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.