Today, I was with the Mechanical Engineers. While I wish I could tell you everything I did today, I can’t there isn’t enough space. Daniel explained many aspects of mechanical engineering. We spoke a lot about injection molding and how plastics act during the process. I have included a picture below of a model that he showed me of the machine that actually does the injection molding. The machine is made up of several components the cavity, the mold, the ejector pins, and the gate. The gate releases the liquid plastic into the cavity which the mold is compressed into. During this process the plastic is under a lot of pressure from the cavity and the mold and is at a very high temperature. The ejector pins are used to remove the plastic part once it has been made. You can often times identify parts that have been made by injection molding because they have small circles that are different in texture from where they have been pushed out of the mold. Additionally, we talked about living hinges which are hinges that are made during ejection molding and they will never break due to the material in which they are made out of. The neat thing about the picture below of the living hinges is that the interior triangles shows the different finishes that injection molded pieces come in because they show machining marks when made. I did know that injection molding was very expensive due to the molds; however, I didn’t know how few times the molds could be used only a few hundred times. He also showed my their all the different machines they have from cutting solid metal, taping, sheet metal, wood, and paint or sanding. They really have endless possibilities. After discussing my project with him, I decided on a design for my project. My project is an automatic plant watering system. I decided on a design that would sit below the potted plant. I spent the rest of my day doing drawings and math to make sure that it would work out. Then I CADed my design. I also added my pictures from yesterday below. Enjoy!
