Motovated > News > Newsletter June 2009

Hello everyone,

We have had busy few months, with the Motovated Superboat on our stand at the SouthMACH tradeshow, as well as being chosen as finalists in the Canterbury Export Awards. We have a brief update of each for you, as well as another handy design tip, puzzle and answers to last issue's question. An upcoming feature in our next issue is locomotives in New Zealand, both past and present, and some of the engineering feats and challenges involved. Please see below for more information.

You can also find the link to our interview with Rob Lawrence from Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce (CECC) on Plains FM, discussing how Motovated can help clients obtain Government funding for their projects. Please don't hesitate to ask us if you need help with any CAD modelling, drawings, design work or analysis. That's what we do best, enjoy the read!

Greg Morehouse
General Manager
Engineering Analyst

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SouthMACH 09 Tradeshow Review

The SouthMach show was held in Christchurch last month, with manufacturers, engineers, designers and tradespeople from all over the country showing off the latest in machinery and technology. We were lucky enough to be able to show off Peter Caughey's world-beating Superboat. It was great to see familiar faces there, and make new contacts in the industry as well.

Thanks to everyone who entered our stand competition. The question was:

"How big is the motor in the Motovated Super Boat, which won the 2008 World Jetsprint Championship?" (Hint: It's the largest small block in the world)

The correct answer was 540 cubic inches. The winner is Ian Cullimore of Cullimore Engineering. Congratulations to Ian, who has won 4 hours of analysis free from Motovated. For all your analysis and design requirements, contact Greg or Darrell at Motovated Design & Analysis any time for a free, no obligation estimate.

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Finalists in Canterbury Export Awards

Motovated has once again made it to the finals of a major Canterbury award. This time it's the Canterbury Export Awards, in the category of Small to Medium Emerging Exporter of the Year.

Export New Zealand Canterbury President David Ferguson says "innovation, determination, strong and loyal customer relationships, pushing the traditional boundaries and adding value were all key traits displayed by the finalists "

The winner will be announced at the awards ceremony on the 8th of July. We hope to see you there, and look forward to continuing our support to both our local and overseas clients. Click on the link above for more details and to see the other finalists.

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Interview with Rob Lawrence on Plains FM

In this interview, Greg talks to Rob Lawrence from Canterbury Employers' Chamber of Commerce (CECC) and host Nic Pegg about the unique services Motovated offers their clients. This includes the benefits of adding analysis to design work early in the design process, and helping clients with grants and funding applications through partnership with CECC.

You can listen to the whole interview here (approx. 10 minutes).

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Engineering Feature - Locomotives in New Zealand

We will be adding a special locomotives feature to our next newsletter, starting with diesel-electrics. Also included will be be some of the jargon and nicknames found in the industry, such as the 'corn cob' colour scheme of the DAR 517 opposite.

Of particular interest to us is the world-class engineering that has come out of New Zealand in respect to rail and locomotive design, to suit our winding, steep terrain.

If there are any train spotters among us, or you would like to contribute a favourite locomotive to next issue's newsletter, drop us a line at news@motovated.co.nz

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Tips & Tricks - cost-effective design for machined parts

Designing cost-effective machined parts has some distinct differences compared to designing cast or injection-moulded parts. One particular area is in specifying radii. Consider the part shown in Figure 1, which is modelled in a standard 3D CAD package using the same radius for both the walls and floor. This is easily modelled using a single CAD feature, but causes problems for the machinist which aren't obvious at first glance. The wall will be machined with a ball end mill (a cutter with full nose radius), and the floor will be cut with a flat end mill, which will leave material leftover in the corner area (Figure 2). This can be avoided by specifying a smaller floor radius (Figure 3). This allows the machinist to use a flat end mill with a radius to machine the floor area in one operation. In general, the smaller the floor radius can be the better, with a 0 radius being the easiest of all. This is of course limited by considering stress concentrations and the loading of the part.
Figure 1: Equal floor and wall radii	Figure 2: Material cannot easily be removed	Figure 3: A smaller floor radius allows faster machining
(images sourced from Pro CNC, see the full article here)
Note that this is opposite to the rules of designing cast and plastic parts, which need larger floor radii at webs etc. to ensure complete filling of the mould and streamlined mould flow paths. Plastics in particular are notch sensitive, which can result in crack initiation at sharp corners. In terms of the part cost, the equal corner radii will easily cost 10x more than the unequal corner radii, which is a good incentive when trying to reduce costs and improve manufacturing efficiency of machined parts.

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Outsmart your colleagues...

Norman makes brass candlesticks by turning them on his lathe. He starts with a standard length rod of brass and shaves off one-third to make each candlestick. A rush order has been placed for 40 identical custom candlesticks, but Norm has only 27 brass rods in stock. Then he remembers that he can take the shavings and melt them down to make new rods. Will Norman have enough to fill the order?

Send your correct answer to competition@motovated.co.nz to be in with a chance of winning a $50 Mitre 10 voucher.

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Answer to last issue's puzzle

Check your answer to April issue's question here:

The total number of days required to complete the job is 5*21 = 105 days. We then know that 5 engineers work 3 days on the job, then a total of 15 engineers continue working on the project until it is finished. This gives:

3(5) + 15x = 105

Solving for x gives 6 days remaining on the project.

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Last issue's puzzle winner...

Congratulations to Rago Paschma of Rakon Limited , a Mitre 10 voucher is on its way to you.

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Thanks for your time and support. We look forward to working with you and continuing to provide the best engineering services possible.

Greg and the team at Motovated.

"engineering your vision"