For the 2024-2025 school year, MISUMI partnered with several universities on senior design engineering projects.
Each engineering team was given a budget for MISUMI parts to use in their design. Other than a few project requirements, the MISUMI team stepped out of the way and allowed the teams to come up with a plan on how to execute each design project.
Based on the school, the project, and other factors, each design progressed differently, but the MISUMI mentors met with each team on a consistent basis to review progress and talk through challenges.
Now that summer is in full swing, we’re excited to showcase the projects!
Project 1: Pinball Machine
Three schools worked on a portable pinball machine with the same complexity as a full-size machine using MISUMI mechanical and electrical parts.
The machine was required to be no heavier than 100 lbs. and easy to set up by one person. Necessary mechanical features included push-button flippers, scorekeeping, and a ball launch mechanism.
Purdue University
Team Members: Jordan Doyle, James Krieg, Charlotte Moss, Chelsea O’Donnell, and Josh Sander
Professor: Jong Hyun Choi
MISUMI Mentor: Brian Hettinger
Purdue’s senior engineering team (aka Tabletop Dynamics) designed their pinball machine within budget and on time. The design used 60 standard MISUMI parts, including different types of screws, bolts, nuts, push buttons, spur gears, linear guides, and cover panels.
Many of their custom parts were machined in house by them, such as modifications to the spur gear to act as an obstacle and machining cutting tools to act as flippers.
University of Dayton
Team Members: Cory Fife, Dan Gubser, Chris Horan, and Joanna Riss
Professors: Scott Huelskamp, Tchamie Kadja, Mike Moulton, and Dr. David Perkins
MISUMI Mentor: Grace Miller
For a full year, the University of Dayton students worked on a design that used a combination of standard MISUMI parts and meviy (now known as Fictiv) parts. For the pop bumper, the team used meviy to get custom rings, brackets, and plates. Using meviy, the students were excited by the ease of the program and the ability to get instant quotes on their 3D designs.
The spinner was designed using MISUMI shafts and plates. The plunger was designed using standard and configurable shafts, springs, and handles. For the flippers, the team used machine keys. Standard hoses were used in the ramp design. The team was also able to incorporate a power supply, trigger switch, and lights from MISUMI’s online catalog.
By the end of the year, the team delivered an assembled pinball machine with testing reports and code. This project is being continued by another group at the University of Dayton this summer to optimize the design.
Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE)
Team Members: Reilly Aschenbrener, Samuel Bohn, Samuel Last, Luke Renninger, and Scott Szymkowiak
Professors: Dr. Nathan Patterson and Dr. Darrin Rothe
Mentor: John Williams
For MSOE’s pinball machine design, the cabinet framing design iterations for the machine were created using MISUMI free software, FRAMES. The framing product used was HFS5-2020 aluminum extrusion.
Some custom parts were also used, using MISUMI on-demand procurement software, meviy (now known as Fictiv), including cabinet components (hinges, side trim, and lock bar) and playfield (ramp structure and apron).
MSOE’s pinball design also used SMC pneumatics that were ordered through MISUMI.
Project 2: Aluminum Extrusion Slot Cover Cutting Machine
University of Texas
Team Members: Tristan Angove-Rogers, Vladimir Mezokh, Brandon Montgomery, and Hugh Ta
Professor: Dr. Michael Cullinan
MISUMI Mentor: Matt Zanichelli
The process of manually cutting slot covers is labor intensive and often not clean or precise. Automating this process can be beneficial in large scale production
The University of Texas student team was tasked with designing a structural slot cover cutting machine that would be capable of feeding in and cutting resin slot covers to requested lengths.
The students incorporated meviy (now known as Fictiv) components, standard parts, and products from MISUMI’s third-party brands. The students were impressed with the tolerancing and overall surface finish of the machined plates; these plates served as the overall structure for the machine.
Standard and third-party parts make up the rest of the machine, which includes a cutter, the feeding mechanism, and electronics.
Overall, the project was a huge success with the team completing all deliverables, impressing the MISUMI mentors and their engineering program director. This machine has plans to be used internally at MISUMI, as well as manufacturing floors, at MISUMI facilities.
Project 3: Automatic Sorting Conveyor
University of Dayton
Fall 2024 Team Members: Jason Sagun, Kyle Smith, Ibrahima Sy, Dean Wangenheim
Spring 2025 Team Members: Matthew Beverly, Jessica De Leon Osorio, Garrett Kowalak, and Lingxiu Shang
Professors: Rebecca Blust and Jamie Obermeyer
MISUMI Mentor: Brian Hettinger & John Williams
For another project, two teams at the University of Dayton also worked on a year-long design project with each team taking a semester on the design: an automatic sorter machine for MISUMI’s local warehouse to improve efficiency.
The goal of the final design was to be able to scan shipping labels to direct packages to the correct conveyor for either UPS or FedEx.
The first team (see picture above) put together the assembly, including the conveyors, aluminum extrusion frames for mounting the cameras, and the vision system as a whole. With the help of our Ohio warehouse team, they were able to choose a vision system and implement that to start creating code that recognizes the difference between FedEx and UPS.
The second team (three electrical engineering students and one mechanical engineering student) built off the design that the first team made, which focused more on the electrical portion of the project, which included parts like control cabinets and an emergency stop button.
They also needed to use a new PLC that was compatible with the vision system they had purchased, which meant reprogramming the system using the original code as a reference. From that point, they made sure that the vision system worked consistently without errors.
Project 4: Plinko Machine
Milwaukee School of Engineering
Team Members: Claudia Gabriel, Jack Maki, Cade Retier, and Malek Suleiman
Professors: Dr. Kevin Hart and Dr. Robert Turney
MISUMI Mentor: Alfredo Barrantes
Another MSOE student team was tasked with designing a plinko machine that was also lightweight and portable. Other requirements included a standard 120V AC outlet and a target envelope of 500 mm x 500 mm x 350 mm maximum.
The final delivery is fully functional, weighs only 41 lbs., and fits comfortably in a Nanuk 975 travel case, making it a great demo to showcase at trade shows as it travels well.
Project 5: Salt Fog Tester Chamber
University of Michigan
Team Members: Tavi Kipnis, Peichen Yu, Billy Hansen, Garrett Coley
Professors: Dr. Mathew Schaefer
MISUMI Mentor: Wai Yin Szeto
The University of Michigan senior design team was tasked to construct a tabletop salt spray chamber for corrosion testing at MISUMI. The machine’s testing method was required to conform to H8502 and ASTM B117. The other primary requirement included the ability to quietly run for up to 96 hours and 24 hours while being unmonitored.
About MISUMI’s University Program
The MISUMI University Program open doors for engineering students and faculty by offering access to MISUMI’s product catalog and engineering tools.
Through product discounts and sponsorship programs, our goal is to empower the next generation of engineers with the resources they need to push boundaries and bring their ideas to life.
