Date of Defense

4-13-1999

First Advisor

Dr. Koorosh Baghshineh

Second Advisor

Kurt Lentner, Stryker Instruments

Abstract

A rotating part may have imbalances that can cause undesirable results such as excessive vibration, noise, and decreased motor life. Rotating components must be balanced to eliminate these unwanted properties. The concept of balancing a rotor is a fairly common one, however; this concept is even more prevalent in dealing with parts that could interfere with human activity. This was the case for a fan that is located in the helmet of a personal protection system produced by Stryker Instruments. The fan is an integral component of a cooling and filtration system for the protective suit that doctors wear while in surgery. Due to complaints from the field, it was determined that a redesign of the entire system was necessary along with investigation into the balancing aspect of the fan. The goal involved in producing a wellbalanced fan was to set and achieve an optimal imbalance tolerance. This tolerance was set through the use of analytical motor bearing load calculations, predicted theoretical motor lives, worst case imbalance effect analysis, and trial corrections. The resulting analysis suggested that balancing of the production fan might not be necessary. However, due to the possibility of unforeseen production limitations, a process to attain this limit was also designed. The designed fan balancing system eliminated a majority of the human error involved in the current method with the integration of a balance measurement machine and accurate material dispensing equipment for the unbalance correction. With these components and some orientation fixtures, the designed balancing unit would surpass the established tolerance in a single iteration.

Access Setting

Honors Thesis-Campus Only

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