The High-Voltage Glove Company Inc. has asked us to design a cam-driven glove-testing machine for their assembly line. These gloves are used by electric company linemen when working on high-voltage lines. The gloves are made of reinforced rubber-coated fabric. The rubber material must be free of pinholes to protect the worker from possible shock.

    The gloves will be carried on an intermittent-motion conveyor controlled by a cam-driven index mechanism. The glove is held by the ring in its cuff and is indexed into place at the testing station (See Figure 1). It must dwell at the test station long enough for the test to be made. The test requires that a mandrel be inserted into the glove by a second cam-follower mechanism (Figure 2) and the glove then clamped to the mandrel by a third cam-follower mechanism to make an airtight seal (Figure 3). The glove is then inflated with air to 40 psi through the mandrel and this pressure held for 30 seconds to monitor for leaks. The glove is then unclamped and the mandrel removed. If the glove failed the test, it is dropped from the conveyor into a scrap bin. If it passed the test, it remains on the conveyor which, in either case, indexes to the next station, completing the cycle.

    There are three main sub-tasks within this project:

1 Design a cam-driven index mechanism to move the conveyor.

2 Design a cam-driven mechanism to insert and retract the mandrel from the glove.

3 Design a cam-driven mechanism to clamp the glove to the mandrel.

    These tasks are interrelated and interdependent. An overall design is needed to integrate the three sub tasks. The timing of each event must be determined in concert. There will be tradeoffs in respect to the cycle time allotted for each event. Your team will have to work out those conflicts. The team should assign its resources as appropriate to cover all aspects of the problem. We suggest that definite tasks be assigned to each team member.

    The average conveyor speed is desired to be as fast as the operations will allow. The goal is to test a glove a minute. You are expected to integrate the designs of your cam-follower mechanisms such that they package in a reasonable size and are all driven by a common motor in proper time phase.

    As with any design problem, there is an infinity of solutions possible. You are expected to come up with the best solution you can design. To do so you will have to try out many alternate designs and iterate to your 'best' solution. You should expect to typically go through at least ten iterations before arriving at an acceptable one. Some measures of "better" designs will be: lower peak accelerations, smoother jerk, smaller physical cam size, good pressure angles and reasonable follower size. You may use either a flat faced or roller follower on any cam. You are required to compute the s, v, a, j functions, the pressure angles and radii of curvature of the entire cam(s) and draw the cam profile. All of these tasks can be accomplished with program Dynacam.

    You are also required to document your solution in a professional engineering report which adheres to the Project Report Specifications document previously distributed. This report will document the process by which you iterated to your final design as well as the design itself. Do not just describe the final result. Rather show us how you arrived at it, including the failures encountered along the way. This will demonstrate to us that you understand the engineering concepts and the relevant course material. Note that unreferenced and undiscussed computer or other illustrations will be considered to be report "filler" and be ignored. Do not put anything in the report unless you discuss its meaning. NO model of your design is required. But, please do include a computer disk with your DYNACAM solution files on it.

    For this project, no specific background research is required beyond reading your textbook and asking questions of our resident glove experts. See Chapters 9 and 17 and section 2-15. You may, if you wish, obtain a suitable glove for experimentation.

    You may begin your report with the goal statement and task specifications followed by the design description phase of the design process. You may also include background research information if you wish, as an option. The report must include the following figures for each cam IN THE ORDER LISTED!

-    A timing diagram for the whole cycle showing all events including the conveyor motion

-    S-V-A-J diagrams in one plot for each sub task

-    separate S, V, A, J plots (4 figures) for each sub task

-    pressure angle plot for each sub task

-    radius of curvature plot for each sub task

-    the (3) boundary condition tables for each of your segments, for each sub task

-    a cam profile for each sub task

-    multi-view sketches of your cam-follower trains for each sub task

-    any other data you think necessary

IMPORTANT! IMPORTANT!