Industry/University Cooperative Project Center
Sample Projects
Agilent Technologies
Students developed an improved shutter mechanism for an electronic board reliability analysis product sold by Agilent. The shutter subassembly consists of actuator devices that provide a somewhat complex motion to the shutter within a restricted geometry.
The shutter operates reliably and with a relatively short cycle time. There was also a significant cost reduction associated with this new design. The mechanism operates automatically and is controlled by various optical sensors.
Ball Corporation, Container Division
CU students developed a device to measure the wear experienced by dies used in the aluminum can forming process. A variety of die materials and lubricants can be tested in concert with aluminum cans.
Tribology theory and the experimental data obtained are used to make wear predictions. Wear is controlled by the geometry of the die material used and by the contact forces between the aluminum can and the die. A data acquisition system and analysis program are utilized to calculate stresses, coefficient of friction, distances traveled and to store the data obtained.
Exabyte
Working one to two mornings a week at the company’s Boulder manufacturing site, CU students designed a mechanism to improve the assembly of a robot for a tape library product.
The subassembly design made use of pneumatically activated devices to accurately clamp and/or move components to specific datums. Exabyte personnel successfully completed the assembly of the robot mechanism using the students’ design.