UCONN Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket s1

UCONN Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Job Ticket

Sponsoring Company: PAS Technologies

Project Title: Automated Taping Process for Complex Parts

Prime Contacts: Donald Scott [email protected] 480-253-7466 Luis Coreano [email protected] Faculty Advisor:

The Engineering Challenge: PAS Technologies is a leading component repair supplier to the oil/gas and aerospace industries. Many parts have tape applied as a masking material or in support of masking for chrome, nickel, and/or or cadmium plate. This is done today as a laborious hand winding process (see figure 1). Sometimes the tape is left by itself; sometimes the tape is further encapsulated or in wax or paint; often the tape is removed after wax dipping to liberate the area for plating. Taping is an ergonomic risk as well as increases labor cost. The taping process can require between 5 to 15 minutes per part, depending on size or shape (see figure 2).

In 2015-2016 a Senior Design team (Team 22) designed and developed an automatic taping machine (see figure 3) that successfully demonstrated the process on cylindrically shaped parts. A significant amount of work went into determining the amount of pre tension on the tape, rotational and translational speed and dimensional control required to meet the required accuracy.

Description of Problem/Project: The objective of this year’s project is to extend this effort to more complex parts. This may require a modification or redesign of the current machine or a fully new approach. PAS will provide a variety of part shapes that can be used as prototype parts for process development.

Figure 1 Manual Taping Process Figure 2 Taped Parts

Figure 3 Automatic Taping Machine

Expected Deliverables:

Research methods of applying tape to selected areas

Design the fixturing and method of applying tape

The approach should be as automated as possible to minimize operator input

Build a prototype to demonstrate the concept on the prototype parts.

Demonstrate process on actual parts supplied by PAS

Define metrics to measure effectiveness of process, e.g.cycle time, # of handling operations, rework or rejects.

CAD models and blueprints to build production process

 Is there a specific software package required for the projects? Y _X__ N ___ Which package (name/version) same control software as 2015-2016 ___

 U.S. Citizen/Person (green card) required? Y____ N _X___

 Will Export Controlled data be used in project (EAR/ITAR) Y _____N__X_

 NDA/IP Agreements required? Y _X__ N __

 Other considerations: The team will work with the engineering team in Phoenix through web meetings and phone calls. A trip to Phoenix may be included.