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Session 3648

Design Class Projects in Fluid Power

Jan T. Lugowski Purdue University

1. Introduction

Class projects offer many opportunities for students to learn by doing. A design class project completed recently in fluid power area at Purdue University is presented. They provide opportunities for students to solve problems and boost their competency level. The project presented in this paper involved design and manufacture of a hydraulic pump by applying a rapid prototyping technology. Examples of solved problems are presented. The project offered an excellent opportunity for students to implement their ideas in praxis, and gave the instructor a very useful feedback in the form of an activity log.

Students used a rapid prototyping machine to manufacture the housing of a fluid power component. The housing was made out of a clear epoxy, so there is an additional educational benefit from the project: The fluid power component can be used later for demonstration purposes. It is possible to buy a complete line of clear plastic components1,2, but they do not give the opportunity for students to gain hands-on experience from building them.

2. Rapid prototyping of a hydraulic pump

2.1. Project assignment

MET 499 Independent Study Project is an elective three-credit-hour course. Two students signed up to design and manufacture a hydraulic gear pump that could be used in MET Fluid Power Laboratory for demonstration purposes. Existing Danfoss 36194-136 365A DL gear pump was selected for the project, see Fig. 1. Students could use parts from this pump to avoid manufacturing all of the necessary components. The major part to be manufactured was the pump housing, consisting of two halves bolted together. The housing was to be made out of clear epoxy resin, so that the internal parts of the pump could be seen.

Our MET stereolithography (SLA) rapid prototyping machine uses epoxy resin, which is hardened by a laser, layer by layer. The thickness of one layer is 0.006 in. The resolution of the laser is about 0.002 in. Students had to create a solid model of the pump housing, which would be manufactured on the SLA machine, taking into consideration the resolution of the machine. This

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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Lugowski, J. (2003, June), Design Class Projects In Fluid Power Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--11884