Co-op Information

Position:

Mechanical Engineering Co-op

Team:

Advanced Prototyping/EPOC

Duration:

4 months

Location:

Richmond BC

Company

Corvus Energy is the leader for clean energy solutions in the maritime industry. They focus on developing energy storage systems (ESS) for various maritime vessels including ferries, tug boats, and even large ships.

Responsibilities

During my co-op I worked as part of a small team responsible for solving time sensitive problems and performing tests to further the design of new ESS products. My responsibilities included design fabrication of prototype solutions used for manufacturing, creating and performing tests, pneumatic access planning, and construction of testing apparatuses.

Projects

Pneumatic Pull Testing Apparatus:

The goal of this project was to have a way to perform strength tests of components by subjecting them to axial tension. This was achieved by implementing a load cell with one side connected to a large pneumatic cylinder (at the top) and the other end to the the specimen.

Structure:

The structure of the apparatus was constructed from recycled 80-20 extrusions which were collected from old setups. Custom fixture plates were machined on a Tormach 1100M mill, using a combination of manual and conversational machining techniques. The structure was designed to be easily altered for future uses and configurations.

Data Acquisition:

To get useful information from the set up, the load cell (Omega LC103B-500lb) was connected to a signal converter (Omega DR-14L) and programmed for our desired use case before being connected to the LabJack U6 DAQ device.

Specimen Support:

For the tests we were performing, I designed and printed a custom device to secure one end of the specimen to the table (attached to 2×4), and plasma cut fixture plates for the part being pulled (seen dangling). Specifics of what type of strength testing was being done, as well as what components were under inspection are proprietary information and cannot be discussed, but the pulling device worked as intended and the data acquisition was successful.

Pneumatic Area Layout:

I was tasked with designing and implementing a pneumatics routing setup for a new EPOC team workspace. The layout was designed with an emphasis on having easy access to air at all workspaces, as well as having room to grow if more pneumatic devices were later added. I was responsible for selecting all of the necessary equipment and installing it. Custom mounting brackets were fabricated using a RazorWeld Cut 45 plasma cutter and a box brake to bend the brackets.