Mechanical Design

Assignment

Make a machine, including the end effector, build the passive parts and operate it manually.

Learning Outcomes

Work and communicate effectively in a team and independently.
Design, plan, and build a system.
Analyze and solve technical problems.
Recognize opportunities for imporvements in the design.

Design Process

To begin this week, our group each built one of the stages using the parts sent to us by fab academy. Using the design as provided by Nadia Peak we each laser cut the cardboard components out and fit them together. Our lab ran out of cardboard and we could not find the right thickness in town so three of us went with a polystyrene material. It was alright material, however seemed to not want to bend very well. It also had the problem of ripping really easy and will most likely not be the final material in which we use for the final machine. Pictures below show the process of building the stages.

Background Information and Research

Kadin and I talked about some different ideas for the type of extruder we would want to use with our design. After talking it out a bit, we decided to research the Moineau Pump. A Moineau Pump is a type of Progressing Cavity Pump. These pumps work by transferring a fluid by means of progress through cavities as the rotor is turned. The video below shows how a Moineau Pump works.



These types of pumps are good because they do not cause pulsation as the liquid is moving out of the outlet causing a constant stream of fluid to be pushed through the system. However, the geometry behind these pumps are a little complicated and there seems to not be any good literature on how to design one. If we can figure out the geometry and get a working prototype we will most likely go with this type of pump. If we cannot, then we were also thinking of a pressure type system in which the system will be hooked up to an air compressor that changes the pressure within the hopper to allow the batter to come out.

Progress

Here Kadin and I are talking about different design options for the Progressing Cavity Pump.



Working on putting together the stages printed out by Steven Fett. These stages were designs from Nadya Peak and we built them out of sintra, a lightweight but sturdy material. A lot better than the polystyrene.