Turbine Challenge

Concept

This is a simple external turbine model designed in-house to release to the public. If you're looking for more complicated one that actually has the ability to store energy please use another model! This original design was intentionally restricted to easier 3D printing on print bed sizes like the MK4. It's main purpose is for ease of use and to accompany a school lesson plan and/or activity. All of that being said, it is designed in a way to be extended with other options (attach a gear to the horizontal axel?) but for the time being a simple print that has some mechanical pieces for classroom discussion and/or classroom build with the intention of other material to accompany it.

Augmented Reality and 3D Printing

This build is a smaller piece into a larger hands-on activity our group runs with various educational units within our local school community. At the moment (10-18-2024) we are building the AR iOS application designed for Apple iPads that will accompany this print - that should be done by end of 2024 and hopefully go through the University process to get it on the store front sometime in Q1 2025. In the meantime this 3D print can be used as a simple way to introduce wind turbines and things like blade angle and the major components. As that process is more finalized links will be provided and this will be updated.

Assembly Instructions

• Housing
  • Uses 2 bearings on either side of the main housing, they should squeeze in with a pair of pliers.
  • Drop in your vertical 120mm bolt before adding the assembly cone to the front
• Blade Assembly Cone
  • Each blade has to be put on one by one to get the m5 bolt head clear of the center main horizontal axis/axel 120mm bolt placement
  • Use the 40-50mm m5 bolt and drop in the hex nut on the blade slot.
• Housing Knob
  • Three ways to configure hex nuts: but you mainly use the interior center slot and one of the ends
  • Smooth rounded over edge goes into the Housing but it could be flipped for whatever reason.
• Bringing everything together
  • Make sure you have the vertical 120mm bolt in the housing before you attach the nose
  • Use the hex nut on the under side of the vertical opening on the housing to tighten this top vertical axis/axel into position.
  • Depending upon if you want to have the bolt/horizontal axis/axel attached to the nose depends upon if you use the recessed hex nut on the backside of the assembly cone
    • Either configuration will have you then take the blade assembly cone and all blades on, slide the 120mm bolt through the front blade assembly and out the rear - you'd attach the hex nut before you then apply the bearing or you will just pop the bearing in without the hex nut tightened.
    • This axis/axel should go all the way through both housing bearings and come out the rear housing bearing
  • Configure the housing knob with the hex nuts to tighten it to the bolt or just to keep the nose cone from sliding out the front - depending upon how you configured the main horizontal axis/axel.
    • if you decided to use the front nose cone hex nut, then for the housing knob you might consider using an additional the front hex nut to make a clamp between it and the middle hex nut, there's an extra 10-15mm on the bolt for just this use case.
    • This then has the housing knob clamped to the bolt but not rubbing the housing back - consider also using some washers between the rear housing bearing and the housing knob
  • At this point the entire top assembly should be good with that vertical axis/axel ready to be attached to the base
  • Base assembly
    • Mainly glue or free form attached.
    • Put in the magnets on the lower tube
    • Slide in the upper tube into the lower tube
    • On the upper tube, there is an opening for a bearing to be squeezed into place
    • You should be able to just align the vertical axis into the lower tube bearing and have the top fit onto the base

Bill of Materials

• Mechanical Parts List - mainly Bearings, Magnets, and M5 Bolts in different sizes
  • Bearings: Quantity 4: 14mm x 5mm x 5mm Bearings
  • Magnets: Quantity 3 or 6: 12mmx3mm Magnets
  • Main Vertical Axel & Horizontal Axel: Quantity 2: 120mm m5 100mm Bolts
  • Main Blade Assembly: Quantity 3: Used for connecting the blades to the assembly m5 40mm Bolts
  • Hex Nuts: Quantity 6 or 8: they come with most of the M5 kits you buy
• 3D Printed Parts List
  • Nose Cone Cover
  • Blade Assembly Cone
  • Housing
  • Turbine Blade(s) - 3 of them
  • Housing Knob
  • Bottom Lower Tube
  • Upper Lower Tube
  • AR Marker Clip

GitHub Link

I will have other media and content on a public facing GitHub/Turbine_Challenge