ABOUT THE CLIENT
Project MFG's overall mission is to evangelize trades as an occupation and work to restore America's technical excellence in manufacturing.
Project MFG has chosen Bedrock Design and Craft, LLC to provide weldment design services. Each project is presented to students and trade professionals in competitions sponsored by Project MFG. The designs are welded by everyone participating and the final weldments are judged at the end of the competition. Participants can earn prizes and notoriety for themselves and their school/trade program.
INTRODUCTION
This project was presented as an emergency quick-turn with a clean sheet of paper to start. Welding competition organizers wanted a challenging weldment design intended for a "nationals"-level competition. Mixed material types were desired to assess competitor's skills in ferrous and non-ferrous materials. The weldments had to include elements to enable pressurizing the internals to assess whether the welders were able to produce air-tight fabrications.
PROJECT SCOPE
This project required conceptual design, solid modeling, top-level assembly drawings, and fabrication drawing detailing. Weld procedure specifications were written by Bedrock and validated by industry experts.
DESIGN PROCESS
Using Autodesk Inventor, Bedrock Design and Craft, LLC quickly conceptualized several designs and presented the concepts via video conference for review with the Project MFG team. The obvious choice was a design based on a simplified Apollo lunar lander. The base and legs are composed of aluminum 6061-T6 and the living quarters are mild carbon steel.
The solid model files were then transformed into the following detailed 2D weldment drawings for fabrication.
FABRICATION AND DELIVERY
Parts were then fabricated by third-party manufacturers, kitted, and delivered to the competition teams for welding.
COMPETITION JUDGES REVIEWING COMPETITOR WELDMENTS
