Mechanical Engineering

Students Develop New Shutter Mechanism For Sophisticated X-ray Equipment, continued

CU-Boulder students, who were matched with Agilent through the department's Industry/University Cooperative Projects Center, came up with a new shutter design, which breaks down the shutter assembly's movement into two, simpler steps. After testing a prototype, the students made a few modifications and will present the final report and hardware to the company in May.

Team members Cody Henderson and Kevin Ryan say students gained a lot of insight into the profession by working with the company, while also receiving good feedback on their design ideas. Other team members include Beth Isler, Jeff Garland and Vann Stavast.

"I think it's really beneficial for them to see the real-life aspects of engineering," agrees Patrick Batten, manufacturing and mechanical engineering manager at Agilent, who met with the students several times during the yearlong project.

Tests on the initial prototype also have been positive. The newly designed shutter mechanism is expected to have three to four times the lifetime of the initial mechanism at a significantly reduced cost, while providing the same high-quality operation.