Final Year project Ideas

General Composites Discussions Composites Talk
#1

I am about to start my final year at college for Manufacturing Engineering. It requires a fairly substantial project to graduate. It needs to have a research paper done on all the findings as well as state the improvements made.

I have a pretty much stock 2001 Camry and would like to make something for it. I am open to Ideas and any help would be appreciated. It does not have to be made for it as I am all ears. It is really getting close to the deadline where I need to solidify an idea and start working on it.

Fortunately, I have an abundance of resources available such as CNC Lathes, Milling machines, routers, and an autoclave for smaller composite Pre-preg parts along with vacuum components for larger pieces. Keep in mind I need to fund the project personally and would like to keep it relatively cheap. (Looking to spend around $1000)

For example one of my ideas is to completely remake the headlight assembly for my vehicle (2001 Camry) and have it built for a projector/HID setup.

Examples of previous years projects include carbon fiber hood, a completely redesigned guitar, carbon fiber roof carrier, carbon fiber strut bar, carbon fiber suitcase. I would like to preferably do something more unique and not something that was done in the previous year.

Thanks for any ideas you guys might toss at me, Don’t be shy please! I am really struggling with ideas right now.

Attached is a copy of the requirements for the project, it allows for a great deal of ideas.

Previous ideas included a variation of the Sound Egg Chair, Motorized Kayak, Motorized surfboard. (Main reason for dismissing these ideas were due to cost and availability of jet-drive system and reviews on the sound egg chair)

#2

Man, it sounds like every other student that posts here has a better school than me. I have no idea why I’m giving away all my money to a university which has very littine in the way of support ugh :mad:,

Anyhow right off the bat it sounds like you’re into cars, car hoods are easily made and to boot you could sell them afterward for some extra cash. If you’re required to do any sort of design, the geometry of the somewhat flat hood lends itself to hand calc approximations which can then be verified with FEA software.

On the layup side hoods are large but not that hard to make molds out of. Again the flatness makes it easier to make parts.

#3

Also I’m moving this to composites talk where it will get more visibility and more ideas from the helpful composites masters on this forums :smiley: (which is everyone here)

#4

Thanks for your help! I didn’t want to upset anyone by having a noob post the first post in the wrong forum.

I would love to make something for the car but I hope to upgrade to a newer vehicle within the next two years once I settle in and figure out all of my finances after graduating.

I am actually looking for personal vehicle type ideas right now just to see what is out there, I want something that is a fairly big project but not too big where it will take more than 7 months.

In regard to the hood, I was thinking about doing something along those lines, but the only thing is it was done just last year and I would prefer it to be something that wasn’t done by the previous year.

At the moment was looking at possibly doing a kite-board/ski-board but the project seems a bit too simple?

#5

Definitely not. The beauty, or pain, with composites is that you have a whole plethora of decisions.

With a kiteboard you’ll have to choose your core, carbon fiber, manufacturing method, layup schedule and more. That sounds like an extremely fun project and the best part is you’ll come out with a usable kiteboard at the end!

#6

Thank you for the reassurance. It really does help as its coming down to crunch time to solidifying a decision. (Would making a snowboard style and a water kite board as two separate items be doable in a 7 month time frame?)

And it will be a different story if I can actually use it, (always wanted to try it but never had the guts to).

ON a side note, I stumbled upon a thread and it seems like a doable project. Motorized off-road long-board vehicle (fully electric with a carbon fiber board). I actually find browsing through forums the best option for finding ideas so far, and I have gone through multiple pages last night to see what everyone here was making for a carbon fiber project. I will post the link to the thread if anyone is interested in taking a look at it but if it is against policy or anything along that lines for this thread please remove the link and my apologies.

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=28463

#7

The requirements say something in the manufacturing/aviation field…how about a quadcopter? They’re ace little, and some not so little radio controlled UAV. They have telemetry capability enabling true unaid waypoint navigation.
You could design and manufacture the frame yourself
http://code.google.com/p/arducopter/wiki/ArduCopter

#8

Naturally I like the idea of making a rotary flight vehicle. :p;)
Why not do something different and build a single rotor UAV? When I want to trip the new guy out at the flying field I get out the “weight”. It’s a large S/S ball with a bolt hole on the end so it can replace one of the main blades on the helicopter. The weight balances the head when I spool up and the heli will still fly like it has two blades. It will do 3D and everything it normally does, just with out as much “pop.” It’s really cool to see for the first time.
Here is Lockheed Martins version.
[ame=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8FBDFJ1cbk&feature=channel_video_title”]Samarai flies at AUVSI - YouTube[/ame]
And in this video you can see they are using a E-flite 2.4ghz radio which can be found at ANY hobby shop for $50 and some CHEAP servos that are under $10. [ame=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtU1ZsjAqsE&feature=related”]AUVSI11: Lockheed Martin Samari monocopter UAV - YouTube[/ame]

#9

A prop spinner (double skin) that has a hole at the tip, (stagnation point) that blows air into the cowling for the turbo or carburator thru a set of blades between both skins.

#10

I was actually looking at the quadcopter earlier, unbelievable how the thing works and how nimble it actually is. That is defiantly another option that I am looking into further to see if I would actually be able to make such a craft. (It would look awesome to be able to fly it as a demonstration during the presentation). I will begin looking at the cost of making such a craft, would ideally like to keep it under a grand.

I like the idea of the one wing copter, only thing is I am guessing it would be a PITA to learn how to fly or else to program it to be simple enough to fly for a beginner like myself.

Tho I am in an aerospace field, it is not required to have it relate to such a project. We really learn the fundamentals of planning out how to properly run a manufacturing system weather its for airplanes, cars, appliances, etc.

[ame=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvH2f-AewX8”]HexaKopter - MikroKopter - YouTube[/ame]

#11

Build a carbon 3 blade ducted fan. Easy way to get a patent and a job offer from the school. Prolly has scrap stock to build the rotor hub and head in the machine shop. Use wood tooling. Build one blade and an improved duct can. Make mold for duct. Make mold for one blade. Cnc aluminum hub and brass bearings. Use gearing to increase or reduce blade speed and allow pitch angle to be set for different thrust experiments. Simple strain gauge will give you thrust figures. Use a external brushless motor with a variable speed controller and a rubber belt for pto transmission.

Very simple fabrication and lots of data to blow people’s minds with. Get creative with fabrication and
document every step.

This would serve a design for flight control, blade design test bench, scale wind tunnel test, ect…

Just an idea.

Draw it, build it, Test it, sell it!!!

#12

You can find 3 pages of goodies here. http://www.cnchelicopter.com/servlet/the-AP-FPV-UAV-OSD/s/1/Categories

#13

Here’s a source for the electronics. Its all openscource so there’s little restriction on what you can do. I think there’s dxf files for the frame somwhere about.

http://store.jdrones.com/category_s/40.htm

#14

So after talking to my instructor, I was pushed more to wards the longboard idea for a couple of different factors. (One being that I have no previous knowledge on RC helicopters and that chance of me wrecking the project before actually presenting it). Which is fine by me and a couple of other smaller issues I am happy with the long board idea. Now with that said, I will now be popping into the forum to get help with the board (thinking of Kevlar or carbon fiber preprag). I am also considering doing the motor mounts out of carbon fiber, mainly just for the look but won’t solidify that until I have priced everything out.

One question I do have right now however is what would be recommended for a core for the longboard? (Have worked with Nomex Honeycomb and was thinking of using it again). If anyone else has any other suggestions or comments it would be greatly appreciated. Another question would be how would I know what .oz of fabric to use and how many layers.

But again, thank you to everyone for giving me suggestions.