Geoff Johnson » Industrial

Alpha

Geoff — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 20:37:41 +0000

Alpha is a custom designed bicycle meant to challenge the standard for commuter cycling and lead the way to new innovations within the industry of bike components. It was created for my senior design project with a team of 4 other engineers. We worked for over 2000 hours to design and fabricate Alpha.

The main attributes of the bike are a fully enclosed belt drive system for powering the rear wheel, an electro-mechanical clutch to switch between freewheel and fixed gear riding, and an integrated electronics package which feeds out data to both a handle bar mounted LCD and an SD card.

I was responsible for designing the drive system which includes the SWIFT (Switchable Integrate Free/Fixed Transmission). It took me over 700 hours to design and manufacture the components with the help of one of my team mates. We are now in the process of patenting the SWIFT system and other novel piece of Alpha.

Our team won both the mechanical engineering and all engineering school competitions and was featured on Wired, Core 77, Gizmodo, Engadget and many more! Visit the website for Alpha for more detailed information about its conception, development and future.

SWIFT installed in the custom bottom bracket

Here is the final presentation video given to a team of judges, faculty and students at the all Engineering School Senior Design Competition.

Wireless Variable Wave Speaker

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:47:44 +0000

I created this wireless speaker for my second mechatronics lab. I designed the enclosure, designed and built the circuitry to drive the cone and wrote the code that accepted the wireless transmission and drove the speaker. There is a microprocessor on the top with a wireless board that receives a signal from a master computer and plays a single frequency for a specified duration. On top of the speaker is a switch to change the waveform of the note between square, triangle and sine; there was a very noticeable difference between the three. Every student in the class built a speaker in either the high, medium or low range of frequencies. We then used the master computer to orchestrate a concert with the 65 speakers, we played Mario.

Isometric View

Wave Form Switch

Urns

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 04:17:25 +0000

I created this set of urns for my final project in design fundamentals. The concept behind the set is that two loved ones will be connected even after death. I took inspiration from ballet dancers and acrobatics. Just as in love, the two urns cannot stand without the other.

Pivoting Planes

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:45:37 +0000

This project was an exploration in shapes and the transition between sharp geometric objects to smooth curvilinear ones. I designed two shapes in Adobe Illustrator and used the blend tool to join them over 25 sections. I then laser cut those sections out of paper and assembled them into a cedar block.

I then took 5 profiles from the 25 and used SolidWorks to create a solid model which I 3D printed and sanded. I drew some inspiration for the model from the form of a beautiful dress as seen above.

Luminaire

Geoff — Sat, 24 Sep 2011 03:29:00 +0000

I built this luminaire during my design fundamentals course. It is an assembly of 3 stellated dodecahedrons connected via tabs and a little glue. The concept was to create paper forms without removing any paper, hence the cuts and folds but no holes. We displayed them to the public during Philly Works; they hung outside the exhibit as people walked in and made for quite a sight.

Chess

Geoff — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 20:27:59 +0000

The third project in my advanced manufacturing class was to make use of our CNC lathe to create an original chess set. We were split up into teams of four and told to choose a general design aesthetic and then individually design pieces. My team was very pleased with the outcome of our designs. Using the CNC lathe we created the outer forms from aluminum stock and then with a CNC mill we post processed almost every piece. After machining was complete we bead blasted every piece and had them anodized for color and surface quality. Three months after the class ended I worked with one other team mate to create a board for our set. It is also made from aluminum with inlaid acrylic tiles. The work was shown off at Philly Works 2010.

Aluminum Pepper

Geoff — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 18:35:25 +0000

The second project for my advanced manufacturing and design course was focused on learning how to use the CNC mill that we have in our shop. We were told to design a piece that would make use of a variety of tools with a complicated shape. I took my inspiration from my love of Chipotle and designed a pepper in SolidWorks. I then used SolidCAM, an add on program that help to generate tool paths for the CNC mill to run. The pepper was made from an aluminum disc and then polished.

Klein Bottle

Geoff — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:27:40 +0000

The goal of this project was to explore the capabilities of additive manufacturing using an FDM 3D printer. We were told to create an object that would be unmanufacturable using conventional techniques. I decided to create a Klein bottle, a mathematical object similar to a Möbius strip except that it has no boundary. I designed the shape in SolidWorks, printed it in ABS plastic then resined and painted the exterior. It stands just over 4 inches in height. Below are a few images of the finished design as well as a rendering of the bottle in glass.

Music Machine

Geoff — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:54:43 +0000

The Volcano, as my team of 3 calls it, is a self automated music machine that was created during the course MEAM 511, introduction to creative thinking course. It was a project that demanded a machine be entirely mechanical and able to play music for 45 seconds. I designed the ball release mechanism which is shown in the image below. We used MDF to build the frame and assorted materials to make the instruments. The ball release would spin and steel ball bearings would fall onto the instruments placed on the 6 different sides of the machine.

Glass Working

Geoff — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:48:12 +0000

These pieces were created during the winter of my junior year. I spent 4 hours at a glass blowing studio in Boston and during that time created these two paperweights. Each one is the size of a fist and weighs close to 1 kilogram. The coloring inside is colored glass that was gathered over the first to create the encased effect.