SENIOR DESIGN PROJECTS

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Design Option A - ME 641

Design and development of a mechanical or thermal/fluid system. Individual or group reports that include designs, analysis/testing, drawings, and/or schematics is required. Establishment of specifications and consideration of realistic constraints such as safety, economic factors, design impact, aesthetics, and reliability are required. In addition, a final product or prototype must be produced and demonstrated.

Typically, these projects are supported by industrial sponsors. Thus, the team must interact closely with its sponsor and work to satisfy the sponsor's needs. Sponsors provide for all materials, professional services (off-the-shelf components tooling, electrical, etc.), and an administrative fee.

Selected previous project examples:

• ASME Human Powered Vehicle

  Students design, build, and race a semi-upright carbon composite frame and fairing to compete in a single rider human powered vehicle event. The competition is broken into three categories: design, male and female sprints, and road race. This project is not industrially sponsored. Thus, the team raises the funds to build the vehicle and travel to the competition site.

• Boeing Autonomous Boom Design
• Boeing Explosion Containment System
• Boeing Panel Testing System
• Bowersock Plant and Mills Sluice Gate Movement System
• Bowersock Plant and Mills Turbine Brake
• Bowersock Plant and Mills Turbine Control
• Clean Snowmobile Vehicle Challenge

The Clean Snowmobile Vehicle Challenge competition provides engineering students the opportunity to find solutions to environmental concerns while simultaneously maintaining or improving the performance of the snowmobile. Emissions and noise levels are major design considerations as they are becoming paramount concerns for snowmobile manufacturers and enthusiasts.

• Ethanol Vehicle Challenge
• Fore Entertainment Golf Ball Sorting System
• Haas Machine Shop Conveyor System
• Haas Machine Shop I-Beam Punch
• IQ Luggage Self Weighing System
• Propane Vehicle Challenge
• Rehrig Pacific Pallet Testing System
• Sauer-Danfoss Pump Assembly System
• Wind/Solar Power Demonstration Mobile System

Design Option B - ME 642

Manufacturing and testing of a formula vehicle designed and developed in ME 627 - Vehicle Design. A group report with individual assignments which details the manufacturing procedures and testing procedures and results is required. A completed, working vehicle with a design file documenting all aspects of the project development must be submitted.

The Formula SAE competition provides engineering students the opportunity to conceive, design, fabricate, and race a formula racecar. Restrictions on car frame and engine are limited so that knowledge, creativity, and imagination of the students are challenged without sacrificing safety. Cars are built with team effort over a period of about one year. The competition consists of both static and dynamic events. Static events include presentation, engineering design and cost analysis. Dynamic events include acceleration, skid pad, autocross, fuel economy and endurance.

Competition occurs annually in Detroit, MI and Fortana, CA.

Design Option C - ME 643

Design and development of a mechanical system related to biomechanics that has been investigated in ME 633 - Basic Tissue Mechanics and Biodynamics. An individual or group report that includes designs, analysis/testing, and drawings and/or schematics is required. Establishment of specifications and consideration of realistic constraints such as safety, economic factors, design impact, aesthetics, and reliability are required.

Selected previous projects:

• Athletic Field Events Chair for Disabled Children (Capper Foundation)

As part of the recreational programs of the Capper Foundation, children with spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, and other physical problems can compete in athletic field events such as shot put, softball throw, discus, and javelin. Most of these children rely on a wheelchair for mobility, but the wheel chair does not provide a good base of support for these activities. The KU student team designed and built a specialized chair to meet competition standards and limitations. The chair is adjustable for different sizes of children and also allows the user the option of having the seat spin and using an opposite hand reaction bar to increase angular momentum and the distance of throws.

• Design of a Lightweight Plaster Splint for M-PACT

M-PACT Wordwide is a major manufacturer of casting and splinting materials. They offer standard plaster, fiberglass and plastic splint materials. The fiberglass and plastic have the advantage of lightweight and higher tensile strength, but the plaster has the advantage of higher stiffness and lower cost. This team explored several methods of reducing the weight of a plaster-based splint, through structural changes inside the splint to changes in the layers and composition. They found that, by adding one or two synthetic layers to the plaster splints, many layers of plaster could be removed. This decreased the plaster splint weight by about 30%, maintained the strength of the splint, and only slightly increased the cost of the splint.

• Hallmark Specialty Packing Station Ergonomic Redesign

This packaging line originally forced short workers to raise arms unnaturally and tall workers to bend while loading specialty packages into boxes. All workers had to lift the loaded box while bending and twisting to place it on a conveyor in an awkward postion. The design team added a height adjustment mechanism to the box loading platform to reduce reaching and bending, and created a new systems (also height adjustable) for delivery of empty boxes and pick-up of loaded boxes. In the final design, the worker no longer had to lift the box, but simply slides it onto a custom conveyor.

Design Option D - ME 644

Design and development of a thermal/fluid system. Individual or group reports that include designs, analysis/testing, drawings, and/or schematics is required. Establishment of specifications and consideration of realistic constraints such as safety, economic factors, design impact, aesthetics, and reliability are required. In addition, a final product or prototype must be produced and demonstrated.

Typically, these projects are supported by industrial sponsors. Thus, the team must interact closely with its sponsor and work to satisfy the sponsor's needs. Sponsors provide for all materials, professional services (off-the-shelf components tooling, electrical, etc.), and an administrative fee.

Selected previous Projects:

• Black & Veatch Pipe Freezing Model/Test System
• Grundfos Orifice Testing System
• Grundfos Pump Comparison System
• Grundfos Ppump Testing System
• Hallmark Card "Baking" System
• Hallmark Card Folding Assist System
• Hallmark Die Card Stamping System
• Hallmark Die Cut System
• Hallmark Ribbon Quenching System