Blast from the Past – ME 4320 Project
I just came across a video of the project I worked on D Term of my senior year for ME 4320 Advanced Engineering Design. The project was sponsored by Gillette, and involved a member team to devise means of dropping razors with a constant height and orientation upon impact. Gillette wanted to know that when a consumer drops their razor out of the medicine cabinet and onto the tile floor the blades wouldn’t become damaged or dangerous.
The class was broken down to teams of 3 or 4. My group designed and constructed the gripper assembly, which had to hold the razor secure as it was dropped and then release it without perturbing it at the bottom. I also worked on the fabrication of the chassis and electrical system.
Here’s the video showing the operation in action:
The first part shows the razor being positioned to a precise orientation. It is then secured in the grip and lifted to the top of the drop track. We had access to a high speed camera to get the footage at the end showing the razor dropping the last few inches without rotating or changing orientation.
It was one of the best courses I took at WPI. We built something to solve an actual problem, from brainstorm to functioning device, in seven weeks. Not to mention the task of managing that group to stay on task. Hats off to Prof. Norton for the opportunity and mentoring. Now if I can only remember some of that stuff over the next 7 weeks as I get ready for the FEs.
March 3, 2009 at 10:59 pm | Projects, Work | No comment
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