Jack Louis Zable

An overview of impact printing

This paper gives an overview of impact printing and reviews some of the more recent advances made in this printing technology. Matrix and fully-formed-character impact-printing technologies are discussed for both serial printers and line printers. The critical electromechanical subassemblies that are described are the hammer unit, the paper-handling system, the inking system, and the type-element system. The mathematics describing printer performance and the operation of some of the subassemblies are presented. The relative simplicity of the impact printer still allows it to be the most economical form of text printing. Its other advantages are reliability, general insensitivity to environment, and the ability to print on the greatest variety of print media.

Development of a Prototype that Measures the Coefficient of Friction Between Skis and Snow

This paper discusses the development a system for measuring the kinetic coefficient of friction between the bottom surface of a ski and snow. The prototype for taking these friction measurements has been built and tested. This measurement system contains load cells, accelerometers, data acquisition hardware and software, a laptop, skis, and connecting hardware. The system developed is portable, accurate and can operate at a variety of skiing conditions and skier weights. The kinetic coefficient of friction is calculated by measuring the friction force on the ski and determining the normal force acting on the ski. Data was taken between speeds of 0 to 4 m/s with normal forces of 22 to 82 kgs on an icy surface as well as on surfaces with much higher coefficients of friction. The kinetic coefficient of friction between skis and an icy surface was calculated to be 0.041. The data obtained agreed with previously published results and was quite repeatable.

An Innovative Approach to Creating, Developing, and Delivering a New Course Entitled Global Engineering

In 2005, the Industry Advisory Council (IAC) of the Mechanical Engineering Department at the University of Colorado-Boulder (CU) began a discussion about the subject of outsourcing engineering offshore and the possibility of teaching a course to prepare mechanical engineering students for this environment. This in turn, led to the formation of a committee and a series of discussions and recommendations for the content for such a course. The ad-hoc committee comprised of a few IAC members, a few M.E. department design faculty members, and some faculty from the business school. The original course covered the following topics: engineering economics, creating product requirements and specifications, identifying the core competencies of a company, project management, developing a business plan, supply chain logistics/management, intellectual property, understanding cultural and language differences, team dynamics, communication, and creativity. This broad array of subject matter dictated that the course be taught in a non-conventional manner. A team of instructors, comprised of two mechanical engineering professors, two business school professors, three engineers and two businessmen from industry, who are intimately involved with outsourcing, and a patent attorney were assembled to teach different portions of the course. The students also participated in a hands-on outsourcing term project. The class was broken up into ten teams, with each team developing a product in conjunction with a company from India. Each team submitted a set of specifications for a unique product to the offshore company. The company designed the product and produced an approved CAD drawing. After student approval, the company manufactured a prototype of the product, and shipped it to the respective team for analysis. Each team then presented a report on their outsourcing experience, their testing results, and a financial analysis for the product. The class was comprised of mechanical engineering senior and graduate students, with a few students from other engineering disciplines and the business school. Based upon course surveys, this course was very well received by the students and provided an important introduction to business. The semester project proved to be a valuable tool for the students to obtain some direct experience with outsourcing.Copyright

Practical application of psychometrics to color printers

Psychometric testing, in the form of paired sample comparisons, is used to determine tolerances on optical density and color registration settings on the IBM InfoColor 70 printer. In the process, several print quality metrics are evaluated and the data is analyzed in several ways to explore possibilities of conducting psychometric testing with small numbers of participants in conference room environments. Both are shown to be possible. Several conclusions are also drawn about metrics for optical density and color misregistration effects.