand, such as labor requirements and inconsistent operations. The seeder is meant to reduce time spent on planting seeds and place them in an efficient manner for optimal growth conditions.

This project will require several specific research questions to be addressed in the form of application and good usability. We will investigate the method of planting the seed, the conveyor track …