Sports have become an important part of most people's lives. Every performance athlete goes through a series of workouts with different sports equipment meant to help their physical condition. Thus, the development of automated sports equipment that can throw a ball with a specific preset speed and trajectory is necessary to facilitate the work of the coach. The paper presents the additive manufacturing process of components for a ball machine prototype used for training athletes. Most of the components in the product's power system are made by additive manufacturing, this choice being conditioned by the appearance of innovative, customized component elements, used in the drive system. Material extrusion is used due to the custom shapes and sizes, specific to the developed product, which innovatively influence the principle of hitting the ball. Fusion 360 is used to design all components, taking into consideration material extrusion technological requirements and design principles. A basic static finite element analysis is performed on the main paddle component to ensure that it can withstand the stress scenario and the results showed that when using HIPS filament, the limit conditions are fully met. CAD files are saved as *.STL files and introduced in Z-Suite software for parameter optimization according to the functional role of each component. The optimized *.ZCODEX files are sent to Zortrax M300+ machines for material extrusion 3D printing of the components. The final result is a functional prototype of a device that is obtained using mainly additive manufacturing.
The current research aims to develop an experimental stand for functionality testing of an automatic wiping board, to establish its optimal working parameters and select the appropriate materials for functional parts based on Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and experiment results. The conducted research started with the conceptual design of the experimental stand and main component identification. Within this stage, a comprehensive bill of materials is done, ensuring that the specifications of each component are in accordance with its' function within the main assembly. Next, the load cell is fitted with the Arduino board and with a designated computer. The Arduino board is initiated with a programming sequence recommended by the manufacturer and the data acquisition software is programmed using LabView. An initial test of the load cell is undertaken to determine the reading directions and the final experimental stand is assembled. Four tests, each with two travels, are used to analyze the working hypothesis of the wiping board. Results interpretation led to selecting the optimum working parameters of the proposed wiping board concept. The optimum force is used to conduct fatigue FEA on functional parts manufactured from ABS by additive manufacturing and injection molding technologies. Future research includes the integration of a Wi-Fi and an infrared sensor, to enable remote operation of the system. Also, the functional parts will be 3D printed, fitted onto the experimental stand of the automatic wiping board and tested for fatigue using the parameters set in the FEA simulation.
This paper analyses the issue of ensuring enhanced productivity and robustness to work schedules designed for multi-operational batch production processes, when a fixed, limited number of workstations can be used for production. The productivity of a batch production schedule for a specific quantity of items is measured by the length of its cycle time, while the robustness of the schedule is given by the size and distribution of operational slack times that are ensured during the production process run. It is mathematically demonstrated that a simple process planning solution may be the key for meeting the above mentioned objectives, if it is possible to be applied in practice in combination with the lot streaming strategy for the production flow.
The paper presents a development methodology for a new bio-composite medical device used in extensive anatomical reconstructions. Current surgical techniques and devices include auto transplant, surgical meshes or even acellular devices. Due to the high degree of reconstruction and large amount of exposed tissue, the surgeries tend to have high re-intervention rates, leading to severe complications and even death. A functional approach is proposed to develop an improved medical device for the treatment of these severe traumatic lesions. A six step methodology is presented, validating the first three with the development of several concepts. The general need is accurately identified using the APTE instrument and a FAST diagram is constructed for one product existence stage. Nine concepts are generated using the proposed methodology and three were preliminarily kept for development. Further research will be undertaken for manufacturing and testing of the final selected concept.
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