Freelance Engineering Contract
A man reached out to Boise State University asking for a student to help him with a engineering problem for pay, I got the job. He needed a 4-bar lift to hold his motorcycles on his custom campervan.
He provided me with a image he found online of something similar to what he wanted, high level CAD of the campervan, and we met and sketched some things out. I then modeled a lift, with a couple check-ins to get feedback and performed simulations on the resulting design.
The final design included two 4-bar linkages with cylinders rated for the expected loads that I found online. The mounting plates also include a spot for a safety pin to stop hydraulic leakage. The simulations resulted in a min safety factor of 3.4, meaning the weakest point of the lift can handle 3.4x the expected load. I also gave him detailed drawings to facilitate fabrication. Overall, while not the most complicated design, I gained immense real-world engineering experience through this process.
Simulation Results
Figure 14: Safety factor results of simulation.(Min:3.4) Safety factor measures how much more load the structure can bear than is being imposed on it. In this case, the weakest part of structure is 3.4x stronger than it needs to be.
