Rotary Vane Pump

Background

The goal of this project is to gain hands-on experience in how manufacturing processes affect design decisions and how this chain of design decisions affects the production cost.

Technical Details

Part 1: Build the pump

Learned the fundamental manufacturing processes of: Milling, Turning, Cutting with Water Jet and Laser Cutters, Sheet Metal techniques, Welding, and Sand Casting, among others.
Machined the pump's parts based on engineering drawings and engineering specifications.

Click on the link below to watch the video that showcases the entire process of manufacturing the pump from stock materials using various manufacturing processes.

Watch here

Part 2: Redesign the pump

Applied engineering design concepts to redesign the rotary vane pump for Elmer's glue application based on the specifications below:

3D CAD of the redesigned pump

Below is the BOM and production cost for one pump, calculated using a software called aPriori. This tool enabled us to select variables that impact manufacturing decisions, such as material costs, manufacturing location, shipping, production processes, and more.

Note: There is extensive documentation supporting the design decisions made throughout this project, which I would be happy to discuss in an interview.

Outcomes/lesson learned

Gained expertise in material selection for pump applications utilizing Granta EduPack software.
Developed an understanding of design decisions based on the manufacturing processes involved in pump production.
Conducted geometric dimensioning and tolerancing (GD&T) for the pump's 2D technical drawings.
Applied Design for Manufacturing and Assembly (DFMA) principles to optimize the pump design for Elmer's glue.
Utilized aPriori software to predict production costs by uploading CAD files and selecting appropriate manufacturing processes.
Performed tolerance analysis for key components of the pump to ensure precision and quality.

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