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Thank you to everyone who participated! With so many unique and interesting designs, picking the finalists, and ultimately the winners, for this challenge was not an easy task.
We arrived at the top 10 finalists by filtering the entries using our selection criteria. We then actually printed the top designs and tested them at our lab. We loaded the part and recorded its peak load before failure. Taking that load, we then calculated the strength-to-weight value for each part and ranked them.
The winners were the one with the best strength-to-weight ratio. All the parts can be easily manufactured via additive and are all ranked equally in that regards.
Congratulations to the winners and all of the finalists!
To select the finalist designs, a systematic approach was taken. We began by checking for envelope fitment; any designs that did not fit the envelope requirements were disqualified. The remaining designs were then ranked by mass.
Starting from the lightest design, we performed FEA simulation on over 150 submitted designs to down-select the top designs. Although many entries had included FEA simulation, several of the boundary conditions utilized did not capture the flexibility of a bolted connection between the bearing bracket and the base plate. This interaction is influenced by the preload exerted on the joint element by the fasteners when they are installed. Since some of the submitted FEA utilized fixed constraints around the bolt holes, simulation results produced incorrect stress values.
The designs that passed our standardized FEA analysis were then evaluated based on their ease of DMLS printing and post processing cost, and were narrowed down to the finalists that are listed below.
Mass: 220.509 grams
Ultimate Load: 4968 lbfStrength/Weight: 22.53 lbf/grams
Mass: 285.206 grams
Ultimate Load: 6181 lbfStrength/Weight: 21.67 lbf/grams
Mass: 254.411 grams
Ultimate Load: 4974 lbfStrength/Weight: 19.55 lbf/grams
Rodrigo Pinheiro
Martin Ryan
Luke Haylock
Todd Balls
Wudhidham Prachumsri
Ben Ewing
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