Team 28

Team Members

Faculty Advisor

Allen Smajevic

Vito Moreno

Sponsor

Charles Gray Airboat

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Bracket Redesign to Extend Operating Life Round 2

The air canister brackets on the Kubota BX23 tractor are failing at the mounting locations. These brackets are mounted to the engine, via studs that protrude directly from the engine itself. Charles Gray; the sponsor of this project and the owner of a Kubota BX23, reports that the brackets fail after approximately 100-130 hours of operation. Last year's team set out to eliminate this problem and developed a bracket that successfully increased operating life, but also increased oscillation at low RPM’s. According to Gray; the new bracket caused the air canister to oscillate more violently than the previous bracket design at low RPM, but dampened the vibrations in the higher RPM range. The goal of this project is to modify the bracket geometry to decrease oscillations throughout the entire RPM range of the tractor, while still retaining the improved operation life achieved by the previous team.