J1 Project

In the first semester of our junior year (J1) is the Iron Range Engineering (IRE) lingo for the first project which all students participate in.  There are many projects to choose from, and each student decides for themselves which one is most interesting.  Dan Schmitz and I chose an ergonomic based project from a company out of Hibbing, MN named Design Manufacture and Remanufacture (DMR) owned by Detroit Diesel. 

One important thing that DMR does is repair the Detroit Diesel Electronic Control (DDEC) units which occasionally fail throughout the world.  Detroit Diesel engines are found in ships, trains, semi-trucks, and various other engine applications.  The DDEC unit is the computer brain box which experience tough conditions:  greasy, grimy, hot, wet, and salty environments.  When, for whatever reason, they fail, then DMR repairs them if they are at all in worthy condition to even be repaired.

DMR pries the tops off in order to expose the circuitry that is in need of repair.  The ergonomic issues that DMR is experiencing are due to employees repetitively removing these tops with screw drivers and pry bars.  Dan and I designed a system to use a hydraulic jack to remove the DDEC top.  Our Final Design Review (FDR) was today at IRE in front of the students and teachers; presenting a power point and demonstrating our prototype.

This project was a great learning experience and a lot of fun.  Tomorrow we have our client presentation at 2:00 pm.  Wish us luck and thanks for reading.

Jim McCluskey