Week 37: Final Report & MakerFaire

The final report that summarizes the entirety of the work performed this year is being complied to be delivered by Friday, May 19th, and coincides with the beginning of MakerFaire. MakerFaire will be the final and most significant public viewing of the work that has been put forth on the Spartan Superway project. The twelfth-scale teams have come together well and created a reliably functioning model, which the previous year did not have. Track Fabrication and Process Development has produced quality work that has empowered the entire twelfth-scale team to do well, namely with reference to corner sections made and aid on the solar panel rack creation.

Expect the final report to be made available in the coming days.

Lastly, the bender has been moved to the shop, and necessary documentation on how to use it will be added before final completion of the project.

Week 36: Final Presentation & Documentation

The final presentation has been completed and will be shown at the Senior Design Conference on Friday May 12th. It will showcase the work the team has put forth this year and demonstrate the accomplishments achieved. In case the video at the end of the presentation does not work, click the link below:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0ByEshzEXNw20QTNDYk1pNUVRbWc

What will not be shown in the presentation will be the bogie backstop for the half-scale team, as that work was not directly within our purview. Comments about the aged shop machinery will be reserved for the final report, or may exist only as a reference for future teams.

Final documentation shall be complete by this time next week in preparation for the completion of the semester. Any knowledge gained from this semester will be condensed into some form to be accessible to teams beyond our year.

As a final note with regards to builds, the half-scale bogie backstop achieved a gravity-assisted slip-fit onto the existing structure, requiring no modifications whatsoever.

The half-scale bogie backstop fit as planned.

Week 35: Finishing Up The Year

The solar panel racks and bogie backstops have been completed, and will be test-fit in the shop today.

Kevin has more detailed information concerning the completed builds.

Documentation is required for task handoff and goals achieved in the form of the final report, as well as presentations that need to be prepared for both the Senior Design Conference on May 12th and MakerFaire on May 19th, 20th, and 21st.

The track is still in good shape and things appear to be running well, so no further fabrication appears necessary.

Completed bogie backstops.

New post sleeve for the support.

Test fit on new solar panel racks is positive.

Week 34: Build Update, Final Report & Presentation

May 12th is coming soon, which is the Senior Design Conference where the senior projects that seniors have been working on through the past two semesters show what they have accomplished and learned. Each group and subteam, including ours, will need to present, and compiling information towards that goal (as well as for the final report) is ongoing.

With regards to the build requests received thus far, the solar panel racks are approximately 20% complete. Most of the required parts have been acquired already, with a section of angle stock being the last section necessary acquisition.

The bogie backstop for the 1/2 scale track will be tested later today in the shop, the results from which will determine the trajectory needed to complete the build.

Go to Kevin's blog post this week for more specific updates on the builds.

Solar panel rack end sections.

Half scale bogie backstop.

Week 33: Solar Panel Rack Build & Shop Tools

The materials to build the solar panel racks have for the most part been obtained, so the build will begin shortly. Only one post support needs to be fabricated, while two halves of the solar panel racks need to be made. The latest completion date is the end of April at the moment.

Many of the tools in the Spartan Superway shop do not work. The status of each tool will be made part of a comprehensive list, detailing the state of each tool and the commensurate recommendation for noteworthy items.

Week 32: Presentation 2 & Refinement

Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge last weekend was a relative success. The pieces fabricated by the team were assembled into a track that was functional.

This week the team will give the second presentation of the semester, focusing on completed activities and what remains for the semester.

Focus on shop tools will be largely relegated to investigation and documentation into current problems and corresponding recommendations, and not necessarily aggressive work to get them running again.

Lastly, considerations for task handoff are being compiled, but in light of the foreseeable future of the Spartan Superway project (where in-house work will focus largely on CAD, design, and analysis), operational machines may be secondary or tertiary in relevance and importance.

Week 31: Preparing for Paseo

The Paseo Public Prototyping challenge is only a few days away. Updated information from the other small scale teams is promising, with a completed bogie being able to traverse a single loop as of several days ago. Admittedly, what will be presented at Paseo will not be the most refined version that the small scale team has to offer, but should still function relatively well and allow for revisions heading towards MakerFaire.

No requests for help have been made of the track improvement team.

More detailed investigation will need to be made into the state of the aged and donated tools around the shop, but many of them appear to be broken beyond repair, are missing parts that cannot be found, do not have the requisite associated items, need new parts, or just do not work well.

Click here to go to the week 3 post for some basic investigation into shop tool issues.

Week 30: Where Do We Go Now

No other teams have yet requested help, so the assumption is that things are going according to plan so far. Many teams appear to be conducting work throughout the break, however, in order to reach completion prior to the Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge.

As of the writing of this post, there are no outstanding requests of the track fabrication and process development team, be they for builds or references of anything else.

As stated previously, the current assumption is that during the time period between Paseo and MakerFaire, work will be conducted to refine the 1/12th scale model. Areas for improvement will be identified after the initial build has been completed.

The focus for the track improvement and process development team in the meantime has been on alternative work, such as ideation for possible builds for coming years should they require machines, and investigation into machines in the shop that currently do not run. Not much progress has been made on these fronts thus far, unfortunately.

Week 29: To Paseo, And Beyond

Work to date appears to not be entirely on track according to earlier assumed schedules, but still within permissible bounds for completion by Paseo. Work will need to be conducted through spring break in order for things to be completed, however.

As of the writing of this post, there are no outstanding requests of the track fabrication and process development team, be they for builds or references of anything else.

Kevin is dealing with the very recent loss of a family member, but is trying to remain available for anything that the other teams may need him for.

The current assumption is that during the time period between Paseo and MakerFaire, work will be conducted to refine the 1/12th scale model. Areas for improvement will be identified after the initial build has been completed.

Week 28: Coming Up, Paseo Public Prototyping

The Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge is coming soon, and is to take place on April 8th this year. There is yet work to be performed on the project at large, including integration and testing of systems, however the track fabrication and process development team has completed all work assigned to and requested of them thus far. The team is still looking to provide support to other teams should they request any, but no additional requests have been made to date.

A general but not all-inclusive list of tasks for the future is as follows:
・Record findings, problems, learnings from past semesters
・Document how to use devices created for project (material bender, bend block)
・Return extra raw material to shop
・Investigate extra tasks (variable-radius bender, hydraulic bender, etc.)
・Return shop keys

Week 27: Builds Complete, Moving Foward

The fabrication requests for the track corners and solar panel ribs and tabs have been fulfilled. No other fabrication requests have been made of the track fabrication and process development team to date, so the focus hereafter will be as follows. Immediate priority will be given to any issues that arise that require immediate attention, and the focus will otherwise be on one of several tasks. One task is to create documentation and coalesce knowledge gained, with the intent to hand off the task to any who would follow my role in later years. Another task is investigating suggestions from this past semester, including variable-radius benders and dies. One additional task will be to analyze the inoperable machines in the Spartan Superway tech shop, and set about determining if fixes can be made to resurrect any machinery.

There were some specifics regarding work on the solar panel ribs and tabs this past week, detailed in Kevin's post for the week. In short, the ribs and tabs could be created, but the process allowed for very little error in the fabrication.

Below is the first presentation of the semester, showcasing the fabrication thus far and some additional details on how the output was formed in terms of monetary and temporal investment.

An example of stress fracture in the bend section of the aluminum rib.

Fabrication of an aluminum block to bend the material.

A completed rib.

Tabs followed the same process, but did not include the center section like a rib.

Week 26: Revising Ribs?

Work for this past week focused on recycling and repurposing old small stock from test bends to be used for ribs for the solar team. The current design for the ribs includes a tight bend, which can be created manually but greatly stresses the material. There are several potential remedies to mitigate the effects of concentrated stress at the bends, which are causing issues with the ribs at current. The aim is still to complete the ribs by next Wednesday.

Next Wednesday also has the team's first presentation for the semester, as well as a literature assignment due at the same time.

Click here to check out Kevin's post this week for more in-depth information on the build.

Test bend #1, plywood block buckled.

Solid aluminum block should not buckle.

Test bend #2, tab cracked and broke off from the sharp bend.

Week 25: Forging Onwards

All corners for the new track have been completed, and will be handed over to the track improvement team later today for further assembly/manipulation. Ribs requested by the solar team are planned to be manufactured within the next week. The Track Fabrication and Process Development Team is aiming to aid in any additional manufacturing and fabrication as the needs arise, before turning toward any supplementary tasks such as a variable-radius die.

Click here for further information on the fabrication done this past week in Kevin's weekly post.

Material being bent in the bender.

All corners completed to specifications, February 21st.

Week 24: Progress

The 19.67" measuring block is made for the 0.25" aluminum stocks. The purpose of making a measuring block is to measure the bent aluminum stocks and possibly hammer the aluminum against the block to reach the desired shape.

Good news: machine shop E123 is now open for longer hours:

M 3:00-5:00  PM

T  3:00-10:00 PM

W 3:00-5:00 PM

TH 3:00-10:00 PM

F 3:00-8:00 PM

The minor crisis surrounding the new material and its difference from the old material was discovered and settled within the last week. There should be enough of the old material to make the entirety of the bends required for the new track. Other additions to the new track, such as magnets and the corrugated metal strip, are in the process of being finalized. Alterations will be made as necessary to the track after the bends have been made.

Week 23: Spring Semester Begins

This is the first week of the semester of Spring 2017, and we were reminded about the dates of the Paseo Public Prototyping Challenge and acknowledge that we have around two months to work with the rest of the sub-teams to finish the project. The aim is to finish the track sections early in order to allow for other teams to test and make changes, but more specifically the short term goal is to finish a die allowing for 0.25" aluminum stock to be bent and a measuring block to quantify output.

We are also going to help the solar team to build their ribs which requires their dimensions including arc length and bend radius.

Kevin has more specific information in this week's blog post about the state of other teams and where we stand. (Click Here.)