CEB Press Future Work

2017

Mechanical

• Make chamber cover plates smaller.
• Control left to right motion of primary arms vs legs
• Add 1" of space to drawer guides
• Add bottom washers to 3D printed pieces
• design out vertuval degrees of freedom on chamber cover so that drawer spacing is tighter
• Include a press foot ovee-height prevention mechanism
• Remove one of the 2 degrees of freedom for tightening the chamber cover

Controller

• 3D Printed Enclosure
• CAD of all electrical components
• CAD of all solenoid valve components
• Open Source Valve Design - needs Hydraulic Component Design SME

Overall

1. Simplify frame to arms mounting to eliminate degrees of freedom in horizontal direction
2. Eliminate or limit degrees of freedom on the compression chamber cover
3. Modify arm mounting to decouple arm dependency from front plates of frame
4. Reduce arms to 4x4 angle, from 4x6 angle
5. Catastrophic fault correction - the only catastrophic (meaning it takes 3 hours to correct, or as little as 2 hours if started from scratch - is when the press foot location ends up above the table, and therefore the drawer cannot move. This is easy to correct in software, but cannot be corrected easily in manual control operation. Thus, the geometry must be corrected in hardware. The only thing left is to use something like 3/4" steel plate instead of 1" if the press foot comes out 1/4" too far up, and then spacers are used to correct the rest. Spacers can be cut from aluminum flashing, or any spacer material.
6. Gundam Build Instructions - http://opensourceecology.org/creativity-cooperation-stay-strong/

Before, During, and After Units

• Before the workshop - present people with instructions for downloading FreeCAD and WebGL designs for full 3D manipulations, including exploded part animations. Provide LAIs, EPAs. Provide design rationales, workflow instructions. Even an intro video to manage expectations, such as: are you ready? No you're not...unless... Send this out 2 weeks beforehand so people can study it. This will prevent any issues with people who are looking for additional understanding, but where time does not allow for more in depth study during the workshop - as the workshop is primarily hands-on - and the theory can be studied beforehand or after.
• Before unit - literally an XM Workshop Manual needs to be prepared - where those who have time to study can do so.
• Before unit - leaders who actaully read the manual - are encouraged to step up to leadership positions
• During pre-workshop unit - design welding, torching, and grinding tests, where people go at it, and in 1 hour, speed-date a welder, torch, grinder, drill press, and other tools.
• Before - design an open source welder, and possible Power Tool Construction Set which relies heavily on thick ABS-metal composite parts (including for band saws, etc)
• Develop the heated build chamber ABS printer for heavy parts.

2016

I can simply request that he do the things that REALLY add value, which are:

1. Do all 3D CAD work in FreeCAD
2. Generate toolpath files for CNC cutting of metal for the using FreeCAD Path Module
3. Update manual-built machine to the new drawer guides. That means redesign of machine width.
4. Update new machine (CNC version) for the most robust drawer guide system.
5. Work out the control scheme for 30 gpm, which is the full power operation. Right now it crashes after 20 gpm and 6 full bricks per minute. The upper pressing rate should be at least 8 full bricks and at least 10 smaller bricks.
6. Update the code for testing mode and pressing mode. 6b. Machine code simulator.
7. Redesign the controller for the bugs in it (spacing too tight) to allow for a DIY version
8. Produce a professionally fabricated turnkey controller + enclosure (built and populated by a circuit fab)
9. Design a proper mounting system for the controller
10. Resolve the shaker issue. Most of our machines blew out the shaker motor
11. Develop reliable hydraulics sourcing of main pressing cylinder. Until now, it's hit or miss whether we can find a hydraulic cylinder. Many times it's out of stock from Baileys, which means making modifications for mounting other cylinders - a good waste of time.
12. Update hydraulics diagrams to reflect the current version.
13. Optimize the angle of repose on the hopper.
14. Develop a version that does not use the shaker motor, but a manual shaker, thus saving about $700 in machine cost
15. Develop an economy version that uses a manual valve, not the automated controller, thereby getting the cost to more like $3000 for the machine if built for the manual version.
16. Create a BOM for different countries in a prioritized order of countries. (USA, Canada, Mexico, Spain, etc.)
17. Create a Distributive Enterprise Manual publication that discusses: (1) how to produce the machines in an Extreme Manufacturing workshop setting; (2) how to produce the machine by taking the plans to a professional fabricator, including the controller; (3) complete set of instructions for a DIY build, for both CNC cut and non-CNC versions; (4) complete set of instructions for an economy version with manual controls, non-CNC version, with 20 GPM limit
18. Collaborate with the India people, who are currently developing manufacturing of the automatic CEB press.

Otherwise, the instructionals of 2014 are good enough for the souped up CNC version, outside of polishing. The real work lies in updating the main (18) items/needs above. The main issues currently are the systems issues as above - primarily tech design points.

Production of Non Rectangular Prism Shapes

• This would be useful for arches/curves, building block like interconnecting blocks, and other useful nonstandard shapes
• This would be done by CEB Press Molds

Potential Master's Thesis Work

The machine needs development. For a Master's Thesis, there is a number of technical developments to be made. Advanced topics would include designing and building an open source manual hydraulic control valve or electric solenoid valve. The latter is $800 for the current machine, but could be produced for $200 if open source. Easier topics would be to refine some of the design elements. Other topics could include more of a production engineering / product development angle: developing the machine for production, especially for flexible fabrication - and turning it to a marketable product. On the controls front, there is the controller and code to refine, and on the CAE side, there is structural analysis to be done. Further, we are developing the CNC torch table for automated production of the machine, including oxyhydrogen cutting for low resource environments which may not have acetylene, but do have access to water for generating oxyhydrogen - such as Africa.