Curtiss Wright Shot Nozzle Design Wins Best Project at Spring Expo

At the Spring Expo held on May 5 the Curtiss Wright Shot Nozzle Design won the best project award.

The objective of the Curtiss-Wright Nozzle Design project was to design and manufacture a shot peening apparatus to be used to test shot peening nozzles. Through this testing, data was compiled and synthesized to show the relations of air flow, shot flow, nozzle geometry, loading type, saturation time, and shot intensity. In order to achieve this goal, a sand blasting cabinet was modified to endure the shot peening process, equipped with sensors for air pressure, controllers for air flow and shot flow, and outfitted with gravity fed and pressure pot feed systems. These control variables mentioned before are controlled using a touchscreen display, which communicates to several microcontrollers. Several hundred controlled tests were performed by shot peening Almen strips. Statistical analysis was then executed using Minitab in order to draw conclusions about how the controlled variables effect shot intensity.

Team members were: Nathaniel Derby (MEGR), Bryan Foray (MEGR), Jamie Halford (MEET), Dylan Huegel (MEGR), Jace Redmond (MEGR), Yonas Teklearegay (MEGR)

The faculty mentor was Praveen Ramaprabhu (MEGR) and the Curtiss Wright technical representative was Steve Smith.