​Kristen Heaton
Spring 2018 - Design Four/Capstone Semester Two
A semester of concept generation and cardboard aided drawing (CAD).
During the spring semester of 2018, I had the opportunity to serve and grow as the project manager of my capstone team. In this semester, I assisted in the functioning of my team through the establishment of agendas and leading team meetings. Also in this management role, I acted as the liaison between my team to our client, Michael Scrogham, and our advisor, Dr. Justin Henriques. This semester included project scope refinement, interviews, early material selection, benchmarking, concept generation, a cardboard prototype, and the presentation of our work to the annual Madison Engineering showcase. I encourage you to read more of the accomplishments of this semester below.
Project Scope
Over many Friday afternoon coffees throughout the semester, we discovered what MAAP Coffee wanted the most for their roaster. A few of the features that were to be a must on the final product included the ability of the roaster to roast a 3.5 pound batch of coffee, have low maintenance with accompanying service and owner's manuals, an appearance that integrates characteristics of some of the vehicles at MAAP, and mechanical controls to allow for user immersion.
Concept Sketches
As part of the concept development methods learned in the design IV curriculum as well as developing our own concepts outside of class, we generated a total of more than fifty concepts for the roaster. These concepts were either fully fledged roasters, or served a function of a coffee roasting machine. My favorite design methods that I got to employ were design by analogy and TRIZ for the ways they made me look at the system of a coffee roasting machine differently.
Cardboard Prototypes
One of my favorite parts of the spring semester was using cardboard to create mock-ups of portions of the roaster. This was an informative experience for us as a team because we got to experiment with dimensions for our drum and hopper without wasting money on materials. Most of the cardboard that was used was provided by team members or taken from the convenience store located in the basement of our academic building. In the words of one of my professors, Dr. Robert Nagel, this was a use of CAD (cardboard aided drawing).
Interviews
​The interviews that were conducted this semester related to material and component selection. One of the interviews I had was with Dr. Samuel Morton, in which I wondered about heating elements and insulation used in cooking applications. Another interview with Dr. Morton, along with two of my fellow capstone members, asked about temperature control mechanisms. The most significant part of our learning in this interview was to find a heating mechanism that could deliver on the control required for coffee bean roasting. One of the staff for the department, George Lovell, also gave us a resource for ordering any electronic and circuitry materials needed. Another interview that my team had was with Scott Padgett, which provided information on safety, ventilation, and motors. Thank you to those listed above and for anyone else that gave the project helpful advice along the way.
Benchmarking
As part of our design process, thirteen different coffee roasting machines were benchmarked. This process looked at manufacture's specification sheets in which information about cost, heat source, batch size capacity, controls, and roasting time was compiled. These insights inspired some of the features for design concepts as well as assisting in client interactions.
Materials
Through research and some of our interviews with Dr. Morton, we began to select final materials that are to be a part of the final roaster. These consisted of 316 stainless steel for all the components that will come into contact with the coffee beans. Additionally, the team selected to use ceramic heating plates to serve the function of heat application. These were to be ordered at the beginning of the fall 2018 semester.
Madison Engineering X-Change
The efforts of the spring semester concluded at the annual Madison Engineering exchange, which showcases projects across all four years of engineering study at James Madison University. As part of our display, we had a full cardboard mock-up of what the eventual roaster will be. This had dimensions of and colors representing the sub-systems, with red being the body of the roaster and silver representing the 316 stainless steel. Another part of this event was our award for 'Great Business Idea', in which we were able to celebrate with our project advisor Dr. Justin Henriques.
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To read our poster that was present at the X-change, click on this button below, which will open as a PDF.
Thank you for reading about this portion of my engineering education experience. If you would like to continue reading about my capstone project, continue by clicking the button to the right.