11 Days Until Due Date

With 11 days until our project is presented, we have some outstanding issues that we are working hard to solve. These include a range of problems that were somewhat anticipated, along with some that were more of a surprise.

In particular we have had problems applying shrink wrap around the compressed shirt with our initial design. After some collaboration some of the guys have come up with a redesign that is testing well. We will do final tests today once all of the components are in their final position within the assembly.

Other outstanding issues include: positioning our 2 servo driven devices (our indexing table and packaging linear drive), acquisition of a suitable scale for determining shirt size, and the implementation of our HMI (Human Machine Interface) system. We are well on our way to taking care of these tasks, but with the amount of time left we have to move quickly.

I am happy to say that almost all of our mechanical, electrical, and pneumatic related tasks have been completed for all stations. We also have most of the programming done, but I am waiting to test the code on our work cell before I get too excited.

Shown Below are a few pictures of our current status in the build. Most components are in place, but there are a lot of finishing touches required.

2.5 Weeks Until Due Date

I am happy to write that our compression structure issue was solved in just 2 days, and now it's working great. Most of our mechanical systems have been completed, along with the pneumatic wiring. Mounting sensors, writing logic and implementing safety systems are the main tasks we have facing us as we head into the home stretch.

Shown below are some pictures demonstrating our progress over the last 6 weeks.

Build Phase Almost Complete

With exactly four weeks left until due date, we are almost finished with the bulk of the building. Most of the stations are in place and the groups have begun to wire their pneumatic systems, with some sensors in place as well. The progress has been great lately and there is a positive energy growing among the group as things are starting to come together.

We are about to take on a whole new set of challenges as we gear up to begin programming the logic for our systems sequence. Organizing our I/O, maintaining correct program structure, and sorting out the communications between our 3 PLCs will take a lot of effort, but we should be able to handle it with this group.

As I was writing this entry, we ran a test on our Hydraulic Press. Two of the welds holding the mounting plate onto the cylinder failed during cycling. We have to take the press down and have it remounted with stronger welds. Since the compression station is ahead of schedule I am confident this shouldn't be too much of a hold up.