Team Members & Role:

• Paul Karam
• Gabe Noble Shriver
• Patrick O’Brien
• Brian Peoples
• Jake Thompson

Abstract:

Our team has been tasked with the design and fabrication of a repeatable, pulsing reducing, cost effective, and operator friendly tension rendering system that will utilize a displacement sensor to track vibrations in a cable as it is moved off a reel and onto a payoff machine for twisting and stranding. In practical application, an operator will use a hand-held tension roller that utilizes a load cell, transducing compressive force to be used as an electrical signal. With the proposed design, tension monitoring will be streamlined, removing the need for an operator as well as error that is produced by introducing forces such as friction from the roller to the cable. In addition, the project will serve as a tool to guide further development into adaptive systems such as a tension braking system, where speed reduction of the payoff motor will reflect active tension measurements. Our team seeks to begin fabrication of the tension monitoring system in February, followed by continuous testing for repeatability and reproducibility as compared to a conventional system through the design of experiment model. By May of 2022, the finalized system will be applied to the company sponsor’s key payoff machine with adaptive capabilities to be used on a variety of secondary payoff machines.