Manufacture of Dolly Sterling Engine - Case Study Example

Manufacturing Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date of Submission: Manufacture of a Product 3 1.Introduction 3 2.DOLLY STERLING ENGINE MANUFACTURE 3 2.1.Report on Dolly Sterling Engine Manufacture 3 2.2.Evaluation of the Product Design 4 2.3.Suggestions on Design Improvements 5 2.3.1.Generation of Alternative Manufacturing Processes 6 2.3.2.Recommendations for the Manufacture of Final Products and Parts 7 3.0. DESIGN A FLAT BOTTLE OPENER 8 3.1. Fully Dimensioned Sketch of Your Flat Bottle Opener 9 3.2. Suitable Manufacturing Process (And Material) For the Mass Production of the Flat Opener 9 3.3. Flat Opener Manufacturing Stage Processes 10 4.0. Conclusion 11 5.0. References 12 Manufacture of a Product 1. Introduction Over the course duration, my group has been involved in the development of a Dolly Sterling Engine. The study involved the practical manufacturing of the engine. As we developed the machine, one learned to appreciate the development processes involved in manufacturing a product such as the safe use of workshop facilities, the joining, forming and machining processes of a product as reported below. The design of a product as will be evaluated is related to the form, finish and quality of the final product as the study evaluates the second position. More importantly, the processes of designing the sterling engine was also a key lesson as will be shown in the designing of a flat opener below. The sections below engage in a report where it represents the safe use of workshop facilities, evaluating the design of the product to determine possible quality and improvements of the product and lastly in the designing of a product. 2. DOLLY STERLING ENGINE MANUFACTURE 2.1. Report on Dolly Sterling Engine Manufacture The first safe use of the workshop is to utilize the eye and hearing protectors and ensuring they are on all throughout the duration in the workshop facility and use the tools in the facility. Other protective goals to utilize is the safety boots and any jewellery should be removed. The machining safe use procedures consider the safety use of the tools used where some are heavy and others sharp that can lead to the accidents and fatal injuries. The development of the sterling engine also involves utilization of energy, thus one must ensure the chips in the workshop are not carelessly left unattended. Safe use of workshop facilities should be given first priority in all the development phases of the sterling engine to ensure safe use of the product. Safe use of the materials ensures that catastrophic failures and poor designs of the product are eliminated. The safe use of the product development includes the working gas system was considered and ensured it was enclosed throughout the development. Safe use of the workshop tools and facilities also involves ensuring the maintenance and operating procedures including instructions and manuals are presented. Human error should also be excluded to ensure that the operation and maintenance of the engine is attained. The internal and external aspects of the engine must be considered and developed through meeting safety measures for effective performance. 2.2. Evaluation of the Product Design Some of the basic variables of the sterling engine as identified included timing, compression, expansion, displacement, balance, friction and heat transfer. The manufacturing of the product was developed in cool temperatures though the dolly engine was developed in different temperatures. The sterling engine was presented simply through the application of an external source of heat that was closed to a cylinder with the cyclical expansion characteristics (Mebrahtu, 2010). The cylinder also had the characteristics of compression air within the cylinder, which was used in the driving the pistons either up or down. The sterling engine as presented during the manufacturing process occurs as a combustion external engine. That is; the engine has the capacity of working through the usage of external heat sources. The operations of the sterling engine occurred in a process of cycle, which did not include the exhaust intake. The sterling engine did heat one cycle end that lead to the development of pressure forces that in turn supported the piston movements while the same air used was cooled. Thus, the engine piston produced vacuum forcing the piston movement to the opposite direction. The design of the sterling engine developed was simple without an application of many components (Senft, 1993). The design is slightly different from those that exists in workshops, leading to an opportunity to learn the different fabrication methods of different sterling engines. Assembling the finished product was easier compared to the activities engaged in the manufacturing of the different pieces. For instance, two cylinders were developed attached on opposite sides and were parallel to each other. One of the cylinders housed a displacer whereas the other cylinder was a power cylinder. The power piston and displacer rod were operating parallel to the central block and consisted of a flywheel. The assembled sterling engine presented that the expansion of the gas in the cylinder lead to an increase in the compression and pressure transmitted from one of the cylinders. The dolly sterling engine was operating effectively, which made the team very happy. The assembling of the pieces manufactured was effective and the simplicity of the design made it attractive. Most of pieces as presented were manufactured using the CNC machine. The CNC machine improve productivity, safety, efficiency and accuracy of the forming process of the metal working equipment’s. 2.3. Suggestions on Design Improvements The design improvements of the Dolly Sterling Engine are reliant on the operations the engine will carry out. The manufactured sterling engine should be improved in a manner where it uses mechanical, electrical and solar energy (Swift & Booker, 2003). The designed sterling engine uses external sources of power, meaning the improvement to the engine to use internal energy sources as suggested above would lead to an improvement of the product. Another improvement that should be carried out on the engine is the application of a lighter where it is attached to the base of the produced and attains power from an alcohol Burner. The improvement would also consider using materials such as Aluminium and Brass. 2.3.1. Generation of Alternative Manufacturing Processes Alternative manufacturing process derive from the development of different sterling engines. One of the key alternative processes is manufacturing a sterling engine that sources energy from biomass gasses. The engine would attain a valuable power output. On the stipulation that helium is used, at a temperature of 550oC and 10 bar charge with a 700-rpm pressure, the brake power would reach maximum. The engines evaluated for its performance through sensor pressure coupling, thermocouple and the crank angle encoder. The model derives from the theory of Schmidt of expansion, isothermal compression and the perfect regeneration (Damirchi, et al., 2015). The manufacturing of the sterling engine involves the component manufacturing of different pieces, which are then assembled into one final product. The blocks of the engine and pistons are casting, the materials used is mainly aluminium. The sterling cycle of the engine has two piston cylinders, a heat regenerative exchanger, combustion chamber and crankshaft among other passageways for the fluids that make the operation effective. The alternative of these manufacturing processes would be to improve the single pieces of the engine that would assist in its mass production. Another alternative is the process of thermal energy harvesting for instance through using the thermos-generators. The benefit of using thermos-generators is that they ensure the less efficiency of conversion, which is beneficial in the manufacturing of the final product. The alpha sterling engines could also be manufactured alternatively (McElroy, 2002). The manufacturing process distinguishes it from other designs such as the Dolly Sterling engine through using the hot expansion chamber separation to the cold chamber for compression. The manufacture process involves two separate cylinders, the pistons are connected to the crankshafts, the volumes of the piston are linked through pipe. These configuration would brand the engine as the simplest sterling engine. The engine would guarantee the compression and expansion of the sterling engines unabated. 2.3.2. Recommendations for the Manufacture of Final Products and Parts Throughout the Sterling engine development, one perceives that the combustion chamber is the most expensive piece to develop. Thus, one of the recommendations to the development of the sterling engines is for the engineers to focus on simplifying the designs of the combustion chambers. On the stipulation that this is attained, the mass production of the sterling engines would be easily attained. Thus, some sources of energies such as nuclear power or fossil fuels would be irrelevant. The manufacturing of the combustion chamber of the engine is expensive since it needs metals that are highly resistant to harsh and high temperatures (Moran & Howard, 2000). Thus, using stainless steel materials that meet these demands, leads to a challenge in forming and shaping the combustion chamber. There are two sterling engines principals, which include the free-piston and kinematic. Thus, to eliminate the challenges of differential expansion during the function of the pistons, the linear generator design should be improve. The sterling engine has been now to produce more functions compared to the internal combustion engine. The engine for instance can be used to reclaim wasted heat, showing it is an environmentally friendly engine. Thus, I would recommend for the manufacturers to harness solar energy through the engines and produce electricity for other sources. 3.0. DESIGN A FLAT BOTTLE OPENER The development and manufacturing of materials is reliant on the product been developed and materials that will be used. The flat bottle opener is a bottle opening devices used for removing the bottle caps. Thus, the flat bottle opener to be designed in this section is assumed to be used in a commercial setting. Thus, the product will consider different kinds of liquids and friendly/ and unfriendly environments. Thus, to ensure that the material used does not rust and is strong, I will use the stainless steel material. The benefits of using stainless steel include the resistance to corrosion of the materials, high cryogenic durability, lower costs of maintenance due to the healing capability that all stainless steel alloys possess it is also a strong, light, attractive, and an improved hardening rate. The main characteristics that lead to the usage of the stainless steel in this matter is the high strength and ductility of the material, high hardening work rate and resistance to corrosion. Some stainless steel alloys such as are powerful compared to other stainless steels, meaning one must find the perfect model for this flat bottle opener. The stainless steel materials are light and strong enough for such responsibilities as the bottle opening. The product will be manufactured through the application of the metal stamping process. The metal stamping process involves the application of numerous metal sheets fed in the high tonnage press where the stamping process bends the metal to a completed or semi completed piece of the final product. The metal stamping process gives the metal the desired shape, in this case the shape of a flat bottle opener. The shape of the bottle opener is attached to the stamping machine, which consequently through the stamping processes, shapes the metal to that of the set shape. The stamping manufacturing model consists of factors such as wire forming, fine blanking, progressive stamping, multi and four slide stamping, and deep drawing. 3.1. Fully Dimensioned Sketch of Your Flat Bottle Opener 3.2. Suitable Manufacturing Process (And Material) For the Mass Production of the Flat Opener The most suitable flat bottle opener for mass production is presented in the figure below. The simplicity of the product makes it the most appropriate product for mass product. Based on the simplicity of the product, the manufacturing process of the product will consider the cost of purchasing and shaping the material to the desired product. The factors to consider is that the material to be used is stainless steel. Thus, one has to consider a strong and yet light material for the production in mass batches. The main manufacturing processes to cnsider include the: proressive stamping, metal laser cutting and water jet process. In terms of cost, the water laser will cost about $300, 000 for a set mass production batch. The water jet cutting manufacturing process involves about a $300, 000 for the stipulated batch as well, where the cost may be higher to the cited cost. The metal stamping is the simplest since it costs abot $50, 000 to 300,000. Thus, metal stamping is the cheapest and most appropriate when manufacturing the product for mass consumption. 3.3. Flat Opener Manufacturing Stage Processes According to the processes engaged in the flat opener design and manufacturing as presented above, the stages of manufacturing a flat opener include: 1. The process of determining the shape and size of the product. In this case, it is the flat bottle opener. The first stage involves knowing the product one wants to manufacture, and the environment to be used in to determine the shape and size. Some of the factors that one should know is where the product will be used, either in a harsh or friendly environment. In this situation, one will be able to carry out the second stage of manufacturing the bottle opener. 2. The second step involves determining the material that best suits the environment the product will be used. In this case, the material chosen was the stainless steel. The material was chosen since it is highly resistant to corrosion; it is strong and highly ductile. It is easy to bend and cost friendly. 3. The third stage involves determining the manufacturing process that best suits the production of the product. 4. The fourth stage is the distribution and packaging of the flat bottle opener. 4.0. Conclusion The process of manufacturing as presented in this course is detailed through practical and theoretical concepts. The Dolly Sterling Engine as developed was efficient in introducing one on how to use the workshop manufacturing tools while ensuring safety use of the products. The design of the flat bottle opener presents that the development and manufacturing of products whether complicated as the Sterling engine or simplified as a bottle opener must meet some of the said safety use tools and procedures/ stage of manufacturing. 5.0. References Damirchi, H. et al., 2015. Design, Fabrication and Evaluation of Gamma-Type Stirling Engine to Produce Electricity fro Biomass for the Micro-CHP System. Procedia: Science Direct, Volume 75, pp. 137-143. McElroy, G., 2002. Axiomatic Design and Manufacture of a Stirling Engine. NY: WPI. Mebrahtu, H., 2010. Introduction to Manfacturing Process and Part Programming. Handout ed. Chelmsford: Angalia Ruskin University. Moran, M. J. & Howard, N. S., 2000. Fundametals of Engineering Thermodynamics. 4 ed. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Senft, J., 1993. An Introduction to Strirling Engines. 1 ed. New York: Moriya Pr. Swift, K. G. & Booker, J. D., 2003. Process Selection from Design to Manufacturing. 2 ed. New York: Oxford: Elseiver Ltd. Read More