Manufacturing Commons^™

Transcribing Braille Code: Learning Equations Across Platforms, Deegan Atha, Courtney Balogh

Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement

Deegan Atha, a graduating senior in electrical engineering and a future engineer, is interested in human-centered design and developing technology that helps students engage and be successful in STEM.

Courtney Balogh, a junior in mechanical engineering, is interested in human-centered design and the importance it plays in product development. Deegan and Courtney are members of the Purdue EPICS project, Learning Equations Across Platforms (LEAP). They partnered with the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) to develop a braille transcription device and web application that converts braille to print in real time.

Integrating Systems For Liquid/Substrate Characterization And Functional Printing, Jianyi Du, J. William Boley, Rebecca K. Kramer

The Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) Symposium

Gallium-Indium alloys are recently applied in fabricating soft devices, such as stretchable sensors, electric circuits, micro pumps and optics. Its printability demonstrates the possibility for a wide extension of the application. Current fabrication methods are inefficient when printing is most handled manually, and are highly dependent on material properties. There is need for a fast way to characterize material properties, and to functionally print the given shape on the substrate. This paper presents the construction of an efficiently integrated system with optical imaging and functional printing for Gallium-Indium alloys. The imaging section allows for characterization of material properties to fast …

Improving Manufacturing Processes Through Energy Monitoring, Andrew Grzelak

Purdue Polytechnic Masters Theses

Energy efficiency and sustainability are very popular topics in the current field of manufacturing. With the increase in use of automation technology as well as the recent growth in the area of energy management, there is much focus on the overall improvement of manufacturing processes. For this research a project was completed to create a system that could improve both process efficiency as well as decrease energy consumption. By taking a look at the machine level energy consumption of an automated piece of manufacturing equipment, by eliminating waste in process, both energy efficiency and operational efficiency can be improved.

Using …

Mechatronics Application To Solar Tracking, Danny L. Rodriguez Jr

Purdue Polytechnic Directed Projects

The purpose of this was to design and implement a two-axis solar tracking system utilizing the National Instruments C-Rio real time controller. In order to accomplish this a prototype was modeled in CAD. This prototype used two 12 V DC motors to change a solar panel's rotation and tilt based on feedback data from three cadmium sulfide photoresistors. This configuration was chosen for its ability to create both a left-right rotational and an up/down tilt differential. In Addition this approach uses National Instruments Labview to control a solar tracking system. Using Labview add uniqueness to this project by adding a …