Daily Pioneer News

The 3M mechanical engineering senior design group are pictured holding their unitized or grinding wheels. Pictured from left to right: Steve Mumm, Loni LaPlante, Doug Lehrer, John Dibb and Paul Hansen.

PLATTEVILLE- Most students would agree that senior design at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville is among the most rewarding and challenging of their collegiate experiences.

"Senior Design at UWP is unlike that of any other university. Students are able to work directly with companies on actual projects. Timelines are set, goals are created, and results are required. This first glimpse into the real world gives every engineering senior the opportunity for an extremely challenging yet greatly rewarding experience. Students are able to use the actual workplace knowledge gained during senior design and apply it throughout life," commented Steve Mumm, a recent mechanical engineering graduate who participated in the senior design class during the spring 2007 semester.

His group received $50 from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) student organization for winning the ASME mechanical engineering senior design award. ASME organized the competition where at the end of each semester the senior design group gives their final presentation to their client and the panel of four-to-five judging faculty. Judging criteria includes how well the students used the design process and methods, the level and amount of engineering used and how well the students presented their results. Then, based on the faculty judging panel, awards of first, second and third are given at the mechanical engineering senior sendoff dinner. This year the panel consisted of Osama Jadaan, David Kraemer, John Mirth, Michael Momot and Lynn Schlager.

"This spring the mechanical engineering senior design class was filled with 11 projects usually there is between seven and eight. I think that this semester the projects were all very interesting and practical. The companies varied in size and the nature of the project from design, fabrication and testing," commented P. Ravikumar, mechanical engineering senior design professor

The senior design team of John Dibb, Paul Hansen, Loni LaPlante, Doug Lehrer and Mumm developed a new and innovative solution that met the needs of 3M at a reasonable cost. "Our design will have an actual impact on the workers daily lives. We can make their jobs easier and ensure that the production line stays safe," commented Dibb.

The group worked with 3M of Prairie du Chien on their project, a unitized wheel knockout. 3M currently manufactures unitized or grinding wheels for all applications. The sizes of the wheels vary in diameter from one inch to 14 inches, and in thickness from one-eighth inch to one inch. A large die press stamps out wheels from a slab of material. Following this step, a large delay occurs in the process due to the time it takes to label and remove the wheels. The employee must take the slab and apply a sticker label to all of the wheels and knockout each wheel individually with the use of a hammer. This entire process of labeling and removing the wheels from the slab takes approximately five minutes per slab. A main concern for 3M was the ergonomic issue the process creates during the hammer motion.

This method worked in the past, however, increased product demand and labor costs, and a demand for an increase in worker safety, prompted 3M to change its current procedure.

The senior design group proposed a solution to effectively knockout wheels of varied diameters and thicknesses using a mechanical spring-loaded force. The worker only needs to load the slab into the mechanism, and it then applies the spring force, which knocks out the wheels onto a conveyor. The conveyor then transports the wheels through an automatic labeler. This proposed process will reduce the total production time from five minutes down to less than two minutes per slab.

"Our project is perfect. It allowed our group to work as a team to design, manufacture and test a prototype. The most challenging part of this process has been the constraints the problem offers. We had to come up with a design that would fit in a small location and be able to hold extremely tight tolerances," added Mumm.

To test the design, a prototype was developed by the group using a rapid prototyping machine recently purchased by the mechanical engineering department. "John Mirth has been extremely helpful with our project. He helped us use the rapid prototyping machine so that we could manufacture a prototype for our design," stated Lehrer.

"3M is a great company. Being able to work with them has expanded our group mindset as far as manufacturing engineering is concerned. We were able to directly work on a project for them that will increase productivity and eliminate long term health concerns" said LaPlante.

Contact: P. Ravikumar, UWP mechanical engineering, (608) 342-1731, ravikump@uwplatt.edu

Prepared by: Lisa D. McLean, UWP Public Relations, (608) 342-1194, mcleanl@uwplatt.edu