HECO provides students first-hand SOP writing experience

This summer’s IME 3160 Report Preparation class gained real-world work experience writing standard operating procedures (SOP).

Students in the course taught by Thomas Swartz wrote SOPs for HECO, Inc. Industrial Groups. Headquartered in Kalamazoo, HECO is a repair and sales organization that has served the motor needs of more than 1500 companies for nearly half a century. Started as the Hatfield Electric Co. by Terrell Hatfield in 1959, HECO now has more than 50 employees working a two-shift operation.

According to Todd Hatfield, vice president of engineering and repair, the company has been trying to update its SOPs for some time, but something more important always “put them on the backburner.”

A plan to have the 16 IME 3160 students work in groups of four and write SOPs was developed by Hatfield; Justin Hatfield, HECO’s equipment management specialist; and Swartz, who coordinates the CEAS technical communication program. Each group wrote one shop-floor SOP.

The students – all industrial engineering (IE), electrical engineering (EE), and engineering management (UEM) majors –also proposed improvements to the SOP template and process.

“We generally write textbook scenarios in class,” Swartz said. “With the SOP project, HECO offered the students a real work-related writing experience.”

HECO provided a SOP template for use as a starting point. “We were encouraged to be creative in the SOP design,” said Jason LaDuke, a UEM junior whose group wrote the SOP “Disassembly of a Standard AC Motor.”

The assignment challenged the students, whose first goal was to meet with support groups of HECO personnel who actually do the processes featured in the SOPs. “We had to learn how to disassemble an electric motor before we could write about it,” LaDuke said.

The students communicated with the support groups via phone and email, and they worked together on line and off to develop SOPs. “Much of our work was planning, writing instructions, and letting everyone in the group and at HECO review them as we went along,” said IE senior Yenni Chen.

According to Justin Hatfield the HECO support groups were “impressed with the questions the students asked.” The SOPs need to be further tested by those not familiar with the SOP processes.

Each group presented its SOP and proposed template and other recommendations in an oral presentation to an audience that included both Hatfields. “I think everyone did a good job,” Todd Hatfield said. “I was impressed with their ideas and their proposals.”

After examining the details, Todd Hatfield said that some student work appeared to be very high quality and that he would consider employing some of the students to write additional SOPs.

Swartz said the successful collaboration between HECO and the students may be repeated in the future. For more information, contact thomas.swartz@wmich.edu

Sunseeker team wins sportsmanship award and more at 2008 NASC

Last week the CEAS offered a welcome lunch and ceremony for the 14-member WMU Sunseeker team that won the Sportsmanship Award at 2008 North American Solar Challenge (NASC), an intercollegiate 2,400-mile race from Texas to Calgary, Canada.

 
2008 Sunseeker Team (L-R): Front: Edmund Tan, Lyth Alobiedat, Nicholas Killoran, Alex Hoksema (in driver's seat), Brendan Hill, David Ludens, and Abraham Poot; Back: John Kapenga, Paul Engelmann, Kevin Kalchik, Adrian Sargent, Dan Gore, Madeline McAuley, Ian Smith, Steve Mohney, and Chris Rocker

For this year’s Sunseeker team, the road to the 2008 NASC was fraught with obstacles in funding, material procurement, and design and development. In the final months, the team worked day and night – sometimes camping out in study areas at the Parkview Campus – to complete the WMU entry unveiled last month.

A seemingly final blow came from a wind burst that destroyed a solar panel array during qualification trials and eliminated the vehicle from this year’s competition. However, the wind didn’t eliminate the team, who were invited to join teams that qualified for the race. They put their skills to work and gained a wealth of experience.

While the Sunseeker advisors and three team members drove and displayed Sunseeker at the race checkpoints, 10 WMU students joined the teams of the University of Michigan, Iowa State University, Northwestern and Waterloo universities, and the Missouri University of Science and Technology.

Alex Hoeksema, a junior in electrical engineering, worked with the Iowa State team. “Even though we couldn’t race, we could help everyone else,” he said. He helped fix a brake problem that almost eliminated the Iowa team. “They had to re-qualify because the brakes failed before they reached the first stop,” he said. “Their callipers were the same kind that we use, so I was able to get our team to give them a hand getting parts and meeting the deadline to get back in the race.“

According to Hoeksema, one value of the competition is the mutual support of its competitors. “All the teams helped each other every night of the race,” he said.

2008 Sunseeker Team enjoys welcome-home
luncheon and award ceremony

The WMU students gained an abundance of hands-on experience. “You learn a lot in the classroom, but trouble shooting and solving problems in the field gave me an education you can’t get in a classroom,” Hoeksema said. “I put what I learned to work.”

Dr. Paul Engelmann, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME) chair and a member of the Sunseeker team, called this year’s team “the very best of what the college has to offer.” He said the team had – through no fault of its own – met obstacles at every turn. “Lesser teams would have given this up many times, and no one would have blamed them for quitting,” he said. “But this team persisted and thrived and won the sportsmanship award.”

David Ludens, Madeline McAuley, and
Kevin Kalchik with 2008 Sunseeker

Abraham Poot, engineering lab coordinator for both IME and the Department of Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering (MAE) and a Sunseeker advisor, said that the team is “fired up” for next year’s solar competitions. “The team plans to fix this car and take it to the Formula Sun track race next May in Texas,” he said. “They would also like to re-build a car for the World Solar Challenge in Australia set for the third week in October 2009.”

Hoeksema and Nicholas Killoran, a mechanical engineering junior, will serve as next year’s project leaders. This year’s project leader, David Ludens, who earned his bachelor’s in aeronautical engineering this spring, will be in constant communication with the new team. “There is no way I could write down everything I’ve learned from this project.” he said.

For more information on Sunseeker and its future endeavors, check out www.wmich.edu/sunseeker

Paper coating techniques may improve metal casting quality

The Department of Defense (DoD) needs lighter equipment to be able to move quickly. One way to make lighter equipment is to produce lighter castings, which means producing castings with thinner walls.

The goal of a multi-year DoD research grant overseen by the American Metalcasting Consortium is to develop the data on coatings that could lead to improved castings.

The principal investigators (PIs) of the grant research are Dr. Sam Ramrattan, Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering (IME), and Dr. Margaret Joyce, Department of Paper Engineering, Chemical Engineering, and Imaging (PCI). Assisting the two professors is IME graduate student Adil Abdelwahab.

Ramrattan, a metal casting specialist, and Joyce, whose expertise includes paper coatings, are pooling their talents to evaluate how potential coatings used in the paper industry could improve the casting process.

“Multiple industries are seeking coating to add value to their products,” Joyce said. “The basic components of foundry and paper coatings are similar. We have much to learn from each other’s industries.”

Coating paper is a well developed science; however, coating is relatively new in metal casting. “We can’t use the types of coatings, but we can use similar coating control techniques in metal casting and we’re coming up with alternative testing techniques, several of which we have borrowed from the paper industry,” Ramrattan said.

When hot molten metal is poured into a sand mold, the heat causes the mold to expand, which leads to cracks and defects in the product. The heat can also dislodge grains of sand, which end up in parts where they are not wanted. “The defects can be extremely harmful if the part is a block or a coated head in an engine,” Ramrattan said.

To offset these problems, the research team is testing refractory coatings as interfacial barriers between the mold wall and the metal. “Having the right coating can lead to a smoother casting with a better surface finish,” Ramrattan said. “It can also prevent sand from getting into the metal and eliminate cracking.”

In addition to finding the right environmentally-acceptable coating and determining the right amount to use to produce a quality casting is finding a way to be sure that the quality of the coating remains consistent throughout repeated use. Because the sand used in casting is recycled, particles in the coatings can settle out as the coating is reused.

“A control mechanism is needed to make sure the particles are not settling out, to maintain consistent coatings quality throughout the process,” Ramrattan said.

According to Ramrattan, the current testing gauges in the casting industry are not designed for coatings used in the paper industry, but controlled tests measuring rheological characteristics in the paper industry show potential in the development of instruments for casting. “We are developing testing techniques and instruments for sand casting that included modified permeability and mold quality index tests,” Ramrattan said.

Other research discoveries are related to the optimal dip time for refractory molds, data related to the effect of coating deposits that can affect the permeability of the dipped mold, which indirectly affects the casting quality, surface finish, dimensional properties, and other qualities.

Ramrattan said the first-year findings were officially reported to the DoD Logistics Department in June. “This is year-to-year work, and everyone seemed satisfied with our findings,” he said. “We are continuing our search for a means to improve coating and to reduce defects.”

For more information on this project, contact Ramrattan at sam.ramrattan@wmich.edu or Joyce at margaret.joyce@wmich.edu