Feb. 25, 1987 Senior Engineers Present Design Projects By Joe Rupee Thursday, December 11, at 3 p.m., the MET 442 senior project presentations were given in the Olmsted Building audi torium. Cheryll Songer outlined the program objective of sim ulating all phases of project inception, design, and production in the preliminary introduction. MET 442 is a culmination of fifteen weeks of a mock-up in dustrial environment where seniors and faculty participate in an employee-supervisor scenario to complete the project. Twenty senior Engi neering students had prepared ten projects for formal presentation. The presentation process itself resembled an Engineering presen tation that would typically take place before upper-level manage ment. Where possible, the fin ished project was displayed. Projects of a size that precluded transportation were represented by slides and overhead trans parencies similar to those that would be used in an actual presentation. Project sources origi nate in three areas. Students with hobbies or special interests may propose subjects fo the senior design project. Three presen tations at the fall semester presentation reflected the per sonal interests of the students involved with them. Ruediger Gebhard and Charles Kensky designed and built a portable refreshment center. This project's inception was to build a portable, self contained beverage center on wheels that would use a heat exchanger to "flash cool" beer as it was pumped from a keg. During the presentation, Kensky Going to the Movies? The following movies will be shown in the auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on the following dates: Movie "Back to School" "Fx" "Ruthless People" "Cat’s Eye" Cheech & Chong's "Up In Smoke" "Star Trek I" "Caddy Shack" Sponsored by: The Resident Assistants Funded by: SGA & SUBOG Admission: $l.OO noted that secondary fermentation occurred in beer at temperatures above 45 degrees, requiring a modification of their project. Jeffrey Goozak and Randall Henry designed and built an automatic batting tee based on their interests in sports. Their idea came from a batting drill to improve a batter's speed. Initial specifications for the project included allowances for anole, velocity, and time interval of balls being "pitched" to the batter. Later revisions to the project included modifications to permit various ball sizes to be used and greater variation of speeds to simulate a wider range of pitching. Following their presentation, Goozak and Henry demonstrated the batting tee. After ironing out minor technical difficulties, the apparatus threw a tennis ball out into the audi torium. Kevin Buxton used his design project to aid the handi capped. He developed a light weight, affordable utility cart that may be used with a wheelchair. The idea came to Buxton from his mother-in-law, who loves to work in the garden despite her confinement to a wheelchair. The finished cart and its linkage to the wheelchair had to be designed and tested for ease of operation and handling from a wheelchair. Keeping the cart’s weight low enough to provide easy maneuvering led to choos ing PVC pipe as a major con struction component. Following stress analysis, Buxton found that 1/2" PVC pipe had a yield strength up to 6000 psi, well within design limitations. Final cost of the project was only $76.00. Capital Times Private industrial sources sponsored three of the projects presented. Steven Smith worked with Brockway Incor porated to develop a Computer program that would select gauging equipment used in checking bottles manufactured by machine. The resulting program would reduce set-up time for inspection. Smith reported that his project was being imple mented at Brockway following testing. John Butler and Erick Turin developed a Smith machine for Main Street Gym. Their interests in metalworking and financial backing by the Main Street Gym combined to make the project a success. Among their goals for the project was to develop a weight machine with improved mo bility, stability, design, and bearings. Stress, deflection, and bending were all major factors in the design of the weight machine. Limited heat-treating and metalworking facilities on campus necessitated Butler and Turin to go off campus for heat treating and drilling of some components. Christopher DiMascio, Andrew McGill, and Andrew Rios initially wanted to design a window-sized heat pump for use in a single room, similar to the conventional window air con ditioner. Working with York International, the group soon discovered that heat pump component sizes available were larger than the project design specifications. Well into the semester, the project group modified their objective fol lowing the donation of an air conditioning unit by York. The new goal was to build a heat Sun. 3/15 3/22 3/29 4/5 4/12 4/19 4/26 pump for the Engineering Tech nology Lab. At the end of their program time frame, DiMascio, McGill, and Rios had modified and rebuilt the system's com ponents and performed prelim inary testing. They concluded their presentation by indicating that future design projects would continue to modify the initial project for use as a heating and cooling the MET lab. The four remaining a torsional fatigue projects were sponsored by the testing machine was developed university and intended as im- by Jeffery Horgan and John provements to existing projects Shoff to demonstrate torsion to a and facilities or to fill a need for 1/4" metal sample measuring laboratory equipment time to failure and the degree of Michael Grady, Cheryll torsion. The final project had to Songer, and John Wazenski be small enough to be used in formed the Hot Air Solar Group, the existing lab space. Their personal interest in solar To complete the proj heating led to the objective of ect, Horgan and Shoff had to designing a small, functioning design, fabricate parts, assemble, | system for applications in and test the machine. While residential home unit. Prior to m uch of the material was design of their project, the group available for construction, Hor researched hot air solar systems, San and Shoff warned juniors not duct and measuring devices. Fol- t 0 underestimate the time nec lowing preliminary designs, the essary to complete the project, group discovered limitations in Metalworking skills were an the HVAC Industries' avail- essential part of this project, ability of parts and equipment to Upgrading an existing monitor and direct air flow, piece of lab equipment was the Following their presentation, the goal of Robert Carbrey, Timothy design groq> observed that while Rentschler, and Andrew Webb, the project was outside the direct The subsonic wind tunnel was application of the MET major, tested and improved. Document they learned the importance of ing their project with slides and developing a concept into design overhead transparencies, this de and detailed drawings and how to sign group explained their pursue an objective through all testing and modification to the stages of development. power transmission and fan Jerry Gates used his blades and the improved per senior design project to address formance of the tunnel following the problem of maintaining a design implementation. While comfortable room environment the overall wind velocity of the in the campus Computer Center, tunnel improved, the objective of A heat gain analysis on the achieving laminar and turbulent facilities indicated that a 39% air flow eluded the design group, heat gain existed from sources Citing problems with smoke that included people, lights, accumulation in the observation chamber, they suggested that this may serve as a future field of study for another design group. Conceived as an op portunity to utilize all of the skills acquired while at Penn State at Harrisburg, the senior design project presentation serves as the capstone of four years of endeavor for the Engineering student. Considering the impor tance placed upon the course by the Engineering faculty, it is unfortunate that attendance by junior MET students was so low. Many of the presentations made suggestions and conclu sions of considerable value to future students in MET 442. Several groups stressed time management, adequate research, and experience in metalworking as key elements to a successful |«MI ATTENTION BSN CLASS OF 1987. The Air Force has a special pro gram for 1987 BSNs. If selected, you can enter active duty soon after graduation—without waiting for the results of your State Boards. To qualify, you must have an overall ‘B* average. After commis sioning, you'll attend a five-month internship at a major Air Force medical facility. It's an excellent way to prepare for the wide range of experiences you'll have serving your country as an Air Force nurse officer. For more information, call Capt Tom Moerschel 1 -800-USAF-REC Page 7 equipment, sunlight, and heat stored in the building walls. Initial design of tem perature control systems consid ered chill water, evaporation coolant, and a convertible roof system. The final design involved individual systems for each room in the Computer Center with allowance for individual control linked to demand. project.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers