The purpose of this project is to design a machine that tests the properties of materials inside of a very volatile environment. The National High Magnetic Laboratory and the group’s sponsor, Dr. Ke Han, would like this machine to be able to work inside a magnetic field of 20 Telsa, a temperature of 4.2 Kelvin, and the machine must fit inside a cylinder that has a diameter of 150 millimeters. The machine must also be able to exert both a compressive force and a tensile force on the sample it is testing. Right now Dr. Han has a machine that can only create a tensile force on a sample. The group used this old machine as a basis for the design of the new machine. The group came up with three design ideas and, through the use of a decision matrix, chose the idea that required the least amount of change to the old machine while still accomplishing all of the objectives set for the new machine. Using this new design template, the group made three-dimensional drawings of the new design using Autodesk Inventor 2008 and assembled it in the program. In order to prove to Dr. Han that the new machine would not fail during use, the group again used Inventor to perform stress tests on the new parts. The tests showed that the new parts could stand up to the forces required and the next step for the group will be building the new machine. The group built two of the parts after encountering a few major problems with the project and was able to prove the concept of the new machine. They were able to prove the machine would input tensile and compressive stress on the sample and, when completed, the machine will do as it was designed.
