Redesign of Turntable Subsystem
to improve deflection values while maintaining weight and manufacturing costs.
The original turntable assembly allowed too much deflection in critical areas. upwards of 3/4" when loaded with maximum allowable load. This was deemed unacceptable in a commercial environment since it would cause alignment issues with pallet transfers, and far too much programming to correct for the deflection.
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In order to improve the performance of the turntable subsystem, an exhaustive FEA study needed to be performed on the original turntable assembly, and the results compared to the tested values. To acheieve the same results as the IRL values, it was deemed that a 150% weight value should be used in the FEA software. an Excel document was used to record deflection and stress in key areas of the model. Incremental changes were made to the model and the values recorded. Each change that produced a 10% or better improvement in a given area would be kept in the next iteration.
Once a design was finalized based on a 10% or better improvement in deflection values, CAD drawings were created and issued for manufacture at a local vendor. First article assembly was completed by vendor and made available for testing. The results of the physical test exceeded the results of the simulated test. This was so apparent in the construction of the revised turntable that the vendor felt confident enough to finish manufacturing components for the assembly before the first article was completed.