Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

R/C Baja: Suspension And Chassis, Caden Foster

All Undergraduate Projects

Students designed and manufactured an RC Baja truck to compete as a team in the annual ASME RC Baja Competition in various events and obstacles. A chassis and suspension system were required to house and secure each of the RC components to successfully compete and function as intended. The team designed a 1/10^th scale model RC truck through various analysis calculations and model mockup drawings to optimally perform and compete in a competition amongst other teams of designers. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) competition will include the straight-line dash, slalom, and Baja course time trial. This project …

Asme Rc Baja Racer, Chesna Kern

All Undergraduate Projects

The American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) holds a competition at their annual conference for college students to design an RC car that will compete in sprint, slalom, and obstacle course races. The RC Baja car was designed to complete every event in the competition with a focus on the obstacle course due to the anticipated impacts inflicted on the project car by jumps and other obstacles. The project was a collaborative effort. This presentation focuses on the chassis and suspension while Gizan Gando will present about the drivetrain. The drop and frontal impact test requirements guided the design process …

Speed Bump Power Generator, Sultan Alanazi, Osamah Abulgaith

All Undergraduate Projects

A large amount of energy is wasted by the vehicles on the speed breakers through friction. Energy can be produced by using the vehicle weight and speed. The team proposes a smart speed breaker that generates power (Speed bump power generator). The device allows vehicles to pass from both sides. The system makes use of mechanical assembly with metal sheets with linkages that press down with spring arrangement. Using the motion and weight of vehicles was the method that the team relied on to design the device. The mass of the vehicles allows the top plate to move the rack …

Stair Climbing Hand Truck, James Mcpherson

All Undergraduate Projects

Abstract

Getting a heavy object up a flight of stairs usually requires a team of two or more people. Even with a team of people, the task is often still difficult, dangerous, and possibly insurmountable by one person. This problem is especially prevalent in for those who are moving into apartment complexes. Most apartment complexes have many buildings with two or more floors of living quarters, and elevators are often missing. This project sought to offer a solution to this problem. The solution in question; a motorized hand-truck with 2, trigonal planar pinwheels in place of the stock wheels. The …

Asme R/C Baja Car, Torrie Large

All Undergraduate Projects

How does one build a car? Do they start with the tires and build inward or do they develop separate aspects at the same time? This remote-controlled car was designed and built with the intention of competing in the annual Baja Competition. There are three competitions: sprinting, slalom, and an obstacle course. The suspension system of this car must be designed to support the car for both the physical build and the competitiveness. It must do this without interfering with the drive train and steering mechanism designed by Doug Erickson. The suspension system employs suspension arms attached to the chassis …

Pressure Regulator For A High-Altitude Balloon, Kala Brown

All Undergraduate Projects

High altitude balloons are large latex balloons filled with gas that carry payloads to near space. They provide a convenient way to study the Earth’s atmosphere. Per Boyle’s Law, the pressure and volume of a confined gas are inversely proportional. Thus, as the balloon ascends and the atmospheric pressure decreases, the gas inside the balloon expands. This pressure difference allows the balloon to ascend, but it also causes it to continuously expand until it bursts. For some observations, one might want their balloon to remain at constant altitude for a period of time. One way to achieve this is to …

Senior Project Hauff Tree Pruner, Brian Woolery

All Undergraduate Projects

Neil Hauff, a business owner and entrepreneur from the Yakima valley challenged a team of engineering students from Central Washington University to design a motorized apple tree pruner. This report will discuss the engineering and construction that went into creating the housing of the tree pruner. The housing component needed to be able to protect the moving parts of the pruner, while withstanding the rotational torque produced by the Makita power drill used to drive the pruner. The biggest constraint in designing the housing was to keep the weight of the housing component under 1.5 lbs, while still keeping the …

High Accessibility Cabinet Insert, Matthew Leal

All Undergraduate Projects

Watching grandparents and parents get older, the struggle of day-to-day activities generally increases. One of the most recurring issues the older generation experiences nearly daily is their inability to reach dishes, glassware, and other things on the topmost shelves of a kitchen. Not only is it difficult for them to use things such as stepstools, it also becomes increasingly dangerous. With age, a fall from any height could be catastrophic. With this scenario in mind, a user-friendly cabinet insert would be a very effective way to combat this issue. However, many existing models of cabinet designed to fit these requirements …

Pin Router Duplicator Base, Matthew Tebo

All Undergraduate Projects

The idea for the following project came from the Lean Manufacturing class that is offered at Central Washington University. In this class the manufacturing processes is demonstrated through the production of guitar kits. A problem with the class is that the CNC machine gets backed up causing a bottleneck in the production line. The solution to this problem was to make a pin router duplicator. A pin router duplicator is a device that allows the operator to trace a finished part with a pin while a router mimics its movements, cutting a new part. The component that is looked into …