This is a forum to discuss ‘How Things are Made’. The purpose of this forum is to make the course more interesting by relating the manufacturing processes to real-world product development and manufacturing.
Each student is required to find a real world product and find out ways to manufacture it. This product must be composed of at least 10 different components (parts). Please number your components. For each component, you will identify reasonable manufacturing processes to make it from raw materials. It may involve several materials and several processes. You only need to go to the level of a specific process, not the actual operating parameters such as the spindle speed, feed rate, and depth of cut. Note that you can attach figures, YouTube videos, and documents to help explain your plan to make your selected product. You will create a new thread in this forum and post the production plan for your product.
Please do not simply copy and paste articles verbatim into your plan without even understanding them. If you do so, you will not receive credit and will be classified as plagiarism. Please make sure you identify the correct raw materials and proper manufacturing processes by using the knowledge you learned from this course. There are several websites on my watch-out list, including madehow.com.
Each student may feel free to comment on the fellow classmates’ manufacturing plan and make suggestions and revision. You may wait until the later half of the semester to post your plan. At that time you would have learned most of the manufacturing processes. The due date of the plan is Apr. 30, 2024. Then you will have three days to review your classmates’ manufacturing plan.
I posted an example production plan for a ceiling fan. Note that the example production plan may not be perfect. So please feel free to comment on it. I also posted a rubric to evaluate your performance in these discussions. The forum will close at midnight on May 1, 2024.
Each student’s production plan is worth 100 points, and the peer review of at least five classmates is worth 50 points (see the first post about rubrics for online forum discussion). This forum is counted as the lab assignment.
Rubric for Asynchronous Discussions: How Things are Made
Asynchronous discussion enhances learning as you share your ideas, perspectives, and experiences with the class. You develop and refine your thoughts through the writing process, plus broaden your classmates’ understanding of the course content. Use the following feedback to improve the quality of your discussion contribution
Below is an example of the assignment.
How a Washing Machine is Made
The essential parts for a washing machine to function are the motor, transmission and the agitator.
Components and Production Plan
[ (1) (2) (3) (6) (7) (9) (10) ] The controls, agitator, and tub seal, are made from plastic. The plastic is put into an injection molding machine where it is heated and pressure is applied for the molten plastic to take the shape of the mold. Water is used to cool down the parts and then ejector pins push the part out of the mold.
(4) The inner tub is made from steel that is coated with zinc to prevent rust from forming. The steel sheet is run under a press that will bore holes into the sheet. It is rolled, then the two ends are welded together then the bottom of the tub is welded on.
(5)The outer tub is made from the same rust resistant steel as the inner tub. Unlike the inner tub the outer tub does not need holes. The two ends are welded together and the bottom of the tub is welded on after.
[ (11) (12) (13) (14) ] The water supply hose, water inlet valve and water pump are made from synthetic rubber. The process is the same for the other plastic parts where an injection molding machine is used.
Figure 2. Motor Figure 3. Transmission
Figure 3. The transmission is made from aluminum. The molten aluminum is ladled into a die cast machine and left to form and cool. When cooled the part is shaved and excess metal is cut to shape the part.
(8) Figure 2. The motor is bought premade but it consists of steel and copper components. The process is similar to that of the transmission; it is ladled into the die cast machine and shaped into the part. A copper wire is wrapped around the steel core and the core is covered by an aluminum body. Plastic tubes cover the copper wires.
Figure 4. Washing Machine Body
Figure 4. The body of the machine uses a steel that is made special for porcelain coating. For the body to be formed steel is put into a press and pressed between two halves of a die. It is bent into shape using a press brake machine and porcelain coating is applied. Assembly requires both robotic machines for heavy lifting and manual assembly for quality control.REFERENCE:
https://hafixer.com/how-does-the-washing-machine-motor-works/Links to an external site.
https://www.madehow.com/Volume-1/Washing-Machine.html#:~:text=The%20tub%20sub%2Dassembly%20is,this%20weld%20is%20also%20smoothedLinks to an external site.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dhow%2Ba%2Bwashing%2Bmachine%2Bis%2Bmade%26sca_esv%3D125395e02bc1fefe%26rlz%3D1CAZQNI_enUS1066%26tbm%3Dvid%26prmd%3Dvisnbmt&source_ve_path=MTY0NTA2LDE2NDUwNg&feature=emb_share&v=yvxnJAk1N8oLinks to an external site.
