Sponsorship

Motivation

Infrastructure projects consist of work, done by Senior Design group members that once completed benefit the University of Maine College of Engineering and the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Projects are completed within the span of the senior design project. This years projects focused primarily on the renovation of Crosby Laboratory which house the Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Projects.

Our Project

The focus of our project was to create display boards for the senior design project posters. These posters are to be used for presentations during the Mechanical Engineering Open House. Current display boards are made from recycled corkboards and covered with fabric, which may or may not match the other display boards in the building. To create a unified space, it was decided that our group would not only build new professional looking display boards, but also coordinate the existing poster boards with the new ones.

Goals

	Looks professional
	Promotes senior design projects
	Protects posters over time
	Easily replaced by one person

Fabrication

The decision was made to create a unique space in each hallway by placing all like colored display boards in a single hallway for faculty research projects while the other hallways will be used for the senior design display boards which will be new. Once the existing display boards were placed in their proper locations we began the fabrication of the new display boards.

The design of the new display boards consisted of a ¾” X 3’ X 4’ piece of plywood wrapped in a black fabric that was then stapled to the backside of the plywood so as not to be seen. This size was chosen because it could accept a standard ANSI Engineering E-size (34” X 44”). It was also desired to place protection over the posters. The existing display boards did not have the feature resulting in damage of the poster over time. To correct this, we placed a 3’ X 4’ piece of .091” thick acrylic sheet over the front of the display boards. The acrylic was hinged into place using a 2’ piano hinge on the left side and anchored using hammer on tee-nuts that were inserted into the plywood. These anchors allowed holes to be drilled through the acrylic and bolts with washers to be threaded to the nuts securing the poster to the display board. The decision was also made to place a Velcro lining over the black fabric to adhere the posters to the display boards. The Velcro created additional securing of the poster to the board. The final design of the poster boards can be seen in the figures below.

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Last Updated on 09/01/2005