Week 3 (Feb 15 - Feb 22)

Spent this week double checking our BOM calculations. Then after we were absolutely sure that we knew how much material was needed for our project we went to get quotes. Campbell Metal Supplies has a large selection of Aluminum. The quote we got for the needed quantity of Aluminium 6061 was high. It was $404.61. This high price is most likely due to the weight and dimensions of the piece we need. We found a substitute over at Sims metal management. They do not have 6061 Aluminium on hand but they do have steel metal plate. By choosing the steel over the aluminum we would save $181.89. This is a better choice as the money can be used for extra materials or motors and since this is a prototype it's better to budget on certain aspects. The design has a large safety factor to account for the extra weight of the steel.

Week 2 (Feb 9 - Feb 15)

Our team is delayed on our Gantt chart. However, this is a good opportunity to revise our BOM so we can get it approved. One of the items that we will need is a DC motor that can produce enough torque to move our Tilt mechanism. Oriental Motor has motors that can supply the torque, however they are limited in their offerings from what we have seen. Groschopp is another company that manufacturers motors and they are able to supply us with a motor with a high range of customizability and torque.

We have calculated that the needed continuous torque needed to move the tilt mechanism was 644 in lbs. They are able to supply a motor that can operate at 650 in lbs at 15.8 RPM. This would be more than acceptable considering that the tilt mechanism would slowly tilt to keep the cabin stable.

 

Figure 1: Motor Specifications for Tilt Mechanism 

As we look at the graph we can also see that operating the motor at this speed and torque would give us a high motor efficiency. It would be close to 75-77 percent. 

Week 1 (Feb 1 - Feb8)

We are currently waiting to get out bill of materials approved in order to start building our design.