Intelligent Tooling Team 8: Joseph Staley Jeff Roushey Andrew Graybill Glenn Gardner Sponsor: Dr. Mike Yu, FRC-DE Advisor: Dr. Michael Keefe

Project Summary Mission To develop a sensor system that will facilitate the study of the metal foaming process inside a mold. Background  Foaming agent inside a metal matrix  Specified foaming temperature  Foaming agent releases gases  Foaming completion  Present practice  Properties of foamed product

Customers Mike Yu - Fraunhofer USA Harold Eifert - Fraunhofer USA Bernie McGuiness (Lab research assistant) - FRC-DE Jim Adkins (Lab coordinator)- FRC-DE Automotive, Aerospace, and Building Industries

Wants and Constraints Wants Facilitate the study of the metal foaming process System simplicity System reliability Low Cost Constraints Operating temperature Furnace size/design LabVIEW™ Cost

System Benchmarking Die Casting / Injection Molding –general process, sensors High Temperature Monitoring –high temperature materials (Macor) –data acquisition Materials Level Monitoring –sensors

Functional Benchmarking Electrical Properties Sensors Piezo-electric Transducer Thermocouple Optical Fiber Eddy Current Detector

Metrics and Target Values

Critical Functions Sense metal foaming process completion Attenuate/Amplify the sensor output signal Channel signal(s) into data acquisition card Use LabVIEW™ software to interpret signals and alert user that the process is complete

Concept Generation Electrical Circuit Completion Piezo-Electric Force Sensor Thermocouple Array Optical Fiber Eddy Current Position Sensor

Concept Selection Method Electric Circuit Completion

Concept Selection

Concept Development Fabrication Assembly Testing Modifications Recommendations

Fabrication / Assembly Copper Mold –Summit Industrial Corp. MACOR® Ceramic Insulators –Summit Industrial Corp. –Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop Electrodes Thermocouple Wires LabVIEW ™

Testing Test 1 –MACOR® hold-downs inadequate –High wire location important –Must account for noise - 15 volts Test 2 –Contact means circuit completion –Necessary program alterations needed #3#4 #5 #2#1

Testing Test 3 –Orientation when using multiple foamable pieces is important –Electrode placement is inadequate for sensing foaming completion Test 4 –More electrodes or different placement should be used –Superposition of foaming effect and temperature effect –Our orientation is better suited for a single piece of foamable material #3#4 #5 #2 #1

Modifications Fabrication Modifications –MACOR® machining problems –Clamp screw hold-downs Testing Modifications –Ceramic plate for hold-down –Program alterations

Recommendations More electrodes or different placement of electrodes Minimizing surface defects –Key ways for ceramic insulators and electrodes –Tighter tolerances/shrink fit insulators and electrodes Better wire attachments Larger furnace access port

Budget

Fabrication Hours Machining hours Programming hours Assembly hour Modifications hours Total Hours hours

Engineering Development Time Meetings/Preparations hours Benchmarking hours Concept Development/Selection hours Purchasing hours Testing hours Drawings/Drafting hours Fabrication hours Total hours

Conclusions Successful Project! Will aid Fraunhofer in the research and development of metal foams Future design considerations can be used for production purposes