CAPSTONE BLOG #3: 11/11/23

            Some of the tasks that Team 30 has completed from October 28th to November 11th include regularly scheduled meetings with the professor for advice in the guidance of the project (advice on validation plan and project constraints), a meeting with a potential stakeholder to gain insight on the need of the project, and further research on developing a device to mechanically tie an overhand knot.

The tasks that are currently in progress include finishing the design of a tying mechanism that successfully ties a trash bag, finishing the design of the overall device by combining the tying mechanism with support, and researching the materials that are most suitable in building the tying mechanism as well as the overall product itself.

Team 30’s plan for near term work is to prepare as early as possible for the design review. The major milestones the team hopes to achieve is the finalization of the tying mechanism and validation plan. For the tying mechanism, research on tying methods and proof of concept development is still underway, and once this milestone has been completed the design review presentation will be able to be finished. Separately, the validation plan has been skeletonized, with details to be polished once the tying mechanism design is finished.

The biggest obstacle the team faces is time. Team 30 was set back early in the year and has been playing catch-up on development. After meeting with the professor due to this issue, the team has redefined the work schedule to maximize the time left in the semester. The next biggest obstacle is the tying mechanism. The difficulty of tying a knot was underestimated, so in the remaining weeks the team must establish the design and prepare documentation for the design review. 

 

FIGURES

Figure 1: Developed Physical Constraints Table from Professor advice

 

Figure 2: Baler Knotter: machine piece used to tie overhand knots in hay bales, being studied for use

 

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

CAPSTONE BLOG #4: 11/25/2023

Image
  For the work period of November 11 - November 25 what work toward your team's project has been completed?  Please provide a description of tasks that are completed, as well as tasks currently in progress. From November 11 th up to November 25 th , Team 30 has established the tying mechanism design, established the design of the rest of the device, and analyzed individual device aspects for validation on the device’s intended movement. The team has also built up a Bill of Materials for the indented pieces of the solution (aluminum extrusions, wooden base, t-bolts, etc.) and held continued weekly meetings with the professor for technical advice on design review writing and the DR presentation slides. A visual of the tying mechanism, a clamp piece, is shown in Figure 1.    Figure 1: Demonstration of tying mechanism when open and closed As the semester is coming to a close, the team is finalizing the dimensions for all of the mechanisms to ensure there are proper tolerances and no m
Read more

CAPSTONE BLOG #8: 4/13/24

Image
During the work period of March to April, the team made significant improvements by optimizing the clamp's performance. One way the team accomplished that was by increasing the size of the cam (located next to the white knob) to increase the clamp opening angle as shown in  Figure 1.  Furthermore, the team was able to conduct a validation test from which we'll share some key takeaways later on. Nevertheless, in this blog, the team will share updates made to the design and an optimized design was created based on the validation results.   Proceedingly, the team will share the progress and major milestones that have been achieved so far. The following figure shows the updated cam design that was proposed in the previous blog. Since then, the team printed the physical version shown below and increased the opening angle from 12˚ to approximately 33˚ successfully.  Figure 1: Initial Cam versus Final Cam Figure 2 shows the clamp at an open angle once it comes in contact with the cam
Read more

CAPSTONE BLOG #5: 2/3/24

Image
          For the work period of December 11 - February 3, what work toward your team's project has been completed?  Please provide a description of tasks that are completed, as well as tasks currently in progress. During the work period, the majority of completed work included device redesigns and accumulation of materials. Over the winter break, the team made efforts to make sure that the entire device would work by the specifications that were established. Multiple decision reinforcements were made to improve the reliability of the device. First, the clamp changed its design to have torsional springs (highlighted in blue) inserted between the inside and outside clamp as shown in Figure 1. This is to ensure that the clamp always closes to the default position after each rotation. Figure 1: Clamp Torsion Springs Default (left) and Open (right) Positions For the clamp to rotate as intended, bearings were placed between the outer and inner shafts. The bearing allows the inner shaft
Read more