Blog 5 - Team 10 UH



Blog 5

   Since December, team 10 has acquired the necessary construction materials and has begun making the prototype. The forge used to melt the aluminum, shown in Figure 1, has been constructed.The wooden frame in Figure 2 was made to house the casting sand. A mold was also made which will be used to shape the sand into the general shape of the prototype for casting. The team encountered a problem when making the crucible, the container used to hold the aluminum as it was heated. During a test run of the forge with no aluminum used, the crucible melted, meaning another one needed to be constructed. The second crucible was constructed out of mortar with a higher temperature rating than the puddy used in the previous crucible. The undermold for the crucible which it gets moulded with has also been constructed and is shown in figure 3.

The crucible takes seven days to cure and will be ready for a test pour of aluminum by February 3rd. THe crucible is being cured and can be seen in figure 2.

 
                         
                                                    Figure 1: Forge to melt aluminum





                                                    
                                                               Figure 2: Crucible being cured



                                        

                                                         Figure 3: The undermold for the crucible

In the two weeks after the test pour the team will be casting the prototypes if the test pour is successful. If the crucible melts again then the team would either remake the crucible or would switch to reusing an old steel pipe and welding it into the shape of a crucible. If the casting process goes wrong, the aluminum would be remelted and cast again. By February 17, the team expects to have the aluminum shaped into an L-like shape with some surface level of machining done. Work on drilling holes into the casing and machining out the fins will be done in the next work period. The casting frame that will be used in the process is shown below in Figure 4.

                                    

                                                    Figure 4: Casting frame










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