Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2018

Department

Mechanical Engineering Technology

Committee Chair

Dr. Craig Johnson

Second Committee Member

Professor Roger Beardsley

Third Committee Member

Professor Charles Pringle

Abstract

Previous students from the Mechanical Engineering Technology program came up with a method to help raise funds and awareness for the program. The idea was to manufacture and sell CWU bottle openers. However, a more efficient manufacturing method was needed. The aspect of the process that would have the most impact on the manufacturing time and material efficiency was the CNC machining of the parts. There were many potential variables to change to improve the process, but the main changes were to the cutter speeds and stock material size. Consequently, the changes made to stock material size reduced the number of operations to be done at the CNC and allowed for multiple parts to be nested into one stock piece. The new method produces three parts per cycle as opposed to one and takes less time than the original cycle time for producing only one part. The new method can produce 3.5 times more parts in an hour. In addition to the improved machine time efficiency, there is less wasted material in the new method. Since the stock thickness was reduced to net thickness, less material needs to be removed and therefore there is more than 10% less wasted material.

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