Engineering Commons^™

Solar Car Suspension System, Alex Power, Adam O'Camb

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Revolutionized Additive Manufacturing, Matthew Walker, Winthrop Townsend, Luca Fuller

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Fiber Glass Mat Splice Automation, Max Weinstein, Charles Scott Forbes, Max Kilpatrick

Mechanical Engineering

Currently, GAF has two operators manually splice together each roll of fiberglass mat. To save money and resources, GAF wants to automate this splicing process. Our team is responsible for stage 3 of 5 in this automation process. We are responsible for ensuring that the system is able to move autonomously to the necessary positions required for splicing together the rolls of fiberglass mat. We have determined the best solution for accomplishing this movement is to use linear slide actuators. This document will describe the process by which we arrived at our solution, the details of our solution, and a …

Automated Machine Tender, Ryan A. Canfield, Samuel N. Adler, Louis S. Roseguo

Mechanical Engineering

The use of CNC (Computerized Numerical Control) machines automate production in factories through programs controlling manual operations such as milling or lathing. The manufacturing process can be automated beyond the use of CNC machines through the addition of a robotic tender capable of carrying out the same tasks as a human operator. A tender can be integrated into the CNC machine itself, or purchased separately and configured to autonomously operate a particular machine. Smaller companies making limited production runs may not find it economically feasible to purchase large scale integrated machine tenders, but would benefit from a versatile autonomous machine …

Compression Molded Composite Component, Greg Hermansen, Larsson Johnson, Joanne Medrano, Kyle Hammell

Mechanical Engineering

The following final design report outlines the design and fabrication of a carbon fiber compression molded sunglasses case. It intends to guide the development of a future lab activity for a composites undergraduate course at Cal Poly – San Luis Obispo. The activity aims to support an educational investigation in "out-of-autoclave" composites manufacturing methods, such as compression molding, which offer some key benefits over autoclave molding. The methodology behind the creation of a conceptual design, an initial prototype, and a final product is laid out in detail below.

Final Design Report: Allergen Mixing Assistant (Ama) Micro-Refrigeration Redesigning, Mitchell Parks, Minwoo (Michael) Suh

Mechanical Engineering

Abstract

Allergen Mixing Assistant (AMA) by Xtract Solutions is a device designed to more “effectively refrigerate, organize, and mix allergenic extracts”. Although Xtract Solutions intended the product to be fully automated, the company has decided against its automation and declared its current design as a minimum viable product whose components are too expensive, difficult to source and complex. Therefore, Cal Poly AMA design team - Mitchell Parks and Minwoo Suh - has decided to replace these expensive components with much more economical alternatives as shown below:

Stirling cooler

→

Thermoelectric (Peltier) cooler

Custom Arduino

Controller Card

→

TEC Thermostat *** …

Final Design Report: Polymer Fatigue Characterization Test Method, Wyatt Ayling, Tyler Price, Brandon Stell, Michela Upson

Mechanical Engineering

Polylogix is a team dedicated to the design, build, and testing of a fatigue machine to simulate cyclic loading on a biomedical polymer. This project is sponsored by Endologix, Inc. to provide test data characterizing mechanical material properties of various formulations of polymer used in abdominal aortic aneurysm surgeries. With this project goal, the machine must be able to test the polymer at body conditions; these include a testing temperature of 37°C and a cycling frequency ranging from 1 Hz to 10 Hz. This report proposes the following solution to this design challenge: an AC motor-driven mechanism utilizing a planetary …

Automated Pintail Machine, Stephen Etheredge, Andrew Evans, Michael Fernicola

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Cp Ev Dynamics, Steven Montevideo, Ashlie Reott, L. Carter Price

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

4th And 5th Axis Rotary Table, Dakota Bass, Ricky Riedl, Nicole Slagle, Irene Yee

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Biomimetic Seal Flipper Test Rig, Gordon D. Belyea, Laura Kawashiri, Dylan Rinker, Kurt Beske

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.

Automated Bearing Press, David Baker, David Brock, Engelbert Diec

Mechanical Engineering

Our group was presented with a challenge to design an automated machine to replace Micro-Vu’s current manual pressing operation. We moved, planned, and scheduled our tasks for the three quarters we will be working on this project by using a Gantt chart. In designing the machine, we generated concepts and used analysis and prototyping to select the most promising ones. Our final design uses a pneumatic press to press the parts, and it includes magazines to hold the parts before pressing, pneumatic actuators to move the parts to and from the pressing location, and a lever to separate the defective …

Metals Am Design For Manufacturing, Maren Cosens, Ben Wong, Kevin Hale

Mechanical Engineering

We are looking to improve upon the current post processing techniques for metal additive manufacturing (AM). This project, sponsored by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), will investigate ways to improve the design of stainless steel 316 parts made by AM, and how these designs will help with post processing techniques. We hope that the findings regarding stainless steel will apply to to improve the AM and post processing handshake in general. In particular, the project will focus on including different features in different basic part design shapes to aid in fixturing and post-processing of the part made by AM. This …

Low Cost Metal Chip Separator, Alek Linquist, Kale Mckinney, Ryan Jones

Mechanical Engineering

We were tasked by Micro-Vu to design, build, and test a small-scale low-cost metal chip separator to operate on one of their 24/7 mills. The goal of the project was to separate the steel and aluminum chips coming off of the mill’s chip conveyor to end up with a bin of 99% pure aluminum by mass. To accomplish this goal we first brainstormed various possible ideas and performed small scale tests the best ones. After further review we determined the best solution to this problem was a design that involved a cycling magnetic backing that would pull steel out of …

Metals Additive Manufacturing Powder Aging Characterization, Thomas Russell Lovejoy, Nicholas Karl Muetterties, David Takeo Otsu

Mechanical Engineering

The metallic additive manufacturing process known as selective laser melting requires highly spherical, normally distributed powder with diameters in the range of 10 to 50 microns. Previous observations have shown a degradation in powder quality over time, resulting in unwanted characteristics in the final printed parts. 21-6-9 stainless steel powder was used to fabricate test parts, with leftover powder recycled back into the machine. Powder samples and test specimens were characterized to observe changes across build cycles. Few changes were observed in the physical and mechanical properties of the specimens, however, there were indications of chemical changes across cycles. Potential …

Inclusive Lectern, Trent Canales, Sean Day, Dylan Sigley, Stephen Sippel

Mechanical Engineering

A lectern is an essential piece of equipment for almost all speeches and presentations. They come in many forms and range in degree of professionalism depending on the occasion. Lecterns not only hold a presenter’s notes, a microphone, or other presentation aids, they provide a structure for a presenter that can bolster their confidence during a presentation. As such, it is important that all presenters have a lectern available to them. Unfortunately this is not always the case due to lectern accessibility limitations. This problem inspired the Cal Poly Disability Resource Center to request a lectern that satisfies the Least …

Solar Turbines Compressor Blade Installation Tools, Ryan Bruce, Carolyn Honeycutt, Stephen Oltrogge, Emmett Ross

Mechanical Engineering

The following report documents a California Polytechnic State University, Mechanical Engineering Senior Project sponsored by the gas turbine manufacturer, Solar Turbines. The senior project team consisted of four senior mechanical engineering students at Cal Poly, all with general concentrations; Ryan Bruce, Carolyn Honeycutt, Steve Oltrogge, and Emmett Ross. Kenneth Thomas sponsored the group and serves as the point of contact between the senior project team and Solar Turbines. He is a member of the Solar Turbines Mechanical Design Engineering Team and a Cal Poly graduate. Christoph Maurer served as the project team’s on-campus advisor.

A gas turbine uses internal combustion …

Ultra-Light Bear Canister, Naveen Beasley, Eli Rogers, Cory Wilson, Donald Wood

Mechanical Engineering

A bear canister is the primary tool used by outdoor enthusiasts to protect their food from bears while camping or backpacking. There are many effective products currently on the market, however many are not designed with reduced weight in mind. Hardcore backpackers want to have the lightest gear possible to ease the strain of carrying a large pack for sometimes weeks at a time.

Current bear canisters exist that utilize carbon fiber for weight reduction, however they rely on stock carbon tubes and lack engineering analysis, and no competitor has a fully composite bear canister available. Our sponsor, Nick Hellewell, …

Universal Weight Machine, Oscar Andrade, Bibiana Koch, Robert Molloy, Haley Rentfro, Emily Woods

Mechanical Engineering

The purpose of this project is to design and build an inexpensive, universally accessible multi-station exercise machine for the physical and mental well-being of athletes of the Special Olympics and Pathpoint Life Education & Advancement Program. The machine has three sides tiered to higher resistance: the first station offers a minimal resistance aerobic exercise focused on moving the arms with an ergometer, the second station provides numerous locations to latch on resistance bands that will build strength in the athlete’s arms and chest, and the final station has a donated weight machine that offers lat pulldowns and flys with maximum …