Week 12: Mechanical & Machine Design
Group Assignment (link):
- design a machine that includes mechanism+actuation+automation+application
- build the mechanical parts and operate it manually
- actuate and automate your machine
- document the group project and your individual contribution
Introduction to the Week's Project
Fortunately Kochi is blessed with an amazing group of participants. I tried my best to keep up as well as contribute! We started the week with a brainstorm, and many ideas were there. One of the first ideas we were excited about was a fishing game, similar to an available child's game. However, it turns out that a group at a FAB Lab elsewhere had already done this exact project! In any case, that was just one of many ideas considered during the group brainstorming:
In the end, the group decided on a project which was to be called "Velichapaad". It is a CNC machine which leaves a trail of light, and can be used for drawing pictures. Basically with this machine it's possible to take a picture with a very long exposure, and within this time the camera can capture the route taken by the light within that time-frame. Actually it was really great, and I was happy to participate for a few wonderful days of this week before departing Kerala.
My Design Contributions to the Project
Mostly I was assigned some minor modeling tasks, for example, I designed a test for bearings:
The second set of cylinders further refines the ideal parameters for the bearing:
Here, as can also be seen on the group documentation page, is the best fit for the bearing:
Another modeling task I contributed was to design a corner connector for the extrusions:
On the back of the connector are raised rectangles to fit the slot of the extrusion:
Yet another contriution was to help Noel with the locking mechanism for the belt:
Finally, I contributed to the design of the end effector, specifically the locking case holding the PCB with LEDs designed mainly by Namita. Noel with Akash finished the project - big respect to them.
Design Files
Bearing Test (Fusion)Corner Connector (Fusion)