Blog Entry 6

Hey guys it's me again! This will be the second last blog that I'll will be uploading as Introduction to Chemical Product Design (ICPD) is coming to an end soon 😢😢. Anyways in this Blog Entry I will be telling you more about what we did during Week 13 which is about "Operating Principle and Mechanism Design" as well as what I did during Practical 4 which is about "Game Design with Cardboard" so be sure to read on!!

Week 13 (Operating Principle and Mechanism Design)

Operating Principle

All devices have a working principle which can be classified into mechanical, electrical, chemical or magnetism. At this point I was still confused on what operating principle was therefore Mr Chua gave us an example that we are familiar with "the distillation column"

The distillation column works with the principle of difference in volatility which we have also learnt about in Separation Processes and Simulation (CP5095). 

Another example that was given to us was Liquid-Liquid Extraction (LLE). 

The working principle behind LLE is based on the ability of a solute to distribute itself in a certain ratio between two immiscible solvents, usually water (aqueous phase) and organic solvent (organic phase).

An example that I can think of is something we use almost everyday: Air conditioning.

                

The working principle of air conditioners is convection. A convection current can be easily created when the air conditioner is placed at the top of the room as it will cool the air at the top of the room. As cool air sinks and hot air rises, a convection current is created. Over multiple cycles the room will be cooled to the set temperature.

Mechanical Principle

Other than operating principle, mechanical movement is often required too. Have you ever wondered why do some people like to dunk their tea bag in and out of their tea repeatedly? Do you think it is a annoying habit or is there a reason behind it 🤔🧐.

                         

Apparently there is a reason why people repeatedly dunk their tea bags into their tea!!! This action actually helps in diffusing tea leaves into the tea and it is proven to keep the tea fresh at will push the tea at the surface down to the bottom which can circulate the tea. 

Engineering Mechanism 

In chemistry, Mechanism is the fundamental chemical processes involved or responsible for an action, reaction or other natural phenomenon.

In Engineering, Mechanism refers to the combination of rigid bodies formed and connected so that they move in relation to each other.

There is 6 essential mechanism in functional prototypes:

• Actuators (convert stored energy in the form of compressed air, electrical potential, or liquid pressure into motion)

• Cams (convert rotation of a shaft into reciprocating linear motion)

• Gears (transmit torque and to adjust velocity)

• Lever (it can easy the transmission of force by using a fulcrum)

• Ratchets (Locks in one direction, allow tightening without worrying about it going the other direction)

• Springs (Stores elastic potential energy and can be released when it retracts back into its original position)

After learning all the things we need to know from "Operating Principles and Mechanism Design", it was time to design a pingpong launcher!! I am sure almost everyone have played or at least seen a pingpong launcher before from their childhood. Although I have never owned a pingpong launcher before I always wanted to have one, thus designing one was not a hard task.

A typical Pingpong Launcher

Ping Pong Ball Launcher

Propulsion principle The back of the toy has a spring that can be compressed when the handle is pulled back, this will load the ping pong ball ready for launch as it compresses the spring. There is a lever at the bottom of the launcher which is the trigger that will launch the ping pong ball into the air when pressed.

Ball loading The Ping Pong Ball Launcher includes a magazine that can be inserted at the bottom of the launcher. Inside the magazine, there is a spring mechanism which pushes the ping pong ball up after one is launched out of the launcher. Therefore, the ball refills via the elastic potential energy of the spring.

Sketch Components of the launcher  Trigger (Lever) Spring inside the magazine  Spring at the back of the toy to load the ping pong ball

Practical 4 (Game Design with Cardboard)

The objective of this practical is to design a cardboard game that can keep the ball in motion for at least 30 secs. We were given 2.5 hours time to construct the entire design in class.

Some requirements include:

1. The cardboard must incorporate one manually operated mechanism 

2. The design should not be more than 100 cm X 100 cm X 100 cm 

3. The structure must be predominantly made of corrugated cardboard

4. No electronics is required

5. Allowed to meet to design and build the individual parts of the structure before the session and assemble them to form the finished structure during the practical session.

Design Notes/ Sketches

This were the sketch of the ideas our team came out with. In the end we decided to use the top row middle design. It was a tower that we can manually bring the marble up. We decided on this design as it could buy  us sometime to fulfil the 30 seconds criteria 😳🫣. 

Based on the feedback and advice that my friends from other classes told me, the 2.5 hours given to do the design in W319 was not enough and many groups exceeded the time frame. Therefore, my group decided to meet up a few days before the practical to start on the tower design. 

Fabrication process

During the fabrication process, we had access to equipments like hot glue gun. This allowed us to glue our different parts together. After completing all the individual parts of our design we decided to put all of them together. We had lots of trouble initially as our design did not fit well together, however we resolved it quickly and cut the beams to fit the design nicely.

Hero shot of the finished product

Video of the product in operation 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeckLyNcbjA