EAT342 – DESIGN AND MATERIALS

Hydraulically Powered Block Lifter

Following on from the continued success of the electro-hydraulic power pack which was
launched several years ago and for use by aid agencies at site disaster sites, our company
has been approached by an overseas agent to prepare designs for an hydraulically powered
block lifter.

The function of the block lifter will be to lift large masonry blocks to facilitate the rescue of
personnel trapped in collapsed buildings at sites where e.g. earth tremours have occurred. If
the design is successful it hoped that the market might be increased to include customers
from the construction industry.

Powered by twin hydraulic cylinders the block lifter will be an attachment for the company’s
existing hydraulic winch and will be suspended beneath it and raised and lowered by it. As
such it will form part of the winch’s payload and so must be of lightweight construction. Other
than an initial feasibility study by the R&D team which has provided the attached outline
arrangement as shown in Figure 2 below, little to no work has been done on the prototype as
yet. Your team has therefore been tasked with preparing a prototype design proposal for the
lifter which is to be manufactured and tested in-house for proving before full scale production
begins. A period of 6 months has been allowed for the prototype design.

To enable the new lifter to be used with all previously sold winches the design must be
capable of lifting the intended maximum safe working load of 500kg when operating at a
maximum input pressure of 75bar. Tests carried out on the material to be used as the liner
for the lifter’s parallel jaws have indicated a coefficient of friction of 0.4 in conjunction with
concrete. To help prevent accidental overloading of the unit and based on a density for
concrete of 2400kg/m3 the maximum opening of the lifter jaws is to be 600mm. As with the
previous aid agency products the company has manufactured the block lifter shall have a
strong focus on safety and low weight.

To facilitate production of the prototype and provide extra protection for the cylinders when
in the field, R & D have specified that the cylinders used are to be of the tie rod and end cap
type similar to that shown in Figure 1 below. The lifter unit is to be designed for use and
powered by our company’s existing electro-hydraulic powerpack. However, the hydraulic
circuit for the lifter’s control unit is part of your remit.

Figure 1: Tie Rod Type Hydraulic Cylinder

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 1

600
400

= =

600

Figure 2: Arrangement of Block Lifter Jaws

Do Not Scale - All dimensions in mm

NB: The above drawing is simply a schematic arrangement of the layout and is not intended to give any
impression of size or relative size of any of the components shown.

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 2

Based on information received from the sales and marketing team it is anticipated that the
demand for the lifter will be around 70 units per annum for the next five years.

SCOPE OF SUPPLY.
Working in a team of four you are required to prepare a design for the cylinders of the block
lifter jaws. Any bought in components used in the arrangement must be accurately specified
by manufacturer’s name, type and size and the selection of the components used is to be
backed by calculation where appropriate. All calculations and any data quoted MUST be
in SI units. Calculations and data displayed in imperial units will be ignored and will
not be marked. Please also note that the standard units of length in the SI system are
meters and, where appropriate, millimeters. Centimeters are NOT acceptable

Your design report is to contain the following sections which are to be submitted sequentially
throughout the duration of the module:

1) A design specification for block lifter. (Please note that this is a design specification
and therefore needs to provide details of what it is you are required to design. Your
specification must therefore be written in the future tense. Your specification must
include all limitations imposed upon the design by the conditions described or implied
above, as well as any further details you deem relevant. It should not include irrelevant
details and must not be written as a product specification, i.e. NOT as a document
which provides details of an already existing product) (Group activity 10%)

2) Calculations to determine:
a) The minimum force, F, required in order for the jaws to safely grip and enable the
winch to vertically lift a block of 600mm width and of mass 500kg. You may assume
the jaws are the position shown in Fig 2.

b) Calculations to determine the output force required from the hydraulic cylinders that
needs to be applied at the upper link point where the cylinders join the jaw arms.
(Group activity 10%)

3) A design for the hydraulic circuit which can provide the means by which equal
directional control of the jaws is automatically achieved and also a means of limiting
the jaw speed to 0.075m/s when closing around the block. Your circuit must include a
device which can isolate the unit from the hydraulic supply and ensure that the force
you determined in 2b) cannot be exceeded.

NB Your circuit diagram is to use only BS symbols to represent the hydraulic

components required and is to start from the connection point in the unit i.e. where the
hydraulic hoses connect to the cutter unit. NB for safety reasons all control devices
MUST be included within the unit assembly. Your circuit diagram must be supported
by a BRIEF explanation describing the operation of the system and must clearly show
how the pressure and flow requirements indicated above are achieved by the system
i.e. to control the speed and force of the jaws. (Group activity 15%)

4) A written review, not exceeding 1500 words of three different materials you believe
might be used to manufacture the tube of your hydraulic cylinders. From the three
materials you review you need to select the one you deem most suitable for the
intended application. All materials must be specified by a UK standard number and all
relevant material properties for each material must be provided. Please note that
relevant in this case means properties which you later use in your performance indices
which you will use to make your choice. The units shown for these properties MUST
be SI units. If the manufacturers of your materials have listed the properties in imperial

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 3

 units it is your responsibility to convert these into SI units for presentation in your
report.

Your performance indices must take account of the relevant service conditions, cost
considerations and most importantly ethical and environmental considerations.
Whilst it is expected that you will rely on CES to assist with your selection, the output
from the software on its own is NOT sufficient and MUST be accompanied by a clear
explanation of the analysis. A weighted Objectives Method is NOT required for this
part of the exercise. Please note that your review should have a focus on properties
and NOT a list of the content which produce the material’s properties.

All three materials must be commercially available in the market and in the form
required, i.e. tube form. From the three you show, select the one you believe is the
most suitable material to take forward into Part 5 and then later in the Weighted
Objective Exercise in Part 6 below.

References need to be cited in this submission and copies of manufacturers’ web

pages (cut and pasted) are to be included in the appendix for this section of your
report. (Individual Activity 15%)

5) Based upon your proposed material from 4) above undertake design calculations to
determine the appropriate critical dimensions of the hydraulic cylinder tubes. These
MUST include the piston diameter to generate the force required (based on the
pressure available), the thickness of the cylinder tubes and the required stroke length
of the cylinders in order to enable them to close completely, i.e. for the friction pads to
just touch together. An appropriate safety factor will need to be selected and applied
when determining the tube wall thickness and reasons given for the value selected.

Please note that when determining the diameters of the tube that STANDARD sized
seals MUST be available to suit the inner diameter of the tube. The outer diameter
should not include any decimal places since these are more expensive to manufacture
and inspect. The sizes you calculate will need appropriate ‘rounding’ to a standard
dimension. It is your responsibility to demonstrate that standard sized seal is available
for to fit the bore size. Failure to take account of this may result in significant loss of
marks. Please note that all calculations and material properties MUST be shown in SI
units only. (Individual activity 15%)

6) Based on the criteria you set out in your design specification, the requirements listed
or implied in the brief and the outcomes from the individual submission from the
previous two sections select the most suitable cylinder tube design. Your selection
must employ the Weighted Objectives Method and you must provide a brief discussion
and rationale for each of the objectives you use. You must also explain the rationale
for the scores awarded. (Group Activity 10%)

7) Using the cylinder tube selected in 6) above, prepare a layout drawing of the complete
cylinder assembly clearly showing the sealing arrangements and oil ports in the
cylinder end caps and seals on the piston. Your drawing must include a border, parts
list which clearly identifies all parts used in the construction of your design both
manufactured and bought in and a data box which provides details of drawing title,
scale and angle of projection. (Group Activity 15%)

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 4

 8) A plan for all of the manufacturing processes methods that would be needed to
produce the cylinder tube of your assembly from the raw material you selected in part
6) above. In this case ‘raw material’ refers to the material as supplied by the material
stockholders. It does not mean manufacturing from the ore. Your manufacturing plan
must cover all features included of the tube including the necessary surface finishes
required for the tube to operate correctly.

Please note! No description of the manufacturing processes is required; you are

simply expected to suggest the methods and an appropriate sequence of operations
by which the tube might be finish machined to the required standard. Any description
of manufacturing process will not accrue any marks and may incur marks penalties.
You should however clearly state the type of machine to be employed.
(Group Activity 10%)

As in the real world of engineering design it is important to provide exactly what the
customer has asked for. You need only provide answers to the questions asked. Additional
answers to questions not asked will not be marked and will therefore not be awarded any
marks. If you are in any doubt as to what has been asked for then please make further
enquiries to obtain clarification.

Finally, please be aware that the customer has a right to amend any of the details
provided within this brief, at any time during the course of the “contract”. All changes
will be notified to the teams as soon as possible and may be subject to an increase or
a decrease in the costs associated with the completion of the “contract”.

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 5

Submission Details and Dates

What and how you are required to submit

Each group is required to submit one report/portfolio which must contain all of the above
sections. To help promote a steady workload throughout the coming year and to avoid a last
minute rush right at the end, the submission dates shown below are required for each of the
parts of the report.

All submissions are to be made via Canvas and submitted via ‘Turnitin’. Submitting in
this way will generate a report which checks for cases of plagiarism. For the written parts of
the report submissions are required as a single document in Word format set out in the
order shown above, i.e. numerical order from the list above, in which the parts would appear
in a final report. To help with identification of the attachments each group will be given a
letter character as an identifier, e.g. Group A, Group B, Group C, etc., once the groups are
established. Each file attachment is to include that identifier and the part number(s) of the
report sections being submitted in the filename of the document. For example, when
submitting part 1, Group A would have as the filename for their attachment “Group A Part 1”.
Please also note that feedback will be provided in the document you submit so if you submit
as pdf your work cannot be marked and a marks penalty will be applied!

The only exception to the above is that your arrangement drawing must be submitted as a
single pdf file, once again using the naming convention detailed above. No other file formats
are acceptable for your drawing – pdf only!!! All drawings not submitted as pdf will incur a
marks penalty.

You will see that there are also individual submissions required for Part 4 and Part 5 of the
report. These individual submissions should be submitted individually and the name of the
student responsible needs to be clearly visible on each page (For pages which have been
word processed this could be included in the ‘Header’ or ‘Footer’). Failure to clearly identify
your work could mean that you might lose marks for that piece of work because the author
was not identified. The filename used for the individual parts is to take the form “Group A
Buggins Part 3” where Buggins represents your surname.

Please Note! No other filenames or file format than those specified above can be
accepted. A marks reduction penalty will be applied if you do not use the required
filename or file format.

Avoiding Plagiarism Accusations

Please note that whilst some notes and materials will be provided to support this task it is
expected that you will carry out your own research and use a variety of information sources
to complete the task. However, all of your work must be presented in your own words and
not taken directly from any other source. All sources you have used in your search must be
clearly and appropriately referenced using the Harvard referencing system and a list of
references included in the back of each submission. Using sources which have not been
approriately referenced or taking any data directly from any source which you include in your
work will be regarded as plagiarism and may result in you failing this part of the report or
even the whole module. It is acceptable to use quotes, photographs and/or diagrams from
other sources, where appropriate, but these must be properly referenced. Any quotations
you wish to use from external sources must be less than 200 words in total for any
submission of your report and again must be cited and referenced correctly. All quotations
must be shown within quotation marks.

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 6

Submission Dates: Hand in Feedback

Part 1) Design Specification 25/10/18 22/11/18

Part 2) Force Calculations 01/11/18 29/11/18

Part 3) Hydraulic Circuit Design 29/11/18 17/01/19

Part 4) Materials Review 24/01/19 21/02/19

Part 5) Cylinder Design Calculations 14/02/19 14/03/19

Part 6) Weighted Objectives Method 07/03/19 04/04/19

Part 7) & 8) Layout Drawing & Manufacturing Plan 04/04/19 23/05/19

Marking Criteria

70-79% 3 of the following, 80-89% 4 of the following, 90% and above 5 of the following
 Thorough understanding of all key points and distinguishing features and factors
 Reasons given for all decisions, all aspects understood, very clearly explained and
correct
 All calculations correct, clearly explained and presented
 A clear structure used and good critical analysis
 Demonstration of thorough knowledge across substantive areas
 All issues/aspects addressed thoroughly and clearly

55-69%
 A good understanding of most key points and distinguishing features and factors
 Reasons given for most decisions, most aspects understood, clearly explained and
correct
 Most calculations correct, clearly explained and presented
 A clear structure used and evidence of critical analysis
 Demonstration of a good depth of knowledge across substantive areas
 Majority of issues/aspects addressed thoroughly and clearly

40-54%
 An understanding of most key points and distinguishing features and factors
 Reasons given for some decisions, most aspects understood, explained and correct
 Basis of all calculations correct but containing some errors
 A reasonable structure used and some evidence of reasonable critical analysis
 Evidence of some knowledge across substantive areas
 Most issues/aspects addressed but some not addressed thoroughly or clearly

F – 39% or less
 Little evidence of understanding of the essential features and factors
 Reasons seldom given for decisions, few aspects understood, explained or correct
 Basis of some calculations incorrect and some/all containing errors
 A poor structure used and little evidence of any reasonable critical analysis
 Little evidence of knowledge or understanding across substantive areas
 Irrelevant, unrelated and muddled material.

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 7

 EAT342 Indicative Timetable 2018-2019
Week No. Date Area to be Covered. Tutor Report Section Hand in Submision Date
9 24/9/18 Module & Design Process Introduction Dave Knapton
10 1/10/18 Assignment Brief & Discussion Dave Knapton
Lecture - Preparing a design specification
11 8/10/18 Tutorial – Review of Design Specifications Dave Knapton
12 15/10/18 Lecture - Force Calculations Alan Fell
13 22/10/18 Tutorial – Review of Design Specifications Dave Knapton Design Specification 25/10/18
14 29/10/18 Tutorial - Force Calculations Alan Fell Force Calculations 1/11/18
15 5/11/18 Lecture - Hydraulic Circuits Alan Fell
16 12/11/18 Tutorial - Hydraulic Circuits Review Alan Fell
17 19/11/18 Tutorial - Hydraulic Circuits Review Alan Fell
18 26/11/18 Tutorial - Hydraulic Circuits Review Alan Fell Hydraulic Circuit 29/11/18
19 3/12/18 Lecture – Material Selection (Individual) Alan Wheatley
20 10/12/18 Lecture – Material Selection Alan Wheatley
21-23 WINTER VACATION
24 7/1/19 Lecture – Material Selection Alan Wheatley
25 14/1/19 Tutorial - Review Material Selection (CES) Alan Wheatley
26 21/1/19 Tutorial - Review Material Selection (CES) Alan Wheatley Materials Review 24/1/19
27 28/1/19 Lecture - Thick & Thin Cylinders Alan Fell
28 4/2/19 Tutorial - Hydraulic Cylinder Review Alan Fell
29 11/2/19 Tutorial - Hydraulic Cylinder Review Alan Fell Cylinder Calculations 14/2/19
30 18/2/19 Lecture - WOM Dave Knapton
31 25/2/19 Tutorial - Weighted Objectives Method Dave Knapton
32 4/3/19 Tutorial - Weighted Objectives Method Dave Knapton Weigthed Objective Method 7/3/19
33 11/3/19 Lecture – Manufacturing Methods Alan Wheatley
34 18/3/19 Lecture – Layout Drawing Requirements Dave Knapton
35 25/3/19 Tutorial – Drawing & Manufacturing Methods DK/ AW
36 1/4/19 Tutorial – Drawing & Manufacturing Methods DK/ AW Layout Drawing / Manuf plan 4/4/19
SPRING VACATION

Dr A. Fell. EAT342 Academic Year 2018-19 Page 8