A course in Computer Graphics using SolidWorks^TM^ is one of the very first courses that a Mechanical Engineering major would take within the department at Lehigh University. In this course, students learn the basics of engineering graphics with a view towards engineering design. Such a course gives students an overall view of not just the mechanics of creating engineering drawings using SolidWorks, but also one of understanding the consequences of their drawings as they affect tolerances, material selection, fabrication processes as well as the viability of their designs. The very next introductory mechanical engineering course is a laboratory dealing with engineering measurements, data acquisition and testing. This article reports on the use of a 3D-printing exercise to bridge these two somewhat very different courses with different objectives, thereby giving students an early start into understanding the process of design; from a concept to its design and fabrication, and finally, testing and analysis of data. Moreover, it gives a fundamental understanding of the use of 3D-printing that many students would end up using for their Senior Design course in their senior year. The activity exposes students to the many problems they have to face in the process of creating three very simple dog-bones with the same dimensions. Such a simple design permits students to concentrate on the process rather than the actual design of the part for at that point of the course, they have already been able to design using SolidWorks, much more complicated parts. The point is that students are required to design the part to rather strict specifications, so that the fabrication lay-directions are each parallel, perpendicular, and at a 45^o^ slant relative to longest dimension of the dog-bone. Upon completing 3D-printing of their parts, students are then given the opportunity in a subsequent lab course to measure and tensile test the parts they have printed. Some of the problems they encountered were related to machine printing; communications between instructor, teaching assistants and laboratory staff; correct interpretation of the part dimensions; testing as well as the analysis of test data. In the process of analyzing their test data, students aggregate all of their data within their own lab sections and apply the techniques they have learned as it relates to random errors in measurements. This ties in with how they are to quantify these errors and therefore serves to reinforce their class-room learning in a more hands-on manner.


Incorporating 3D Printing to Bridge Two Introductory Courses in Mechanical Engineering

Division / Sponsors: 
Aerospace, Bioengineering, Applied Mechanics, Design Engineering Division, Advanced Energy Systems, Manufacturing Engineering Division, Noise Control and Acoustics, Nondestructive Evaluation, Diagnosis, and Prognosis (NDPD), Nuclear Engineering Division, Process Industries Division, Fluids Engineering, Heat Transfer, Materials, Microelectromechanical Systems, Safety Engineering and Risk Analysis, Computers & Information in Engineering


Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/IMECE/IMECE2020/volume/84478

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