Tuesday, March 21, 2017

3/22/2017 Blog # 21

Hi,
this week we came into the design center on Wednesday night, all of Saturday, Sunday morning, and most of Tuesday to assemble. We started running out of screws and so we put in an order for those. One u-bracket broke and so we're glad to have extra PLA. By the end of Sunday, we had finished one entire loop. We ran a bogie through the track and there were several notable problems at this point: unlevel, tight, and weld obstructions. Tuesday, we grinded down most of the weld hindrances and are in the process of finding a fix for the tightness.
Assembly has taken an extremely long amount of time - more than expected. So our goal will be to finish it during spring break

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

3/15/2017 Blog #20

Hi,
this past week we did more welding. On top of that, we ordered nuts, bolts, PLA, and some aluminum adhesive. The aluminum adhesive does not work for us so we will be proceeding to Plan B which is to screw the top guideway to the top of the L bracket. We got approved for our PLA because we will be using it to print the bogies and control arm for the bogie team, print the RFID bracket for the controls team, and the collar to stabilize the support post for the solar team. We also changed our collar design as shown below - less PLA material and more aesthetically pleasing, but will require a nut and bolt for each leg.

This coming week, we will be attempting to create a functional loop of the track so that other teams could test their parts onto the track.

Wednesday, March 8, 2017

3/8/2017 Blog #19

Hi,
this week we worked on creating a jig that would effectively, quickly, and accurately fit the two pieces for welding together to speed up the welding process. We have welded three total corners, but since it is so time-consuming, we might need to buy some aluminum adhesive for the top guideway to the top of the L-bracket. We completed Gantt chart and worked on paper and presentation. We also 3D printed more U-brackets, which we should be done with by the following week - needed to help 3D print some stuff for Ernest from the Bogie team. Also, completed collar design for solar mount with the third picture showing how the three legs will be attached. Fourth picture shows the collar from a different angle.

Below are pictures of what we accomplished this week.