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Pre-Design

Testing and Redesign

- The pre-design stage consisted of the problem statement, research, and brainstormed ideas.

-With one week of troubleshooting, we did some initial testing of our catapult.

-We tried to fix the machine at first...

-By adding supports to our beams...

Brainstorming

Defining the Problem

-And moving the pivot rod back so it can gain more momentum.

- We sketched down possible ideas of the project in our engineering notebook.

-We first had to figure out what the problem is before we could solve it.

Some ideas included slingshots, catapults and air cannons.

-But nothing worked.

100 Feet

-It shot 10 feet and was an epic fail.

-This is problematic because...

-Other ideas were inspired by existing ideas, such as a human's range of motion and the trajectory of a frisbee.

Cheerleaders are having trouble getting t-shirts into the upper stands of sports stadiums.

Problem Statement:

The catapult managed to get some t-shirts over 10 feet, but nowhere near the required 100 feet.

So, we finally decided to ditch the catapult idea, start from scratch, and redesign our project.

Research

Final Design

-We used 3" PVC piping to create our t-shirt barrel and the air tank.

-The rest of the cannon is made out of 1" PVC piping and various PVC fittings.

- We researched shoulder pain and athletic injuries to support our problem statement...

-The cannon was attached using PVC primer and glue.

-We researched other project ideas, and finally decided to make an air cannon.

-A stem valve (like the ones on a bike tire) was attached to the air tank, so we can pump air through it.

-This ended up being our...

-We chose this idea because a PVC cannon can be put together pretty easily without having to use a lot of tools. Also, it had a high likelihood of meeting both distance and accuracy requirements.

-most shoulder injuries in sports are caused by throwing.

-Our new design was then sketched out.

-And also, we looked up existing t-shirt launcher designs in order to search for a solution.

-Using Autodesk Inventor, we created a virtual model of our cannon.

-This is our finished air cannon.

- We filled the cannon with air through the valve attached to the air tank.

T-Shirt Launcher

Gantt Chart

-The air is subsequently released by twisting the PVC ball valve.

TJ Collins, Allison Lu, Mitchell Tillman

-The t-shirt will then be shot out of the barrel at the other end.

7th Period

Initial Design

Testing Results:

Distance Test: Shoot 3 t-shirts in 45 seconds, over 50 feet.

-Out of the two designs, we chose to create a wooden catapult. We believed that it would be cost efficient and easy to make, with a realistic chance of working.

F P F P P P

Possible Ideas for the Future

Accuracy Test: Shoot 5 t-shirts in the designated area.

-We should manage our time better.

P P P P F

Proposed Solution

50 Feet:

P P F F F

75 Feet:

-We could possibly use less joints, as joints are weakest points of the assembly.

F F F P F

P

100 Feet:

Durability Test: Survive all days of testing.

-Instead of a 1" diameter pipe in the middle, we could have a midsection with a wider diameter. This would allow us to get higher distances with lower PSI.

-For three weeks, we worked on researching, coming up with a sketch, and building our initial design.

P

Portability Test: Must fit through the door.

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Operation Test: Must be operated by only 2 people.

-After brainstorming, each person was able to choose their 3 best ideas to be considered for the proposed design.

-The first prototype was completed in two weeks. We had one week to test and redesign our prototype.

- All 9 ideas were then plugged into a decision matrix.

Updated Gantt Chart

- We gave each rating a score according to various criteria.

- The 2 projects that scored the highest were considered as our initial design.

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