www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org
NEXT WEEK (The Read
House)_____________________________________________
Monday, April 26,
Topic: “New Technologies in PET/CT Scans” -
Carlyle Reynolds, R&D Engineer, CPS Innovations
Have you ever wondered what kind of technology it
would take to have the kind of medical diagnostics in Star Trek or in some far
out sci-fi movie? Would you like to
have a magic wand waved over you to let your doctor know if anything is
wrong? Well, while that may still
be a few years off, we’re getting closer.
For our next program, Mr. Carlyle Reynolds of CPS Innovations in
Invocation/Pledge Chair for April: Fisher
Menu: Meatloaf, green beans, mashed
potatoes
OUR PREVIOUS
MEETING________________________________________________
Topic: “An Interactive Arm-Wrestling Machine” and
“Vinyl Covering Removal System” - Dr. Rick Keyser and UTC Engineering Design
Teams
Dr. Rick Keyser started the
presentations by reminding us that the UTC engineering design experience
involves a design team of multiple disciplines working with an industrial
partner and UTC faculty. The two
design teams introduced themselves.
The first team (Nicolas Huff, Heath Culpepper, and Rick Elliott) worked
with Intersign Corporation to design and build a tool to remove vinyl from
stone. The second team (Brian
Gilbert or Andre Harris, Alex Shaver, and Shelby Rogers) worked with UTC faculty
to design and build an interactive arm-wrestling machine to be used to attract
and recruit students into engineering.
For the Intersign company, stone signs
are used in hotels and other buildings showing room numbers or names. They are painted and then vinyl letters
are added to protect the lettered area from sandblasting. After sandblasting, the letters appear
raised and the paint remains protected under the vinyl. Intersign Corp. had been removing the
vinyl by hand with tweezers and applying a little touch up paint in a few
spots. This process took about 6
minutes per sign. They asked for a
machine to speed this vinyl removal with limited touch up of the paint under
it. The team created a prototype
with a buffing pad that performed the desired vinyl removal and then created a
mobile cart with the buffing pad and safety shielding that was demonstrated
after the presentation. They
estimate the time required for each sign’s vinyl removal and touch up using
their new mobile cart should be reduced to about 1 minute per
sign.
For the recruitment gadget, the interactive part of
the arm-wrestling machine is provided by software running on a laptop to analyze
and report measurements taken by a load cell connecting the arm to the
base. The arm does not move up and
down to show a win or a loss.
Instead, the arm measures the force a person applies to the aluminum
hand. They used aluminum for the
hand, arm, and base for the unit to be lightweight and portable. The team will be making the final
connections within weeks, and they plan to make a travel case for the unit. We asked that they have this unit on
display at our CEC Christmas and 80th year celebration that may be held in the
new Chattanooga Room of the
Dr. Rick Keyser has extended an
invitation for Chattanooga Engineers Club members to be on an advisory committee
for senior design projects at UTC. For details about the advisory
committee, please contact Rick Keyser at UTC at 425-4020 or Rick-Keyser@utc.edu.
Thanks to Judy Driggans for the meeting
summary.
FUTURE MONDAY
MEETINGS_____________________________________________
May
3: Dr. Jim Catanzaro,
President,
EMAIL
NOTIFICATIONS__________________________________________________
The Chattanooga Engineers Club would
like to begin allowing recipients of this email newsletter to have control over
their account. What this means is that you will be in charge of changing
information about your email address as you see fit. If you would like to
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server will be instructed to send out a password reminder email to each
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three months. This email will contain instructions on how to log on and
change your password (if you want). This allows you to administer your own
email account, and allows you to set a few preferences as
well.
WHERE WE MEET
_______________________________________________________
For the April 26 meeting, we will meet at The Read
House, and lunch will be $11.
Parking is free at the Days Inn across
QUESTIONS, SUGGESTIONS?
______________________________________________
If you have any questions or
suggestions about program items please call Tiffany Gibby at
423-751-3168 or email her at tjgibby@tva.gov. You can find references to other
Chattanooga Engineers Club members at our web site: www.ChattanoogaEngineersClub.org.