Matt Sterling's mechanical engineering portfolio summarizes two internship experiences. The first was a co-op at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory where he worked on projects including redesigning a beam window module, analyzing the structural integrity of beams used to support a radioactive coffin, and designing an assembly for a secondary emissions monitor. The second internship was with West Gate Sheet Metal where he redesigned a gear box assembly for an ice cream machine and designed a rotating mount for a satellite dish.

1. MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
PORTFOLIO
Matt Sterling
California Polytechnic State University, SLO
Third Year

2. Table of Contents
• Co-op at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Page 1 - 13
 Beam Window Module
 Radioactive Coffin Structural Analysis
 Beryllium Plate Stress Analysis
 Secondary Emissions Monitor: Stand and Assembly
 Shielding Fixture Cart
• Internship with West Gate Sheet Metal Inc. Page 14 - 27
 Gear Box Assembly
 Rotating Satellite Dish Mount

3. CO-OP WITH FERMILAB
SPRING - SUMMER
2016
1

4. Beam Window Module: Scope
■ Vacuum window module for Fermilab’s flagship project, the Long
Baseline Neutrino Facility (LBNF)
■ Using metal O-rings to seal for radiation resistance
■ Window needs to be remotely removable due to radiation (bolts are
usually used)
■ Current solution is a wedging system (the module is in a very early
design stage)
2

5. Beam Window Module: My Work
■ In Siemens NX, took existing 1 meter window
assembly and remade each component to account for
a 1.5 meter window
■ Made several tweaks on dimension as it is in the early
stages of design along with:
– Added an airflow channel
– Added supports to model how it’d be supported
in the target chase (overall assembly)
■ Integrated all parts and assembly into the product
lifecycle management software, Siemens Teamcenter,
allowing engineers around the lab to view and edit the
assembly
3

6. Radioactive Coffin Structural Analysis: Scope
■ Old Tevatron beam dump needed to be placed in radioactive coffin
■ Work area was an empty pit, concrete blocks were to be placed over it but they could not
support the load
■ Needed to make sure I-beams, which were found on site, could support the loads
4

7. Radioactive Coffin Structural Analysis: My Work
■ Did several calculations to determine
the max stress and safety factors on the
six different I-beams in three possible
loading situations
– Module, dump, coffin, and
shielding blocks
– Concrete, dump, and shielding
blocks (expected)
– Concrete, module, dump, and
shielding blocks (worst case)
■ Made excel spreadsheet displaying the
calculations for each of the six beams in
three cases
5

8. Beryllium Plate Stress Analysis: Scope
■ Beryllium plate will be held at vacuum on
one side and atmosphere on the other side
■ Fixed on atmosphere side and simply
supported on vacuum side
■ Head engineer’s hand calculations showed
stresses beyond yield at center
■ Goal was to create more accurate model of
situation on ANSYS to verify safety
6

9. Beryllium Plate Stress Analysis: My Work
■ Created axisymmetric model in ANSYS
■ Observed a stress riser on a .008” step where
a copper gasket would be supporting the plate
■ Attempted eliminating stress riser by changing
boundary condition, parameterizing the length
of the supporting edge, along with editing
mesh sizes
■ Worked with multiple engineers trying to find
solution
■ Edge’s radius will be physically measured to
determine true stress on corner (Plate has
already been manufactured)
■ Due to the high risk of working with Beryllium,
this project is still in progress among full time
engineers at the lab
7

10. Secondary Emission Monitor: Scope
■ SEM is a device placed in the beamline that reads beam flux
■ Uses a series of foils, half ground and half with voltage, to
collect freed electrons and, therefore, read particle flux
■ Head engineer has worked on a prototype design that needed
to be assembled, approved, and ultimately installed
■ I was shown a tentative stand/mount design but was told to
change/improve it however I see fit
8

11. SEM Stand: My Work
■ Original stand design used Unistrut
■ I edited the design and used primarily 80/20, as I believed
it would be easier to adjust lateral position as well as add
new devices in the future
■ Designed entire stand assembly in NX, along with
integrating the actual SEM it would be supporting
■ Created drawings for each part that was to be
manufactured in-house
■ Documented comprehensive installation instructions
according to my design
9

12. Secondary Emissions Monitor: My Work
■ Procured parts that were missing when I took inventory
■ Assembled SEM in cleanroom using only assembly drawings
■ Documented assembly procedure, including issues that I came across during the
process, in order to optimize future SEM assemblies
■ After baking unit, vacuum was pulled to 6.4 x 10^-10, lower than estimated by hand
calculations
■ Helped head engineer create engineering note for the two vacuum windows (review
was in progress as I left)
10

13. Secondary Emission Monitor: Pictures
Foil Plane assembled SEM almost finished SEM being pumped down to vacuum
11

14. Shielding Fixture Cart: Scope/My Work
■ A moveable, liftable, lockable cart needed to be designed to transport 3 shielding base rails
throughout the underground tunnels
■ Drew up a concept using almost entirely 80/20 framing
■ Worked with local distributer to finalize design
■ Analyzed stresses (by hand) on supporting beams to ensure durability
■ After receiving Bill of Materials, adjusted our design to cut costs by 35% by:
– Changing the width of extrusions used
– Eliminating unnecessary components
– Using different distributers for some parts
■ Built entire cart with student technician, now ready for use
12

15. Shielding Fixture Cart: Pictures
Concept Sketch Bill of Materials Drawing Final Cart
13

16. INTERNSHIP WITH WESTGATE
SHEET METAL INC
SUMMER 2015
14

17. Gear Box Assembly
A National Ice Cream producer
engaged West Gate Sheet Metal to
redesign a gear box for their fudge
mixing machines. The original 3
shaft, chain-driven design was not
holding up under the conditions of
mixing not-quite warm fudge,
causing shearing/bending of shafts
and shaft keys.
Key Design Considerations:
■ Must be more robust, especially
when taking torsional load
■ Must be sealed to meet food
industry standards
■ Design improvements must be
cost justified and approved by
the customer
15

18. The top three gears are the gears
that the head engineer picked out.
Below the gears is the original
middle sprocket
This is a closer view of the
middle sprocket on the right, and
one of the two side sprockets on
the left
Original Housing (both top
and bottom respectively)
16

19. After getting a rough prototype together, I met with the
customer to discuss the prototype and ensure I understood
his true requirements. He emphasized that it be completely
sealed and durable. While there, I also got to take a look and
get measurements of the actual motor (pictured here) that
would be driving the gearbox.
17

20. This is an exploded view of the final assembly. Besides the gears, which were made by the head engineer
beforehand, and the hardware (screws, bolts, bearings, etc.), I designed all the parts from scratch on
Solidworks.
18

21. This is an example detail drawing of the top of the gearbox housing. There was a detail drawing
for every manufactured part including the sides, top, and bottom of the housing, the 3 shafts,
the 3 gears, the inner housing extension, the service hole covers, and the shaft seals. 19

22. Once the detail drawings and CAD files were finalized, the gear box was ready for production.
Bottom of housing (including
welded legs and gussets)
Top Left: Top of housing (smooth
finish on perimeter to ensure
water-tight O-ring seal)
Top Right (partially covered): Side
shafts with gears attached
Bottom Center: Service window
covers (including O-ring groove)
Sides of housing including front and
back (bent pieces) welded to the
left and right side. Surrounding
O-ring groove not yet machined.
20

23. Gear box being assembled from
top to bottom
The cube surrounding the main shaft
is the inner-housing extension. This
allowed me to add two more bearings
for extra radial support on the middle
mixer, which would be doing the most
work. 21

24. Finalized gearbox
Bottom view of final assembly Top view of final assembly
22
Customer was happy and has ordered more!

25. Rotating Satellite Dish Mount
A customer engaged West Gate Sheet
Metal to design an assembly for a
robotically controlled radio telescope
project. This required a design that
allowed for industrial stepper motors
to rotate the dish antenna in 360
azimuth and 180 altitude directions
in order to track celestial phenomena.
Design Considerations:
■ Must fit the 2 designated motors
■ Must rotate 360 in azimuth
direction
■ Must rotate 180  in altitude
direction
■ For clarification, the full range of
motion would create half of a
sphere
23

26. I was given two motors (pictured on left), which each rotate about their vertical axis. To
create the range of motion requested, I’d be setting one up vertically to rotate 360
and mounting one horizontally to rotate 180 (visualization of motion on right).
24

27. I came up with an assembly of 4 parts…
The base stand, in which the
First motor would come from
Below to rotate the top piece
360
The top, which rotates 360
on the base stand. The second
motor could then be mounted
horizontally to allow for the 180
of motion about the horizontal
axis.
The two sides that secure the
actual satellite. These parts surround
the base of the satellite and are
secured by a bolt in each of the four
corners.
25

28. Example detail drawing of the base stand. I made a detail drawing for each part to be sent
to the shop, along with the CAD files needed.
26

29. Finalized Satellite Dish Mount
27