For this project, my teammate and I had to research fluid power devices that are used in the industrial world. We then had to choose one of those fluid power devices to make. The design statement was to accurately design and construct a fully functioning prototype of the fluid power device we chose in the time given. We were given a week to make our fluid power device. We made our own design brief saying what we wanted to accomplish with our device and then at the end of the week our teacher would pull out our design brief and see if we were successful or not.
Materials given:
VEX robotics materials
Supplied syringes, plastic tubing, etc
Any consumable material our team and teacher deem necessary/appropriate
Requirements:
You must provide good visuals of the real life device
Your device must be able to be constructed in a week
Your device must be different than devices chosen by other
Teacher must approve of idea.
We also had to create a presentation of our fluid power device.
My partner and I created a catapult as our fluid power device. We used pneumatic's and 2 syringes connected with tubing for our catapult along with VEX materials. We used a small syringe connected to a medium size syringe to get more force in the launch. We press on the medium syringe and the small syringe pushes the arm up to launch the ping pong ball. We always had the small syringe to move the arm, but we did 3 different tests using the small, medium, and large syringe to see which worked the best in getting us the farthest distance and being the most consistent. Our goal was to pick up and launch a ping pong ball at least 2 feet, but picking up the ball is not possible for us in the time given. We made a basket for the ping pong ball to sit in and put wheels on the base of our catapult so that it is movable. Below is our presentation that has more information about our device including the test trials, videos, different components, beginning design briefs, and much more.
One major takeaway we had during this project comes from the different sized syringes. We learned that our first option (the large syringe) is not always the best option. Another major takeaway was we learned not to let people's opinions on your ideas affect your outcome on the final product. Also that time limits your ability to complete all components that you would like to include in your project.
Here is our presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1K80GKMxLz9ysCzaG3vWyrHX2fa9hofuoQDJ9IE67RZo