1,721,007 research outputs found
Aesthetic benchmarks supporting the design of domestic safety products: a socket cover protector
No full textIn developed countries, the growing number of domestic accidents has pushed firms to find new devices (and to improve the current ones) in order to increase the level of domestic safety, especially for children, that are among the most affected. In order to prevent some of the " electrical risk " accidents, they have made various kinds of devices to cover the sockets (outlets) present in a normal house. These devices are called " socket cover protectors " , and, for the removable ones, their design has always been focused on the making of an object hard to be pulled out from the socket by children but easy to be managed by parents (so, easy to put in and to pull out for them). For all we know, it's never been considered the possibility that the aesthetic appearance of a device like that could be useful to dissuade a child from handling or trying to play with it. In this paper, we claim that a particular aesthetic analysis could be a useful tool if it would be introduced into the lifecycle design of a home safety product – like a socket cover protector -in order to make a more effective device. In fact, our aesthetic analysis is structured in order to make an object that doesn't stimulate the curiosity of children (so, an object not aesthetically appealing), so that the likelihood of a contact between child and device is reduced (and so the likelihood for him to pull out the device)
Engineering Graphics Education: Webcomics as a Tool to Improve Weaker Students’ Motivation
No full textIn engineering colleges, first-year students come from different kinds of high school and have different technical backgrounds. In engineering graphics courses, the weaker students are the ones entering with a lower technical background. Such students are less motivated and have generally difficulties in keeping high their attention level during the lessons. In this study, the use of a webcomics structured in graphic novels was experimented as a motivational support in an engineering graphics course. Sixty nine students of a class taught by using webcomics as support and 47 students of a class taught traditionally were classified according to the kind of their high school of provenience: technical; scientific; non-technical and non-scientific. The findings showed that in the class where webcomics were used, students from non-technical and non-scientific high school scored a higher level of attention compared to others. The teacher who used the webcomics commented it an effective tool to encourage and stimulate weaker learners to actively participate to the lessons and the majority of students agreed such tool was stimulating. At the same time, some students considered the webcomics representation of engineering graphics topics as too far from the reality. It is concluded that the use of webcomics structured in graphic novels is a proficient way to better motivate weaker students to arouse and keep their attention at a high level during engineering graphics lessons
Electric Traction Set for a light car
Full text linkThis paper deals with the feasibility study of a special electric traction wheel-set for a micro-car for disabled customers. In our university department some solutions on the topic had already been developed in the past. The design has not been carried out in a sequential way, but it has been lead in “concurrent-engineering” style and it has been speeded up thanks to the employment of solid modelling. The 3D design technology has helped in a very efficient way to take into account the impact of any modification on any component to the neighbouring items. The following topics have been considered: design for disabled customers, maximum ease of use and low cost technology.
This job therefore has coped the main problems related to designing a new car. Some innovative solutions have been proposed and an overall design procedure has been experienced.
This paper in particular describes the results of a research activity connected with the study of the general lay-out of such a wheel set. Some different configurations were explored, each showing its strong and weak points. It is to point out that, while the traditional arrangements connected with gasoline or diesel engines were hugely studied, with the electric traction all the wheel sets must be reshaped. In fact too many car designers tend to use the same lay-out used before, wasting much of the potential advantages offered by electric motors.
During this study some radically new designs were explored, for example not using any live axle for transmission or trying to use thrust ball bearing for steering axles.
In the following a gallery of proposed and studied solutions will be exposed, showing the most characteristic points.
We developed the study and design phases starting from some specifications: the group must be composed by electric motor (geared or not), brake, wheel hub, front or rear traction, in case of front traction the group must have steering pivots (attachments for steering rods).
This apparatus has been designed to be used in a light car (which is under development in our faculty). However the proposed design may fit even standard city cars.
Design goals were: 1) Keeping very low steering radius (intended use in city environment) 2) Absence of traditional suspension system (our light car has some innovative design in this) 3) Respect of Ackermann geometry.
Some different design solution have been developed and are exposed in the paper. The most relevant feature is that every wheel has its own motor, so achieving a dramatic reduction in encumbrance
Issues in learning engineering graphics fundamentals: Shall we blame cad?
No full textSeveral studies report that many novice engineers result to be skilled in CAD but poor in knowledge of the basics, visualization and spatial skills and ability in freehand sketching. There is a debate on if such lack of fundamentals dues or not to the increasing role of CAD and the decreasing role of manual drawing in the basic courses of engineering graphics. This study aimed to investigate the issues related to the use of CAD and manual drawing in teaching engineering graphics fundamentals by a review of the literature of the Engineering Design Graphics Journal and the International Journal of Technology and Design Education from 2000 to date. It was found that current students: have a lower initial level of knowledge and experience; have little chance to develop sketching and visualization skills if trained only by CAD; and their assessment usually focuses more on CAD skills than on the knowledge of the basics. Solutions proposed to such issues are: introductory courses of manual drawing at college and high schools; assessment of students' initial skills; and tests more focused on the knowledge of the rules and basics of engineering graphics language
On the design and testing of a research device about streaming water phenomena
Full text linkThe Group of Mechanical Design of the University of Brescia was charged with the task to develop, and design a large scale facility aimed to perform tests about streaming water phenomena, the final user being the Group of Civil Hydraulics of the same University. The facility has been designed, developed and successfully tested.
It is mainly composed with a sub-horizontal channel, flat bottomed and transparent walled. The cross area of the streaming flow can be reduced and the slope can be controlled (0 to 7°).
Very severe requirements were foreseen with respect to smoothness and planarity (0.5 mm Vs 12 m length and 700 mm width). Acceptable deformations were limited to very slight values, although the length of the channel being remarkable and the expected loads being widely variable, due to the relevant range of foreseen speeds and flow rates of streaming water (sand and small stones transport by stream had been foreseen too).
To guarantee the required flatness along the whole channel a modular design has been adopted and proper means to adjust the fitting between contiguous modules have been developed. Notice the sealing must not be compromised in adjusting phase.
A mobile support free to be moved along the channel has been designed in order to allocate a number of measuring probes devoted to hydraulic phenomena monitoring.
An inlet tank was designed too, equipped with proper devices to guarantee a smooth and waveless inlet of water in the whole range of foreseen flow rates (up to 220 litres/s). An output tank was equipped with proper piping and pumping items to re-circulate the fallen water. Of course devices to precisely modify the slope rate were developed too. The facility has been installed and is nowadays in use for scientific and teaching purposes.
In the proposed paper the following items will be dealt with: exact design requirements definition, study and design phases, solid modelling of the plant, building, trials and delivery, some considerations about using geometric and dimensional tolerancing (GD&T) on machine with relevant measures
Progettazione di un forno sperimentale per la fusione dell'alluminio
No full textIn this paper we describe all the phases, from conception to start on, regarding an experimental oven, developed to carry out experiments on aluminium foundry alloy.
The project, which is interdisciplinary characterised, was born in the research area of the Laboratory of Chemistry for the Technologies based in the Department of Mechanics and Industrial Engineering of our Faculty, researches that are funded by some companies operating in the fields of the foundry and the thermally resisting materials. A need was raised for an experimental apparatus able to focus and verify some hypothesis over some physics and chemistry phenomena that compromise the correct operating activity of industrial ovens for aluminium alloy, phenomena that cause expensive maintenance operations.
The normal industrial ovens are not suitable to perform the requested research activity, that requires monitoring of several chemical and physical parameters, in areas that, in the normal industrial ovens, are not accessible. Consequently an experimental oven was conceived and developed, with a reduced operating volume, to reduce operating costs, however it is representative of the physical reality of the industrial oven. It also provides the possibility to carry out unusual operations and to monitor parameter and samples withdrawal
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