Mechanical Design Portfolio
Subsea Camera and Sensor Module for 1000m Water Depth
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A subsea housing that is designed to withstand the 1456 PSI (10 MPa or 100 bar) of pressure at 1000m water depth and house various cameras and sensors while having negligible deflection of the camera mounting points when at 1000m depth. One of these is currently being used on a subsea vehicle in Canada, while many more are currently being assembled. Each unit currently sells for around $20k.
As the mechanical designer for this project, I was responsible for designing the housing so that it could not only withstand the pressure without leaking, but also accommodate all of the cameras, sensors, LED's, and lasers without interfering with the operation of any of them. To do this I validated my design through the use of the 3D-CAD and FEA modules in Autodesk Fusion360, as well as the specifications (FoV, dimensions, etc.) from the manufacturers of each camera and sensor.
Once the project manager and I were satisfied with the design, I created the manufacturing drawings for the various parts in Autodesk Fusion360's 2D drawing module and sent them to a 3rd party machine shop and anodizing company.
Upon receipt of the machined parts, I trained one of the interns and a technician on how to assemble each unit.
Low Budget Reaction Wheel
To view an annotated 3D model in your browser, follow the link below:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/low-budget-reaction-wheel-4f15c0f979c54b54a03cbd3f244bbf3b
This was a senior design project (capstone) for my senior year of my Mechanical Engineering degree. Typically reaction wheels cost several thousand dollars, which is too expensive for a lot of small organizations or companies. To attempt to resolve this issue, my team and I set out to improve access to these devices by designing and fabricating a reaction wheel for only a small fraction of what a reaction wheel normally costs.
My primary role on the team was the mechanical designer, due to the years of real-world experience I had in such a role. As the mechanical designer for the team, my tasks were to make the reaction wheel less than 500 grams, under $200, while also having the highest torque possible.
I simultaneously reduced the weight and cost of the system by minimizing the amount of metal components, so that only the parts under high stress and the actual wheel (which needed a high moment of inertia) would be made from metal. I also chose 6061-T6 aluminum as the metal we would use, which is a fairly inexpensive alloy of aluminum with a respectable strength to weight ratio. For the parts which were subjected to negligible stress, I chose to use 3D printed ABS plastic, primarily due to it being the lowest cost 3D printing filament on the market.
To ensure the system had the highest torque possible (without using an obscenely heavy wheel), I designed the wheel so that it wrapped around the motor, therefore removing a large amount of material from the center of the wheel, which would not have contributed significantly to the wheel's moment of inertia, but would have added a lot of weight to the system.
I also coordinated with the teammate responsible for the electronics in order to ensure all of their various electronics were properly accommodated in my mechanical design.
At the end of the project our system weighed 460g, cost $169, and had a peak torque of 55 Newton-Millimeters.
Subsea Metrology Survey Stab
To view an annotated 3D model in your browser, follow the link below:
https://sketchfab.com/3d-models/subsea-suvey-stab-9dd9b8accf2a474a8695e63e57a0862f
This is used in conjunction with an ITAR-restricted IMU (inertial measurement unit) to survey the relative positions and orientations of subsea structures which are adjacent to each other, generally for making custom piping between said structures.
The role of this particular component is to ensure the position and orientation of the IMU at each survey point is repeatable. This was done by referencing the drawings provided by the manufacturer of the metrology stab receptacles that were mounted to the subsea structures in a specific oil field, then creating a stab which matched the profile of the receptacle (with a small amount of clearance). The tolerances were then established based on the tolerances in the drawing for the receptacle, to ensure that the two components would always fit together. The brass cylinder in the picture was designed in a similar way so that it would fit into a matching hole in the receptacle in order to make the orientation of the survey equipment repeatable.
Two of these have been used for surveys off the coast of Ghana for almost a year without issue.
A Custom PCB Housing for a Subsea Vehicle
To view an annotated 3D model in your browser, follow the link below:
The primary goals of this project were to design a housing for a PCB that had as low of a profile as possible, while still sealing out the surrounding water. To accomplish this I decided to make use of a box shaped housing and a rectangular O-ring piston seal. Before this project, I did not have experience with such a non-traditional O-ring piston seal, and there was limited documentation online regarding non-circular piston O-ring seals. I overcame this obstacle by reading the limited documentation I could find, using my prior knowledge + experience with O-ring groove design, and testing a scaled down design that was made on a resin 3D printer.
This design has since been used on a subsea vehicle for several months without issue.
Pipeline Mapping Tool for 4-inch Diameter Pipe
This was my first major project in which I was responsible for the mechanical design. While designing this I was severely constrained with regards to the internal space I had for positioning the various electrical components that were needed, due to the size constraints for the outer dimensions of the product. I overcame this challenge coming up with creative solutions for positioning the various electrical components and closely collaborating with the electrical designers.
As far as I am aware this is the smallest pipeline mapping tool available. It is similar in size to a soda can.
IMU Sled for Surveying a 54-inch Diameter Pipe
The purpose of this sled is to allow two surveyors to map a 54-inch diameter pipeline while also keeping the sled as centered as possible for the entire survey.
For this project I was given only a few hours to design a sled which would be easy for the surveyors to keep centered, could be disassembled to fit through a 24-inch diameter access hole, and could be fabricated by the shop workers (in the company's oil-field equipment repair shop) the same day using only materials and tools that they had on-hand.
I accomplished this task by canting the rear two wheels so that they were perpendicular to the inside surface of the pipe and by collaborating with the shop foreman as well as the head of survey operations.
The sled I designed was finished being fabricated before 5pm and the survey crew did not experience any issues fitting the sled through the access hole or when they were using it during the survey.