Reference no: EM132250306

Mechanical Design Assignment -

Design Brief - Conveyor System for loads of up to 300kg and with a volume of less than 1m³.

You are a junior Engineer in your company and your immediate supervisor has given you a task which involves transporting a variety of your company's products to a new factory nearby to the present production facility.. Your urgent task is to do a quick feasibility study and come up with a project plan (Assignment 1), to see if this potential is worth your company spending more time and money pursuing this further and submitting a detailed design proposal for tender. This facility is to be able to handle a load of total mass up to 300kg. and would be able to fit within a three dimensional space of up 1 cubic metre. This volume is specified as being within a 1m x 1m x 1m space. This project has an approximate total budget of $5 million. Your project plan will be a technical report of up to 500 words and include sketches as appendices. No detail is required at this stage.

Points to consider would be:

1. How does the load get attached and lifted?

2. How does it get moved to the adjacent factory for further manufacturing operations?

3. How does it get unloaded?

4. How many products/hour can the facility handle?

5. What conveyor speed is required?

6. How much space will such a facility need?

7. Since the proposed transfer system will cross an internal roadway, how much overhead clearance is appropriate?

8. How much is it likely to cost?

Above all does your company have the capacity to handle this project and if not what other resources are required?

The Design project - You, as the designer are required to come up with a feasible means of loading, transferring, and placing the load such that it can be moved to suitable further processing equipment for further machining/surface treatment/other work. You must include in your design all the machine elements that we will study this semester as well as basic structures from previous knowledge in "Statics" and "Strength of Materials". You will also need to apply your knowledge of "Dynamics" to include all possible dynamic loads as part of your design theory. Your design must include the support structure, the conveyor system, the longitudinal drive, the transverse drive and all the components within the drive except the drive motor. You may specify an off the shelf electric/pneumatic motor/s. The main drive mechanism may consist of a primary drive motor, a gearbox, gearbox housing and a winch. You may also select suitable wire rope/s from a supplier's catalogue. You must justify your choices. You must also design all the structural elements of the system, as well as the wheels, axles, bearings, keys, keyways, shafts, gears, welds etc. Your design must also specify the manufacturing methods to be used, the quality standards you expect and the tolerances allowed as well as the method of fabrication/erection. You must also prepare a Bill of Materials which includes everything needed to fabricate this system. You will need to design a suitable means of supporting and guiding the conveyor system to transport the loads and return. This conveyor system is intended to be a continuous system with the following elements

1. Load product

2. Transfer product along a desired path which includes corners, ascents and descents.

3. Unload the product and then be guided along a suitable return path to repeat the task.

At some point in your design I want to see the design of a two stage gearbox, complete with housing , complete shaft with shaft mounts, bearings, welds, threaded fasteners, lubrication and maintenance needs. You will also have a realistic cost estimate to tell the client before approval is given to proceed with your detailed design. You will need to research and comply with all the relevant Australian Standards for this project. You must also list the Standards used and quote the appropriate section in your references. You should also specify anticorrosion and surface finish treatment for the system.

You must show ALL your calculations for each and every component in this project. This project is to be an individual effort and must be only your work although group discussion is encouraged. You must also demonstrate your provision for maintenance and repair of your lift.

Design Tasks - At the start of each design stage you need to state the design approach eg fatigue; you will use and justify your choice based upon the expected use of the individual components, the anticipated failure mode and design life. Do not take short cuts and/or use a simplistic approach.

1. Design the structural members of the system and then specify the construction processes including the welds and component sections.

2. Design a gearbox and gearbox housing which is used in your design, including the gear ratios, gears, shafts, bearing and bearing mounts, keys, keyways, welds. Also specify how the gears are to be maintained, assembled and lubricated while in service. In your gearbox housing design you must also specify how this hosing is mounted as well as provide detail of how and where the drive motor is fitted and coupled to the gearbox.

3. Design a suitable winch which may be used (or not), somewhere in the system, maybe coupled to the gearbox.

4. Design a longitudinal drive system to drive the conveyor assembly along the main guide rails. Include in your design all machine components such as shafts, bearings, mounts, couplings, gears, threaded fasteners etc. You may specify a suitable off the shelf, drive motor as the prime mover for this system but give detail of how and where it would be mounted. The actual conveyor belt/chain/other may be selected from a suitable commercially available system. However you must specify in detail how you will adapt and apply it to your own design. The bearings should be designed from first principles and then be selected from a catalogue. Suitable bearing housings/mounts may also be selected. Provide part numbers and references.

5. Design a transverse drive system (if required) and similarly specify all components used.

6. At the start of each design stage you need to state the design approach you will use and justify your choice based upon the expected use of the individual components.

7. At every stage of your design you must specify sufficient detail of materials, material grades, part numbers of commercially available bearings, details of commercially available sections chosen, details of commercially available wire rope used etc. This condition is to help you avoid as far as possible custom made components.

8. Design the conveyor system and mount system which allows the conveyor to travel and be operated in continuous use. You must make allowances here for very high reliability with minimal maintenance. Select suitable wheel/roller width clearances and tolerances and explain your reasoning. Specify suitable stops and impact shock absorbers to limit conveyor "wander" without causing excess drag or binding. Specify mounting details of the stops and shock absorbers.

After doing your detailed design calculations (by hand), always select wherever possible, suitable complying commercially available materials and components. Specify suitable and reputable Australian sources.

Assessment Detail and Report Format -

Design Assignment Project Plan Assignment 1 -

This report must in Technical Report format and be a 500 word narrative, which will explain in broad terms, your whole project. It will inform your immediate supervisor of your approach to this project while demonstrating close adherence to the brief, good cost control and compliance with deadlines. The complex technical analysis of various components will be in the Interim and Final Reports. You may wish to include, as part of your appendices, such things as a P&ID diagram, nomination (without design detail) of major components, proposed construction methods as well as identify any foreseeable projects constraints. Above all, use your powers of imagination and your knowledge of theory and application to come up with an innovative but feasible solution. Your company's future may depend on it!

Poster and Oral Presentation Assignment 2 -

This will be a large scale poster (A1, (594mm x 841mm)) and will support and illustrate your oral presentation. You will need to Extensive research to support your poster; you must also provide evidence of your research. This assignment is worth 30% of your total assessment and you are expected to do a commensurate amount of work to produce the poster. Please make your poster a thoroughly research and well produced effort appropriate to a 30% assessment. A hasty, last minute shallow, token effort based on little more than general knowledge, will be heavily penalized in the marking. Your oral presentation is a simulated promotion of your project to your company's senior management in order to authorize spending more time, resources and money to proceed towards construction of this conveyor facility. You should prepare and rehearse your presentation so that you can deliver it without notes and in a confident, interesting and persuasive manner. You will have five minutes (+/- 1 minute ) to get your message across. You should structure your poster in layout and format as if it were to be displayed in your own company boardroom promoting your expertise. This means you must get your message across in a professional manner, to people who may have some technical training but know very little about conveyor systems. Your accompanying 1,000 word report will be in technical report format and will build upon and expand, (but not repeat) your Project Plan. You should by now have refined the Project Plan to give more detail as well as some realistic costings of all major components for this project. Your costings will also include the costs for labour and the cost of any external services.

Mid Semester Interim Report Assignment 3 -

This is a 2,000 word technical report describing the next and interim stage of this project accompanied by all the appropriate detailed design and analysis included in appendices. Do not include any analysis/diagrams etc. in your descriptive report. The descriptive part is intended to be separate and able to stand alone from all the analytic/technical work in the appendices. The descriptive report should discuss in general terms the interim stage of this project. Please do not make it a descriptive list of your components. It is much more than that and must be written in a readable essay style to assist a non technical reader to readily appreciate your project. Please do not merge the essay part with the appendices.

This 2,000 word descriptive report must be able to stand alone, with analytical work, such as stress analysis and sketches of components, included in the appendices. The appendices will contain your detailed analysis of the following components and use the methods outlined in lecture topics 1 to 7 of the study program. You must apply the correct method of analysis and appropriate conventions to arrive at your design choices. Do not use a simple static stress approach to your design work ( this approach will be heavily penalized ; refer marking rubric and Learning Outcomes 1 and 2 from the Unit Outline ). The covering report will be free of mathematics, photos, diagrams sketches and concentrate on the descriptive aspect as you explain your project in a professional standard of plain English.

Your appendices will contain your reasoning, choices, designs and sketches for the following items,

1. Main support structure of the conveyor.

2. Surface treatment of the main structure.

3. Wheels, bearings, axle shafts in the conveyor belt/chain/other, guidance system for this component and lubrication system.

4. Suitable safety measures (ie guards , barriers etc.) to protect company personnel form being injured by the system.

5. Welds (in the structural elements)

6. Threaded fasteners

Final Report Assignment 4 -

This is a 4,000 word technical report describing the next and final stage of this project accompanied by all your detailed design and analysis included in appendices. Similar in layout, to the Interim Report, this report will have the 4,000 word descriptive section followed by the detailed analysis in your appendices. Do not include any analysis/diagrams etc. in your descriptive report. The descriptive part is intended to be separate and able to stand alone from all the analytic/technical work in the appendices. The descriptive report should discuss in general terms the final stage of this project. Please do not make it a descriptive list of your components. It is much more than that and must be written in a readable essay style to assist a non technical reader to readily appreciate your project. Please do not merge the essay part with the appendices.

You will use the analytical techniques outlined in lecture topics 8 to 12 of the study program.

This report will cover the following components/elements specifically (as well as any other component not previously covered);

1. Motor(s) selection

2. Gear box design (includes gears, shafts, bearings & mounts, gearbox housing, lubrication, assembly and maintenance aspects).

3. A suitable brake system to allow for an emergency system stop.

4. Design of transport cradles which carry company products on the conveyor.

5. Design of loading and unloading methods for the conveyor to receive and discharge products (please remember that this conveyor needs to be flexible enough to convey a variety of products within the specified limits.

6. Any other component which you have included in your overall design.

7. Assembly of all the components and erection of the system.

8. Specify any signage on the conveyor guards as well as indicate system control method.

9. Specify and conduct any test or commissioning procedure (refer Australian Standards).

Attachment:- Assignment File.rar