Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology News

At Michigan Tech, we proudly refer to Senior Design as a “first job” rather than a “last class,” as it tasks senior-level project teams to address practical, open-ended design challenges. This past year, the MMET Department at Michigan Tech has been fortunate to have four Senior Design team projects generously sponsored by industry partners: Donald Engineering, Equinox Bicycleworks and Engineering, National Fluid Power Association (NFPA), and Kohler. These project supporters make a strategic investment in our educational mission.

MMET typically has 6-10 senior design projects each year, says John Irwin, MMET Department Chair. “We’re always interested in forming new partnerships with alumni and friends of the department who are interested in contributing to the education of MET students,”

Senior design projects can be sponsored at various funding levels. The projects involve providing engineering guidance to the team over the span of two semesters, fall-spring or spring-fall. 

The most recent sponsorship came from Donald Engineering, long-time supporter of the “Mechatronics Playground”—a set of labs that support both MMET and the Applied Computing departments at Michigan Tech.

Donald Engineering President Mark Gauthier and his employees supported a Fall 2022 interdisciplinary team made up of two MET students and one EET student. The team designed, built and tested a hydraulically-powered tensile and compression testing apparatus.

“The equipment donated by Donald Engineering will be put to good use in other ways,” notes Irwin. “Additional student teams will use it to test their project materials. It will serve as lab equipment in the MET Strength of Materials course—and last but not least, it will enable fluid power mechatronics students to see a real-life application of electro-hydraulics in action.”

Last spring, Equinox Bicycleworks, a local UP company that manufactures mountain bikes, needed a fixture to test the tubular frames to meet industry standards. The Michigan Tech MET senior design team, led by Joseph Williams (now a Michigan Tech alumnus) produced various designs for performing tests, such as fatigue testing per ISO 4210-6 standards on bicycle frames. The team manufactured a testing fixture, and tested the solution. It all came about through a partnership formed with help from Michelle Jarvie-Eggart, an assistant professor in the Department of Engineering Fundamentals at Michigan Tech. Dr. Jarvie-Eggart connected us with her husband, Brian Eggart, who owns and operates Equinox. He is also a research engineer at the Advanced Power Systems Research Center at Michigan Tech.

The National Fluid Power Association (NFPA) runs a yearly contest each April called the Fluid Power Vehicle Challenge, which has many industry sponsors, including Danfoss Power Solutions, Norgren, Parker Hannifin, Lubritech, Hydroforce, and IFP (Iowa Fluid Power). University teams from all over the country develop a timeline to design, simulate, build, test, qualify, and compete with their concepts. MMET Associate Teaching Professor David Wanless has been the advisor for many iterations of Senior Design project groups tackling this challenge. Each fall semester, a new set of students refine the design of the previous groups and then develop a new, improved solution. The outcome of the 2022 contest was that the team won the Sprint Race and were awarded $1,000.

Kohler entered into an agreement with the MMET Department for a sponsored project that started in the fall of 2020. The project has since continued, with the goal of assisting Kohler’s Engine Department in designing a new, highly accurate flow bench for small engines.

The first MET senior design team developed an initial flow bench design, but the COVID pandemic slowed their progress and prevented them from completing the manufacturing and testing. The next Michigan Tech MET team took over the project and presented their results in spring 2022.

A flow bench is generally designed to move air through cylinder heads or other components to measure the overall airflow throughout the entire system. The project was mostly complete, except for the controls and data acquisition portion, which is now the task of a third Senior Design team. Their goal is to complete the Engine Flow Bench by spring 2023.

Longtime MMET Advisory Board member Brian Hartwig, director of Kohler Engines’ Application Engineering and Development Lab, provided engineering guidance for this project, along with his team at Kohler.

Dear Friends,

The Michigan Tech MMET Department continues to prosper. Thirty MET students graduated in spring semester, and another nine this fall! Our total number of students continues to grow, due to the large incoming class of new and transfer students. 

One of the courses our students really enjoy is “Fundamentals of Machining,” where future engineers learn how parts are manufactured using traditional machining methods. Building a product from a piece of raw material is very satisfying. It’s an experience that lasts a lifetime. 

Making mistakes along the way is part of the process. It teaches the difficulty inherent in machining—and develops a lasting appreciation for manufacturing design—something that is instilled in every proud graduate from the MET program.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories about what has happened here at Michigan Tech over the past year.

Happy Holidays!

Sincerely,

John L. Irwin, Professor and MMET Department Chair

The second annual Zachary Richard Podkul Memorial Scholarship Challenge at Michigan Tech has come to its (delicious) completion.

Students in the Department of Manufacturing and Mechanical Engineering Technology set out to design a cookie cutter, one that the department could send out to prospective students, employers and alumni. Students were also required to provide an NX CAD assembly model of the process used to manufacture the cookie cutter.

If you ever wondered how cookie cutters are made, just take a look at this YouTube video, which helped serve as the inspiration for the challenge. The sponsors, Richard and Cathy Podkul, wanted to honor their late son Zachary with a design contest that incorporated his passions for both cooking and machine design. The contest was announced in late fall semester, and students began their thought process on what to design.

During the spring semester, sophomore mechanical engineering technology (MET) students enroll in a parametric 3D CAD modeling course that teaches how to use Siemens NX CAD modeling software. Many of the students enrolled in this parametric modeling course submitted entries for the cookie cutter contest.

To help get them started, students were provided with a 3D CAD assembly model as a guide for size and configuration. Later this design was substituted with a wrench shape to use as a prototype—something that could be used by students to test and see how the cookie cutter assembly operates prior to submitting their own entries.

MMET machine shop student workers—with assistance from Master Machinist Scott Meneguzzo and Operations/Facilities Supervisor Nick Hendrickson—produced a working model of the cookie cutter manufacturing fixture. After two design iterations of the 3D printed pushers connected to the clamps, the first, successful wrench-shaped “test” cookie cutter was produced.

The material used for the cutter is a thin strip of brass, cut to the precise circumference of the cutter outline. It is then formed into a hoop, spot welded together, and tempered for formability. Each clamp is manually operated and each has a 2,500 pound holding force. The cookie cutter form in the center was 3D printed on the Fortus 400MC Stratasys 3D Printer, located in the MMET department’s Polymeric Additive Manufacturing Facility

Many interesting cookie cutters designs were evaluated by the contest judges for the following qualities: 1) Parametric⁠—3D CAD model(s) utilizes sketches fully constrained with parametric features and fully constrained parts in the assembly; 2) Originality—a unique and innovative design; 3) Optimized—minimized use of material, while not compromising strength; 4) Manufacturability—the part’s ability to be easily formed in manufacturing fixture; and finally 5) Ease of use—the manufacturing design is ergonomic and simple to use.

The results? Three students tied for second place in the contest. They were Ben Engle, who designed a gear-shaped cookie cutter; Luz Aparicio, who designed a lightbulb, and Patrick Moeller, who designed a Lift Bridge cookie cutter.

In the end, the contest yielded the first-place winning cookie cutter, Hunter Wilke’s design, also in the shape of the Portage Lift Bridge.

All the winners were presented certificates at an awards ceremony on April 19, which was the celebration of Zachary’s birthday.

The next challenge for the Podkuls, together with Michigan Tech MMET department faculty, will be to develop an idea for the 3rd Annual ZRP Memorial Scholarship! With Zachary’s love of cooking, the outdoors and nature, writing, poetry, and his curiosity for discovering how things worked, it could be just about anything!

Richard T. and Catherine F. Podkul established an endowed scholarship in honor of their son, Zachary Richard Podkul ’18. Zach earned a BS in Mechanical Engineering Technology at Michigan Tech. He suffered from Crohn’s disease, and died in 2020 at age 25. Thankfully, Zachary’s wonderful legacy lives on here at Michigan Tech, now and always.