15. Mechanical design

Goal(s):

group assignment - design a machine that includes mechanism + actuation + automation - build the mechanical parts and operate it manually - document the group project and your individual contribution

Concept

Since I am the only student in this cycle, this was not a group assignment and not coming from a Mechanical Engineering background, this was quite a tough task. As far as the machine building task went, I decided to design the tentative mechanism that I plan to use in my final version of the machine and keep upgrading the skills as I proceed in the project.

The software of choice for this exercise has been Google Sketchup Make 17 from the longest time (2016) as this version of the software has been the easiest to work with requiring the least technical knowledge to begin.

The basic idea of the mechanism is depicted as - Flash freezing a salt solution at -14 Degrees Celcius for 60 seconds allowing for - External ice skin to be formed around the liquid before opening the mold and - Releasing the Ice ball into the cooking solution allowing for the skin to form around the ice as it defrosts

Since much of the final output of my Water Bubble involves spheres, I came up with two options to make in the machine design project

  • Egg Bot machine - The Eggbot Design is also an alternative design option to be used for the basic design of the Water Bubble project.
  • Rotocasting machine - That can be used to create hollow shells of a given Bioplastic material

For the design phase of this project, I decided to go with the EggBot mechanism to understand the basics of using the Design software

For the actual build of the project, I decided to build the Rotary Molding machine as this would be a good exercise in actuating and undertstanding mechanical principles.

EggBot Design

Using the videos as a reference, I designed the basic structure with the mechanisms in Google Sketchup without using the motors initially so as to allow for the mechanism and actuation part of the project

The basic operation of the machine is also demonstrated here.