A Change

Since the start of IRE, there has always been some direction that has been given to us, the students. There has always been some outside established goals to pursue in almost every aspect of our program. But in the past couple weeks this has started to change. Faculty/mentors no longer make the schedules for the weekly events. The student body has began taking responsibility for our work area, scheduling tours and community service projects, establishing public relations with the community, communicating with student ambassadors of affiliated schools, and leading ourselves with personal learning goals. I think that this has changed the mentality of IRE as a whole. Now we can only let ourselves down. It is a great way for us to improve ourselves professionally, from both an individual and engineering standpoint. I believe this is a step in the right direction for the program, as well as the students. Changes are continually being made to develop and improve Iron Range Engineering.

Proofed by Austin

Lunch Speaker

This weeks lunch speaker was Jim Mayerlle. Jim told us of his work experience at IBM and shared valuable lessons he learned throughout his career. He had a few main points he stressed. They are as follows:

1. Develop your communication skills

2. Expect and be ready for change

3. Get yourself a mentor

4. Distinguish yourself within a team

These are things that we as students and future engineers can use as tools to become better professional people.

Proofed by Deric

GE Challenge

All of us in the GE group are gearing up to attend our first "Lean Manufacturing" session next week at Midwest Electrical in Mankato.
We will be working with existing people from the company along with Mr. Moe Benda of Cirrus Aviation in an attempt to permanently do away with an overhead crane system currently used for mounting wire spools on the feeding lines. Apart from this we are also going to be looking into anything else that can speed up production in order to save the company money in the long run. This should be quite an extensive learning experience for all so if anyone has questions about "Lean", feel free to talk to any of us in the GE group.

Autodesk Inventor

Today at IRE we spent the day in a workshop with a representative from Autodesk. He showed us some basics with using the software as well as some more advaced features and demonstrations. Most of us at IRE have had more recent experience with ProE which was discussed extensively today. As it would seem, Autodesk is a far easier program to work with. Certain features such as ballons, helical sweeps, and bolts are a breeze with Autodesk and take a fraction of the time that the same features take to create and use in ProE. Our presenter, Thom Tremblay was a very competent and helpful guide. He had all the answers to our questions and was good at keeping our interest.

Proofed by Bill Bacon

Fall is Here!

There is a distinct cool, crisp air in the mornings as IRE students head to class. Fall is here, the leaves are changing daily creating a gorgeous combination of colors spread throughout the Iron Range area. Yesterday, some of the students played football in front of the Mesabi campus after class. Things are continuing to evolve at IRE as fast as the leaves are changing. A couple of the reasons for that is the guidance we continue to get from our faculty and the new ideas and suggestions that come with an incoming group of new students.

The United Taconite team is continuing to make progress everyday with the new filter wash system. The past week, most of us have been dedicating time to understanding how nozzles, pipe connections, and pipe lengths effect the pressure of a system. The purpose of that is to determine the approximate maximum pressure our system pump would need to produce. As fall continues to creep in, I would strongly encourage anyone who has a chance, get out and enjoy the fall weather and the fantastic scenery this time of year provides.

Medtronic Project

Composed of Brianna, Erin, Grant, Roth, and myself, our team has been tasked with designing a program for Medtronic's pacemakers.

Scope:  Data is routinely collected from a patient's pacemaker. This data contains information on the patient's heart activity, as well as the activity of the pacemaker. What our group needs to do is create a user interface which can translate and display the pacemaker data for doctors to easily read, as well as output the pacemaker data to the Medtronic database.

As of now, Erin and Brianna are designing the interface of the program, Grant is working on a way to translate the pacemaker data (currently in XML format) into a readable format, and Roth and I need to figure out how to send the translated data to the database.

Proofread by Brianna

If at first you don't succeed... TRY, TRY AGAIN!

So I thought I had an easy task... All I have to do is make a program using C# Visual Studio Computer Programming that opens and imports an XML File. Sounds simple... But wait, what's this? I can't get it to show up on the screen! I went through the program step by step by adding a break point at the button click. It says it opened the file... Where is it?!?! I've tried about a half dozen different codes, and I either can't get them to work, or they all do the same thing... Which is not opening the XML File! With frustration kicking in, I take a break. When I return, I see the program and everything looks right... You guessed it... I get mad again! With no apparent errors on the program I plan on commenting it out (changing it from a code to just words that don't get executed) so I can remember my failure, and start over from scratch. Hopefully I can get this working soon!

Proofread by: Christy Nelson

Filtration -United Taconite Update

It's been a little over 3 weeks since we got our project assignment from our program directors. One of IRE's biggest supporters (United Taconite) needs a better filter bag wash system, IRE students and staff are their answer to solving the problem. The filters are an important process step at the Fairlane plant. They help remove water introduced from grinding crude ore. The crushed ore is pumped into the filter system as slurry with a high percentage of solids (by weight) and after it is filtered a filter cake is left that meets a moisture percentage spec. It is then sent to the balling drums where green pellets are rolled. The group and I are tasked with designing and helping plant engineers implement the new wash system.

Currently the filter bags are getting plugged from different grades of ore being processed through the system. The plugging of the filter bags from accumulating material is causing the plant to "backup", forcing costly shutdowns. Leaving the existing system in place is not an option. IRE students this semester will design a more efficient system at a low cost to the company and make less labor intensive work for their employees. It's going to be a great project that will have a lot of Research and Development go into analyzing the system, while comprehending fluid dynamics concepts with hands on applications.

Proofed by Austin

Third Week of School

Both new and returning students are busy at Iron Range Engineering. The past week, students have been working hard on both their own personal learning and design projects. Our team has currently been working on a project for United Taconite, one of the area mines located between Virginia and Eveleth. Last Thursday, the group, including our mentor Mike Shoberg, visited the mine's pellet plant near Forbes. At the plant, we met with our contacts for the project. Questions were answered, project requirements were determined, and a tour of the existing system took place. They were very welcoming and excited to have us on board for the project. Since then, we have been making schedules and establishing our goals for the design by the end of the semester. Along with the projects, students have been working on developing their own personal learning competencies that they plan to focus on. Each student is different as we all have different areas we want to specialize in. It's hard to believe we are already into the third week of school.

Proofed by Christine

Minnesota Cup Power Trowel Update

After a semester and summer’s worth of work, the Power Trowel Solution Applicator’s ride in the Minnesota Cup has come to an end. The Solution Applicator finished in the Top 3 in the student division. What started as a problem brought by Dan Gebhart of Gebhart Construction to the students of IRE, turned to a summer long experience and learning process. It went from initial idea to prototype to business model and finished with a presentation to ten judges at the Carlton School of Management. Without the help and feedback of those involved, this would not have been possible. It was a learning experience and will allow all of us to better prepare for next year’s competition.

Power Trowel Solution Applicator

Austin Mekash
Tyler Bartek
Alex Learmont
Erin Lamke
Cory Moran
Deric Phillips