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Team
4 Classmates
Timeline
Spring 2020
My Role
Mainspring, Gear Train, &
Sensors
Marine Chronometer
Challenge
Design and 3D-print the most accurate, longest-lasting, and robust mechanical chronometer based on the 1730 original.
Overview
Spring 2020 was the first school term to take place during virtually Covid-19, and in order to teach Computer-Aided Design and Manufacturing our professors decided to focus on 3D-printing. The engineering school shipped us a 3D printer and provided access to 3DExperience, a virtual and collaborative version of SolidWorks. The first half of the term was spent getting familiar with basic prints on the Ender3 printers and calibrating the printers, and then progressively working on more complex designs. This culminated in two final projects: a fidget spinner and a marine chronometer.
Filament guide: a printer improvement.
Printer mishap: One of many setbacks when calibrating the printer.
Fidget Spinner: My final fidget spinner design for the smaller of the two final design projects.
Final Design
For the final project, we competed as 6 groups with 5 students each to design and 3D-print the most accurate, robust, and long-lasting mechanical chronometer. As the ENGS 146 website explains, a marine chronometer is "an extremely accurate clock which is designed to be very stable and reliable in its operation, even while operating on the deck of a rolling ship at sea. In order to test each of these parameters, the instructors created code which transformed our printer beds into rolling ships, which pitched more and more over time, and we wound up our clocks and calculated the interval between ticks and the duration of ticking for each of our clocks.
Every mechanical chronometer requires the same basic components:
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Mainspring - to store and provide power to the clock.
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Escapement - to regulate the motion of the clock.
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Balance Wheel - to provide mass to negate irregular periods.
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Hairspring - to regulate the periodic oscillation of ticking.
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Gear Train - to increase or decrease ticking speed and distribute power.
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Base - to keep all the parts in their designed locations.
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