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- 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...
-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.
-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.
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.
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.
Gantt Chart
-The air is subsequently released by twisting the PVC ball valve.
-The t-shirt will then be shot out of the barrel at the other end.
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
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
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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.
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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.