Teaching Machine Design Using HILTI Machine Tools Industry/University Collaborative Project

This paper presents the results of a case-study using a local industry sponsored research project at an undergraduate based polytechnic university to support capstone design experiential learning.The case study from HILTI Machine Tools demonstrates how engineering companies can realize cost effective research and development by mentoring and sponsoring an engineering undergraduate curriculum in the form of capstone design projects.This paper shares the results of the HILTI sponsored project for the ME 325 "Machine Design" course at Cal Poly Pomona, which is a junior level design course at Cal Poly Pomona in the Mechanical Engineering Department in the design curriculum.The design curriculum in Mechanical Engineering at Cal Poly Pomona is comprised of the following sequence of courses ME 233/L "Intro.to Mechanical Design/Lab", ME 319 "Stress Analysis", ME 325/L "Machine Design/Lab", ME 425/L "Advanced Machine Design/Lab", and ME 421 "Dynamics of Machinery".The HILTI company was represented by a team of three engineers who acted as mentors to the students in the ME 325 course.The HILTI mentors devised a "sitfler" problem whereby the teams of undergraduate students were required to develop an engineering solution following a systems engineering framework.The students worked closely with the industry mentors and utilized their knowledge of machine design, mechanism design, dynamics, materials, economics, engineering graphics, ease-of-fabrication, realism, etc., in order to realize a cost effective engineering solution base on customer requirements.The particular problem used by HILTI was the re-design of a Cold Press Tool and Die Mechanism.The project involved the feeding of a metallic powder at a certain rate.This paper documents the use of field-trip-based industry projects to motivate experiential learning at a polytechnic university.The various stakeholders in these type of endeavors involve the students, the engineering companies, the local community, as well as the faculty.Assessment tools and grading rubrics used to quantify the student experiential learning are also discussed.