Group 35 - Leaf Blower Engine gate1
Work Proposal
Our plan for reverse engineering will start with disassembly of the engine. We will first remove all exterior components. Once the engine is broken down to its main components, we can begin complete disassembly. The tools required for this are flathead and Phillips head screw drivers of various sizes, metric sockets and wrench set, needle nose pliers, hex keys, and allen keys, all of various sizes. The whole process of disassembly should not take longer than one to two hours, as it is a small engine. The group has members that are capable of the process, however, the ones that aren’t, will be able to learn as we go. We don’t expect to encounter any shortcomings during the disassembly
Group Advantages
- Small engine experience
- Diversity
- Teamwork and communications
Group Disadvantages
- No solid modeling experience
- Nor previous wiki page editing experience
- Had to make sacrifices such as missing work in order to have meetings and meet deadlines
Management Proposal
Our group plans to manage our work by meeting regularly, and working consistently. Our planned meeting times thus far are Tuesday at 3:30 pm, Thursday at 4:30 pm, and Wednesdays after 5 pm. All meetings will be held in the dissection lab or the library. Our plan to meet the project requirements are discussed in the Gantt chart provided. The members in charge of assembly and disassembly are Jeff Scipioni and Chandrishka J De Silva. Our group member in charge of the Wikipedia page will be Seth Hughes, and the group leaders in charge of time management and overview are Gennady Agapov and Zelu Xu.
Group Roles
- Gennady Agapov: Wiki Page Editor and Gantt Chart
- Seth Hughes: Coordination and Time Management
- Zelu Xu: Wiki Page Editor
- Jeff Scipioni: Product Assembly and Disassembly
- Chandrishka J. De Silva: Wiki Page Editor
Inital Product Assessment
The intended use of this product is to clear leaves and other debris from a lawn or surrounding property. The leaf blower has both professional and residential applications. Professionally, its widely used in the landscaping world. Residentially, its used to maintain cleanliness around the home. The leaf blower has only one function and that is to clear debris. Aside form this, it has no other practical functions.
A person manually pulls the rip cord which simultaneously draws an air, oil, fuel mixture into the cylinder and creates a spark. The cylinder is compressed. Combustion occurs when the compressed mixture is ignited by the spark. The explosion causes motion in the cylinder which creates motion. This motion turns the shaft which is connected to the fan creating an air flow. Mechanical work comes from the pulling of the rip cord, the cylinder, the turning of the shaft and the turning of the fan. Electrical energy comes from the coil and magnets. Mechanical energy which draws in the fuel and compressed the cylinder is transformed to chemical energy when the mixture is ignited. This chemical combustion returns to mechanical energy pushing back the cylinder, which turns the shaft and fan. A portion of all these energies is transformed into heat energy. The coil and magnet electrical energy which produces the spark is transformed into chemical energy to ignite the mixture.
The leaf blower engine is not currently functioning due to the lack of various components such as the rip cord, casing, and kill switch. It is impossible to tell how well the leaf blower runs dues to the lack of critical components. We did not observe and potential problems other than the missing of certain components.
If we were to look at this product on a scale of complexity, it would be seen as about a two or three out of ten. A zero would be something like an air compressor machine, where a ten would include items like an automobile engine. Twelve components were observed. These include the spark plug, exhaust, cylinder, piston, connecting rod, crank, rip cord, carburetor, gas tank, air filter, cover piece, and the shaft. In terms of complexity the carburetor is the most intricate due to its numerous sub components. Simplest would be the cover piece which stays in place, holding components together. Components such as the crank, spark plug, exhaust, cylinder and piston are relatively simple. Slightly less complex than these include the connecting rod, pull cord, gas tank, filter and shaft.
Aluminum, plastic, steel, rubber, ceramic, copper, and foam make up the material used to manufacture the leaf blower engine. All these materials are clearly visible. Based on our observations we believe all the listed materials are used for the internal workings of the leaf blower engine.
We would be happy using this product due to its efficiency and accessibility. The product is comfortable to use compared to a rake. The product is relatively user friendly. It must be supplied with a sufficient amount of fuel, regular maintenance is necessary and the air filter must be occasionally changed.
Comparative products to the leaf blower include the rake and back pack leaf blowers. The rake requires more manual labor as there are no moving parts. The back pack leaf blower is more powerful than the traditional leaf blower. For an ordinary leaf blower one would expect to pay between fifty and one hundred dollars. A rake can be purchased for roughly ten dollars. The back pack leaf blower, however, can cost up to four hundred dollars. The advantages to using a rake include low maintenance of the product and its relatively inexpensive. The back pack leaf blower is much more powerful than an ordinary leaf blower, which means work can be done more effectively. The disadvantages of using a rake include the fact that its labor intensive and much slower than with a leaf blower. A back pack leaf blower is very costly and heavy.
