MESA gets down to business
The business committee has now had several productive meetings with our mentor, Randy. He’s given us a lot of insight into the logistics of how our table will be built and shipped from Ann Arbor, Michigan to Nicaragua! Based on this advice, we’ve begun to research potential manufacturers and develop criteria and a ranking system for manufacturers. We have split the business team into three sub-committees for transportation, manufacturing, and partnerships, in effort to focus on refining the most pertinent aspects of the business plan. The manufacturing sub-committee has unfortunately reached a standstill because we are only allowed to use our grant money through U-M’s Procurement Services. The team is deciding whether to go through this system or work around it in order to manufacture our table. The transportation subcommittee is working on finding a potential “agent” in country who will have an import license and be able to collect our tables once they reach Nicaragua. They have also been working on mapping out potential distribution chains which will help us visualize where our tables are going and fill in any gaps we may have missed. The partnership committee has been reaching out to our current partners to find out which ones would be interested in a table for our pilot launch. Overall, a lot of exciting progress has been made!
The Table team has been cranking away with final designs for the stirrups and a locking mechanism for the legs. The locking mechanism that we are most likely going to perfect and use is a joint made of two pieces of sheet metal connected by a rivet. In addition, there is another hole in which a pin will be inserted so the two pieces of sheet metal can lock in place. This should keep the legs from buckling in and from splaying out. The stirrups mechanism has been a little troublesome. As of now we have created a telescoping stirrup system so that they can be adjusted. However, there is an issue involving wiggle room due to the telescoping square stock not being a perfect fit. This is something that we will be working to correct. Another aspect we have to decide is the stopping block for the stirrup. We ran numerous rounds FEA in order to find the correct thickness and length of this stop block. We wanted to make it hollow in order to minimize weight. So far the only dimensions that worked for a load of 50 lbs and 100lbs is .12in thickness, 2in length, 1in width, 1 in height. We still have logistics to hash out, but now we have a decently clear path to follow in order to create our prototype.
