Weekly Update: Assembling Most Critical Module

The past week our team had several exams and needed to balance manufacturing with other work. The previous week we had done our first stage of manufacturing and completed more than three completely manufactured parts. This past week was used to start assembly, finish manufacturing, and fix errors in our most critical module.

Figure 1: Dimitris and Nathan Manufacturing Shaft from Most Critical Module

Our most critical module, as descirbed in previous posts, is our shaft module used to lift, move, and deposit the ping pong balls on our opponents side of the arena. After use of the waterjet last week, we had finished all of the small parts such as our scoop carriers and our shaft constraints. This past week we aimed to assemble most of our shaft module.

Figure 2: Milled Shaft for Most Critical Module

While looking and developing our assembly we noticed that the aluminum rod given in out kit, was not perfectly round and had tolerances we were not comfortable with. Another visit to ALRO was made to buy a precision steel rod that we could use instead. We opted for this instead of turning down the aluminum because the steel is also much more stiff, and there is less chance of breaking when lifting all of the ping pong balls.

Figure 3: Rubber Tracks, Bevel Gears and Polyethylene our Team Purchased

Throughout the weekend, our team met to assemble the most critical module. The shaft constraints were fixed inside the square tube, and the polyethylene bushings were press fit into the constraints. The scoop was also formed and attached. The final key part that was missing from our module, were the bevel gears which we had ordered on Tuesday this past week. The bevel gears arrived on Friday and everything was ready for the final assembly.

Figure 4: Rear Defensive Module Completed

Sunday Night should be the conclusion of the assembly of our most critical module and our team will use class times and evenings this week to conclude the engineering of our final project. This upcoming week will be busy due to the work we will miss over Thanksgiving break.