1. Intelligent Tooling Team 8: Joseph Staley Jeff Roushey Andrew Graybill Glenn Gardner Sponsor: Dr. Mike Yu, FRC-DE Advisor: Dr. Michael Keefe

2. Project Summary Mission To develop a sensor system that will facilitate the study of the metal foaming process inside a mold. Background  Foaming agent inside a metal matrix  Specified foaming temperature  Foaming agent releases gases  Foaming completion  Present practice  Properties of foamed product

3. Customers Mike Yu - Fraunhofer USA Harold Eifert - Fraunhofer USA Bernie McGuiness (Lab research assistant) - FRC-DE Jim Adkins (Lab coordinator)- FRC-DE Automotive, Aerospace, and Building Industries

4. Wants and Constraints Wants Facilitate the study of the metal foaming process System simplicity System reliability Low Cost Constraints Operating temperature Furnace size/design LabVIEW™ Cost

5. System Benchmarking Die Casting / Injection Molding –general process, sensors High Temperature Monitoring –high temperature materials (Macor) –data acquisition Materials Level Monitoring –sensors

6. Functional Benchmarking Electrical Properties Sensors Piezo-electric Transducer Thermocouple Optical Fiber Eddy Current Detector

7. Metrics and Target Values

8. Critical Functions Sense metal foaming process completion Attenuate/Amplify the sensor output signal Channel signal(s) into data acquisition card Use LabVIEW™ software to interpret signals and alert user that the process is complete

9. Concept Generation Electrical Circuit Completion Piezo-Electric Force Sensor Thermocouple Array Optical Fiber Eddy Current Position Sensor

10. Concept Selection Method Electric Circuit Completion

11. Concept Selection

12. Concept Development Fabrication Assembly Testing Modifications Recommendations

13. Fabrication / Assembly Copper Mold –Summit Industrial Corp. MACOR® Ceramic Insulators –Summit Industrial Corp. –Mechanical Engineering Machine Shop Electrodes Thermocouple Wires LabVIEW ™

14. Testing Test 1 –MACOR® hold-downs inadequate –High wire location important –Must account for noise - 15 volts Test 2 –Contact means circuit completion –Necessary program alterations needed #3#4 #5 #2#1

15. Testing Test 3 –Orientation when using multiple foamable pieces is important –Electrode placement is inadequate for sensing foaming completion Test 4 –More electrodes or different placement should be used –Superposition of foaming effect and temperature effect –Our orientation is better suited for a single piece of foamable material #3#4 #5 #2 #1

16. Modifications Fabrication Modifications –MACOR® machining problems –Clamp screw hold-downs Testing Modifications –Ceramic plate for hold-down –Program alterations

17. Recommendations More electrodes or different placement of electrodes Minimizing surface defects –Key ways for ceramic insulators and electrodes –Tighter tolerances/shrink fit insulators and electrodes Better wire attachments Larger furnace access port

18. Budget

19. Fabrication Hours Machining.................. 20 hours Programming................ 50 hours Assembly................... 1 hour Modifications................ 2 hours Total Hours.... 73 hours

20. Engineering Development Time Meetings/Preparations................ 50 hours Benchmarking...................... 70 hours Concept Development/Selection........ 60 hours Purchasing......................... 5 hours Testing............................ 42 hours Drawings/Drafting................... 20 hours Fabrication......................... 73 hours Total.... 320 hours

21. Conclusions Successful Project! Will aid Fraunhofer in the research and development of metal foams Future design considerations can be used for production purposes