Abstract:
Introduction of vibration to manufacturing operations like casting and welding has been shown to improve physical and mechanical properties of produced parts. Such vibratory motion should however be controlled and measured. This work presents a computer-aided design and construction of a surface vibrating table to generate vibratory motion for laboratory works leading to improved casting and welding of components. The mechanical vibration in the equipment was generated using eccentric mass method and was measured in the x, y and z axis directions of motion with the aid of an accelerometer. The results obtained from this instrument were compared with those obtained from the numerical experiment generated using MATLAB tool - Simulink. The acceleration amplitude of sprung mass’ vibration in the vertical axis of the equipment was measured to be in a range of -3 to 9 m/s2, while the simulation result showed vibration acceleration signal with amplitude in range of -7 to 7 m/s2. The vertical displacement of the table surface was in amplitude range of 0 to 1.9 mm which was the result of arithmetic mean of the 4 unsprung masses displacement amplitudes obtained at each corner in the model. The measured and simulated vibration signals were both random in nature and both results also followed the same pattern.
