Design of the tripod polishing machine

Abstract

This design report will cover all the major steps in the conceptual and developmental design of the polishing machine. It is chosen after careful study of the polishing machine now on the market, which has numerous constraints. The current polishing machines are very difficult to use. It takes an expert one or two months to polish a single sample. Due to the fact that the required thickness is I 00 nm, the user has to stop the machine every few minutes to measure the size of the specimen using an inverted microscope. If the required size has not been reached, the polishing process continues. The user has to hold the polishing machine throughout the polishing process, which makes it very inconvenient. In Chapter One, Conceptual Design, springs are selected for position locking, and an inductive transducer is chosen for thickness measurement. Chapter Two outlines the main and auxiliary functions of the polishing machine concept to be fulfilled. Analytical methods are utilized for the determination of all the various parameters that define the optimization layout and the components design of the Tripod Polisher (TP). After finite modeling of the TP using the SDRC I-DEAS software package, it is found that none of the components will fail due to the applied loading for a minimum of two million cycles. This leads one to the conclusion that the selection of the materials and geometries of the components are successful. In addition, the results of the finite element modeling prove the reliability of the Tripod Polisher. There will be no resonance since vibrations of the polishing wheel do not move the TP within the same frequency. The Tripod Polisher will make thinning any non-biological sample down to Transmission Electron Microscope size relatively easy to accomplish. The cost should not exceed $1,500. The device should be compact, and it should be user friendly by not requiring the user to hold the Tripod Polisher (TP) during the polishing process. Additionally, it will have automatic shut-off.

Notes

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Thesis Completion

1995

Semester

Spring

Advisor

Nayfeh, Jamal F.

Degree

Bachelor of Science (B.S.)

College

College of Engineering

Degree Program

Mechanical Engineering

Subjects

Dissertations, Academic -- Engineering;Engineering -- Dissertations, Academic

Format

Print

Identifier

DP0021438

Language

English

Access Status

Open Access

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Document Type

Honors in the Major Thesis

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