CHATTANOOGA ENGINEERS CLUB
http://www.chattanooga.net/engineer/CEC
 
NEXT MEETING ____________________________________________
Monday, April 1- 12:00 noon
Cellar Restaurant at Union Square
 
Topic: UTC Senior Engineering Design Project Presentations - Team 1 & 2
 
Two presentations are in store for us this day. They reveal the splendid achievements of UTC engineering students who collaborate in a team environment to tackle some real-life engineering problems.
 
Improved Steel Cutters - Daniel Linz and Fred Carder
Alstom Power is a company that builds water-wall panels for industrial boilers.  These panels are formed by welding long metal tubing together using a flat bar membrane. The machines that are used to mate and weld adjoining sections of panels in the boiler employ high-speed tool steel cutters. These cutters require frequent adjusting and sharpening and are quite labor-intensive. Alstom Power has asked the UTC senior engineering project team to develop a new machine that uses modern parts and carbide insert cutters to replace the current machines. Senior Design Project Team members Daniel Linz and Fred Carder will tell us about their solution to the design problem and describe their prototype and the current status of their project.
 
Improved Carpet Tufting Machines  - Cliff Murphy and Sam Perry
Another Senior Design Team has been working with the Card-Monroe Corporation (CMC), a manufacturer of carpet tufting machines.  The collaboration is to design an automated machine that would drill holes into a steel tube and insert "spiked" pins into the tube.  CMC's present procedure is very time consuming.  By automating the process, the production rate could be doubled. The design task proved to be difficult, say team members Cliff Murphy and Sam Perry, but the resulting design shows what they believe to be an innovative solution to a precision industrial application.  Cliff and Sam will tell us about the approach they took to tackle this problem, their decision process in coming up with a final design and the results of their effort.
 
Invocation: Billy Graham
Fellowship: Paparazzi Staff Member
Entrée du jour: Choice of Filet Mignon or Flaming Sword Fish
 
OUR PREVIOUS MEETING March 25 ________________________________
Dick Zeigler, Director of ORNL National Transportation Research Center in Oak Ridge, spoke to us about improvements in traffic control, safety technologies, self identifying inventory tags for equipment in transit, hybrid electric vehicles, and fuel cells. These are all current topics of research and development projects conducted at the DOE-supported transportation center in (at ORNL). Dick also gave us a virtual tour of the various transportation research facilities at the center.
 
FUTURE MONDAY MEETINGS _____________________________________
 
April 8 Topic: Improved Student Learning - Glenda Russel  @ CLARION HOTEL
There is an innovative and effective technique that has been shown to dramatically improve the retention and learning capability of students.
 
April 15 Topic: UTC Senior Design Project Presentation - Team 3 & 4
 
April 22 Topic: Micro-turbine Power Engines- George Courville- Ecotera Energy
 
April 29 Field Trip - Disney World
 
WHERE WE MEET _____________________________________
With few exceptions - such as on April 8 - (and that's no joke), our weekly meetings are held at the Cellar restaurant of the Tallen building, Union Square Downtown Chattanooga from 12:00 to 1:00 p.m. Our meeting room and luncheon service are open by 11:30 a.m. Lunch buffet is $10.00 per person. No reservation is required. Free parking is available in the Days Inn Motel (on Carter St. and MLK Blvd,) courtesy of the days Inn management. When you park there, be sure to place a note on your dashboard indicating you are attending the engineers club meeting.