TARGET HOLDER TEAM

Mission: The mission of the target holder team is to provide semi/fully automated converting and assembly process to produce a small arms target holding device. We utilize our team work and communication skills to design and build a functional production cell.

Product: The target holder's frame work will be constructed of poly-vinyl-chloride (PVC) with a compression spring mechanism that will retain the target between two parallel faces. This target holding device will be portable, corrosin resistant, and compact.

Members of Team Target.

(Back left) Bob Baasch, Dave Falkner, George Schmitz, Ryan Krueger

(Front left) Gary Hildebrandt, Dan Capra, Mike Peterson,

Because of the requirement of two machines for our product we divided into two groups, an angle team and a square bar team.

Executive summary:

The team began by performing stress tests on the current target holder. The original design had been changed by a previous team to improve the product's manufacturability. However, our analysis determined that when the previous team removed a pinning operation it created a strength problem. The PVC epoxy cement did not withstand the shear forces applied that simulated actual field use. It was determined that redesigning the product to increase its' structural integrity was imperative. A square stock cross member was removed and it was replaced with an angle bracket of a preexisting design. This served two purposes. First of all it improved the structural integrity of the product, and secondly it reduced the family of parts by one.

The angle bracket group began its' design and building of the angle cell by determining the steps in the process and in what order they would be easiest to perform. In the end a five-foot piece of stock would be fed through a cutting station, then a drilling station, then a routing station. From the router the part drops into a queue where a sensor would determine which part is being made and send it to its' proper bin. Then the material handling system was designed. Originally a pneumatic cylinder was going to feed the stock into the saw station. This system did not meet our needs and requirements so we developed a gravity feed system. The stations were mounted on an elevated table and a series of stops and clamps provide material positioning at each workstation. The material slides on 1 ½" extruded aluminum railing. The railing has a section that is mounted to a pneumatic cylinder that controls the ejection system.

The square stock cell redesigned the preexisting machinery to conform to the new product design and in turn adjusted their ladder logic program. They removed a drilling operation and improved upon alignment and smoothed out the routing operation. All the stops and clamps were redesigned to accommodate the changes resulting in a more robust design. A section of stock is lowered into a feed tray where a pneumatic cylinder pushes it into cutting position. From there and electric motor transports material to a routing operation where the slots are machined and rejection of misfed and short stock takes place. A new ejection system was used to push of the scrap instead of trying to have it thrown off with an unreliable pneumatic arm.

Members of the Angle Team:

This is our manufacturing cell for angle parts, consisting of a saw, drill, router, and a queuing station.

Members of the Square Bar Team:

This is our manufacturing cell for square bar parts, consisting of a material loading, saw, router, and a queuing station.