Nicholas Stanislowski Portfolio 2013 1

Nicholas StanislowskiEngineering Portfolio

Contents

Ballista 2

Catapult Competition 6

Catapult Kits 7

Environment InnovationChallenge 9

Electric Generator Testing 11

Controlled Failure in aStructure 13

Nicholas Stanislowski Portfolio 2013 2

Project: Ballista

OverviewInspired by a laser-cut trebuchet project on Kickstarter, I decided to create my own project that could be used to raise funds for my local makerspace, OlyMEGA. The result was a model that I designed in SolidWorks, and manufactured using a laser cutter.

ResponsibilitiesExcept for some help operating the various laser cutters, this project was entirely my own work. I started with basic sketches which I used to create a SolidWorks design using a single part model. This model was then used as the basis for a SolidWorks assembly. After cutting the first prototype (which worked), the design was refined for simplicity and to reduce production costs.

Left:Final CAD design of ballista

Right:Completed ballista views

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Trigger release mechanism

Winch release mechanism

Horizontal revolute joint

Angle of fire revolute joint

Areas for torsion springs

Project: Ballista The Design Process

Left:Several stages in the initial design of the ballista. In Solid-Works, I began by creating a single model, figuring out and ad-justing geometries with the help of SolidWorks sketch features.

Right:When I was satisfied with the model, I then created an assem-bly that would demonstrate how the laser cut pieces would fit together. The assemblies pictured shows two possible models for a bolt release mechanism: a simple trigger, and a winch.

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Project: Ballista Building Prototypes

Left:Cutting the first prototype.The first prototype was designed to use half inch plywood. Since there was significant difficulty cutting that thickness, 5mm thick plywood was used. 5mm proved to be strong enough, so later designs used this thickness.

Right:The assembled first prototype.Since the pieces did not fit properly (the design used thicker plywood, see above), they were glued together. This prototype worked quite well. See video here.

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Project: Ballista Building Prototypes (continued)

Top, Left:The assembled second prototype.This prototype featured several improvements, shown below. One problem I dis-covered with this prototype was that somewhere in the design file conversion, the size was increased slightly. This meant that the pieces of this prototype did not fit together correctly. I am not sure what caused this problem, because I have not had it since. I now make sure to double check the measurements before cutting.

Top, Center:The second prototype featured a simplified joint mechanism, which uses less mate-rial and requires less laser cutting, which lowers production cost.

Top, Right:The second prototype also has a new leather pouch that can hold pencils, and also small objects like mini-marshmallows. It was designed using SolidWorks sheet metal tools to create the folded parts, and can also be cut using a laser cutter.

Bottom, Left:The final design. This model doesn’t use any glue, instead using interference fits.

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OverviewAs part of the Wenatchee Valley College Catapult Competition (2011 rules here), my team took first place overall, and set the new distance record (over 140 ft.). Design constraints included being limited to natural materials (wood and natural fibers, no metal) and the device had to fit in a square with 2 ft. sides. Our design used wound rope as a torsion spring (making it an onager), and a trebuchet-like sling.

ResponsibilitiesMy group partner and I shared the work in this project pretty evenly. The two of us worked closely in the design and construction of the onager. We were aided in design ideas by friends who had participated in previous competitions. They suggested the rope torsion spring as a major factor in the success of previous winners. My knowledge of rope work allowed our design to use spliced rope instead of knots, and my inability to properly gauge distance made us refine our model to make it shoot much farther than needed to win (we beat second place by over 100 ft.)

Project: Catapult Competition

Top Right:The OnagerBottom Left:The torsion spring was rein-forced using oak plates.Bottom Right:Twisted rope in the torsion spring.

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Project: Catapult Kits

OverviewAfter finishing the ballista, I realized that I could build a much simpler catapult, that could be easier to sell as a kit. This catapult would use a single string torsion spring, would have fewer parts than the ballista, and would be easier to assemble.

ResponsibilitiesAs with the ballista, I did all the design work for the catapult kit. I also wrote and de-signed instructions that would fit on a letter size piece of card stock, which would be folded into the box of the kit.I have gradually improved the way I manufacture the kits. I have laser cut stencils that I use to score the paper for the box, which makes it fold into a box easier. The string, which I used to package coiled around a specially cut piece of wood, is now wrapped around the long bottom plate of the catapult. This saves material and cutting costs.

Left:The catapult ready to fire (missing ammunition.)Right:After firing.

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Left:The Instructions are printed on letter-size card stock.Bottom Right:A packaged kit. Under it are the MDF stencils used to score the paper. This makes it easier to fold into boxes.

Project: Catapult Kits Instructions and Packaging

Nicholas Stanislowski Portfolio 2013 9

OverviewAs a participant in the University of Washington’s Environmental Innovation Challenge, my group’s task was to first create a system, and prototype of the system, that would solve a particular environmental problem. We would then create a business model that would capitalize on our solution.Our solution addressed the problem of water consumption by reducing the wasted water when taking a shower. Our system would divert and store the water that is normally wasted while waiting for the shower to heat up. Instead of going down the drain, the cold water would be diverted a chamber above the toilet, where it can be used to fill the toilet reservoir the next time it is flushed.

ResponsibilitiesAs the only engineer in the group, I designed all the technical aspects of the system. I built a working prototype of the switch that would send cold water to the toilet, or warm water to the shower head. I also secured a grant that would pay for the building of the prototype. I also presented the prototype before judges, and a general audience of about 100 people on challenge day.Building the prototype involved initial designs in SolidWorks, purchasing relevant parts like a three-way ball valve and a greenhouse vent piston (for the actuator), soldiering together pipes for the plumbing, and getting gears and mountings cut by water jet.Because I funded the building of the prototype through a grant, I submitted a budget, then afterward submitted a record of expenses.

Project: Environment Innovation Challenge

Top Right:A simple sketch of the system.Center Right:A sketch of the temperature switch mechanism. (Pipes are at a different angle than in the above diagram.)Bottom Right:A SolidWorks assembly of what the mechanism might look like.

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The PrototypeProject: Environmental Innovation Challenge

I had to learn to solder plumbing

A greenhouse piston ex-pands when heated by hot tap water.The piston body sits within a small copper pipe that is soldered into a larger pipe. The hot water flows through the larger pipe, heating the smaller one.

Hot water exits here Cold water exits here.

Water from hot tap enters here

The greenhouse piston pushes a rack gear, which rotates a pinion gear. Both gears were designed in SolidWorks, and cut using a water jet cutter.The gears are not visible because they sit between two metal plates (also cut by water jet.)

The pinion gear is connected to the ball valve, which changes the flow of water.

The heat exchanger, which is a pipe within a pipe, is much simpler for the prototype.

The toggle switch was aban-doned for the prototype. It would have sped the time it took the valve to switch.I could not figure out how to make it work in time, and the prototype worked without it.

Nicholas Stanislowski Portfolio 2013 11

OverviewA newly developed turbine designed by Hydrovolts required a method of converting the extremely slow turbine rotation into usable energy. I tested a washing machine motor as a generator, to characterize its output at low rpm and different wiring configurations.

ResponsibilitiesI made necessary alterations to a washing machine motor to convert and test it as a low rpm generator. I built a testing setup using a lathe to slowly rotate the rotor, and recorded results using LabView. I character-ized the different outputs that were generated by different wiring con-figurations and by varying the load of the output.

Project: Electric Generator Testing

Top Right:The turbine, taken from the Hydrovolts web site.Left:Dimensions of the shaft I machined to test the generator.Bottom Right:The generator that was tested, shown with bearings and shaft.

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Simulation and DataProject: Electric Generator Testing

Left, Top:Standard “Delta” wiring for a generator on the left, and “Y” or “Star” wiring on the right, laid out in LTSpiceIV.Left, Middle:The LTSpiceIV simulated output from the delta wiring configurations.Left, Bottom:The LTSpiceIV simulated output from the Y, or Star, wiring configurations.Right:The actual power output for different resistive loads, and at different rpm, using the delta wiring configuration.

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OverviewMy group, “Burning Balsa,” which was comprised of five students, was given the task of building a balsa “car frame” that would be crushed to a certain linear dis-placement in an Instron. The design had to sustain at least 400N of force while being crushed without the inner “passenger” area being compromised. Our design was successful.

ResponsibilitiesThough each group member created their own design, mine was chosen out of the five because it best conformed to the design specifications (we had to make a small adjustment later). I designed the frame using SolidWorks, and we modeled it us-ing Cosmos. We cut and assembled the pieces as a group using 1:1 printouts of the design as a guide.

Group 14, “Burning Balsa”: Alicia Tan, Daniel Swayne, David Swartzendruber, Nicholas Stanislowski, Hsiu-Yang Tseng

Top Right:SolidWorks model of the final design.Bottom Left:SolidWorks Cosmos stress simulation used to predict points of failure.Bottom Right:1:1 printouts were used to build the frame.

Project: Controlled Failure in a Structure

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ME356 - Compression of Structures to Failure.

Group ID Mass (g)Group 14 153.0

0

500

1000

1500

2000

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140

Com

pre

ssiv

e lo

ad (

N)

Compressive extension (mm)

Load vs. Extension

Specimen #

1

Maximum Load(N)

Extension atMaximum load

(mm)

Local Max Load(N)

Extension atLocal Max

(mm)716.41587 131.20030 453.35488 6.47526

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Top Left:The frame in the Instron, before being crushed.Bottom Left:The frame, after being crushed. The inner area survived successfully.Bottom Right:Force data gathered from the Instron. The structure successfully provided more than 400N of resistance.

TestingProject: Controlled Failure in a Structure