Mechanical Fixture for Surface Treatment Process Control

This project provided students an opportunity to learn more about mechanical design, system fabrication, automation, surface preparation of thermoplastics, and structural repair of composites. The hope was that students would have an opportunity to gain some hands-on experience on system design, build, and implementation. This student team worked to advance and improve on a mechanical fixture /guidance system for use with the different commercially available portable options for surface treatment of thermoplastics (plasma/laser/UV light) to achieve the following: 1. Accurately control prescribed pass speeds for all options 2. Guided consistent overlap between passes 3. Maintain constant, controllable nozzle distance from substrate 4. Variable clamping mechanism for different nozzle sizes 5. Minimum 3-axis numeric control 6. Clamping system with vacuum suction cups to ensure secure completion of surface treatment coverage Anticipated deliverables for this project included: 1. Report, including any design(s), prototype(s), and/or simulation(s) developed during the effort. 2. Mechanical proof of concept demonstration, if feasible.

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