Joseph Hummer
Biosystems Engineer

The flange issue refers to the edges of most of the product had persistently possessed. The improvement of this edge was made a priority while I was interning. After discussing the goals and possible problems in depth, several contributing factors were theorized and experiments were designed to test each factor under different circumstances.

 

 

One of the first things I discovered was the consistency of certain rough edges. When a stack of samples was examined, a clear vertical line of burrs could be seen. When looking at the the molds of the product, I found that the burrs lined up exactly with two screw holes. After discussing possible solutions with my supervisor, it was decided that new mold parts would be ordered to test this theory. I developed the slide show to the right to communicate to the machine designers the issues we were having and the solution we wanted.  After installing these new parts, the burrs were only visible in rare cases.

 

Even with the new machine parts the edges were still undesirably rough. I began making experimental setups to test each major factor in the forming and spraying process. This lead to several experimental sets, each containing multiple controls and parameters. It was discovered that roughness often varied significantly from day to day without changing any of the machine settings. As a result, each experiment could only be judged relatively, meaning results from one experiment could not be compared to another. This also indicated that several important factors in edge roughness were not being recorded or tested.

 

Testing continued until the end of the summer and several key factors were determined to improve quality. As mentioned above, several factors that played a part in edge roughness were not addressed, so improvements still had to be made by the employees at Be Green.

 

Of the many things that I learned during this project, I found the steps in engineering problem solving to be the most interesting. While I had learned these steps several times before, I appreciated them more when considering them next to the scientific method. Engaging in experimentation with the goal of solving a problem affected the development and communication of results in ways I had not previously considered.

 

While the flanges still needed improvement when the summer ended, I think I gathered conclusive results and made a positive impact on the product quality.