Personal Reflection: Corey Bertch

Because of its combination of applicable knowledge and practical experience, I enjoyed ME 250 much more than any other course this semester. I learned more machining techniques, engineering standard practices, and useful rules of thumb than I would have thought possible in one semester. Best of all, I now have the satisfaction of working with an awesome team and being a part of building something interesting and creative.

I am most grateful for the experience I gained in machining processes. I’ve had previous experience with hand and power tools but I hadn’t learned the value of the precision and complexity of the parts we could create with access to the machine shop and the knowledge learned in this class. The first thing I learned that was valuable to me was communicating the specific features of a part through standard drawings. I realized that without a clear and organized standard I would have probably made more mistakes while manufacturing our parts. Even with clear drawings, I got a few rookie mistakes out of the way (hopefully) by misreading and misdimensioning a couple parts during the machining process. However, even from those mistakes I learned the value of taking my time on future parts. In addition to the importance of drawings, I learned to mill, lathe, drill, ream, bend, cut, press, and tap various materials accurately and for specific purposes. I certainly think the skills I learned on the machines in the shop will be valuable not only for my future classes here at the University of Michigan but also for future employment opportunities.

In addition to the practical experience machining, I met three new friends in my first semester at U of M and learned to work with them to accomplish our common manufacturing goal. I got lucky having teammates who were all willing to put in extra time and work to get things done when necessary, but at times it was still difficult to meet the deadlines for this class. However, I feel the deadlines were realistic and taught me that as an engineer I will be expected to not only come up with well-designed ideas but to execute them quickly and effectively. Overall, I generally learned that two heads are better than one and I was often impressed by not only the creativity of my teammates but also how my creativity was challenged and improved as we communicated ideas to each other.

The thing I liked the most about this course was the hands on practical experience I gained. Each time I describe this class to someone else they think it’s interesting, exciting, and useful. I certainly agree. In some ways I think this class was more fun than school should be. I also really liked the helpfulness and approachability of all the staff members. I further appreciated that the scope of the class was appropriately challenging and realistic for a semester. Finally, I enjoyed the focus on practical engineering standards and evaluation of the physical project rather than our ability to memorize and regurgitate facts and definitions on multiple tests.

I wouldn’t suggest many changes for the course. The only thing I would have appreciated was more initial time and instruction in the machine and ME shop before we were turned loose on the machines. I do appreciate that we were trusted to handle and figure it out but I felt rather unprepared the first time I switched on the mill or lathe. As I noted earlier, some of the machining mistakes I made at first reflected that.

Overall, I’m proud of my performance in the course and I believe I did my best. However, I could have done a better job with seeking answers to questions or problems I encountered during homework or machining earlier and more often. I also could have put more effort into doing a significant part of each process and aspect of the manufacturing process. For instance, because of limited time and strong practical need for our team I didn’t get as much experience with the lathe as the mill. I also didn’t get as much practice with drawings and CAD models as I think I should have. Certainly I will have many more chances ahead of me, but I think I could have put more effort in practicing some of the little things.

In summary, I want to thank my teammates and the staff for their excellent job and tremendous effort during this course. I had fun and learned so many things about engineering and I certainly look forward to ME 350 next semester.

FINAL BOM!

Final BOM

Done and Done!

Real victory comes from knowing you did your best. (also Best Manufacturing Award doesn't hurt).

We had a great run at the competition. Corey did the driving and ran through two rounds flawlessly. Our machine operated exactly as we wanted. Unfortunately, this was also our down fall. During our testing phase we identified a weakness that we had failed to plan for: dropping one or our  own wheels into our own hole. We designed our machine to be fast and therefore sacrificed torque using our chosen gear ratio. This worked well until we didn't have enough power to get out of our own hole when we fell in.

As you can see in these photos from the competition our vehicle turned out to be very true to our initial design. Thanks to the tireless work of our team and help from the ME 250 Staff we did walk away with the " Best Manufacturing Award"! (And what is victory anyway if you don't have the best manufacturing award?)

If we could do it all over again we would have identified our one small oversight early on. However, doing so would have absolutely guaranteed our victory thereby making the competition completely unfair for the other teams. So, your welcome other teams, we won't be so kind in ME 350....

From left to right: Josh, Corey, Adam, Bob and Davor. *Not pictured: Nassim, though not there in person, he was there in our hearts.

We had them running scared until... Never mind, just remember the "we had them running scared" part.

Our final design before manufacturing. Nailed it. 

ME 250 Final Reflection

ME 250 was a rewarding class. It taught me the basic steps of design and manufacture.
I believe that I learned more in the design phase than in the manufacture phase. This is due to the fact that I come into the class with a significant amount of mechanical experience. I really enjoyed learning about the design steps and how to break down a problem into smaller aspects (strategies, concepts, modules, components). It is easy to get overwhelmed by the whole of a problem, but using these steps, one can see that any problem can become manageable. I really appreciate the additional reading recommendations.
Another aspect of the design process that I found especially rewarding was learning a CAD program. This is something that I had not done before, but was particularly interested in because of past work experience working with engineers. Initially, I did not find the amount of work in the CAD lab adequate, but I struggled through the CAD homework assignments, and by the time that we were ready to design our machine, I felt able to contribute to that phase of the process.
The manufacture phase of the class was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed spending time in the machine shop. I learned a lot from the shop staff. The most memorable aspects of working in the shop will be learning to use the lathe and the mill. In our team, we found that the two people that did the lathe exercise focused on lathe work during machine manufacture, and the two that did the mill exercise worked mostly on the mill during manufacture. This can be rationalized by saying that we played to our strengths, and consequently, produced the best possible product for our team. However, I feel a little cheated because I did not get as much experience with the other machine as I would have liked. It is difficult to be too upset because we were recognized for best manufacturing.
Time management seems to be an underlying theme of this, my first semester at U of M, as well as ME 250. One person could not have completed this type of project on their own. Our team’s success relied on each of us doing our part to complete the assignments, milestones, and ultimately, the machine. In order to accomplish these tasks, we again played to our individual strengths, for the good of the team, but it would have been nice to slow down for more individual instruction of things like the machine torque/speed analysis.
My critiques of the class are also critiques upon myself. My performance in the class could have been improved if I could have found more time, or managed my weekly schedule differently so that I would have more time to focus and contribute more to the things that I am least familiar with. If I had more time, I could have become more familiar with the acceleration analysis, or become more familiar with the mill.
And so perhaps the most important thing that I learned from this class relates to time management. By keeping an eye to the calendar, and by setting milestones to achieve our goals, we can be successful. We can always be more thorough with more time.

Personal Reflection---The Final Checkmark

Josh S (HonestAbe)

Team America

Section 6        

            When I sat in the first lecture of ME 250 I was worried that I had bitten off more than I could chew.  The description of the task, to design and build a project from scratch, seemed all but impossible. As the semester drew on, and I continued to learn more, the task seemed a little more in reach each day, until, before I knew it I was standing with my team competing with a machine that we built from scratch.

            What I learned about the design process was that there was a design process.  I had not been a part of team where such a rigorous design was necessary before proceeding with the project. Usually, with only a rough idea, I would jump straight to building and trial and error my way to a machine that sort of did what I wanted. In this class I learned the invaluable process of: Study the problem> Strategy> Concept> Modules> Components> Build/Test>Refine. What seems obvious now was a set of skills that I previously did not have. Now after learning and using this process I approach all kinds of problems this way. I have even introduced my student team to the ideas and we are having a “Design Day” where we will spend the entire day going through this process to try to redesign our current project.

            I felt more comfortable with the machine shop when I started, but most of the tools and equipment I had used in the past were for woodworking.  Working on metal was a new experience altogether.  Going through lectures on the topics and having the machine shop staff there to guide has given me the knowledge to be comfortable working with metals and an excitement to learn more in the future. Of all the homework/exams/projects/tasks from this semester, nothing was more satisfying and rewarding than seeing a car I helped build from scratch perform exactly the way we designed and built it to (with the exception of winning the competition of course).

            With all the staff associated with this course a surprising source of knowledge for me was my team. My experiences in the past with several team projects were usually that a few of the people knew the topics really well and ended up doing most of the work. This experience was the complete opposite. All of my teammates had diverse backgrounds and different sets of skills to bring to the table. We worked well with each other and I can confidently say that a large portion of what I learned came either directly from my teammates or from working with them on homework and projects. I will probably never be so lucky as to have such an effective and helpful team again. (Unless we all see each other again in ME 350….)

            A suggestion I have for improving the course is to redesign the final exam. I felt that in the current format I was unable to adequately demonstrate the amount of knowledge I gained from the course. I feel that a design problem similar to the first problem but expanded by questions like ‘What tools/process would you use to build an important component of your machine?’ or  ‘Describe in greater detail the motor/gearbox set up you would use?’, would have better equipped me to show my skills. Essentially distilling the entire exam in to one large design exercise. 

            I could have improved my performance in the class by interacting more with the staff earlier on in the course. Often I neglected to ask questions or seek advice on tasks that could have either made the task easier or better. I feel like there were adequate platforms available for this, but that I did not take advantage of them enough. Overall I really enjoyed this class. It has been by far my most rewarding class this semester and I look forward to applying everything I learned in my subsequent design/manufacturing courses. 

Final Reflection: Adam

ME 250 is by far the best course I have taken yet. I really enjoyed all aspects of this course, except for the long hours required toward the last third of the semester. It was awesome to start off with a rough sketch and refine it over and over again until we were standing there at the competition with a finished product. One of the most thrilling parts to me was when we took all the individual components we made and assembled them, and they all fit, and looked just like the CAD assembly. I've worked a lot in cad before, and made a lot of projects before, but this class took it to the next level, and it was so cool to see the fruit of our labor coming together.

I really enjoyed working through the design process, and collaborating with the team to refine our ideas. Our team worked really well together, and everyone brought a unique set of skills to the table. I tend to try to do everything in group projects, and to think that all my ideas are the best, but it was great to work with a team where I had confidence in everyone, and we each were able to point out the strengths and weaknesses of each other's designs honestly. We never had any personality conflicts in our group, which is a significant indicator of the quality of group we had, and really contributed to the success of our design.

I really enjoyed getting in the shop and making stuff, although at times it seemed like I never left the place. One thing I learned is that tight tolerances are a HUGE expense timewise. We would have benefited by reducing the precision of a lot of our machined tolerances. Overall I am happy with our quality of machining, although each of us made our share of screw-ups... some more major than others. For instance, I dropped and bent both of the axles on my way to press them. Some persuasion from the orange mallet fixed them though.

I think we could have improved aspects of our design had we spent some more time in the 250 shop with the GSI's while we were doing CAD. I think we could have saved time by identifying design errors ahead of time, rather than discovering them during manufacturing and having to change designs on the fly.

I think the course is well laid out, and I think that the time given for manufacturing is adequate, but looking back, we should have started sooner, and spent more time early on. One other thing we had trouble with is relying on dimensions given on the manufacturer's drawings for some of the kit parts. In a future course, I would emphasize that the dimensions are probably not accurate, and that students should spend some time measuring the kit components.

The GSI's for this course were very helpful in the design process. I'd especially like to thank Nassim for his help in lab, and to Davor for really pushing us relentlessly to make us perfect our design (although having most of our design ideas shot down was frustrating at points, but I think it resulted in a better machine)

Thanks to John and Mike, this is a superb class, and really interested me in the design process.

Team Video

Here it is! Hope you enjoy watching it as much as we enjoyed making it.