Mechanical Engineering 1010

Design Reports How to make them better

David Bayless, Ph.D., P.E., Fellow of ASME and NAIGerald Loehr Professor

October 14, 2014

Read the Instructions

• Assignment 8 (such as 40% of the grade would be based on the draft…)

• Example Design Report on the web page

• Do a professional job

• If in doubt, ask!!

Make the Presentation “Professional Quality”

• Use Tables with table titles on top of table

• Use Figures with figure titles below figures

• Discuss the contents of the table and figures before presenting the tables and figures

• Edit the document – it is unacceptable to have a stream of consciousness document

Breaking Down the Report1. Team Schedules and Contact Information –

Prominently list the names, emails and cell phone numbers for all team members. (5%)

• SrD mentors are part of your team!

Breaking Down the Report2. Project Definition – This is your statement of the

design problem, in your words. The statement should be no more than a paragraph. (10%)

• Most teams did a good job EXCEPT for the design function equation!!

Score = • What better summarizes your project definition than to

optimize this equation using a solar vehicle…

Breaking Down the Report3. Project Specifications and Design Analysis – Break

down your design solution into subsystems needed to meet the design need described in the Project Definition. Further, be sure your specifications include “must haves,” “can’t have,” “nice to haves.” You are also to identify potential failure points and weight their importance (FMEA table)

• “Must haves,” “Can’t haves,” and “Nice to Haves” were all previously done and MUST be in the design report

Breaking Down the Report3. Project Specifications and Design Analysis

“Break down the discussion in terms of subsystems (motor, cells, transmission, axles, etc) and the design concerns (power, weight, friction coefficient) needed. . .”

• Use a table to help organize your workSubsystem Design needs

Motor Secure electrical connection, gearing to transmit power, mounting to hold in place Gearing Firm attachment to motor, firm attachment to wheel axle, mounting to hold gearing

in place so it doesn’t move aroundSteeringWheels and AxlesFrame/BodyCarriage for external weight

Breaking Down the Report3. Project Specifications and Design Analysis• FMEA Table Example from Class Notes

Description of Failure Rating of Severity (1=minimal,

10=total failure)

Design actions that could mitigate or eliminate the failure

Wheels fall off 9 If they fall off, we could reattach and rerun in ten minutes, so design them for reattachment by hand

Motor dies by wires detaching 9 While we might have time to try to clip them back on, they are so small and could easily fall off the motor, so make sure leads are soldered

wellSteering is misaligned 5

Breaking Down the Report4. Concept Generation – This section will describe your

efforts at creating your initial design, problem clarification, the process you are using for generating concepts, screening and evaluating those concepts. At least THREE (3) concepts are expected. (25%)

• USE SKETCHES (drawings)• Discuss the design process in developing the sketches• Label your drawings so the parts are understandable

Breaking Down the Report4. Concept Generation

• Explicitly link your specifications (must haves, can’t have, nice to haves) to your designs• Must Have #1 – This was incorporated into design “A”

by adding a variable transmission…• Must Have #2 – Design “B” used a thingamajig to

meet this specification as seen in Figure 2.• ….

Breaking Down the Report4. 4. Concept Generation – This section will

describe your efforts at creating your initial design, problem clarification, the process you are using for generating concepts, screening and evaluating those concepts. At least THREE (3) concepts are expected. (25%)

5. - This requires you to explicitly link your specifications (must haves, can’t have, nice to haves) to your initial concepts

6. - This also requires text to compare the concepts – their advantages and disadvantages

• SrD mentors are part of your team!

Breaking Down the Report5. Data and Calculations – Work done to analyze any

collected data on your designs or efforts to model the behaviors expected to influence your design. (5%)

• Good job, in general, with this section. However, remember that graphical presentation of data is worth a 1000 words!

Breaking Down the Report6. Plan for next week’s and next month’s work (20%) –

What do you still need to do to complete the project through the Phase I demonstration! List specific tasks, who is to do the task, and when the task must be done. Use Gantt Chart form!

• Charts “looked” good• Assignment of tasks was too general. ‘Team’ was used as

the assignment far too often to be useful.

Design Notebooks• Need significant revision• Go over the guidelines on the web page• Start now with improving your notebooks and staple

the pages you are working on now into your notebooks when I return them

• This is done for a real reason – documentation means everything

Russ College of Engineering and Technology

Revisions to the Design Reports due October 23rd

• You do not need wait until I return your lab to start. Every group so far is below an 80.

• Electronic submission on box.com (instructions later)