Group 20 RFP

Request For Proposal

The purpose of the Request For Proposal is to provide the group with a plan for the project as well as provide the group with initial information about the printer. The Work Proposal provides an overview of how the group plans to disassemble and reassemble the printer, while the Management Proposal provides a timeline for the group to follow to complete the project on time. The Management Proposal also details what each group member is responsible for during the project. The Initial Product Assessment helps to familiarize the group with the printer by discussing certain aspects of the printer's function and design.

Work Proposal

The main purpose of this proposal is to ascertain what tasks need to be completed over the course of the Reverse Engineering Project, what materials will be necessary to complete them, what challenges our group will face, and ways to overcome them.

Group Strengths and Weaknesses

Among our group’s collective strengths is basic knowledge of an extensive range of software, including AutoDesk Inventor, Photoshop, iMovie and Macromedia Flash. We also have some knowledge of HTML, which will be of some assistance while coding our group’s wiki. Members of our group also have experience in disassembling and repairing small electronics such as cell phones and laptops, which will make the disassembly and reassembly of the product easier.

Among our groups weaknesses is the fact that only one member of our group has any knowledge of three dimensional drafting programs, and no one in our group has extensive experience with such a program. Another weakness arises in our conflicting work and class schedules- we are never all available during any lab hours and even run into scheduling conflicts when meeting later in the evening.

Challenges To Dissassembly

We anticipate the quantity of small parts and components in the HP Deskjet 960c to be one of our largest challenges. Small pieces require deft hands and more skill than their larger counterparts. They are also difficult to handle and keep track of, in addition to being very easy to break. We expect to encounter many screws and other pieces of a similar size. In order to keep them organized and to mitigate the possibility of forgetting what must be returned to where during reassembly, our group plans to take many photographs and to store the pieces in a bait box.

During removal of the screws, caution is necessary to prevent them from becoming stripped, and during reassembly to prevent them from being overtightened. Among the small pieces are also a number of springs. During disassembly we must be careful not to deform the springs and also ensure that they do not get a chance to pull or push other pieces out of place before we are able to make careful note of their position.

Challenges we anticipate with the larger pieces of the printer are mostly centered around the plastic housing, which appears to be assembled in such a way that is not meant to be taken apart. Care is necessary to ensure that the casing is not broken.

As the printer contains electrical components, we also plan to take anti-static precautions during disassembly and reassembly such as working on a wooden or plastic surface away from any carpeting, as well as grounding ourselves before touching any of the components.

Estimated Duration of Dissassembly

We believe it will take a maximum of three hours to disassemble our product. We do not expect the printer to take long to disassemble as it does not have very many components, and its components are not very complicated. The printer is mainly composed of a plastic casing, an internal circuit board, two motors, a paper feeder, a head stepper and a mechanical belt assembly. Other than disassembling mechanical components like the belt setup and the paper feeder, which may have springs, it should not take very long to disassemble. We are providing three hours for disassembly as printers are usually not meant to be taken apart. We expect some of the screws may be in inconvenient or hard to reach locations or for certain parts of the plastic assembly to have been snapped together and be difficult to pry apart without damage.

Plan for Disassembly

Tools

• Torx 8 and 10 screwdrivers- Needed to remove Torx screws from printer
• Phillips screwdrivers- Needed to remove Phillips head screws from printer
• Pry tool- Needed to help pull apart plastic casing of printer in such a way as to not damage casing for future use
• Pliers- Needed to help pull out components of printer that are not easily accessible

Steps

• Disconnect all source of external power
• Remove ink cartridges
• Remove print head assembly, using tools as necessary
• Take apart plastic casing, using tools as necessary
• Remove rollers and motors as well as any other small internal components as they become visible, using tools as necessary

Management Proposal

A management proposal is necessary so that all group members know what is expected of them and when it is required. As part of our management plan, Group 20 has decided to meet on Monday nights at 8 PM in the Capen Library to establish due dates and check on the progress of individual elements of each gate. We have assigned roles and tasks to each individual member, but we have also determined elements of the project that all members will work together to complete. The full semester plan that will be used to ensure every task is completed on time is outlined below in Figure 1: Gantt Chart.

Main Point of Contact
The main point of contact for group 20 is Kayla Kisenwether, and she can be reached here.

Group Member Responsibilities

All group members will be responsible for completing sections of each gate required for the project, as well as taking part in the dissection and reassembly of our HP printer. In addition to these tasks and anything else that takes place at group meetings, individuals of the group also have more specific responsibilities, which are outlined below.

• Andrew (Research Leader)- In the role of Research Leader, Andrew is responsible for conducting the primary research the group may need, which may pertain to anything from product specifications, materials, function or history. He is also responsible for fact checking and verifying the accuracy of sources.
  

• Kayla (Communication Liaison, Main Point of Contact, Presentation Manager)- As Communication Liason, Kayla is responsible for handling all communications between group members, such as sending out reminders about group meetings or due dates, as well as ensuring that all members are up-to-date on the status of the project and have all materials necessary to complete their tasks. As Presentation Manager, Kayla's roles include proofreading all submitted materials and gathering or creating necessary videos, photos and animations. She is also responsible for managing and coordination efforts on the final oral presentation.
  

• Jonathan (Dissection Leader)- As Dissection Manager, Jonathan will lead the group in the dissection of their product and determine a way of organizing parts during this process so everything can be put back together smoothly.

• Matt (3-D Model Developer)- Matt will be responsible for creating solid models of components taken from the printer in Autodesk Inventor.

• Tim (Group Leader, Wiki Developer)- As the group leader, Tim will be responsible for organizing and running meetings, assigning tasks for the group to accomplish, making sure everyone else is fulfilling their responsibilities, and checking over all work before it is posted on the web page. Also, as the web page developer, Tim will oversee all postings on the Wiki page and make final edits and updates.
  
  

Conflict Resolution

• If a conflict should arise, the following steps will be taken in order to bring about a resolution
  

1. Conflict will be brought up to the Group Leader either with an email or in person at a group meeting

2. At the next group meeting, conflict will be discussed among all of the group members, and thoughts on how to resolve the conflict will be brought up by group members

3. A solution will be decided on within the group, with the group leader having final say in the resolution

4. If conflict continues to persist, the offending group member will be asked to leave the group meeting until he or she decides to follow the resolution outlined within the group

5. If group member refuses to follow these steps and continues to cause problems, appropriate authority figures, such as the professor, will be notified and further action will be taken from there

Figure 1: Gantt Chart

The Gantt Chart outlines how the group plans on managing its time throughout the 5 gates. By following this outline, the group plans on having every gate completed on time and in a professional manner on the Wiki page.

Initial Product Assessment

The main purpose with the Initial Product Assessment is to help the group become more familiar with the printer, so that as we disassemble the printer, we are more comfortable with what steps we are taking. This assessment will also help later in the project as we analyze the parts of the printer; the more we know about the printer as a group, the more we will be able to analyze and discuss.

Product Use

The intended use of the HP Deskjet 960c is to print text and images on paper media of varying types and sizes. Items that can be printed by this device include photos, reports, tables, graphs, letters and even iron-on fabric transfers. This particular printer is intended for home usage- it does not approach the print quality or speed needed in a professional printer. The Deskjet 920c is best suited to family use, or use in a home office or perhaps small business. This printer is not an all-in-one device as most home printers released recently are- it cannot scan documents or make copies. It's only function is printing, and only from information received from a computer via a Parallel or Universal Serial Bus (USB) port.

How The Product Works

The HP DeskJet 920C works by receiving data that has been converted into a format the printer can read by a driver from a computer through either a parallel or USB cable. Once the printer has received the data, it is stored in the printer’s buffer, a storage cache that can range in size from 512 kilobytes to 16 Megabytes. This ensures that the printer does not have to wait to receive data from the computer as it is printing- it has all of the data ready and at its disposal. When the printer is ready, a motor activates, turning a roller and drawing paper into the printer from the paper tray. Soon the front edge of the paper reaches the location beneath the print head assembly, where the ink cartridges and nozzles that are used to spray ink over the paper are located. At this point the head stepper motor begins to move the belt that attaches it to the print head assembly, moving the ink cartridges and nozzles back and forth across the paper as the roller motor slowly advances the paper forward. The print head assembly and the paper then move in a synchronized manner until the last of the ink is sprayed onto the bottom of the page and the paper is ejected from the printer.

The types of energy utilized by the printer are electrical and mechanical energy. Electrical energy from a standard wall outlet is transferred into the printer, where it is used powers the circuit board primarily to power the motors that move the paper and the print head assembly.

Current Condition of Product

The inkjet printer currently works. As far as we can tell there are no errors that occur while running the printer. We were not able to print out a sheet from it due to the fact that we did not have a Parallel cable to connect the printer to a computer. When the printer was plugged in, the power indicator light lit up, the print head moved back and forth and the motors for the rollers could be heard moving. We believe that the printer is fully functional, with the possible exception of the cartridges being out of ink or the print heads being clogged.

Product Complexity

Overall, the Deskjet 920c is not very complex. On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being a basic black and white printer with no options other than printing documents, and ten being a commercial all-in-one printer, the HP Deskjet 960c would rank as a 3. The components that are used in the printer are a print head, ink cartridges, a print head stepper motor, a belt, stabilizer bar, paper tray feeder, rollers, a circuit board, and a Parallel and USB port. Some of these components are more complex than others. A complexity scale for the components would range form a 1 to a 5, with 1 being a basic part that does not move, and 5 being a very complex part with many moving pieces.

The print head assembly would rank as a 4, in that it contains a series of nozzles that project the ink onto the paper. Ink cartridges, on the other hand, are not very complicated and would be given a 1- their job is to hold the ink for the printing process. The print head stepper motor, with a value of 2 is also not very complex- its job only consists of moving the print head across the page. The belt, also a 2, is another simple component, it serves to attach the stepper motor to the print head. Also simple is the stabilizer bar- at a value of 1, its main function is to make sure the print head moves with a precise and controlled motion. The paper tray feeder is very simple and is just a tray which holds the paper before it is fed into the printer by a motor, thus earning a 1 on the complexity scale. The very simple rollers on a printer, with a value of 2, serve only to allow the paper to pass by the printer head assembly. Compared to the other simple, mechanical components, the circuit board is rather complex. This circuit board gets a complexity value of 4 as it controls every function of the printer, from decoding the information sent to the printer from the computer to controlling the movement of the paper and when, how, and what ink is distributed onto the surface of the paper.

Product Materials

Materials present in this product include plastic, silicon in the circuit board, metal (in motors), solder, electrical wiring, copper for contacts and wire, and rubber. Cartridges installed in the printer contain ink. Materials clearly visible would include plastic and the metal contacts of the input ports. Also, the buttons on the printer are clearly visible. Finally, if you were to look psat where the paper is fed into the printer, you can see some of the rollers that are inside the printer. Materials not visible but present include metal, electric wire, silicon, and solder, copper, and plastic fasteners deep within the printer. All of these parts are used to hold the printer together, as well as send signals from one part of the printer to another in order to know what to print and print it properly.

Product Ease of Use

If we had to use this printer, we would be very happy with it. At the time of its release, the HP Deskjet 960c was a very respectable model in the world of printers, mostly for use in the home. With an advertised printing speed of 15 pages per minute, this HP printer provides high quality documents in a timely manner that satisfies what the users of the printer need.

The Hp Deskjet 960c printer is comfortable to use for everyone. The shell of the printer is mostly plastic with no sharp edges for users to get cut on. The buttons on the printer are clearly marked as well as the slot for paper so the user is not intimidated by too many buttons and slots. Also, the instructions for replacing the ink on the inside of the printer are clearly marked with pictures to aid the user.

The Hp Deskjet 960c printer is also easy to understand and operate. After receiving the printer, all the user had to do to make the printer functional was plug in the printer and install the necessary software on their computer. After this, the user now had the option to print any of their documents using this printer. Also, the power button is clearly marked, so the user can be sure the printer is on before trying to print anything. Besides the power button, there are only two other buttons on the printer, so the user will not become confused with too many buttons or knobs and potentially press something that they are not supposed to. Changing the ink is also easy with clearly marked instructions and cartridges that easily snap out when out of ink.

In terms of regular maintenance, the Hp Deskjet 960c only requires a couple of things. First, the ink in the printer needs to be changed whenever it runs out. This is done by lifting up the top flap on the printer, which releases the ink cartridges so they slide out to the center of the printer. Next, the user lifts out the used cartridge and replaces it with the new cartridge as detailed by the written/pictorial instructions. Finally, the user closes the lid and the printer is ready to be used once again. Besides replacing the ink, the only other maintenance required is restocking the paper tray when it runs out and keeping the printer semi-dust and debris free so that the print quality of your documents can remain high.

All of the maintenance items detailed above are very easy to complete. All instructions and slots where things are placed are clearly marked so that even a user with little printer experience can perform the maintenance. The easy use of this printer, combined with its small amount of required maintenance and comfortable design, all make the HP Deskjet 960c Printer a very nice printer to own and use.

Product Alternatives

The HP Deskjet 960c is an inkjet printer that was introduced by Hewlett Packard in 2001. At the time, its manufacturer’s suggested retail price was $299, placing it in the category of mid-range home inkjet. The Deskjet 960c has an advertised printing speed of 15 pages per minute in black and white text mode, and a print resolution of 2,400 x 1,200 dots per inch^[1].

The alternatives to this printer are other inkjet printers, dedicated photo inkjet printers and low-end laser printers. Dedicated photo inkjet printers are known for the quality of images that they produce but are useless or inefficient for producing text documents. Laser printers are known for their speed and high print quality, but in 2001, the only laser printers in this price range could only print in black and white, making them useless for images.

The Deskjet 960c, like other mid-range inkjet printers at the time, was meant to fill the gap between dedicated photo printers and low end laser printers. HP strove for laser-quality text printing at laser-quality speeds but on the less expensive inkjet platform. From reviews, it appears that the 960c did in fact print very high quality text, though not laser quality, and had a print speed closer to 8 pages per minute in draft mode^[2], which is one-third the speed of a laser printer produced the same year. For higher quality text, the print speed dropped down to four pages per minute^[2]. In general, inkjet printers have a much lower initial cost than laser printers, at an expense of speed and print quality, while laser printers have lower operating costs, especially in circumstances with large volumes of print jobs. In the case of the Deskjet 960c, a tri-color ink cartridge cost fifty five dollars in 2001^[1],and could print roughly two hundred and twenty pages, for a cost of approximately thirty two cents per page^[2]- much more than the estimated three cent cost of a similar page produced by a laser printer.

Return to Main Page

References

^[1] Smart Computing
^[2] Tom's Hardware