Browsing by Subject "manufacturing"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Assessment of STEM e-Learning in an Immersive Virtual Reality (VR) Environment
    (ASEE, 2018) Rogers, Christian B.; El-Mounayri, Hazim; Wasfy, Tamer; Satterwhite, Jesse; Computer and Information Science, School of Science
    This paper shows the early research findings of utilizing a virtual reality environment as an educational tool for the operation of a computerized numerical control (CNC) milling machine. Based off of previous work, the Advanced Virtual Machining Lab (AVML), this project features an environment in which a virtual CNC machine is fully operable, designed to allow STEM students and training professionals to learn the use of the CNC machine without the need to be in a physical lab. Users operate in the virtual environment using an immersive virtual reality headset (i.e. Oculus Rift) and standard input devices (i.e. mouse and keyboard), both of which combined make for easy movement and realistic visuals. On-screen tutorials allow users to learn about what they need to do to operate the machine without the need for outside instruction. While designing and perfecting this environment has been the primary focus of this project thus far, the research goal is to test the ease of use and the pedagogical effectiveness of the immersive technology as it relates to education in STEM fields. Initial usability studies for this environment featured students from a CAD/CAM-Theory and Advanced Applications (ME 54600) course at a Midwestern urban institution. Results from the study were tabulated with a survey using a four-point Likert scale and several open-ended questions. Findings from the survey indicated that the majority of users found the environment realistic and easy to navigate, in addition to finding the immersive technology to be beneficial. Many also indicated that they felt comfortable navigating the environment without the need for additional assistance from the survey proctors. Full details on the usability study, including data and discussion, can be found in this paper. The general consensus from the study was that, while some features needed refinement, the immersive environment helped them learn about the operation of a CNC machine. An additional comparative study will be undertaken to evaluate pedagogical effectiveness.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Board 136: MAKER: Laboratory Improvements for Mechanical Engineering (Phase 2)
    (ASEE, 2018) Derrick, Joseph Michael; Golub, Michael; Shrivastav, Vaibhav R.; Zhang, Jing; Mechanical and Energy Engineering, School of Engineering and Technology
    The convection heat transfer is explored for a new academic laboratory experiment to help address the lack of practical experimentation due to the continued integration of technology. The objective is to design an experiment to be used in the laboratory that enhances the student understanding of convection process and principles. A cost-effective design is generated with three core principles: 1) Low Cost, 2) Low Maintenance, and 3) Concept Visualization. This is achieved through the following description of the apparatus. The plexiglass chamber has a square base with a designated height. At the bottom of the chamber, there is a rectangular section removed to act as an inlet to the chamber. A high powered mini turbine fan is located at the top of the chamber. The fan acts as the driving force that pulls in the surrounding air from the inlet to generate a flow within the chamber. A door is located on the front of the chamber to allow for interchanging of different test geometries. The geometries being used are 3D printed to components either in the form of a fin (External Flow) or a hollowed channel parallel to the flow (Internal Flow). The components are mounted to the door with cylindrical heater connecting the two. The components are heated to steady state, where the average temperature along the surface is calculated. The velocity, surface temperature, and ambient temperature are recorded using a data acquisition system. The resulting convection coefficients are then determined.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    "But the half can never be told" : the lives of Cannelton's Cotton Mill women workers
    (2013) Koenigsknecht, Theresa A.; Morgan, Anita A.; Robertson, Nancy Marie, 1956-; Dichtl, John R., 1965-
    From 1851 to 1954, under various names, the Indiana Cotton Mills was the dominant industry in the small town of Cannelton, Indiana, mostly employing women and children. The female industrial laborers who worked in this mill during the middle and end of the nineteenth century represent an important and overlooked component of midwestern workers. Women in Cannelton played an essential role in Indiana’s transition from small scale manufacturing in the 1850s to large scale industrialization at the turn of the century. In particular, this work will provide an in-depth exploration of female operatives’ primary place in Cannelton society, their essential economic contributions to their families, and the unique tactics they used in attempts to achieve better working conditions in the mill. It will also explain the small changes in women’s work experiences from 1854 to 1884, and how ultimately marriage, not industrial work, determined the course of their later lives.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Indiana’s outlook for 2020
    (IU School of Business, 2019) Brewer, Ryan M.; Yoon, SunJung; IUPUC Division of Business
    The government sector also produces about 8 percent of output.8 Over the past year, various media have reported conflicting information about the extent of impacts from tariffs on imports and exports in America. [...]any attempt to accurately quantify the impact of the current trade war on the Indiana economy at this point, would be impossible. [...]with the exception of one year (2009), Indiana has led the nation in manufacturing employment since 1996, when Indiana took the manufacturing mantle from North Carolina (see Table l).9 While nearly one in every five Indiana jobs is in manufacturing, the overweighting in the manufacturing sector is even more pronounced in terms of GSP. Yet, Hoosier farmers (totaling over 94,000 in 2017) as individuals are certainly affected by the trade war.11 According to the Indiana State Department of Agriculture (2019), Indiana was the eighth-largest agricultural exporter in the country as of 2017, the 10th-largest farming state, and in the top five among U.S. states that produce ducks, popcorn, ice cream, tomatoes, pumpkins, turkeys, corn, soybeans, watermelons and hogs. [...]farming accounts for a relatively small number of jobs available to Hoosiers and has been declining for many decades. [...]farming is not an accurate representative to gauge our economic condition in the near future.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Instrumentation and Data Collection for Sheet Glass Production
    (2019) Shaw, David; Cooney, Elaine
    Kokomo Opalescent Glass (KOG) is a manufacturer of art glass located in Kokomo Indiana. KOG has high defect rates in their sheet glass production process that can vary greatly depending on operator experience and environmental factors. This project aimed to improve the repeatability of KOG’s sheet glass production process by enabling them to monitor the temperature at which glass sheets enter their annealing oven and to decrease their defect rate, which has historically been around 25%. Through integrating instrumentation and data collection into KOG’s production process, defects in sheet glass production were successfully decreased by approximately 10% in the weeks following the installation of the device created in this project.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Wet Reagent Profile Sensor Visualization Tool
    (2020-04-30) Darrough, Kacie; Jackson, Caleb; Cooney, Elaine; Freije, Elizabeth
    The Wet Reagent Profile Sensor is a system that Roche Diabetes Care Indy uses in its diabetes test strip manufacturing process. The current system they are using involves a laser sensor that projects onto a wet reagent material after it is coated onto a substrate. The machine that applies the reagent uses averages of 800 measurement points taken by the laser sensor to determine whether or not the reagent is within acceptable limits. If the reagent applied to a given section of the material is not within acceptable limits, then that section is marked for rejection and later taken out of the roll. The current system does not store the data that is collected, display it in an easily accessible manner, nor provide direct access to the 800-point profiles. No variable option currently exists for the data collection rate and the sponsor would prefer a variable option, if possible. The objective of this project is to store and display all 800 points of data in a profile, change the frequency at which data is collected, and display a 3-D visual of the profiles. These changes and additions should be accomplished while avoiding interference with the normal production process. During the first phase of this project, the student engineers have begun analyzing the system, making design decisions and choosing between different components, planning hardware and software connections, and designing an interface for the system. In the second phase of this process, students began working with Excel, which is the software that was chosen at the end of the first phase, as well as working with the controller in order to communicate serially to a computer. Due to the change of circumstances that occurred in the middle of the second phase, students could no longer test communication options with the controller. The testing and verifying stages of the project were concluded at this point and students were asked to focus on documentation. Students created a new document that discussed all of the decisions that were made throughout the project, if the decision was used, and why or why not. Test plans were revised and updated as well.