Blog #13 11/30/2016

Hi,

This week we got our Bill of Materials approved by Eric and have ordered the PLA filament from Amazon for under $100. The filament should arrive today and be sufficient for 30 castings of our U-bracket which Jezreel has volunteered to 3D print for us with his printer throughout winter break. We will be printing them at 70% ink-fill (heeding Michael Kemp’s advice, who suggested 70% is approximately the same as 100% ink-fill). After we print the first one, we will be comparing it with the previously printed 100% ink-filled one to see differences. Since it was Thanksgiving weekend, we did not burden ourselves with too many tasks. However, we were working on presentation #3 and starting our final report. For the first draft of our final report that is due this Friday 12/2/2016, we will be working on it throughout this week so that we have less to do for the final draft of the final report. For the coming weeks, we will be working on the final report and planning for the beginning of next semester.

11/23/2016 Blog #12

Hi,
this week, we created a Bill of Materials which we e-mailed to three people: Eric Hagstrom, Michael Kemp, and Neil Shankar; they are responsible for approving our budget. Jezreel went ahead and found the PLA filament on Amazon which was the item needed for our Bill of Materials. We also dimensioned the overall dimensions of the track to make sure it fit the given area when presenting at Paseo Prototyping and Maker's Faire which is within a 15 by 15 feet area, which it does. It also allows other teams to know approximately how large the track is (13 by 13 feet). On Friday, Jez and I went to see VanderBend to obtain answers. Having gone to VanderBend, we saw the many things they were able to accomplish so that our minds were unshackled from only the experiences we have had with countering the problems we've encountered. 

11/16/16

Hi,

This week we maintained contact with Kearny Foundry and realized the price was too expensive ($1400 for mold and 30 castings), especially since they will not be able to machine the press fit or holes either. It would be more expensive to let another company finish off the machining that we needed done, but if we simply 3D printed, it would solve the problems of needing to ask two companies for help and it would save tons of money. The process would take about half of the time (two to three weeks instead of four) and would eliminate the need to find a machining company or create a repeatable drilling process. We have also been trying to organize a visit to Vanderbend Manufacturing for our group and several others to get quotes, contacts, and answers. Vanderbend has been communicative. They have seen our designs and give us some feedback. We are still waiting to hear back from them on a quote.

This week, our goal is to start the final report and complete a bill of materials for all of the things we need to 3D print. Fortunately, one member of our team (Jezreel) has a 3D printer, so we would be able to print it in the weeks of winter break.

Blog #10 11/9/2016

Hi,

This week we focused on turning all of the SolidWork parts into drawings and pdfs to obtain quotes from Kearny Foundry and Vander-Bend; there were a lot of parts to draw; below is two example pictures of fifteen. We needed to hurry all of the drawings because after getting a quote from the two companies next week, we need to put it in our Bill of Materials before submitting it to our treasurer. We have also been maintaining contact with the track manufacturing team who have been working diligently to create a tool to bend the material so that we could reduce the cost and finish the products at our own disposal. Moreover, we have been arranging for a meeting with Vander-Bend in person with several other members of the Spartan Superway Project.

Blog #9 11/2/16

Last week we presented again on the status of our project. We believe the presentation went well and announced that we are looking into beginning manufacturing. At this time, we have a running dialogue with Kearny Foundry about casting some newly designed brackets. At this time they have asked for a few more details from us before they can give us a quote. They also informed us that any final machine work would have to be done elsewhere.

We are also trying to get some work done at Vanderbend. At this time, we are coordinating with the Fabrication Team, and Full Scale Team to get a time to meet with the staff of Vanderbend. We have also been informed there is another senior project in the Industrial Studies department that would like to meet with Vanderbend for production.

We are creating a bill of materials to get our budget approved. It is still a work in progress to get in contact with manufacturers. Below you can see what we know so far. This will be further refined prior to submission.