Daily Pioneer News

PLATTEVILLE - The Scharine Group, Inc. started manufacturing carts and various machines for towing miscellaneous objects in 1987. Nine years later, they developed a customized material handling dolly known as the "Hercu-Hauler." This dolly is lightweight, ergonomically safe and operator friendly yet can hold between 2,000 to 4,000 pounds. Working with Jason Scharine and the company located in both Whitewater and Mt. Horeb, University of Wisconsin-Platteville students are completing a stress analysis of the front and rear hitches and are designing a tow bar that can create stable 90 degree turns.

James Huettl, Erin Boland, Dan Gray, Oliver Hughes and Stephanie Anderl are the five UWP students working on this project as part of their senior design class. Anderl and Boland have been focusing on redesigning the tow bar for improved performance for larger sized carts. The focus is to improve turning so large carts would not impact one another. Hopefully, the proposed extension of 10 inches will make the tow bar long enough for an eight-foot cart to turn without hitting the cart in front of it. "We measured the cart geometry and scaled things down, redesigning the length of the tow bar needed for eight-foot carts. With our improved length, a swept path is made in hopes to reduce corridor space needed for turning a 90 degree corner," said Anderl.

Added Boland, "The scenario includes moving a train of carts in a series which is dynamically harder than you might think since the path of the first cart compared to the last cart is extremely different." In order to compensate for the unknown cart path movement, they created their own program modeling the situation. While Anderl and Boland worked on the tow bar problem, Huettl, Gray and Hughes tackled the stress analysis portion of the project analyzing the amount of stress on the hitch and tow bar. This included simulating forces for normal operation and unforeseen circumstances. They utilized the ALGOR program to help. According to Hughes, the finite element analysis (FEA) computer-modeling program allowed the students to "create models, apply boundary conditions and loads, generate colorful photos and check that the results are within reason. Added Huettl, "We also checked the validity and accuracy of our results from ALGOR with hand calculations."

Some of the most challenging aspects of the team's project included the FEA analysis and use of ALGOR. Thanks in part to professors Osama Jadaan and Stan Lukowski the students were able to successfully complete their project. "We learned so much from this project. It was basically a culmination of our entire education. I'm proud that we can be students in one of the largest graduating mechanical engineering classes ever at UWP. The campus is beautiful, class sizes are small yet still competitive, and the professor student ratios are ideal," said Gray.

Huettl, Gray and Boland are mechanical engineering majors. Huettl is the son of June Marie Huettl of New London. Gray is the son of Earle and Christine Gray of Green Bay. Boland is the daughter of Ann and Dennis Boland of Monona. Anderl and Hughes are mechanical engineering majors with mathematics minors. Anderl is the daughter of Stephen and Bernice Anderl of Cedarburg. Hughes is the son of Dennis and Rebecca Hughes of Evansville. The aforementioned students anticipate graduating in December 2005.

Contact: David Kunz, mechanical engineering, (608) 342-1431, kunzd@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Rachael Lehr, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194,lehrr@uwplatt.edu