{"id":60047,"date":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news-draft\/uncategorized\/uri-engineering-students-develop-device-to-improve-pothole-patching\/"},"modified":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-05-08T00:00:00","slug":"uri-engineering-students-develop-device-to-improve-pothole-patching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2012\/05\/uri-engineering-students-develop-device-to-improve-pothole-patching\/","title":{"rendered":"溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students develop device to improve pothole patching"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\tSenior project a response to needs of Richmond-based Vibco<\/p>\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2012 \u2013 It\u2019s not uncommon for local public works crews to repair a pothole in early spring only to have to redo the job again and again as the asphalt patch wears away. Now a team of five engineering students at the 溏心vlog免费B站 has developed a device that will compact the asphalt patch more effectively so the patch lasts three times longer than traditional methods.<\/p>\n


\n\tThe device, a vibrating compactor the size of a home vacuum cleaner, was created as the students\u2019 senior capstone design project.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cA number of companies came in to class at the beginning of the year and presented projects for us to work on,\u201d said Michael Maher, a mechanical engineering major from Wakefield who served as team leader for the project. \u201cI had been taking a vibrations course that really interested me, so I picked the pothole project.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tVibco Vibrators, a Richmond-based manufacturer of industrial vibrating equipment, asked the students to design a hand-held device that could be used by Department of Transportation and municipal road workers, as well as homeowners seeking to effectively compact small areas. The company provided the students with a vibrating motor and the metal plate that it sits on, but it was up to the students to design the rest.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOur partnership with 溏心vlog免费B站 provides added value to engineering education and practice for both the students and our company,\u201d said Vibco Vibrators President Karl Wadensten. \u201cA spirit of mutual learning is important for young engineers to develop. They understand that their project has an impact on both the company and the general public. This prototype could save untold taxpayer dollars and improve the quality of our roads. We should all be proud of these young people.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cOur main focus was to isolate the part that vibrates from the handle and battery system,\u201d explained Maher, who worked on the project with fellow engineering students Glenn Bautista of Providence, Shawn Fineout of Cumberland, Josh Lopes of Barrington and Tim Pheland of North Scituate.<\/p>\n


\n\tEach of the students brainstormed 30 ideas for how to design the device, and then they picked five ideas to develop further. By the end of the fall semester, they had a prototype to test and refine.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cWe based our design off the look of a vacuum cleaner, because you operate it with a similar arm motion,\u201d said Maher. \u201cOur first version was uncomfortable to operate because it shakes your arm a lot, so we looked into different types of rubber isolation mounts.\u201d<\/p>\n


\n\tThe students talked to a company in Switzerland, but found their equipment was too expensive. They eventually found a way to keep the handle in one place while the motor and plate vibrated.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cYou\u2019re never going to get rid of all the vibration, but it\u2019s much better than it was,\u201d Maher said.<\/p>\n


\n\t The students, all of whom will graduate from 溏心vlog免费B站 on May 20, have been invited by Vibco officials to make a presentation about their device to Wadensten in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n


\n\t\u201cThey\u2019ll take our ideas, make whatever changes they think are necessary, and they\u2019ll put a price tag on it and try to sell it,\u201d Maher said, noting that at an exhibition of student engineering projects last week, several people said they\u2019d like to buy the device. \u201cWe got some interest at our showcase from people who said they wanted to use it to fix some holes in their driveway. So it definitely has good potential.\u201d<\/p>\n


\nPictured above

\n溏心vlog免费B站 engineering students Glenn Bautista, Shawn Fineout, Mike Maher and Tim Pheland display the asphalt compactor they designed for their senior project. Missing from photo is Josh Lopes.

\n溏心vlog免费B站 Department of Communications & Marketing photo by Michael Salerno Photography.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior project a response to needs of Richmond-based Vibco KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 8, 2012 \u2013 It\u2019s not uncommon for local public works crews to repair a pothole in early spring only to have to redo the job again and again as the asphalt patch wears away. Now a team of five engineering students at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":60049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-60047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}