Blog Entry 6 + Practical 4

Blog Entry 6:

Helloooo, Welcome back!!👋 Today, I will be sharing with you guys what I've learned in week 13 and also practical 4.

In week 13, we covered the topic on Operating Principles and Mechanism Designs. We got to know the different types of mechanisms most commonly used in prototyping. They are:

• Actuators - convert stored energy into motion
• Cams - convert the rotation of a shaft into simple or complex reciprocating linear motion
• Gears - transmit torque and to adjust rotational velocity 
• Lever - transmit and amplify force by fixing the input and output about a fulcrum or pivot point
• Ratchets - they lock in one direction, allowing them to tighten without fear of going backward.
• Springs - store and dissipate energy

These mechanisms taught to us would be used in Practical 4 and in our cardboard prototyping for our CA2

After going through the types of mechanisms used in prototyping, we are required to do an activity where we have to design a ping pong ball launcher that is able to hold at least 5 ping pong balls. The device with the different types of mechanisms should propel the ball with stored energy and lastly, the device should be fully automatic, semi-automatic, or fully manual.

Hence, this is what my group came up with:

 A sketch that shows one ping pong ball has been launched.

The operating principle behind our design is that when we pull back the handle, the spring inside is compressed. One ping pong ball will drop to the barrel. when the handle is released, the elastic potential energy in the spring will be converted to kinetic energy in order for the ping pong ball to launch forward. The ball will then be reloaded by gravity.

Practical 4:

In this practical, we were tasked to make a cardboard structure that is able to keep the marble moving continuously for at least 30 seconds and it must be attractive until everyone will feel like playing with it. The requirements are:

• The structure must include at least one manually operated mechanism
• The structure must also keep the marble in continuous motion for a minimum of 30 seconds
• The structure must keep within a size of 1m x 1m x1m
• Every part of the structure should be made up of cardboard only
• No electronics allowed.

We actually had a hard time thinking of what to do so as to fulfill the requirements stated above and at the same time making it attractive so that the lab users will find it interesting. The first thing that went through my mind when I first heard that we need to make the structure interesting is to make a game so that it can entertain the lab users and therefore making it attractive. 

Our group decided to do something like that:

Before the actual practical session, my group decided to do some preparation like cutting out the small little parts of the structure that we are going to make so that we can just assemble the different parts on the day of the practical itself. 

We cut out the turning board: 47cm x 30cm and the strips on the turning board to be 25cm x 3cm

For the base, we just use the original piece of cardboard provided by the lab with a dimension of 66.5cm by 47cm.

On the practical day itself, we assemble the different parts together by using a glue gun and also some joineries that we learned in practical 2.

Sticking the strips onto the turning board

Decorating the turning board with colored papers

For the slope that is used to help the marble roll back to the collection point when the marble drops off the turning board when playing, we used slot and tab joineries to connect them together.

Slot and tab joinery used for the slope

Slope is added to the structure

In order to make the turning board turn, we have to make a "skewer" with cardboard and cut holes so that the "skewer" can fit through it. We cut 2 holes on both opposite walls of the structure as shown in the picture below

Our initial idea to make the turning board turn is to use a skewer, but because one of the requirements to create the structure is to use cardboard materials only. Hence because of that, we cut out pieces of cardboard and roll them tightly and connect them together as shown in the picture below.

Finally, we are reaching the final stage which is to paste the turning boards onto the "skewers".

The slot is added below the turning boards so that when no one is playing, the turning board can rest on the slot. 

And yess we are done!!✌ Here's how our finial structure looks like:

A group photo with our final structure

A short time-lapse of us cutting and decorating the structure

A full timelapse of us assembling all the parts together.

Let's watch a video on how the structure works:

Reflection:

For this practical, I would say that it's not as difficult as practical 5, but there are definitely still some difficulties that I've faced for example the preparation stage, it was quite challenging for me to visualize how to assemble the different parts together and what dimensions to set. Other than that, I had lots of fun when it comes to the assembling parts, seeing how our structure is slowly building up. 

Our structure kinda failed a little bit, like at the middle lane where we build a slope so that when the marble drops off from the turning board, the elevated height of the slope will help bring the marble back to the collection point. But it kinda failed because we didn't thought of the marble would bounce off the surface and ended up landing outside of the middle slope. Therefore, we regretted a bit for not making the height of the sides taller so that when the marble bounces off the surface, it will still stay in the tray and rolls back to the collection point. But other than that, everything else seems to be fine, and I'm satisfied with our group's end product. I'm actually still not very sure if our product did allow the marble to move continuously for at least 30 seconds but provided if the players play the game and are able to keep the marble moving continuously on the turning board without making it drop for at least 30 seconds, everything should be fine la har...hehe😅. But yea, I had fun and enjoyed this practical a lot.

This concludes the end of my blog entry 6, I hope you guys enjoyed reading it :) See you guys soon on my next blog! byeeee👋