Entry 6
In this Entry, I will be sharing about Engineering Mechanisms, and how the apprehension was applied to our idea in Practical 4.
A little background.
These mechanisms were the essential technology powering industries worldwide even up to the third industrial revolution of Computer and Automation. Mechanisms can perform many tasks.
Contents of this entry:
- The 6 Types of mechanisms
- Ping Pong Ball Launcher 🏓
- Practical 4
Mechanisms transform forces and movement into a desired set of output forces and movement. It is truly amazing that even to this day, there are devices that function fully using just mechanisms and perform exceptionally well. One such example is the rifle gun.
It is able to fire shells of bullets one after another with minimal errors or jamming up due to the usage of complex and reliable mechanisms.
These are the 6 essential functional mechanisms.
- Actuators
- Cams
- Gears
- Lever
- Ratchets
- Springs
A quick view of what each mechanism offers.
- A powered spring-like mechanism
- Converts stored energy into motion
- Commonly uses pneumatic air, electric and hydraulic instruments to operate
- Convert the rotation of a shaft into simple/complex reciprocating linear motion
- They can be either sliding or rotational pieces in a mechanical linkage
- Transmit torque and adjust rotational velocity
- Transmit and amplify force by fixing the input and output about a fulcrum or pivot point
Ratchets
- They lock in one direction, allowing them to tighten without fear of literally "going backwards"
- Example: Cable ties
Our team got to researching how we would want our launcher to look and function.
Ultimately, we decided on emulating the mechanism and design of a shotgun as we felt that it had a very interesting operating mechanism.
This is the video that inspired our design. The pump shotgun.
For more information on the concept and final design of our launcher, click here.
Practical 4 💭👲💪
Practical 4 was one of the better practicals that I enjoyed as it incorporated our knowledge from the previous practical 2 to design a cardboard marble run machine to further our prototyping skills. This was also a fun and memorable one.
The contents are:
- Ideation
- Fabrication Process
- Final Product
- Marble run machine in action!
- Hero Shot
- Learning Reflection
Ideation 📓
Our inspiration for the design was largely from youtube videos such as this and also online images. To begin, we created notes for the design for our plan of action and assembly of the final product. In the plan, the design includes a spiral elevator that carries the marble upwards and deposits it onto a ramp that slides into a vortex hole that has 2 routes.
This vortex hole was inspired by my childhood memory of a vortex coin donation well at the Science Centre in Singapore.
The 1st route enters a spiral ramp followed by the final ramp that brings the marble back to the original point of entry.
The 2nd route will deposit the marble onto a set of moving staircases that are operated by the cam and follower mechanism. The marble will then drop onto a set of double ramps and gradually enter the final ramp that carries the marble back to the start.
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| Design notes for assembly |
- The design notes included what additional parts we needed to make, together with the working mechanisms.
- We can see this as the planning stage.
- This was useful and important so that everyone was on the same front.
Fabrication Process 🕯️
With the plan of action, we got to work at modelling the structures for assembly.
Now enjoy the following images of the structures we created.
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| Spiral elevator ⛮ |
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| Spiral ramps ⌳ |
For the spiral elevator, we used the reliable tab and slot joinery to create the handle for turning the spiral.
The spiral elevator will be the main working mechanism for this machine.
The mechanism used is a spiral gear mechanism.
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| Cam and follower |
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| Ramp connecting to the spiral elevator |
The cam and follower gear was a unique product that boasted the use of a rolled-up cardboard skewer joinery that holds the cam mechanism in place, similar to the tab and slot. This wonderful design was created by Jun Hao.
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| Cable ties are used to support the backdrop |
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| The backdrop being "under maintenance" |
Fun fact💡: Did you know that cable ties are also a type of mechanism? The cable tie is an example of the ratchet mechanism; only moves forward and when pushed backwards and is locked in place. The ratchet is a one-way working mechanism. ⛭⛮
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| Design creation in progress and JH having a monotonous morning look 🥱🥱 |
Testing the design before assembly
Take 2 😂😂
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| List of all the mechanisms and joineries used |
Finally, with all the parts constructed, it was time to assemble them all together to build our machine. (Avengers assemble 💚💙💓💜💛)
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| The assembled final product |
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| We then proudly presented our machine to the class 😉 |
Here is the final video of the marble run machine in action!
Video run shot by Jun Hao
Edited by Ruba and me :)
- The marble is first brought up the elevator by the rotating spiral gear mechanism.
- Then, it drops onto the top ramp and rolls into the vortex well.
- From the well, the marble falls into the hole and onto the spiral ramp.
- Finally, it rolls down from the spiral ramp and toward the last and final long ramp at the bottom and back to the origin of entry.
The video also displays shots of the final product from various camera angles.
Lastly, to end off, our long-awaited HERO SHOT 🦸🦸🦸.
For this image, I told everyone to grab a prop and pose for the shot 💅💃
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| Our trio with the Hero shot of the finished product 🙈 All in a day's work 😎😏 |
Learning Reflection
Overall, I felt that my team succeeded in designing and creating the marble run machine.
The marble was able to run consistently for > 30 seconds and had a great aesthetic that was Insta-worthy. 😎😍😝
There were even some seniors and friends complimenting the design!
However, the team and I felt disappointed and frustrated when our cam and follower mechanism was unable to work and our machine was stripped naked and left with just the spiral elevator as the working mechanism.
Nonetheless, with our newfound knowledge, we had a great attempt at emulating the design of the mechanism and this widely improved our knowledge of prototyping which would serve useful in the final prototyping session for ICPD.
I feel that our final product did not live up to our initial expectations listed in the design notes for assembly mentioned previously. This was because we were highly ambitious and wanted to make many ramps and stairs to carry the marble for a longer time.
The reality was that we could not finish up everything we wanted from our plan for action.
After consultation with lecturers, we could actually just create a simple design that looped the marble for ~30 seconds.
Furthermore, on the day of the practical, we were put in an unfavourable manpower shortage issue, which Mavis was sick and unable to attend. These situations are always unexpected but definitely bound to happen occasionally.
Our ability to adapt well and modify our plan of action was how we managed to succeed in creating our machine. This experience among others is a definite learning point for me; to adapt to changes calmly and with a focused mind.
Us realising that the mechanism does not work and a special feature of Dr Noel's well-known quote
That's all for this entry! See you in the next and final entry for this module! Bye ~~
