Week 25: Corners Completed, Ribs Remain

As per the title of this week's post, the corners for the new track were completed this past week. As a side note, the larger stock in general was much harder to work with, so some hand manipulation was required in order to alter the material into the shape required. The bender made bends close to what was required, with manual adjustment on each piece finalizing the fabrication. The bends were not quite as ideal as the small stock bends, but results should be close enough to required specifications to be serviceable.

Plans to reuse the stations from last year are still in place, with the decision to do so aided by the issues surrounding the use of the new material.

Ribs requested by the solar team are planned to be manufactured within the next week.

Small stock being marked for fabrication in the bender. 

Small stock bent to specifications without issue. 

The new 1:1 die being made for the large stock bends.

The new 1:1 die mounted on the AL plate, with all holes drilled. 

The first piece of large stock being bent.

All corners for the new track completed, February 21st.

Week 24: Problems and Solutions

Since last weeks post, work has resumed on the bender and testing the new material that was ordered. The new material was AL 6061 T6511, and acted differently from the AL 6061 T6 that remained from the previous year's materials. Tests revealed that the smaller stock did not bend as easily, and the larger stock bent more easily. Therefore, the aim will be to use the remaining old material to create the bends for the sections of track as necessary.

With concerns to the permanent installation of the completed bender in the shop, some changes to previous plans may be made. A finalized plan will be made available as the end of the semester approaches.

The solar team provided details on the requirements for the ribs that they wanted made, so some work will have to be done with the new material to accommodate their request. It is good that their tolerances are not nearly as strict as the track requirements, so issues with handling the new material should be few.

New material, doesn't fit the curve.

Old material, fits the curve

Week 23: Back In Action

Academic courses resumed Thursday of last week, which was the signal for work to resume. No building has been performed as of yet, due to a family medical emergency as well as rearranging the shop at home. There are a few updates regarding the information from other teams that was necessary.

1. No material was ordered by the track improvement team or the solar team before the break for what they requested to be built. The track improvement team stated that they would have a material order placed last week.
2. Details are yet forthcoming from the solar team on the ribs they are requesting. A concern is that no details on the plans for the solar panel mount have been made available as of yet.
3. Track column heights may need to change, according to mounting requirements by the solar team. Thanks to the previous year's track setup, it is fairly easy to change the columns used to support the track. However, there is no additional material in the shop with which to create new columns so material should be acquired as soon as possible to allow for work to proceed.
4. The vehicle positioning sensing subteam did not have their corrugated metal strip fabricated externally, and are pursuing the creation of it in-house. They asked for advice and recommendations on how to build gears that would work to their tolerances, and I will be working with them to help get the details sorted out.
5. Plans were for the corrugated metal strip to be glued to the track, but the method has not yet been tested according to the vehicle positioning sensing subteam. Tests should be performed soon to ascertain viability.
6. The vehicle control team still plans to place magnets flush with the track, which will require drilling large holes (+0.75"?) into sections of track. Though not impossible to do, it will require time and precision, but details on the locations of these holes are lacking at the moment.
7. Track mounting brackets are planned to be 3-D fabricated with plastic. Analysis showed that the brackets should be strong enough, but I have only seen one test piece thus far.