1. Mechanical Project Challenge

2. Assignment
You just graduated from school with a bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering and you obtained a job with an excellent company. For your first project, your manager gives you full freedom (which comes with full responsibility) to work on a project of your choice. Your project has to satisfy a set of conditions as follows:
You must address a realistic problem and there must be a need for your product. In other words, the company wants to make money and you need to make a product that is profitable.
Your product has to be different from what is available in the market. Because a 100% new product is difficult, your product does not have to be completely new. However, it has to have an innovative component that makes it different from existing products.
Your product should be realistically completed in 3-6 months by a team of engineers.
For this project you must design a mechanical product.
You are to work individually or with a partner.
Your manager wants you to deliver the design in two weeks.

3. Requirements for Deliverables
Must be able to have mechanically moving parts and/or be able to transfer energy.
Must be able to fit through a standard door.
Must have a Motion Study/Animation in your Assembly
Must use surface modeling or provided FEA report.
A report presentation and drawing package are required.
Requirements on the next slides

4. Report Presentation Requirements
Abstract: A brief summary of your Presentation to help the reader quickly ascertain the presentation’s purpose. The abstract is typically one paragraph.
Introduction: Justify and inform the reader about the rationale behind the work, the system you are designing and the problem you are trying to solve. Any Relevant History
Problem statement: Discuss the need and the problem you are addressing. Use statistics from published articles and government agencies to make your point. You may include tables and graphs. The problem statement section could be combined with the introduction.
Main body: Include discussions in more details about the solution you are suggesting and the product you are developing. What is the innovation in your project? the major features or components of the product, how is it different from others? Purpose of design. Pros and cons of your design etc. It is very important to include illustrations, charts and block diagrams.
Marketing strategies: Who will consume your product? Why would they consume it? Is it a on time purchase product or ongoing purchase? Where/How can you advertise the product? And how will it be delivered? What will your brand be?
Conclusion: The take home message. The conclusion is typically one paragraph.
Some guidelines:
The report should have a title, names. Submission date
Use Times New Roman 12pt or similar font and 1.5 spacing
Use 1 inch margins (top, bottom, left and right)
Word count: minimum 1500 words not including references and websites.
Do not plagiarize.

5. Drawing Package Requirements
Your drawing package must include all parts, sub-assemblies, main assemblies and drawings.
All assemblies and parts that you create on Solidworks must have a drawing.
Parts like nuts, bolts, screws, do not necessary need a drawing but it should be in your assembly model and called out on your Bill Of Materials (BOM) on the drawing they are used.
All dimensions are in inches. Your drawings should contain a Scale
Your drawing package needs to contain any and all information pertaining to your project. That is, if you were to deliver your drawings to an engineer he/she should be able to recreate your project .

6. Grading Rubric Grade Breakdown (Project worth 35% of overall class)
Documentation (Drawing Package)– 35%
Motion Study/Animation
Structural analysis or Surface Modeling Techniques
Use of features in parts and assemblies
Drawings
Report Presentation – 35%
Formatting
Organization
Content
Grammar, spelling, punctuation
Use of figures, graphs and tables
Conclusion
References
Creativity/Originality and function of project– 30%

7. Hints
Use Google patent search is a very important source for patented products. You can start from an existing patent and be creative.
Use Engineering journal articles for ideas
Search Amazon Products and propose a better design
You always have options