Week of November 22

This week the team completed all of the engineering including the solid model and CAD drawings. Upon completing all of our drawings, the team able to go into the shop well prepared to machine all of the parts of our most critical module.

The team spent six hours on Tuesday creating the axles with grooves, motor couplings, and drilling holes into the gears for set screws. However, after cutting the grooves on the back axle, we discovered that the newly purchased wheels were too large compared to the supplied wheels in the kit and therefore, the grooves made for the e-clips were not placed correctly. Instead of recreating the back axle, we decided to simply cutting away at part of the wheel using a lathe on Wednesday.

On Wednesday, the team milled the motor couplings and the back axle as well as threaded all of the holes in the gears and motor couplings. Then, we used the waterjet to create our final piece of our most critical module, the plate, which holds the two rods to the body permitting vertical motion to the joint. After all of this machining, we assembled the most critical module and tested our motor using the provided DC power supply and presented it to our GSI for MS 8.

Here is a picture of our completed MCM:













Our MCM on top of the arena:














This week the team plans to machine the arm and joint, our other two modules. We will create the joint out of acrylic using the laser cutter and the arm using PVC pipe which will be cut using the bandsaw. We hope to have all of these parts machined by Wednesday and put together by the end of this week allowing us plenty of time to thoroughly test and refine our machine before the big competition.

Week of November 15

This week was hectic what with machining our first three parts and in addition to that studying for a lengthy exam. However, with diligence and effort, the team was able to pull off an ace job of getting everything together. First of all, the team met up on Monday morning at 8 am to confirm our toolpath file and our CAD drawings. The team got a confirmation from Jean, and headed towards the waterjet. There, the team created a toolpath file with the OMAX program and was able to cut out a piece of 1/16" aluminum plate that is now acting as the frame of the MCM. By friday, the team had succeeded in making three different parts of our most critical module by using two different materials, aluminum and birch wood, and three different procedures, waterjet, laser cut, and drilling. We also bent the frame of body after the waterjetting.

Here are screenshots of the CAD models of the parts we made (we will have actual photos of these parts posted soon):

1. The frame of the MCM:









2. The woodblock ensuring accurate motor placement:









3. The rods that will be press fitted on our MCM to allow vertical motion:










Upon completion of MS7, with the smell of a joyous bonfire from our laser cut birch piece filling the air, we began discussing the work that we would need to begin in order to keep on schedule and have the MCM completed and in working order by next wednesday as well as all of the engineering for the entire machine completed and ready for us to machine the rest of the parts after thanksgiving break.

As we update this blog we're working on fixing the axles for our MCM as well as figuring out what drawings we will need completed by tomorrow afternoon so that in lab we can finish machining all the parts for the MCM so we will be able to begin assembling it together so we'll have the finished product ready. The biggest issue for us right now is figuring out the best way to constrain our gears to our axles and the precise placement of any grooves needing to be placed on the axles so that the drawings are ready for approval tomorrow.

This is an image of our most updated version of our machine:

Week of November 8

This week team Applesauce saw some of the most dynamic changes in it's game plan since we decided on a concept way back when. Most of this arose from the realizations that several of our MCM's most critical actions were in deep confliction with the layout of the module at the time. MS7 requires us to manufacture 3 of the parts of our MCM by next Friday, so we had to resolve the engineering of the module as soon as possible.

OLD DESIGN:



















NOT GONNA WORK.

The main change we made was to remove the top and sides of the body. All they seemed to do was get in the way of the internal parts and require us to perform a lot of excess machining. By Occam's Razor, the only reasonable procedure was to do away with them. Especially since the only function of the body was to be shaped in such a way that it would repel thrown ping pong balls, which doesn't seem to be something that other teams plan to do.

There were major misalignments between all the internal components of the MCM, mainly involving the location of the motor with respect to the back axle. To remedy this, we added a wooden mount for the motor that raises it up a quarter of an inch and we also moved the position of the metal rods toward the front of the machine in such a way that the moment about the front wheels will still be balanced.

NEW DESIGN:

















GONNA WORK.

We are still having trouble figuring out exactly how to couple everything together: The motor to the gears, the gears to the axle, the axle to the wheels, etc. We also aren't sure if the way that our other modules are designed is going to require us to alter the design of our MCM, but we think that we have enough info to go ahead and manufacture these three parts:

The main part of the MCM:















The sides will be bent up to hold the axles.

This is the block the motor will sit on:















And these are the two rods that the other modules will eventually connect to:















Yes, we chose to manufacture this because it is extremely easy. You can't blame us.

Next week will be devoted to the final exam, manufacturing our first three parts and hopefully finishing most of the engineering for all modules. More to come on that next week!

Week of November 1

Hello bloggers! This past week the team was assigned MS6. In preparation for it, the team began to engineer our most critical module. The team decided that this module was the frame of our main body.





(Most critical module)





We started by improving on the solid models we previously made. This included attaching the wheels to the body and as well as making adjustments such as adding screw holes. The team also added the two rods to permit the joint to move vertically. After improvements, the team created CAD drawings for each part of our most critical module. Using these drawings, we will be able to progress to the manufacturing stage later on.






(CAD Drawing of frame of most critical module)



Another step we took was to improve upon one of our previous analysis from the design review. The team discussed the necessity of a counterweight on our machine in order to prevent tipping about the front axle. Previously, the analysis consisted of variables representing potential weights of our machine. We then substituted numerical values in for the variables using density and volume to solve for approximate weights. The only remaining variables are the weights of our other two modules, the arm, the joint, and the potential counterweight. The team also improved upon another analysis dealing with the power of the motors applied and determining whether our machine would be able to move a specific distance in a reasonable amount of time.

Step-by-Step Manufacturing Plan

Bill of Materials

Our plan for the upcoming weeks is to begin manufacturing the parts that we have CAD drawings for already. We also need to make further adjustments to other solid models and begin making drawings for those parts as well. Our main concern is picking the correct motor for each motion as well as coming to a decision on the installment of gears and motors to achieve the required motion. The team hopes to gain more information on this in the motor lab on Monday, November 9, 2009.