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.)