If you are interested in completing one of the below Corporate Design challenges, please contact oec2005@uwaterloo.ca for further information. A maximum of two teams per topic. Teams are matched with the challenge on a first come, first serve basis.

1. Messier-Dowty
Messier-Dowty (MD) designs and manufactures landing gear for aircraft. Typical landing gear structural components are made of 300M steel (to obtain the maximum strength and fatigue at the lowest weight and cost). These structural components are typically connected together with pins and bushing joints. The pins are chrome plated and greased. The bushings are usually made from Aluminium Nickel Bronze material. Most steels in contact with dissimilar metals tend to rust in service.

The challenge is to investigate products that will prevent corrosion of a bushing/steel joint in service and test and evaluate these possible solutions. MD and the team will jointly develop the test concept. Manufacturing and test hardware will be supplied/funded by MD. The team will perform the testing, evaluation and produce a final report/presentation.

2. Ford Motor Company of Canada
Ford Motor Company of Canada - Windsor Engine Plant (WEP) manufactures engines for Ford vehicles. The three main engines that WEP assembles are the 4.6L, 5.4L, and 6.8L engines. Other than the two engine assembly lines, there are other machining departments that produce the engine blocks, crankshafts, connecting rods, and camshafts.

On the engine assembly line, the productivity bottleneck is through the piston pound area, where the techs insert the piston & rod assembly into the block. Because this station is labour intensive and very operator dependent, an effective solution must be presented to minimize variation and maximize productivity without putting too much stress on the operators.