East Carolina University : Research and Creative Achievement Week 2012
Plantar Flexion Device, Thomas Deaton, William James, Adam Stephenson, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 Research conducted on patients diagnosed with peripheral artery disease (PAD) has shown that it directly affects the motion of plantar flexion (Wang, 2008). Plantar flexion is the motion in which the angle between the top of the foot and shin is increased. PAD is a relatively common circulation problem that is caused when arteries are narrowed by a buildup of plaque. If the disease is caught early enough it can be treated through medicine and simple therapy. Otherwise severe and untreated cases can result in surgery or amputation. Our team is designing a device that can be used to effectively diagnose patients with PAD by stabilizing the leg causing only the calf muscle to generate the plantar flexion. With a pure plantar flexion motion occurring, the device will be able to use the force being applied by the foot to calculate the power a patient is capable of producing. A physician will be able to use the power data from this device and compare it to an established benchmark which will tell them whether the patient potential meets the threshold of being diagnosed with peripheral artery disease. Our device will be programmable through a computer system to enable the clinician to change the force applied to the foot while a test is being conducted. Several design alternatives such as a pneumatic cylinder; motorized weight system, variable spring, and an electromagnetic braking system have been evaluated for implementation. Based on the analysis of the design alternatives, currently our team believes that the electromagnetic brake design will be the optimal solution.
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DSM Dyneema Warehouse Logistics, R. Adam O'Connor, Jonathan C. Raynor, Leandro J. Rodriguez, Sean C. Tucker, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC 27858 DSM Dyneema, the client for this capstone project, requires a strategy to optimize warehouse storage and handling redundancy while assuring the minimum inventory of raw material vital for production remains on site. To do this, an accurate inventory of the current warehouse management system was completed, assigning costs to the the current baseline operations. Once this was done, several alternative solutions were produced, which detailed different methods of warehouse organization, including physical location of materials and different organizational systems, e.g. a barcode system. The goal for the fall semester of 2011 was to produce a conceptual design outlining several solutions; the goal for the end of spring semester 2012 is to present a detailed design including exact costs, quotes from vendors and contractors, and implementation of the chosen warehouse layout and material tracking system (barcode system) once a solution is chosen. A Dyneema board will review the solutions put forth by the team and will choose the final design.
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