2012 Red Team


Team Progress
As the team works on the individual parts and assemblies for the kinetic sculpture we will continue to add pictures showing our progress.
Team Progress
Video’s
Front Rail Video
New Chain Drive Video
Back Rail System

We would like to thank our sponsers that have made this whole project possible.

Sponsors

Up to date picture of kinetic sculpture.

Red Team Photo


We are the Red Team, our goals are to create a kinetic sculpture for Scott Dunning, Director of the School of Engineering Technology, that will capture the interest and the admiration of young and old alike.  The proposed kinetic sculpture should attract the interest and admiration of people ranging from 5th grade girls to college students as well as Engineering Professionals.  Due to such a large range of people who will be looking at our sculpture, it is imperative that the design be small enough to be portable.  In order to accommodate that ideal we have specified that it will be 3 feet wide, 4 feet tall and 1.5 feet deep.  It will also need to weigh less than 200 lbs in order to be transported.

Our kinetic sculpture will have no set location because it will be used to attract people towards engineering and towards the MET department.  It will be able to be placed on a table or placed on a cart that can be rolled to any specified location.

Location:

Location was an important factor especially in the initial specifications.  Our primary location, which was proposed by Scott Dunning, is on the second floor study area in the Engineering & Science Research Building (ESRB).  Although this will be its primary location, a cart will be included that will make it easy enough to transport to other areas of campus or to presentations off campus.

Client:

Our client is Scott Dunning, Director of the School of Engineering.

Final Team Specifications… Based on Client Specifications

  • Less than 200 lbs
  • One machines with dimension- 3ft long, 4ft tall, 18 inch deep.
  • Two interactive features
  • Budget: $1500
  • Must have on/off switch
  • Must make minimal noise
  • Must cycle down when off switch is hit
  • Must run 100 hours  continuously

Team Biographies:

Below is a link the the biographies of the individual members of the Red Team.

Individual Biographies

Team Benchmarking Specifications:

We have done research about other products in the market and we put together a table that compares key features from other sculptures.  This is very similar to what you would find in a consumer report.  Below you will see a link to our teams benchmarking table.

Red Team Benchmark
Brainstorming:
Brainstorming is an invaluable tool that can be used to attempt to solve problems.  Our team had a brainstorming session to begin to compile general ideas on what could be used in our kinetic sculpture in order to make it more interesting to all age groups.  Below is a few examples of some of the best brainstorming ideas.  One of the most influential ideas that resulted from our brainstorming sessions was to have a carnival theme around which we could gain ideas.  The main reason why we chose the carnival theme is because people of ALL ages enjoy going to the carnival.
The Ferris wheel is going to be one of our central themes because it is such a huge attraction to carnivals.  In this case, the ball will be picked up on the left hand side of the ferris wheel and will be transported to the right hand side, where it will continue down the track.
Ferris Design
The track design was another important part of our brainstorming session.  It was concluded that a two piece track would not only be easier to construct, but would also produce less friction than a three piece track.
Track Design Ideas
The Archimedes screw has been used in countless ways to move either solids or liquids from a lower elevation to a higher elevation.  It is possible that this could be a method of raising the balls in our kinetic sculpture.
Archimedes Or Other Track Design
The swinging corkscrew was another interesting idea that resulted from our brainstorming session.  In theory, the ball could enter a spiral that would reduce in diameter.  This would cause the ball to pick up speed as it went down the spirals and could then be directed to a vertical loop.
Swinging Corkscrew
Project Mock-UP:
This is the beginning stages of building a mock-up of the key characteristics of the kinetic sculpture.  At first, the kinetic sculpture was proposed to have an automatic side and an interactive side but has since been combined to have a kinetic sculpture that can be moved from one location to another easily on a cart.  Below you will find our initial drawings, the most recent changes can be found in our grand assembly and sub assembly sections.
Project Mock-UP Automatic
Project Mock-Up Interactive
Since our mock-up

Here are some of the subassemblies that make up our kinetic sculpture.

Framework

Ferris Wheel

Magnetic Lift

Plinko “type” Machine

3-D renditions of our most up to date model of how the team thinks the actual kinetic structure will resemble.

 

Standard Parts Table:

Below is a link of our most updated list of materials:
List of Materials

Gantt Chart

A very important part of our general completion of this project includes a formal gantt chart as shown below:
Gantt Chart