2.008: Design and Manufacturing II (spring 2014)
This class focuses on design for large-scale manufacturing and assembly. We learned how altering design and process parameters affects the quality, rate, cost, and flexibility of a product. We also learned about different manufacturing processes such as injection molding, thermoforming, additive manufacturing, and metal casting.
The semester-long project for 2.008 was a group project in which we were tasked with designing a press-fit yoyo and manufacturing 50 physical products (100 identical halves). My team, which consisted of five other MechE women, went with a galaxy theme. We included a spinning "galaxy" that uses its angular momentum to continue spinning even after the yoyo is caught (see video above). We were all involved in the overall design of the yoyo, however, when it came to modeling and manufacturing the individual parts, we split up the work. Most of the parts were either injection molded or thermoformed, and all molds were machined using a CNC mill and lathe. The part that I focused on was a thermoformed protector that also functioned as a clear window. Throughout the semester we kept a rough blog to make sure that every team member was up to date on what was going on.
(Hover over images to see captions, click to enlarge.)