Final Reflection- Eileen Hsiao

I was very excited coming to Mechanical Engineering 250 class. I am an IOE major, but I have a true interest in designing and building things. I came in to the class with little expectations, thinking the class will be fun and easy. Looking back, I should have been more prepared for everything that I’ve done and learned. However, I did come out with many valuable lessons.

I thought the lectures were very comprehensive, but the formats of how materials were constructed seemed less applicable to what we did in the second part of class. I had a lot of difficulties with the homework and CAD assignments. I have no prior experience with SolidWork, and when we had 6 assignments, including rough drafts of milestones, to complete, it was very hard to do CAD assignments well. The work was demanding, and a suggestion is focus lab sessions on homework more. In addition, the exam was very long and difficult.

Teamwork was the hard part of the class. I thought that everyone, including myself, could’ve been more motivated in the design process and done better. A main problem is that everyone has different expectations and methods of approach for the project, thus making it hard to decide and come to a conclusion. Most of us do not have much CAD or manufacturing experiences, and it’s hard to be realistic with design. In addition, it’s also stressful to manage and organize meetings and materials to get the team to work. I especially learned to be flexible with decision makings. You cannot always expect something to be perfect, and when the situation goes wrong, you need to communicate with the team for a solution. The manufacturing was also hard. The machine shop trainings were helpful, and they were great for introducing the process, but having them scheduled so early in the semester makes the actual engineering hard. When I had to manufacture, I was very confused and frustrated with my lack of knowledge, which caused reduce in productivity because I had to constantly ask questions. Also, there are many minor details about manufacturing that I’m not very aware of, and I wished I put in more efforts learning it and refining the design.

Most importantly, I learned the importance of time management. Aside from difficulties with teamwork, the main cause is time management because of our individual scheduling. Also, we should’ve planned things ahead so we have more time to prepare for the project. Same for manufacturing, we should’ve started earlier. I was set on pushing other teammates to have same understanding of the progress, but I could’ve spent more time discussing ideas together and getting to know their thoughts on the project.

The class may need a few points of improvement in the future, but I also learned a lot from the experience. Teamwork and time management are really important components in the class, but I failed to neglect it at times. Overall, I think I could’ve done better in class and been more prepared. If there’s any other design/manufacturing opportunity in the future, I’ll be sure to apply what I’ve learned from this experience.

11/2 Week Progress Report

Things Completed:
The most important task this week was to complete MS6: Most Critical Module. We successfully finished it, with a few more details to go over in the upcoming team meetings. See below for MCM details:

We did our analysis on the cart, which we will use as our defense mechanism. The reason this is our most critical module is because our strategy is more defense-oriented, and the mechanism will be more critical in determining the result.
CAD model:
This is a very simple cart design, with the usual essential gear, shaft, wheels, and cart body. The two plates in the middle of the cart is used to secure scissor linkage. We plan to mount the scissor linkage on it in a certain angle so as it falls down, it will act as a blockage for opponent.
Drawing:
Analysis was done on how much traction the cart can endure. We're counting on a higher friction on the cart so opponent can't push us over. And we also calculated the shear on the scissor linkage. This is to see how much force the linkage can take before the joints fail. Lastly, we did how much time it takes to release the linkage to the slot, and the dimensions of the linkage to determine area of blockage.

Bill of materials:


Manufacturing Step-by-step


To do list:
1. Finalize the pump design
2. Modify the bill of materials for specifications
3. Discuss manufacturing of linkage plates or purchasing them?



Next week will be a long week.

Strategy & Module description

ME 250 is a design and manufacturing class. We have to design a competitive machine that will transport ping-pong balls on an arena while defending for opponent strategy. After long deliberation, our team decides on the following strategy.

Strategy Description:
We have a pump(see below) that connects to the side of arena. The pump is connected to a gear that controls the vertical motion of the pump, and it'll be used to elevate balls and transport them over through the pipe. For defense, we have a cart with scissor linkage attached. The cart will drive over to opponent side and release linkage when game start, and this provides blockage inside the slot as well as a barricade on the arena floor to prevent opponent from coming over.

The Pump:

The pump is use to bring balls in the slot to a higher elevation and allow the balls to roll over to the opponent side of the slot.

The Cart:

The cart will be use as our main defense in the slot and on top of the arena. A scissor link that is attached to the cart will be lower into the opponent side of the slot to prevent any balls from coming over from the opponent side. The cart will be wide enough to prevent opponent cart from making an attack on top of the arena.

Team Schedule

Following is the team schedule for the next 2 months. The spreadsheet includes to-do lists, deadlines, and estimated working hours.
http://bit.ly/3nvAqi


-Team Concept