Abstract The Competitive Assessment Laboratory

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AbstractThe Competitive Assessment Laboratory

• In todays quickly changing and increasingly
  competitive market place, it is imperative that
  manufacturers keep abreast of the technological
  advances and design innovations incorporated into
  competing product lines. The term competitive
  assessment (i.e. benchmarking) has been coined by
  manufacturers to describe the process of
  ethically acquiring, inspecting, analyzing,
  instrumenting and testing the product lines of
  other manufacturers. In the Competitive
  Assessment Laboratory at Rowan University,
  multidisciplinary teams of freshman engineering
  students from each of the four engineering
  departments perform each of the above tasks on a
  consumer appliance. In addition to introducing
  students to the science and art of design, the
  Competitive Assessment Laboratory allows
  multidisciplinary teams of faculty to assess the
  constantly evolving initial conditions under
  which the typical engineering student enters his
  or her course of study. The Competitive
  Assessment Laboratory contains 5 consumer
  appliance test stations featuring PC-based data
  acquisition systems capable of measuring
  thermocouple and voltage/current signals. Each
  station is also equipped with mechanical
  measurement equipment and portable materials
  testing equipment.

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Rowan University
Who we are...

• The comprehensive state university of Southern
  New Jersey.
• Located in Glassboro, NJ. Founded in 1923.
• University renamed in honor of Henry Rowan after
  100 million gift in 1992 to create the College
  of Engineering.
• Rowan University consists of six colleges
• Business
• Communication
• Education
• Engineering
• Fine and Performing Arts
• Liberal Arts and Sciences

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The Engineering Clinic
An 8-Semester Design Sequence

• Freshman Clinic I Engineering Measurements
• Freshman Clinic II NSF Competitive Assessment
  Laboratory
• Sophomore Clinic I Total Quality Management
• Sophomore Clinic II Entrepreneurship
• Junior Clinics Multidisciplinary Design Project
  (semester)
• Senior Clinics Multidisciplinary Design Project
  (year)

Guitar FX Pedal
Hybrid Rocket Motor
NASA mG Combustion
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Freshman Clinic II
NSF Competitive Assessment Laboratory
Competitive Assessment (i.e. benchmarking)
ethically acquiring, inspecting, analyzing,
instrumenting, testing and evaluating the product
lines of other manufacturers.
Rowan Engineering Example
Industry Example
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ObjectivesThe Competitive Assessment Laboratory

• Introduce freshmen to the science and art of
  design by evaluating the work of practicing
  designers,
• Introduce students to unifying engineering
  science principles using the consumer appliance
  as a test bed
• Enable students to determine how tradeoffs among
  
• scientific principles,
• material properties,
• manufacturing techniques,
• aesthetics and ergonomics,
• impact product design.
• Allow freshman students to actively participate
  in a meaningful design effort by instrumenting
  and evaluating the performance of a consumer
  appliance and consider design improvements.

• safety requirements,
• government regulations,
• environmental considerations,
• and intellectual property rights

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Experimental FacilityThe Competitive Assessment
Laboratory

• The Competitive Assessment Laboratory is equipped
  with 5 consumer appliance test stations. Each
  station is equipped with the following
• Dell Optiplex GX1 PC, with flat panel monitor
• HP34970A Data Acquisition/Switch Unit
• 20 thermocouple channels
• 12 analog voltage channels
• 4 digital I/O channels
• Valhalla 2100 Digital Power Analyzer
• 2 HP33120A Function/Arbitrary Waveform
  Generators
• HP54645D Mixed Signal Oscilloscope
• Keithley 2000 Multimeter
• HP3631A Power Suppy (0-6 V, 5 A 0-25 V, 1 A
• Hand tools, inspection equipment,
  instrumentation, soldering station, etc.
• Each PC is configured with LabView, HPVee, Office
  2000, etc. and all HP instrumentation is linked
  with the computer via HPIB interface.

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LogisticsThe Competitive Assessment Laboratory

• Freshman Engineering Clinic II is a 16-week,
  2-credit course consisting of a 1.5-hour lecture
  and 3.0-hour laboratory.
• The course consists of a semester long project
  that introduces design to freshmen engineering
  students through disassembly, inspection,
  materials testing, technical assessment and
  testing of a consumer appliance.
• In conjunction with the semester long project,
  lectures are given and laboratory experiences are
  performed to provide students with the rudiments
  of engineering science and introduce students to
  the realities of engineering business.
• The course is divided into 4 to 6 sections with
  at total enrollment of 100 to 120 students.
• Low cost consumer appliances are chosen as
  vehicles for competitive assessment, with each
  section focusing on a given type of appliance.
• Multidisciplinary teams of 4 to 5 students are
  given an appliance of a given model and make to
  study in detail for the entire semester.

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Products EvaluatedThe Competitive Assessment
Laboratory

• To date, the following products have been
  consumer products have been inspected, analyzed,
  instrumented, tested and evaluated in the
  Competitive Assessment Laboratory
• Coffee Maker
• Hair Dryer
• Electric Toothbrush
• Bread Maker
• Portable Water Filter
• Remote Control Car
• Beer Home Brewing Process

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Competitive Assessment Lab
Coffee Maker Benchmarking

• Example project students instrumented a Betty
  Crocker Series II coffee maker with 16
  thermocouples, a power transducer and a turbine
  flow meter to measure
• power consumption,
• energy losses, and
• thermal efficiency.

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Competitive Assessment Lab
Electric Toothbrush Benchmarking
Product Component Principles Activities Power
supply AC power Examine sine wave RMS,
Peak values Potted power supply Safety Dielectric
strength Charger source Transformer Step-down
ratios Coil Inductance (permeability vs.
turns) Receiver supply Coil, rectifier Coupling
Frequency RMS-to-DC conversion Battery
Ni-Cd cells Energy storage density 2-minute
timer Digital systems Oscillator Counter
(binary) Motor DC Motor Model, torque, speed,
current Mechanism Rotary/ Crankshaft Connecting
rod motion Gear Train Speed reduction Gear/Torque
relationships
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Competitive Assessment Lab
Hair Dryer Benchmarking

• Students examined the following characteristics
  of each hair dryer
• Material properties,
• Sound level,
• Air velocity profile and mass flow rate,
• Air temperature field, and
• Thermal efficiency.
• In general, the students found that in a typical
  consumer hair dryer
• sound levels are dangerously high
• thermal efficiency is surprisingly low.

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AcknowledgementsThe Competitive Assessment
Laboratory

• The project described in this poster was made
  possible by an NSF ILI Grant (DUE98-50563) along
  with matching funds from the College of
  Engineering at Rowan University.