Manufacturing Commons^™

Tensile Testing Environmental Chamber – Structural, Michael Ingel, Erik Soldenwagner, Austin Marshall, Lauren Schirle

Mechanical Engineering

Environmental chambers for tensile testing machines are used to study how a multitude of materials behave in extreme temperatures. These chambers provide the necessary information to innovate cutting edge technology for materials in fields such as aerospace. These chambers are often heavy and expensive requiring a significant amount of time and money just in the installation process alone. This report will serve to outline and define the design and fabrication of an environmental chamber, conducted by a team of four senior mechanical engineering students at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The goals of the project include a low-weight …

Enduro Campers, Ryan J. Shomsky, Alexander W. Horst, Kevin S. Pickering, Jackson L. Aplanalp, Luke Arana, Will Firestone

Mechanical Engineering

The Enduro Campers senior project team (Formerly known as Lobo Campers senior project team) was recruited by Mr. Leif Stein to assist in the design, manufacturing, and testing of the materials and components of his company’s expedition box camper. The two main focuses of the project, divided into two sub-teams, were on the testing and manufacturing process of the materials used in the camper, and on the design and analysis of the camper’s access door, step box, and other subsystems.

The focus of the materials analysis and manufacturing team was based around the design parameter to use composite sandwich panels …

Cal Poly Prove Lab Endurance Car Composite Body Paneling Design, Emma Wheelock, Sarah Rutland, Noah Fisher, Brian Menard

Mechanical Engineering

The Cal Poly Prototype Vehicles Laboratory (PROVE Lab) needs a body paneling design for their Endurance Car aeroshell which optimizes strength, weight and accessibility while minimizing complexity. Additionally, a low-complexity, accurate manufacturing process for the PROVE Lab Endurance Car aeroshell needs to be developed. PROVE Lab designed the shape of the aeroshell. The aeroshell will serve to reduce the aerodynamic drag on the car at high speed, and is not a structural component of the car. Due to the high-strength and lightweight nature of composites, PROVE Lab requests the senior project team investigate using composites for automotive body paneling applications. …

C6 Wheels, Samuel L. Pizot, Luke Martin, Josh Warner, Jonah Levis

Mechanical Engineering

This document details the C6 Wheels project being undertaken for senior design. The objective is to design and manufacture carbon fiber reinforced polymer wheels for the Cal Poly Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) team. The wheel shells will be used on FSAE’s competition vehicles. FSAE requested the wheels to improve the handling characteristics of their vehicles by reducing the unsprung and rotational mass. They have attempted carbon fiber wheels previously but have not yet run any on their vehicles. FSAE specifically proposed the design of carbon fiber shells with an aluminum center as opposed to full carbon fiber wheels …

Prove Endurance Car Front Suspension, Lauren A. Williams, Logan Simon, Justine G. Kwan

Mechanical Engineering

This document details the collaborative Mechanical Engineering Senior Project with Cal Poly PROVE Lab on PROVE Lab’s Project 2; an electric vehicle designed to travel 1000 miles on a single charge. Logan Simon, Justine Kwan, and Lauren Williams are given the challenge of designing an innovative proof of concept front suspension suspension for this vehicle.

After detailed research of new suspension systems, it was determined that the innovative nature could be in the form of unique manufacturing methods, materials use, or mechanical design. At this point in time, this vehicle is a purely conceptual design with no concrete requirements. Therefore …

Drawing And Twisting Of Graphene Fibers, Gregory T. Lane, Robert J. Sekerak, Isaias Diaz

Mechanical Engineering

The aim of this project was to develop a more automated process for drawing and twisting of graphene fibers than was currently in place. This was implemented by having two chemical baths with variable speed rollers at either end, and intermediate roller to spool fiber between stages, and a twisting cylinder with integral spool to twist the fiber as it is collected. The goal was to have this first iteration deliver a working prototype, however due to manufacturing delays and timing constraints, that will be missed. A second follow-on project would be able to continue the work presented here and …

Drape Forming Machine, Adam Johnson, Will Schlosser, Brian Miller

Mechanical Engineering

The goal of this project was to build a prototype machine that formed multiple sheets of debulked pre-preg OOA carbon fiber into a 2-foot long trapezoidal shape. The machine was required to do this process semi-automatically.

Wolfpack Gear Inc. Composite Frame Firefighter Backpack, Gabriel Mountjoy, Blair Ridings, Carl Drummond Buchenroth

Mechanical Engineering

No abstract provided.