Redesign of VidirBicycle Merchandising System Skyhook

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Date
2016-12-07
Authors
Ward, Jason
Jackson, Evan
Faller, Fabian
Patriarca, Gil
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The Engineering Design course at the University of Manitoba Faculty of Engineering providesan opportunity for students to take on industry design problems and apply engineering skills andprinciples learned throughout their program. Team 24 consists of Jason Ward, Evan Jackson,Fabian Faller and Gil Patriarca and they have been grouped with Vidir Machine Inc. for theirdesign project. Vidir Machine Inc. manufactures a three tier Bike Merchandising System, or BMS,which can be found in Wal-Mart stores across North America. Vidir Machine Inc. has presenteda design project of analysing and redesigning the Skyhook component of their BMS. The Skyhookis a system of linkages and a shock which allows bikes from the top tier of the BMS to be loweredsuch that a consumer may access the product.The concept development performed by the team explored various alternatives for which consideredthe limitations and constraints of the scope. To evaluate the alternatives, a cost breakdown analysiswas performed, along with advantages and disadvantages of each design. A scoring matrix and houseof quality were used to select the main three designs. The exploration for alternatives to the currentgas shock demonstrated that the gas shock is the lowest cost, from all the considered alternatives.The alternatives for the linkage arms assembly concepts had to be compatible with the gas shock,this eliminated many of the explored concepts.Eventually 3 main concepts were chosen: Two Arm Scissor with gas shock Design, Single SlidingArm with gas shock Design, Manufacturing redesign of the current skyhook. The main three designswere presented to the customer whom chose which of these three designs was to proceed to detaileddesign stage.Vidir and the team chose to proceed with a improved manufacturing methodology of theircurrent skyhook design. The team identified the main beam where the most manufacturingimprovements can be made. The current Vidir design is comprised of a U-channel, square tube,several plates, and arms that are all welded together. Through our re-design of the main beam wehave eliminated the need for the square tube and many of the plates. Our design uses a smallerU-channel that now runs the full length of the beam and the rear hole locations for the guidetrack is now...
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