2024 COES Design and Research Conference

Utility Pole Turn Roller

Team Members: Jacob Allbritton, Britton Evans, Alexis Haley, Kate McLoughlin

Sponsor: Rett Gatewood, Mechanical Engineer, DIS-TRAN Steel

Advisor: Mr. Michael Theodos, PE

DIS-TRAN Steel is a design and fabrication company that manufactures utility poles and substation structures. A set of utility pole rollers is used when welding details on all sides of a pole that is laid horizontally for these welding operations. DIS-TRAN would like to manufacture these pole rollers in-house, with the goal of reducing cost by 20% and lead time by 50%. The proposed design achieves these reduction goals and adds features for ease of operation. This design increases rotational speed and allows for more precise adjustment to accommodate a range of pole sizes. A scale prototype, which can rotate a 2,000-pound utility pole at a speed of 2 rpm, was manufactured and tested. In addition to the prototype, a full-scale design was developed which has a rotational capacity of 30,000 lbs. By implementing this design, DIS-TRAN Steel gains manufacturing independence, in return for saving time and money.

Lathe Feeding System

Team Members:  Dustin Boudreaux, Ethan Falgout, Christophe Kaplinsky, Steven Lewis

Sponsor: Holly Richardson, Partner, R&H Machine

Advisor: Mr. Ron Gill

R&H Machine is a machining and fabrication company based in Longview, TX, specializing in large machinery primarily for the oil and gas industries. They offer machining, welding, and repair services for equipment used in refineries and oil fields. The goal of our project was to automate the cutting tool of a lathe. One of their largest lathes required manual input to feed the cutting tool, causing strain on the machinist, as some parts can take hours to complete. Our design motorizes the input shaft, eliminating the need for the machinist to manually turn a wheel. With this design in place, we estimate the machinist will spend less than 50% of the original time required to cut a part. Instead, they can periodically inspect the part and adjust the feed rate to ensure proper cutting. Additionally, the lathe will be safer to operate, as machinists will be less fatigued after completing a part. With these improvements, the sponsor expects the lathe’s productivity to double.

Facility Ventilation System

Team Members:  Xavier Brumley, Samuel Klenke, Kieron Montgomery, Levi Savercool

Sponsor: Steve Ladatto, Technical Director, Gordon Inc. & Steven Shugarts, Product Development Specialist, Gordon Inc.

Advisor: Dr. Hisham Hegab

Gordon Incorporated, renowned for its sustainable architectural metal products and custom CNC fabrication capabilities, is experiencing elevated temperatures throughout their facility. These elevated temperatures result in uncomfortable working conditions for the employees during the summer months. To provide a cost effective solution to the hot temperatures, our design proposes the installation of High-Volume-Low-Speed (HVLS) overhead fans, intake louvers, and the strategic placement of existing floor and pole fans. This ventilation solution aims to dramatically enhance convective cooling throughout the facility. The design will ensure that less than 30% of the air at worker height remains stagnant, improving airflow and comfort. By optimizing the cooling system, this project will not only enhance employee comfort but also contribute to increased safety and efficiency, fostering a more productive and healthier work environment.

Countertop Salad Bar

Team Members: Zoey Broussard, Valeria Encina, Blake Inzinna, Oghenemine Regha

Sponsor: Danielle Nelson, CEO & Founder, Freshbar

Advisor: Dr. Kelly Crittenden

FreshBar, a startup located in Shreveport, LA, is focused on innovative food storage solutions with aims to enhance healthy eating habits by making fresh produce more accessible. The objective was to build a prototype Countertop Salad Bar with a user-interactive countertop refrigerator that seeks to decrease food waste and the tendency for fresh ingredients to be forgotten by making fresh produce visible. Utilizing a quiet operating vapor compression refrigeration system, it maintains an adjustable temperature while minimizing energy consumption. The device features a transparent, sealed lid to improve visibility, three interchangeable food container sizes for customizable storage, and an interactive temperature control display for user convenience. Constructed with stainless steel, this device ensures durability while seamlessly integrating into modern kitchens. The prototype will allow FreshBar to showcase the product’s potential to investors, enabling the company to pursue the next round of multi-million-dollar fundraising for large-scale production.

Mobile Log Cleaning System

Team Members:  Justin Borne, Seth Odum, Dempsey Parden, Nick Parker

Sponsor: Alan Williams, Area Manager, Weyerhaeuser

Advisor: Dr. Matthew Young

Weyerhaeuser is one of the largest timberland companies in the US. In the Southeast, they harvest pine, used to manufacture lumber and pulp. During the winter months, a significant quantity of log loads is being rejected by the sawmills due to accumulated mud during the harvesting process. Weyerhaeuser has asked for a quarter-scale model of a mobile log cleaning system that will clean the timber before it is delivered to the sawmill. The proposed design is a cleaner that will mount to the front of a standard delimber machine and use static and rotating brushes. This design will require no additional steps to the harvesting process since the cleaning and delimbing processes will be done simultaneously. The design will clean logs without using water, while minimizing the debarking of the logs. (The bark must remain on the logs to avoid slippage during shipment). By avoiding these rejected trailer loads, Weyerhaeuser will increase harvesting efficiency.

Combined Session and Barnwell Awards

Ergonomic Right-Angle Adapter for Compressed Gas Fittings

Team Members:  Jackson Mayeux, Logan Pertuis, Rhett Finley, Gabriel Robichaux

Sponsor:  Eric Goodman, Engineering Manager, Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals

Advisor: Dr. Kelly Crittenden

Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals is a global pharmaceutical company specializing in branded and generic drugs, as well as active pharmaceutical ingredients. The Port Allen, Louisiana, site produces INOmax® (nitric oxide), a life-saving medical gas stored and processed in compressed gas cylinders. These cylinders require frequent manual valve connections at multiple locations throughout the facility. The current hand-tightening process exposes workers to repetitive wrist acceleration, increasing the risk of cumulative trauma disorders. To address this, our team designed a lightweight gearbox attachment that will be permanently affixed to every connection point. This is accomplished through 90-degree bevel gears, powered by a high-torque electric drill to automate the tightening process. The device weighs less than 2 lbs, fits within a 3-inch space, and applies 35 ft-lbs of closing torque, meeting CGA standards. This solution eliminates manual tool use and reduces connection time by 40%, translating to annual savings of 187.2 labor hours. Additionally, it prevents over-tightening or under-tightening which extends the life of system components. Full-scale implementation is estimated to be within the $200,000 production budget.

High Speed Crack Arrest Electrode System

Team Members:  Emma Agan, Afinju Bailey, Zachary Barron, Erin Peco

Sponsor: Brice Daniel, Engineer, American Electric Power; Dr. Konstantin Dolgan, CEO, LA New Product Development Team

Advisor: Dr. John Matthews

American Electric Power (AEP) is an electric power plant that uses boiler tubes to heat water. Cyclic corrosion fatigue causes cracks to form in the boiler tubes. The current solution is to replace these sections of pipe, which is time consuming and costly. Based on the electroplating research of Dr. Konstantin Dolgan of the LA New Product Development Team, a system was designed to arrest cracks within the pipes, which stops the spread of these cracks. The design focuses on three main measures of success: heating the treatment fluid, a feeding mechanism to pull the electrode cable through the pipes efficiently, as well as accurate and successful electroplating. This system will lessen the number of plant shutdowns and lower the total cost of pipe replacement. Since catastrophic failure due to pipes bursting could negatively affect worker safety, this treatment system will limit the likelihood of pipes bursting, flooding a plant, and causing unscheduled outages.

Cooling Water Intake Plant Removal System

Team Members:  Dawson Mulkey, Parker Robertson, Ana Rodrigues, Norman Pritchard

Sponsor: Jeremy Brimer, Engineer IV, Cleco Power

Advisor: Dr. Michael Swanbom

Cleco Power is an electrical utility company that provides power to about 300,000 Louisiana residents. One of their facilities, Brame Energy Center, uses the lake it sits on to provide cooling water to its three power-generating units. The intakes for this cooling water get clogged by the invasive aquatic plant, hyacinth. Cleco Power contracts an outside service to remove the hyacinth, costing them about $30,000 multiple times a year. Cleco Power sought a less expensive solution that allowed the plant workers to remove the plants themselves. Our design was made to float on the water and attach to the front of the pre-existing plant boat. It uses two reciprocating arms to pull the hyacinth into a container. This container can then separate from the bulk of the machine, be lifted out of the water, and dump the vegetation into a receptacle. By allowing the plant workers to collect the plants, we estimate that the price per removal will decrease to below $13,000. Saving Cleco Power this money decreases costs that would have to be passed to their 300,000 customers.

Interactive Pulley Chair Station

Team Members:  Jobie Cheramie, Joseph Estopinal, Douglas Graham, Kevin Parnell

Sponsor: Eric Sanders, Assistant Director, Sci-Port Discovery Center

Advisor: Dr. Arun Jaganathan

Sci-Port Discovery Center, located in Shreveport LA, is a STEM museum focusing on the development of children’s curiosity in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. One of over 200 exhibits is the Mechanical Advantage Pulley Chair, which has been used for over 20 years and has been frequently inoperable due to continuous wear. We have been tasked with designing a new system that enhances the showcase of mechanical advantage while providing additional protection from abuse. Our design implements wire ropes and metal pulleys to provide additional fatigue resistance. It also incorporates LCD screens in conjunction with a load cell to visually show the mechanical advantage the different pulleys provide. The design will have 100 percent functionality, a predictive maintenance schedule, a force sensor that displays participants lifting force within 10 percent of actual, and a comfortable experience for the user. This will allow Sci-Port to keep this exhibit in operation more reliably and return an enhanced learning experience for visitors.

Semi-Automated Tank Car Blast Media Sweeper

Team Members: Andrew Ivey, Andrew Harris, Tyler Walker

Sponsor: Mitchell Hicks, Mechanical Engineer, Union Tank Car Company

Advisor: Dr. Timothy Reeves

Union Tank Car Company (UTLX) is the largest rail car manufacturer in the United States with the site in Alexandria, Louisiana producing pressure rated chemical tank cars. The purpose of this project is to prototype a solution to automate the vacuuming process that occurs in the confined tank car after its interior surface treatment. This interior surface treatment uses a steel grit abrasive which, due to its weight, takes several hours to remove and poses a particulate matter health risk in confined spaces. This project aims to reduce the time personnel spend in a confined space by 60%.
Our student team’s solution is to create a remote activated semi-automated robot which will ride along the circular walls of the tank, carrying the vacuum hose back and forth across the used grit, much like some commercial autonomous home vacuum.

Sprocket Testing System

Team Members: Tyler Cochran, Carter Duet, Brayden Hermes, Caleb Phillips

Sponsor: Steuart Turner, Mechanical Design Engineer, Intralox & Ben Hall, Mechanical Design Engineer, Intralox

Advisor: Dr. David Hall

Intralox produces conveyer belts and sprockets used to drive them. The internal keyways on the inner bores of Intralox’s sprockets introduce high stress concentrations which are weak points of the sprockets. Their current testing setup to torque sprockets is very manual, inaccurate, and has several pain points. Our design solves the problems faced with the old setup by featuring limited exchangeable parts, accurate measurement and controls, and a focus on ease of use for the user. Measures of success for the project include a 15-minute exchange time in between sprocket tests, a maximum torque of 350 foot-pounds, a 3% margin of error between measured load and a user-defined setpoint, a factor of safety of 1.5 against yield for the structure withstanding all applied loads, and the design shall accept sprockets with outside diameters of 2 inches up to 10.5 inches. Implementation of our design is expected to improve quality control of Intralox sprockets, which will provide better products for their worldwide customer base. Putting better-performing sprockets into the hands of Intralox customers in a wide range of industries will provide better, more reliable services to individuals around the world.

Combined Session and Barnwell Awards (Room 112).

Ultra-light B-2 Bomber Wheel Chocks

Team Members: Hylie Holloway, Steven Montgomery, Ethan Roussel, Tyler Wendling

Sponsor: Nathan Dawn, R CIV USAF, AFGSC/A5N

Advisor: Dr. John Kraft

The sponsor of our project is Air Force Global Strike Command or AFGSC through Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City, Louisiana. Our technical point of contact is with the host wing at Whiteman Air Force Base, the 509th Bomb Wing. Whiteman is the only operational location of the B-2 Bomber. The current design for wheel chocks for the B-2 is composed of heavy wood construction that is prone to splintering and a burden to carry. Our design uses aluminum in a specifically constructed design emphasizing lightweight and durable qualities. This is done through the use of cut-outs to conserve weight and supportive gussets that specifically support areas that are under the most stress. Our design aims to reduce the time it takes to deploy the wheel chock by reducing the weight of the wheel chock while also creating a durable design that will be able to withstand the approximate 60,000-pound weight of the B-2 without any notable deformities. We anticipate a large improvement in military readiness and crew safety through reducing weight and increasing durability.

B-2 Intake Inspection Tool

Team Members: Carin Angelle, Laney Fouts, Justin Green, Emily Wines

Sponsor: Bruce von Niederhausern, Maj, USAF

Advisor: Dr. Shafiqur Rahman

The Air Force Global Strike Command sponsors this project. Before each flight, B-2 Bombers undergo inspections, including four engine checks inside two pairs of intake tunnels. Exiting these tunnels can be difficult and hazardous, especially in dusty or humid conditions, increasing the risk of slips and injuries. The solution presented is a strap-based ladder, allowing maintenance crews to exit easily and safely and supports up to 1,000 lbs. To evaluate effectiveness, heart rates with and without the device were evaluated along with timed device setup and retrieval. All heart rates were reduced by a chosen success measure of 10% with the product, and all setup and retrieval times were under the success measure of 1 minute. This product meets all requirements, improving safety and efficiency during inspections. Made from readily available, cost-effective materials, it offers an affordable solution that can be easily produced. While its primary application is for B-2 Bombers, future modifications could potentially extend its use to other aircraft engine inspections. This innovation enhances military readiness by providing a safer alternative for exiting intake tunnels before flight.

B-52 Parachute Packing System

Team Members: Harrison Dougherty, Ashley Dourrieu, Justin Smith, Ian Swanson

Sponsor: Hannah Beene, Project Manager, STRIKEWERX

Advisor: Dr. Timothy Reeves

STRIKEWERX, an innovation branch of the Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC), required a solution to improve an existing design for the B-52 drogue parachute packing container to operate at the Barksdale Air Force Base. The container is required to be collapsible to improve storage and transportation efficiency. The container also must have a factor of safety of at least 2 against permanent deformation so that it is structurally sound when in use. We have designed a container with a combination of stainless steel plates, hinges, and latches that allow the container to fully collapse. The new design has reduced the storage volume from the original container by a factor of 3.19 when not in use, and it has a minimum factor of safety against permanent deformation of 3.65. With these requirements being met, the B-52 can now have the packing container easily shipped off to bases abroad, and allow for the mass production of these containers to be used at any base where a B-52 aircraft is located.

B-2 Pump Removal Tool

Team Members: Jude Roger, Mason Dondieu, Kyle Adams, Brandon Terrace, Gavan Hawks

Sponsor: Hannah Beene, Project Manager, STRIKEWERX

Advisor: Dr. John Kraft

Our sponsor for this project is STRIKEWERX located in Bossier City, LA. STRIKEWERX is a strategic initiative within the Air Force Global Strike Command, dedicated to fostering innovation and the rapid development of technologies to enhance global strike capabilities. Our project is focused on making a tool to take a hydraulic pump off a munitions loading trailer. Our design is an inexpensive way to remove the pump while maintaining utmost safety for the operators. The design consists of five plates cut from sheet metal that are welded together; other safety and quality of life features were also implemented into the design. We strived for a cost reduction of 30% from the original design while completely eradicating any injuries. This design was made entirely with manufacturing and production in mind. Doing this, STRIKEWERX and the Air Force can implement the tool to more air bases around the globe.

B-1 Strorage Bay Travel Pod

Team Members: Ethan Dowell, Victoria Fontenot, Jace Peloquin, Grace Smith, Christian Smith

Sponsor: Dr. Arden Moore, Director, Institute for Micromanufacturing

Advisor: Dr. Arden Moore

Strike Command. We are tasked with designing a travel pod to be used in the B-1 Bomber. Our design is required to have a minimum volume of 64 cubic feet, hold 24 one gallon containers of oil, and have an incident-free service life over a 30 year period. Our design maximizes storage capacity to 78.5 cubic feet, while meeting the minimum storage requirement for oil containers. This prototype design will cost just under $5000 per unit, increase the storage capacity compared to current solutions, and assist the military with general readiness due to the speed of loading and increased storage capacity.

Combined Session and Barnwell Awards (Room 112).