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Shahmeer Baweja

MECE 2361: Design I

Spring 2014

Individual Project: Concepts for the Team Design Project (FINAL)

Introduction:

This report describes the concepts for the Individual Design Project that will satisfy the

testing requirements for the MECE 2361 Final Team Design Project. The purpose of this report

is to explain the design and function of the device’s subsystems. The device to be designed will

propel ten identical objects into a bucket placed at least 12 inches away,

The device must be designed to autonomously propel these objects into one of the two

buckets whose closest point is 12 inches away from the line behind which the device is placed.

The objects are to enter and remain in the bucket with a one-second time delay between each

launch. The device must weigh less than ten pounds and launch heavier objects into the bucket

using only gravitational energy, without any parts of the device coming off the table and causing

any damage/injury.

Concepts:

This system will consist of three subsystems: the initiator subsystem, the wheel separator

and timing subsystem and the slide launcher subsystem. The device will be made of lightweight

foam core for its weight to remain under the minimum threshold of 10 pounds. The support bars

of the device will be approximately 35 inches tall. This height will provide the required

gravitational energy to launch the objects 12 inches from the closest point of the device into one

of the two buckets. The objects will be ten identical small, round metal bearings having the

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tendency to avoid bouncing off the surface and from slipping too much. The overall concept is

shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: overview of the concepts

The initiator subsystem will consist of the spherical shaped mass. The mass will be released at

the start of the testing. It will weigh heavy enough to rotate the bearings container vertically

down at an incline of 5 degrees enough to start rolling the bearings. This particular angle of

incline will keep the bearings from rolling too fast causing jamming. The bearings will move

smoothly along the rotatable container. The subsystem is shown in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Initiator Subsystem

The wheel separator and timing subsystem will use the force of impact from the balls to move

accordingly to carry the bearings sequentially around the wheel on each of its 8 spokes and

deliver them one after the other onto the slide launcher. When the first bearing strikes a pad on

one of the spokes of the wheel with a certain force of impact, the wheel moves a certain distance

to allow the second bearing to strike the second spoke, and this process repeats for the other eight

bearings. The wheel is made to revolve from these repetitive impact forces. When each of its

spokes makes 180 degree of revolution from the container on the left to the slide on the right, the

slight change in incline launches the ball through the slide. The spacing between adjacent spokes

is such that it will allow the one-second time delay requirement between launching the objects

into the slide/tube. This subsystem is shown in Figure 3

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Figure 3: Wheel Separator and Timing Subsystem

The last subsystem is the most important of all. It is the slide launcher which converts the overall

potential energy into kinetic energy of the bearings. The slide is designed to be curved at the

bottom to allow the bearings to come within three inches of the tabletop. The slide is positioned

at the same angle of incline as the initial container was rotated to at the time of release of the

mass to allow for constant speed of the bearings. One end of the slide is positioned at zero

distance from the end of one of the spokes of the wheel so that the bearings can flow from the

wheel to the slide launcher without any fall. This subsystem is shown in Figure 4.

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Figure 4: Slide Launcher Subsystem