REFLECTIONS ON ME 270

Joey Bennett

     Throughout the course of the semester I allocated roughly 15 hours a week to ME 270. I spent most of my time working on mini-projects and on main project deliverables. I thought the mini-projects were a great basis for the class and this is where I learned the most retainable information. For each project, I had to conduct a great amount of research using the resources available to me in order to get a sufficient understanding of the questions at hand. For the mini-projects, I was usually the team member who went to Mack’s Scrap Yard to find a product that was manufactured in the manner in which each mini-project asked. By doing this, I was able to learn an impressive amount of information about the various types of manufacturing methods and processes and why a company would choose to use one method over another. I rarely had to deal with questions on the mini-projects which involved intense math or derivations of equations, so my knowledge in that area is lacking a little bit, although I would read through my teammates responses to these questions so I could get a basic understanding of what was done.

     I learned a lot about the main topics covered throughout the course, so I will talk about some of the things that stuck out to me. I learned that the applications for additive manufacturing are endless and can be utilized in any industry, even in dentistry. In terms of machining, I learned about the various types of machines, such as milling machines and lathe machines, and their applications. For metal casting, I was able to gain knowledge in fluid dynamics and use my knowledge from thermodynamics and apply it to ME 270 and vice versa. This summer I worked in a manufacturing facility that specified in superior welding, so through this class I was able to learn more about the other types of joining processes such as soldering and adhesive bonding which are just as important. I thought the most interesting part of sheet-metal forming was the idea of springback and how this must be accounted for in the design process. I was unfamiliar of metal forging before this class, but I now know many tools and products around us are made by forging, but must have the flash removed before they are safe to be used by consumers. Lastly, I thought the idea of different lay-ups, depending on the application, for composites was very interesting.

     The highlight of the course was definitely the mini-projects. As I said, through these I was able to gain the most knowledge and hands on experience. One of my challenges throughout the course was time management, although this improved once all due dates were changed to Thursday night as opposed to before my lab section (Tuesday mornings). I will definitely be able to utilize the knowledge I gained in this class for the duration of my time on campus and for the rest of my engineering career. We covered many important facets of engineering that contribute to the function, cost, quality trilogy of engineering that I will be able to apply in the future.

Deandre Frisbie

     Basically, this class was definitely one of the most difficult classes that I have taken so far during my college career.  However, it has also been one of the best learning experiences that I have ever had the pleasure to go through. The entirety of the class was filled with interesting and useful topics which I have no doubt will continue to be useful throughout the rest of my college and professional career.

     Topics of peak interest for me included, metrology, additive manufacturing, machining, injection molding, and design of experiments. Through all of these topics we were given the opportunity to apply current and real day to day concepts that are pertinent to engineering.  Despite the difficulties associated with the class, this class also offered a large variety of practical experience that is useful both in the academic and profession perspective.

     However, the most work intensive part of the class was definitely the mini projects and main project.  Personally, I found a lot of the mini projects the absolute hardest part of the class that were a bit overbearing sometimes.  On average, my group and I spent at least 15 to 20 hours each week on the mini projects. In my opinion, the main project was much more enriching.  The main project gave great experience and insight into the design process and how to apply it to a real scenario with a on group of varying individuals of varying experiences and skills.

     If anything, this class has been a real eye opener.  I found my strengths layed primarily in administration and cooperation.  I found communication within my group to be quite fluid with the allocation of tasks quite natural. However, I did learn that I do not do my best work under pressure and that I struggle with the clear representation and presentation of my thought and ideas to my teammates.

     Though, all in all, I learned a great deal in this class.  The greatest takeaways were definitely what I learned during the additive manufacturing, injection molding, and machining parts of this class. Previous to this class I knew little to no information on the aforementioned topics. However, as the semester comes to an end I have come to realize that I have learned about the basics and application of each of those topics through labs, lectures, and first hand experience.

Kevin Liu

     ME 270 was the most challenging class I took this semester. These past weeks, I have been spending 15 - 20 hours per week on this class. Most of my time was spent on the mini-projects.

     However, I found the mini-projects educational, specifically when deriving equations for things like bend radius. While time-consuming, those problems were fun and interesting and allowed me to better understand the equations necessary for Design for Manufacture and Assembly, especially those necessary for the quizzes. I also enjoyed many of the research questions. Mini-projects helped me retain information better than textbooks.

     However, I spent most of my time working on the mini-projects, while others spent their time on the main project. My contribution to the main project dropped off greatly after the ideation process. I was not involved in most of the CAD and prototyping, instead picking up the slack for others in the mini-project.

I completed half of the past few mini-projects alone. This narrowed the knowledge I acquired, which limited the practical knowledge learned from the class for the benefit of theoretical knowledge.

     In the case of AM, I learned a lot about the advantages and disadvantages of rapid prototyping methods.

For machining, I learned how to determine the machinability of materials and the equations that modeled milling and lathing.

     For metal casting, I enjoyed the introduction to fluid dynamics, specifically turbulent flow, which helped me in other classes.

     The theory behind sheet metal forming was also interesting, specifically bend radius.

     I also liked the unit on joining and welding, especially the introduction to microstructures.

     RTM molding was a good continuation of that introduction to materials science, as was forging. I enjoyed deriving equations and values like the Young’s modulus.

     Statistical design of experiments also took up a lot of time, especially the lab report, which I did while sick.

Design for assembly was an interesting exercise in critical thinking, especially concerning the 3 DFA questions.

Joshua Wrobel

     Overall, this class gave me a much better understanding of designing products for manufacturability. I learned that reducing the number of parts in a product, speeding up the assembly time, increasing the functionality, and using cheaper materials (if they are strong enough) can all make products cheaper. Although saving a few cents doesn’t seem like a lot, when a manufacturer is making thousands or millions of their product, they can actually save considerable amount of money.

     I was very excited to experience this first hand in labs, mini projects, and the main project. Although we didn’t reduce the cost of our main project, we increased the functionality of the original part, which is another method of improving the design to sell more units and ultimately make more money. Analyzing the parts using aPriori helped me understand the cost of different materials, making the many manufacturing decisions in our purchased hand-crank drill clearer.

     I also learned about many different manufacturing methods and got to experience most of them in our lab. I learned how to injection mold, machine, 3D print, laser cut, take accurate measurements, use software for analysis, and more during lab, all safely. Learning these methods by actually doing them will help me retain the knowledge in the future.

     On this project, I struggled on some of the analytical questions in our reports. Overall, I took very similar questions on the different mini projects. They were usually heavily focused on math, and I had fewer analytical questions. Because of this, I felt more comfortable consulting my partners on analytical questions than tackling them on my own. I am happy to practice this more on the final mini project.

     One of my strengths was using Creo Parametric to create the CAD model and prototype. I dedicated a large portion of my time to the prototype to make sure my team would have a finished product. My team trusted that I would finish the CAD, and I trusted them to do a good job on some of the final mini projects where I put in less time (because I was working on the main project). It was very nice to be able to trust my partners and know that they trusted me. For this reason, creating the prototype was my favorite part of the project, despite it being the most stressful part for me as well. I really enjoyed the process of turning ideas and sketches into one real part that I could hold in my hands. This was extremely challenging however because our product contained over 70 different parts. I had to work constantly on the project and stay productive, despite being used to procrastinating. While managing my time was difficult at first, I got much better at it during this project.

     What I learned in this class will translate very nicely to engineering outside of college. It is easy to create a good, expensive product, but creating an amazing cheap product is very difficult, yet sought after. Being able to analyze parts to see how they can be designed more efficiently (using different materials, fewer parts, faster production methods, or increasing the functionality) is beneficial for any engineering job that I might have in the future.