I made this to prolong the life of the grandfather’s wheelchair, the brakes of which wear out with use. The wheelchair is a compact EliteCare wheelchair and this print was in PETG. I wanted to have a go in TPE or similar but haven’t yet had a chance and it works fine in PETG so the urgency has diminished.
View on Printables.com
A very interesting phenomenon, which involves heating a water droplet significantly past its boiling point, beyond which the droplet does not evaporate, but is instead supported on the vapour which is locally formed below the liquid.
Today was the day we’d all been waiting for, the day I was to throw myself off a high building! Fortunately, there were harnesses involved!! Cue me, looking rather fab in my harness gear
The main issue with this event, nerves-wise, was the waiting and watching other people go before it was my turn, in the end I managed to take the leap.
Unfortunately, the fog on the Tyne spoilt the view somewhat but it was still a fantastic experience and hopefully it raised a significant amount of money for the Stroke Association.
My focus will now be solely on Cancer Research UK, so if anyone has any fundraising ideas, please do get in touch!
The engineering bake sale was a massive success, raising £179.55 for Cancer Research UK. Thank you to Sam Shenton for helping with baking and the stall, and to David Wood, Giorgio Tiburzi, Kieran Massey and Julie Morgan-Dodds for providing cakes.
If you would like to donate, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/Linzi-Dodd2014
The new gripper designs have been processed, showing 100% yield
In order to support undergraduate projects, a number of COMSOL Multiphysics simulations have been created to determine the accuracy of experimental results. The two main projects this year centre around the thickness of the top SU8 layer and the impact of it on the moving speed of the device, and on the manual deflection of the arms and the associated stresses within the arm. Here’s a quick animation created in COMSOL showing an arm being deflected (please click on the image for the animation to start).
This simulation was created by applying a deflection in the z direction to the end of the gripper arm, which may result in the arm being stretched, therefore a more realistic approach was sought, in the form of an applied load to the end of the arm:
As can be seen, the difference appears to be minimal, however, the y component of the displacement is indeed fixed for a set z deflection. By comparison, when applying a mass, the y deflection varies by 11 microns.
More information on the other project to follow!
The first event in a series of events to raise money for Cancer Research UK is the Engineering Bake Sale on Friday 21st March from 12pm onwards. There will be a wide selection of cakes baked by several people within the department, and every penny spent will go to Cancer Research UK. There will also be the chance to donate via text, so even if you don’t like cake, come along and donate some money to a great cause!
The bake sale will take place in the Higginson Building, opposite the coffee bar.
A reminder of other ways to donate, online here, or text LEDS87 £_ to 70070 (replace _ with the amount you would like to donate)
Thanks everyone!
After some devastating personal news within my family, I have decided to raise money for Cancer Research UK. My aim is to raise as money as possible, in an attempt to contribute towards finding a cure for cancer. A cancer diagnosis can leave individuals and their family feeling helpless and alone, despite cancer affecting 1 in 3 people at some point in their lives. A significant number of fundraisers choose to raise money for those who help care for those with cancer, such as Macmillian Nurses, and rightfully so, they do a fantastic job. However, I have chosen to raise money for the people who are trying to prevent cancer at the source, it must be my inner researcher!
Therefore, my aim is to organise numerous events and to raise as much as possible for such a worthy cause. It is also helping my family to cope with things, giving them goals to focus on and hopefully removing the feeling of helplessness, which I’m sure is familiar to a majority of people.
If you would like to contribute towards my fundraising efforts, please visit my fundraising page here, or please TEXT LEDS87 followed by the amount you would like to donate to 70070 (eg for £2 you would text “LEDS87 £2” to 70070)
Thank you very much for your support, together we can beat cancer sooner and stop people having to receive the worst news possible
On 29th and 30th March 2014, I will be throwing myself off the Baltic, all in the name of charity, in order to raise money for the Stroke Association!
I have already reached my target amount for fundraising, but if you’d like to keep track of my team’s progress, you can find our justgiving page here.
My PhD thesis has now been published online, and can be found here.
Dr Linzi E. Amers-Dodd 