We are back! After a week off because of Thanksgiving, we are back to updating our blog. We did a lot over the past 2 weeks, but we have encountered good news and bad news. 

BAD NEWS:
After actually testing out the heating lamp, we've determined that it would not meet our requirement. Looking back at our simulation, it was apparent that the temperature of the bulb would need to be MUCH higher than we anticipated (more than any cheap/correct size bulb could ever produce)


So we are going to have to go with a heated bed through a Coil, because we KNOW it will work (because it works on other 3-D printers and is a known method for heating)

GOOD NEWS:


The 3-D printer works! 

First run

First completed part

 
What we did this week:
Our electronics came in:


1 xPololu A4988 Stepper Motor Driver, non-assembled, RoHS, 5 pack - $40.00 

1 xTosduino MEGA 2560 - $30.00 

1 xRAMPS 1.4 Assembled, w/o Wires or Connectors - $45.00 

were all ordered from Lulzbot.


The PSU was ordered from Newegg
1 x ($69.99) Thermaltake Tough Power TP-750P 750W ATX 12V 2.3 $69.99



We also determined the Delrin to use and what sheet to buy.

We talked to the company that laser cut our last gear, and they said they can do it for $50/hr. That is because it takes more care and is more flammable than acrylic. 



What we are doing this week.
Today we plan on assembling the electronics we just got, and ordering the Delrin, as well as the plastic for the extruder. When we get the Delrin, we are going to get it laser cut, and then put it on our aluminum gear. We also need to assemble the heat bulb
 
What we did this week:
We began working on the report as well as our short presentation. We also ordered more parts, mainly the electronics and the heating bulb/mount. We discussed what to do about the cog wheel in terms of manufacturability for it to be metal or not. 

We also CAD'd (is that proper grammar?) and 3-D printed our limit switches, which were a requirment for the design.
Limit switches

What  we plan to do this week:
Assembly the parts we ordered: Power supply, switch board, heating bulb, heating bulb holder

We also need to finish our 5-minute presentation that is on Monday, as well as finish the report
 
What we did this week:


This week, we worked as a group to come up with the 5 minute presentation that we will have to do for the class. We decided to do it on our heat transfer problem with the table. We also decided to go with the heat lamp and have drawn up a CAD on how it will look, and which fixture/bulb to get. 

We also finished designing the side panels for the frame. These are needed for our safety requirement.

side_1_hole_panel.catpart
File Size: 2053 kb
File Type: catpart
Download File

side_wall_assemble.catpart
File Size: 2995 kb
File Type: catpart
Download File

What we need to do this week:


Once we order the remaining parts, we can finish our assembly and begin testing. The immediate thing that needs to be done is our presentation that is next week, followed by starting the report. 
 
What we did this week:


This week, we mainly focused on our biggest design problem and potential change to the current design; the heated table. One of the requirements we have is to get the table to 100 degrees Celsius, but we need to make sure it doesn't interfere with the other design requirements (cost, weight, etc.) We have broken it down into three major possibilities, which actually apply to the three different methods of heat transfer; conduction, convection, and radiation.

ABSTRACT:

Design 1:
Conduction: Heating Resistant Coil
Essentially running a coil through the bottom of the plate and running an electric charge through it to generate heat. This would be similar to a electric stove or an electric water heater. 
Pros: Hooks into power source, (don't have to use external power source), air resistance is negligible, cheap
Cons: Involves redesigning the table


Design 2:
Convection: Heat gun ("Blow dryer")
A heat gun basically blows hot air out to heat anything. Differences in model have to do with temperature output, and air flow volume. 
Pros:  Can be easily placed anywhere in the design
Cons: Dependent on air resistances, doesn't heat evenly, better models are expensive, would most likely need to be plugged into an external power source (if not modified) 


Design 3:
Radiation: Heat lamp
A lamp that emits heat.
Pros: Easy to implement into the design, 
Cons: Would have to paint the table black so it can benefit from the table easier, can be relatively more expensive that conduction, 



Calculations:

Not completed: It would be best for us to run simulations of all 3 methods, but we only had time for the radiation simulation:

Conduction:
Convection:

Work in progress:
Radiation:

We were able to run a simulation of the radiation problem in SolidWorks. We changed to wattage of the bulb to figure out what temperature the table would be at steady state conditions. 


link to our google docs for heat transfer design (work in progress)
  https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AqDtTMKNMOpOdGZTNmlwMDZSeXhiR3R5R3lwY3B2dVE&usp=sharing
 

What we did this week:
Since we are practically finished with the assembly of the project, we decided to take time to discuss the differences in our design compared to what was given to us. 

Heated bed:
• Transfer electricity via slip ring if you could manufacture/procure
one cheaply enough (Basically Hamel's recommendation)
• Wireless inductive heating like how they do for stovetops.
• Paint the bottom black with something heat resistant and blast it with
IR from a heat gun or heat lamp.
• Just use a wire and have the software prevent winding too many times
in one direction.
• Have stationary heater underneath, and plate spins on top of it.
• Have another plate underneath that it rubs against. Spin really fast.
Friction heating.


Electronics placement :
In our senior design, we came across many different obstacles in improving our 
customer’s design while maintaining functionality. Our first problem was placement of
the electronics that support our 3D printer. We had different options of either extending 
our frame or building a separate compartment to house the decapede controller and the 
rest of the electronics. Through our design process, we came to the conclusion that 
building a separate compartment that can be bolted on the side would be better for our 
group in terms of cost. The compartment will be either of wood or aluminum; a final 
decision hasn’t been made yet. 

Tension belt:
The second challenge our group encountered was the rubber belt was sliding up 
and down on the cogs. This problem didn’t allow the platter to move up and down 
efficiently. First we replaced the 3D printed cogs with brand new plastic cogs that our 
group found online. Our group still ran into the same problem, but the movement of the 
belt was vastly improved. Finally we came up with the idea of adding tensioners. The 
tensioners were made by stacking a bolt with washers along the frame and running the 
belt through them to add tension. This idea solved the belt tension problem, and did so 
without spending too much money on it.


Panels:
For safety purpose, each frame will be covered by a panel. The panels will be designed to have holes for the heat to escape; also to be easy to mount or dismount whenever machine maintenance needed or printed object needs to be removed. 


Ventilation system:
Original design has the top of the machine open. We decided to add and design a lid which function as a ventilation system, so that the heat and toxic fume will be removed from the inside. There will be holes on that top panel for air to blow through; underneath, 120-mm computer case fan will be attached to the top panel to suck the heat and fume out.


Table:
 The initial design consisted of a table made out of wood. It is a good material since it has a low density, but other characteristics of wood did not meet our requirements. With alternating heat temperatures, wood tends to deform; therefore, the flatness of our table would vary over time. In addition, it is necessary to maintain a constant temperature on the table during operation in order to reduce the rate of heat transfer of the object being printed. This helps print the object with better precision. To meet these requirements, we decided to use an Aluminum alloy. Aluminum has a high thermal conductivity; therefore, it will heat up faster and help maintain the heat generated by a heating element. In addition, it will retain a tighter flatness tolerance than wood. With a density of 2.70 g/cm^3 and a Volume of 305.80 cm^3, the total mass of the table will be about 835.65 g or 1.82 lbm. Light enough for the motor to run efficiently.

 Motor Size:
Having limiting space for the 4-extruder arms to swing about a fixed axis, we minimized the size of the motors. This helps give enough clearance between extruders to avoid collision. When one extruder is at its maximum angle ( 90 deg or at center of table) , clearance is needed between the operating motor and the stationary extruder motor to the left. 

Cogs:
The initial design of the cogs were made from 3D printed parts. On paper it seemed like it would work fine, but after assembly, we noticed the belt was slipping on the bottom. We decided to order new cogs that would hold the belt better and have better teeth. They also had parts on the top and bottom that would prevent the belt from slipping off. This keeps t inline to ensure it wont slip off.

What we need to do next week:
We need to figure out what to do about our decapede situation. After that, it's simply just electronics and coding. 



 
What we did this week:

We essentially finished assembly of the device with the parts we had(new cogs and aluminum table). We decided after many calculations and cost analysis, that using the plywood frame would be best. It is possible to reinforce the frame if needed, but after some initial tests, the frame is sturdy enough to handle one extruder arm moving at maximum velocity.

To see new video and pictures : MEDIA

One of the major problems we realized yesterday was heating the table. After doing basic heat transfer calculations, it was determined that about 73.3W of power would be needed to heat the bed to 100C after 15 minutes. We initially thought of a design to add a battery to the bottom the table to avoid a coil getting wrapped around the table, but the 73.3W is too much for a battery to handle. Our other option to is to figure out about electric coupling (which 5 Mechanical Engineers know very little about) to have it plug into our power source. The other option is to NOT heat the bed, which Tyler said would be okay.


What we plan to do this week:
Since we decided on the frame the way it is, we are going to just have to put the electronics outside of the 3D printer, possible in a type of computer case with fans to keep it cool. This shouldn't be too difficult. All we have left to do is some redesign for the extruder fans and limit switches.  We need to test the new bed on the current rollers to see if it fixed our wobbling problem. If it does still wobble, we will need to redesign the rollers. 

What we really want to do is plug this thing up and test out all the motors to see what could be fixed or changed. It's a brash way of doing things, but there are some things we can't account for that can only be seen by actually trying it out

http://i.imgur.com/eeUvaTz.jpg [Gantt chart as of 10-9-13]
 
What we did this week:
We took a trip to the machine shop after our meeting last week to see what material we could dig up to use on our project.  We found some potential sheet metal for a frame that we could use, and also a square slab of aluminum for the table. We decided to only take the square slab (for the purposes of not looking too greedy with all that metal) and machined it into a new table.

Gantt Chart as of 10/07/2013

We also worked on a new draft of the Gantt chart, which will tie in everything we need to do starting today till the end of the semester. The only foreseeable problems are still the decapede and the coding of the firmware.

(A direct link of the Gantt file can be found in the FILES page)

Higher Res img: http://i.imgur.com/eeUvaTz.jpg
 
What we did this week:

I uploaded a lot of pictures and videos to the Media page to show our progress on project, as well as our recent trip to get parts laser cut. MEDIA


It's apparent that I didn't really keep the blog up to date on things we were doing in terms of ordering the parts, assembly, and other things blog-worthy. So I will recap all the major points of the project, essentially starting from the end of last semester.

END OF LAST SEMESTER:
The initial design was completed around the time of the final last semester. After that, we began producing all the 3-D parts needed for the project. This was essentially free and could be done at any point because Tyler already had a 3-D printer available. 

SUMMER:
                First meeting: (07/01/2013)
  • Had the 3-D printed parts completed. However, they were 'messy' so we had to clean them up by removing excess material to allow for the other components to fit
  • Began ordering other parts for the physical model; rods, fasteners, frame 

              Second meeting: (7/29/2013)
  • Began basic assembly of the 3-D parts with the rods and fasteners and other materials acquired recently.
  • Ordered extruder and extruder parts


SCHOOL STARTS (8/29/2013)
            Third meeting: (9/1/2013)
  • Continued work on the assembly , mainly the frame. Realized the frame was kind of weak and considered new design.
  • Essentially finished the physical part of the project with the parts we had


          Fourth meeting: (9/8/2013)
  • Began testing the electronics/motors 
  • Was told to consider redesigning certain aspects of project to fit needs better


       Fifth meeting: (9/15/2013)
  • Ordered more parts (aluminum cogs) because the 3-D printer ones didn't work as expected
  • Stress analysis of the frame for redesigning purposed


     Sixth meeting: (9/30/2013)
  • Aluminum table redesign/concept are starting
  • The Decapede problem



What we plan to do this week.

We still need to finish redesigning the problems we stated in the previous week's blog. We looked at getting the aluminum frame, but to machine it to the exact specifications of the current design are costly. The reason we would want to keep the design the same is because the 3D printed parts would already fit it. If we make the frame different for easier manufacturing, we would have to redesign the 3D printed parts that fit to it and redo those(which aren't costly to print out)

 
What we did this week:

The most apparent difference you notice will be the complete change in blog. I think it was apparent that blogster was not a good choice in blog choice.

We did some initial stress analysis on the new frame design vs the old, and determined that aluminum would be a better option than wood for durability factor.  MEDIA

We met up on Sunday to start the redesign phase of our project. It was expressed that we needed to modify the existing design Tyler made to meet the design requirements of our client.  To recap:

Frame Material: The current frame is designed with wood. After doing some stress test's, we decided to go with a thin aluminum frame. This makes the 3-D printer more durable and less chance of rotting. 

Frame Design: Since we are changing the material of the frame anyways, we figured we can change the design of it too. The problem we are having is placement of the electronic components, such as power supply and the switchboard. With a new frame, we can encompass a base to set these things in and place it.

Table: The table is going to be changed into aluminum as well instead of wood. This can allow for less rot as well a higher heating capacity in the material because we want to add a heating element to the table.

Fans: We plan on adding two types of fans to the design; one for the fumes (for removing air from the system), and for the extruders (to cool the material quicker). 

Roller: The roller would work better if we move them to the side for better balance.

Motors: Possibly changing to one motor instead of two motors. This would require a stronger motor but would give it a cleaner look/less weight.

Belt/Cogs: Redesigning the type of belt/cogs with a different type of pitch would be ideal because the current design doesn't create a solid enough grip, which slips when moving. Another part would be to use Idlers instead of washers so that they don't fall off as much.

Limit Switches: For the motors and moving parts to determine when the parts reach a certain part, and set that limit to be 0. This is needed to prevent the parts from moving too far in a certain direction, or to recalibrate to 0.

What we plan to do this week:

    This week we plan on getting some drawings done with the new design components and finishing up a more detailed PDS and Gantt Chart to reflect our new design. Since we are working with a new blog, some more changes are needed to make it up to date.
 
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