Date of Award

5-6-2024

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

This project aims to solve the problem of contamination of styli on Coordinate Measuring Machines. This contamination can interfere with the measurements being taken, and due to these styli’s main role being precision measurement, any small interference can cause inaccuracy. The goal can be defined as designing an apparatus that will adequately clean the styli with an automated process. Contaminants of these styli that must be removed are materials such as dust, metal shavings, and oils. The team was tasked with creating a design that can be productized and is compatible with different probe types and sizes. The apparatus was to be based on the previous year’s project design, with the goal being to modify and improve certain aspects of the product. The team spent the year focusing on four large design components. Specifically, we are looking to prevent the evaporation of isopropyl alcohol that is being used as the cleaning fluid while it is sitting and not in use, making the cleaning system automated, designing a repositionable mount that would allow the product to be secured to the CMM granite, and creating a quantification method used to assess the product’s cleaning performance. These goals were concentrated on, while also considering the specific design constraints.

The team’s solution to the problems of spillage and evaporation is implementing a lid that can be utilized between each cleaning. Many lid design options have been explored and tested to optimize the result of meeting these outcomes. To accomplish this optimization, the team moved forward with designing an automated swivel lid. The swivel lid was automated alongside the magnetic stirrer, which drove the cleaning process. Furthermore, the task of designing a configurable mount that would secure our apparatus to the CMM granite surface and can be easily removed and repositioned when needed was successful. SPHERE’s mounting solution involved an interior mount placed on the inner portion of the apparatus base. Doing so allows for the saving of space on the CMM table by maintaining a compact design that can be placed in an easily accessible and convenient position. Lastly, we were to search for a method of quantifying the cleaning done by our design, to prove the effectiveness of our product. Several ideas were explored for the quantification, such as weighing the styli before and after cleaning, as well as observing them on a microscopic level to have a clear view of any small particulates, however, the team was successful in the quantification process by utilizing image processing code.

Comments

Team Name: SPHERE (Team 12)

Company Sponsor: Hexagon Manufacturing Intelligence

Sponsor Representative: Steve Ilmrud, Sean Taylor, and Brian DuBois

Document Reference: URI-MCE-CAP-FDR-2024-12

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