Thursday, October 26, 2006

Enhancing rapid prototype material properties

I have used rapid prototypes to create masters for aluminum castings, I have used them directly as actual parts in low stress environments, and I have used them for helping conceptualize a project.

For low stress applications I have used parts directly off our Dimension rapid prototyping machine in the field. Applications have included cable and hose mounts, or electronic boxes. The ABS material is pretty good for direct end use. One does have to be aware of its limitations however.

Here is an article on how to enhance the material properties for parts coming from SLA machines. The process entails metal coating the parts. The resultant properties expands the field in which SLA parts can be used.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Interesting foreign article on the U.S. economy

Here is an interesting article on the general state of the American economy from the German magazine Der Spiegel. The general tone of the article is that in aggressive promotion of globalization the United States has undermined itself. In globalizing, the U.S. has deindustrialized itself. Consequently, the American middle class is starting to decline relative to the middle class of other developed countries.

The process of deindustrialization is of concern to those in the engineering fields because it translates to narrowed job prospects.

Saturday, October 21, 2006

In the land of the blind the one eyed man is king

Some eight years ago I did the mechanical design for a robotic manipulator. It was built. The project then ran out of money. So it was run once and then mothballed. Now for a different project it is desired to restart that robotic manipulator.

Several individuals worked on the design and controls when it was built. The CAD files and control software were all properly archived. Today, however, I am the only one who has decent notes. Nobody remembers what the original criteria were for the mechanical design, the workspace, what assumptions were made in defining our criteria, or the end effector tip speed. Fortunately I saved my notes in a notebook and my calculations in a directory on my computer. When questions come up now on that project, I am with a little bit of searching able to find the answer.

Once upon a time my employer had a very rigorous formal system for archiving engineering data such as cutsheets and calculations. That has long ago fallen by the wayside as engineering staff has been cut. I gather from discussions with other engineers with other employers that the situation is similar elsewhere.

Save your notes and data files in an organized fashion. They will eventually prove to be invaluable. Being able to answer questions about equipment designed or installed years ago will make you invaluable to your employer. Should you leave your employer, having your notes organized will help you leave on a good note.

I keep my paper notes organized in loose leaf notebooks by project. I put the name of the project on the back of the notebook so that I can tell at a glance what is in the notebook. For a large project I may have multiple notebooks for different aspects of a project. I end up with a set of notebooks labelled, for example: XYZ project, general notes; XYZ project, calculations; and XYZ project, operating instructions.

I keep my computer data similarly organized. I have a folder for each project and then subfolders for different topics of the project.

Keeping your information organized will help keep you in the loop and possibly employed.

Friday, October 13, 2006

The importance of buy-in

One of my recent projects involved multiple disciplines: Operations, civil engineering, mechanical design, and R&D. My role was to turn to the desire of R&D for test equipment into reality. I did not do any classical "engineering" on this project. Rather I negotiated competing requirements into specifications for equipment that could be designed and installed.

On this project I truly learned the importance of developing "buy-in" by the relevant parties. I developed some initial specifications for the material handling portion of the test equipment. I discussed these initial specifications with the operations manager. Being an operations manager he was always harried whenever I saw him.

He approved my initial equipment specification. In our discussions I pointed out the necessity for scraping some tables that were already in place so as to make room for the new equipment.

After gaining his approval I sent the specifications for the handling equipment to an outside vendor to design. They worked on the design about a month. And then the entire project team met.

I presented the design for the material handling equipment to the team and the project manager under whom I worked for this project. At this point the operations manager stood up and announced that the equipment design was totally unacceptable. This wasafter his initial approval a month previously.

His reasons were not without cause. The tables were contaminated and would require significant expense to decontaminate and dispose of. We had, however, previously discussed the neccessity of their removal.

What happened? Being a harried operations manager he had not fully considered the cost of what I was proposing in our initial discussions. The cost did not emerge to him until he saw the equipment laid out on paper.

What could I have done differently? I should have brought him initial design sketches and concepts so he could review them while the design was proceeding. This way a change in the design approach could have been made before the review meeting.