Honeywell Design Project

Currently I am enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering senior design class. This class has taught me multiple things including how to work in a group effectively as well as using a personal design process. It has also given me the opportunity to work with Honeywell in designing a lift to take build plates out of 3D printers.

These build plates have always been a problem due to the strenuous work needed to lift and carry the plate as well as the printed part. This could potentially weigh up to 300 pounds making it a safety hazard to carry by hand, so Honeywell has given me and a group of 4 the opportunity to design this lift. I was chosen to be the leader of the group. Thus given me the responsibilities of updating our advisor on our progress, selecting meeting times for our group to meet weekly, and keeping in touch with Honeywell on a regular basis to keep them updated. I also have to set up two design reviews each semester so Honeywell can see our progress first hand.

This project has shown me the importance of planning and scheduling. Due to the strict deadlines and responsibilities that we are expected to adhere to. It has also given me a taste of how big companies expect mechanical engineers to go about designing parts for them. It has been a great experience and I can’t wait to further it into the next year. Below is a Solidworks model as well as some calculations needed to make our design safe.

Each individual in our group was given a job to design one piece of the whole project. I was initially given the base and the design I came up with is to the left. It has two rotating wheels for more moveability and it has columns to help with the shortage of height when next to a 3D printer.

These are one of the hand calculations that I had to come up with to find the amount of weight needed to counter the weight that will be hanging from the top. As you can see I had to find all of the forces and take a moment around the pivot point of the base. This showed us that we need atleast 39 Ibs as a counterweight.

As of right now this is what our full assembly looks like. We still have many things we need to add on to this but we are still in the beginning phases of our design. We will eventually include controls for easier use and other minor things to make our product more attractive.