Laura O'Connor - Individual Reflection

One of the things I loved about taking this class is the opportunity it gave me to become closer to my father. My father works in a machine shop and although he is not a mechanical engineer, he works with the design process and manufacturing and taking this class gave us the opportunity to talk about some things he was interested in. Not only did I learn how to use the machines in the shop like the laser cuter, the ban saw, the lathe, I also learned some manufacturing tips from my father. One of these tips that he gave me, which helped out a lot with the manufacturing of our project, was that when cutting thin plywood with a saw to use masking tape to line the cutting edge so as to prevent splintering. I do not know if I will ever use the manufacturing portion of this course, since I am from a different department and my advisor wanted me to take this class to learn the design process, I feel it was very beneficial to not only complete the design process but to understand how the manufacturing part works as well.

Teamwork was a major portion of this class. I have worked in groups in many of my previous classes but this class required much more team work than previous projects I have worked on. I know that I will use teamwork for the remainder of my college career and, most likely, I will use teamwork for my job when I eventually graduate college. The one thing that this class taught me about working with a team is that you should be honest and listen to everyone’s ideas equally. Honesty is an essential part because if you are not honest up front, you may wish you had been later. Also, even though some ideas may seem unfathomable, listening to them may spark other ideas that are more realistic, even though it may seem time consuming to listen to everyone’s initial ideas, it may end up saving time in the long run.

Time management was an important concept for our team especially because we had a cross section team. Having a cross-section team meant that some of the team would meet during our scheduled lab section time and then we would have to meet again later to meet with the whole team to catch all the team up with recent decisions that had been made. Also, we were allowed a limited amount of time in the shop to do manufacturing so we quickly learned that it was best to have half the team in the machine shop working on a part or two and then to have the other half of the team assembling the parts that were already manufactured and figuring out what the next step to take would be.

The one thing I disliked about this course was the early homework assignments, I feel like they required us to know some things that we should have learned in other classes that were not required pre-requisites for the course. I feel like success at the beginning of the semester also depended greatly on whether or not you were able to attend the “optional” recitation and since I was not able to attend any of the sessions (they all conflicted with other classes I was taking), I feel like my grade at the beginning of the semester suffered greatly. Also, I would have preferred to have a textbook for the class, I know that throughout the class there was reading supplements posted online but I found them to be very lengthy and difficult to read. A textbook is something that is very important for me to have for most classes I take, since I learn in a different way than most people do. I am a person that can best understand the material if it is presented in a text form so that I can read it at my own pace. Therefore, if I misunderstand something I can go back and re-read the section to better comprehend the material. On a whole, the class was enjoyable and satisfying but required a lot of work.

I feel like I did not do my best in the class. My performance at the beginning of the semester was less than my best and I feel like I could have put a lot more work into my assignments. There were a lot of assignments at the beginning of the semester and, at the time, I felt like I was doing all I could, but now I realize that this class should have required much more of my time. To improve my performance in the class, I should have focused more on doing well at the beginning of the semester.

Ioannis Pantelakis
12/12/09

Individual Reflection

From the first day in class, when Professor Hart talked about the class and how it has changed compared to the other semesters, I felt that this class would be different than the other engineering classes I had taken thus far. Now, three and a half months later, I can definitely say that I was right.
In this class we were told from the first day that we have a goal, and this goal was to make a mechanism and compete in the arena. Throughout the semester we were all working and improving our knowledge and skills in order to succeed in the arena. We started in class being taught about the design process and we ended up in the machine shop putting all our components together. That is what made this class different than the others. Usually, in my other classes I had to learn the theory, of solid dynamics or thermodynamics for example, do my weekly homework and take the exams. In this class we did not have to just learn the theory, but also and apply it, in order to achieve our goal.
One of the most important aspects of this class was the design process. We initially had to think of a strategy, draw it on a piece of paper and then draw a far more detailed sketch using solidworks. After this process is completed we had to get into the machine shop and had to create what was initially just a sketch on a piece of paper. Personally, I had never used an auto-cad program or any of the machines I used in the shop before. Obviously this was a really important experience for me because it is essential for an engineer to be able to use auto-cad programs to design different components and then have the ability to create the actual components in the lab.
Teamwork is always one of the most important aspects when you have to deal with group projects. In the beginning of the semester we all had to get into teams with some of our classmates from our lab section. Due to a misunderstanding I was left without a team and therefore I joined the “The Victors” that were from another lab section. I have to say that I felt very lucky I was put in that team because all the members are good and hardworking students and I think that we worked well together. However, the fact that my team members were from another lab section, that I was not able to attend, made the class harder for me. Sometimes I felt that I was a little bit lost and some other times I felt that I was not offering my team as much as I could offer.
Therefore, I would say that in order to improve my performance in the class and in my team, I would have to be more involved than I was. I strongly believe that if I were in the same section with the rest of my team members I would perform better.
In general I have to say that this class was really interesting. We didn’t just learn important things but we also learned how to actually use those things in reality. I believe that it was a hard class, mostly because of the work load. We had a lot of deadlines due every week which made us work a lot for this class. On the other hand, all those deadlines, made it really easy for all the teams to manage their time and progress because deadlines kept us on track throughout the semester.

Robert Hurles individual reflection

Looking back at Design and Manufacturing 1, I realize that I learned a lot of real-life skills that I know will help me with my future careers. I learned a lot about the limits of manufacturing that can affect design, the benefit of true team-work, as well as the importance of managing time and making deadlines. There were many hardships faced throughout this semester, and at times it seemed like it was far too much work for only four credits. But in the end, I realized that everything was capable of being done, and I just had the find the most efficient balance of effort put in to productivity achieved.
In this class, I learned a lot about design and manufacturing. The most important thing I realized was how the limits of manufacturing can affect design. When we originally were trying to come up with strategies for how to move the ping pong balls, we came up with many different, often wild scenarios. We had ideas that included everything from vacuum shooters to throwing arms. However, what we realized was that many of these designs would be just too difficult to produce, and we would have to put in far too much effort for little production. We decided to keep our design simple, and make sure we were capable of manufacturing all of the components using the tools we had available to us. Although I have done a lot of manufacturing when I was younger around my house and at work, I learned many new skills including how to use the lathe and mill, which I know will be useful in the future.
Most of the work that all of us will be doing in our careers will be team-based. Because of this, I truly appreciate every class I have that requires team-work because I know it helps me improve my skills. From this class, I learned that I have to often be patient with other people, and that I have to trust my teammates often, since I did not have enough time to go over everyone’s work. I know that continuing to work in teams at the University of Michigan can only strengthen my skills as an engineer, and will help me be a better worker in the future.
Another important thing that this class emphasized was time management. This was obviously very important with this class considering the amount of work that we had to do. Because I was taking 17 credits, working after class, and doing many other things outside of the U of M, I had to work a lot towards being as efficient as possible. One very important lesson learned from this class was the idea of staying on the leading edge, and sometimes knowing when to stop working. Often you have to sacrifice perfection in order stay ahead because if you continue to focus on the little things, you will never be able to make the big steps needed in a project.
Overall, I think the course was pretty good, but there is definitely room for improvement. The lectures were packed with far too much content that did not seem relevant to the class, the first few weeks of the course did not seem to relate to our project very well, and I think that in general there was too much work considering it was only a four credit class. I believe that we should have started focusing on the project itself earlier and that teams should have been formed within the first two weeks with kits being given out immediately. Improving these aspects would make the course much more effective.
I think that I could have improved my performance in the course by working harder to understand the overall picture earlier, as well as not make as many sacrifices of quality in order to save time. I really did not understand what we were shooting for until we were well into the course and I think that hurt my original ideas on our strategies. Also, if we had focused more on getting things done right as oppose to getting them done quickly, our machine would have probably run better. Overall, it was a good class and as I said, I think it will help me greatly in both my future classes as well as my future careers.

Final bill of materials

http://bit.ly/5IruAr

Final team documentation

Our final machine was essentially a successful failure. The machine itself did exactly what it was supposed to by conveying the balls to the top of the slot, dropping them onto the chute, and allowing them to roll to the other side. Unfortunately, the basic strategy behind all of this was very defeat able by our opponents. All that our opponent had to do was simply block the path at the end of our chute, which all of the arm based slot-bots did.

Basically, our machine was made up of a belt with scoops attached to it that wrapped around two pulleys at each end of 2 ft brackets. One of the pulleys was driven by a planetary gear box, while the other pulley rotated freely. The box that held the conveyor in place had a slot at the bottom that constrained the conveyor, and allowed it to move up and down. Another planetary gear box mounted on the outside of the box was connected to a rack and pinion system which was attached to the conveyor, which then drove the conveyor up and down. Inside the box, there were plates that held the balls in place on the scoops after they left the slot, as well as constrain the conveyor from pivoting. The chute allowed the scoops to move through it, while still catching the ping pong balls.

Above is a picture of the box that sat on the top of the arena. The sides of the box helped support the weight of the conveyor belt and provided a surface to mount the z-axis motor to. You can see in the picture the top pulley of the conveyor belt and motor that turned the conveyor belt. Also in the picture is the gear that raised and lowered the conveyor belt into the slot.

The design and manufacturing of our machine eventually all worked out, but not as we expected it to happen. We had many more variables involved in our machine than expected, and at times it seemed to be much more complex than we had planned. For example, the box at the top of the slot which was holding our conveyor required many more components than originally expected. We had to have components that could constrain the conveyor in place, as well as components that would keep the ball from falling off the scoop while it was turning over the top. Even with the unexpected issues, we were able to get our machine to function as intended.

Below is a picture of the box after some of the unexpected components were added. You can see in the box a wheel that is held in place by two metal brackets and an axle. This additional wheel was added to help the conveyor to easily move laterally in the slot as well as to prevent the weight of the planetary motor and the motor bracket from dragging the conveyor belt too far down into the slot, or pulling the rack away from its associated gear.

This last photo is a picture of our conveyor belt. In the picture you can see the two support brackets that we wrapped in black electrical tape to keep the rough edges of the aluminum from scratching the slot. The pulley at the top is driven by the planetary motor, which then drives the belt. The scoops are fastened to the belt using epoxy and red electrical tape.

Kyle Happy's Individual Reflection

Kyle Happy

ME 250

Professor John Hart

12/14/09

This past semester has been an adventure and an amazing experience. While I now have the gratitude for what was done in the ME 250 class, this wasn’t always the case. I learned a lot about the manufacturing process and about all the little things that can and always do go wrong when the team is fighting a deadline.

During this class I learned many things about the manufacturing process. The lecture was able to cover many different manufacturing ideas and concepts very quickly. While I may not have learned everything about the topics covered it gave me a good idea of what to look for while trying to design our final machine. Also I realized from this class the need to go over all the details of a design project like this before the actual manufacturing begins.

The teamwork aspect of this class reinforced the things which I already knew about working in a team. I tried to contribute to the team as much as possible and be a part of every aspect of the team manufacturing process. I also realized that we as a team need to take up slack from other team members when they need us to, and if you do that for them your team mates will happily do the same for you.

Time management was one of the things which I didn’t expect to give me a problem but it did this semester. While my team and I made the deadlines for all the assignments, it was hard, and we came very close to not making it several times. The reason time management was a problem in this class is not because of failed time management but because of an underestimation of the work which needed to be done on the projects deadlines. Because of this underestimation the project did have assignments and milestones which were rushed more than they should have been and thus the quality of that specific milestone lacked a little bit.

This course was well done but it has several things which I as a student didn’t like. First, the lectures were very dry and boring. While I learned about thinks which became critical in the later process of making the final machine, I didn’t realize how critical it would be at the time it was being taught. Also the actual manufacturing of the machine should have been started sooner then what it was. While my team was able to complete the finished machine in time, the entire process of construction was rushed and we did not have time for much testing. If we had extra time for testing of our machine we may have been able to rethink and reconstruct parts of the machine which didn’t work at first. Another thing which I really didn’t like was the book like test which was given at the end of the lecture section of class. While I realize it is U of M and the expectations are high, I think the expectations should be realistic as well. The test asked for such detail and such long answers that I believe it would almost be impossible to finish the test in the time given, even if the answers were known.

Having said all this, I really am glad to have been a part of this class. It is for the opportunity to participate in classes like this that I chose to come to U of M. The class has some kinks which I hope will be worked out for next semester, but the class was a success and could really become a selling point for why young freshmen should attend U of M engineering.