You are here
ES 240 Project: Impact Strength of a Hand-Made Bashring
[img_assist|nid=4271|title=Finished Bashring|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=100|height=75][img_assist|nid=4272|title=Unfinished Bashring Mounted on Crank|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=100|height=75]
Project Description:
When I was an undergraduate, I spent a lot of time in the machine shop making various things. One day I decided to make a part for my bike, because I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for in stores. The part is a "bashring," which is designed to protect the front gears of a bicycle. On certain types of bikes, such as those designed for trials mountain biking , the bashring is constantly coming into contact with rocks, walls, benches, etc. Without a bashring, the front gears would quickly become damaged beyond repair.
FEM's Contribution:
When I decided to make the ring, I pulled a block of aluminum out of the shop's scrap pile and started milling. I didn't "design" it in the mechanical engineering sense (despite my major...). Instead, I eyeballed most of the measurements. I relied on my intuition to create a ring that was "beefy enough" for its application, without being too heavy. I have always wanted to formally analyze the bashring to see how strong it is, and to see whether my intuition served me well. This is the perfect opportunity!
Journal Article:
Well, the research on mountain bike bashrings is pretty thin...
However, this article on aluminum anodization pore formation is interesting. It advances a theoretical framework for predicting and designing pore sizes in aluminum anodization layers. I anodized my bashring when I finished machining it; the deep color is the result of lots of blue dye filling the large pores in the ring's crystal layer.
Attachment | Size |
---|---|
ES240FinalProjectPresentation.ppt | 2.75 MB |
ES240FinalProjectPresentation.pdf | 2.65 MB |
ES240FinalProjectReport.pdf | 1.25 MB |
- milnes's blog
- Log in or register to post comments
- 4618 reads
Recent comments