W.S.G. Isaac Newton

At my internship at HSD Associates in Zuidhorn I improved the design of a round elevator door drive mechanism.

A significant part of the work activities at HSD Associates is focused on elevator projects. The company creates their own custom circular elevators. The door drive mechanism that was designed for this round elevator had some problems that became apparent after the drive mechanism was built. The mechanism was subject to significant wear and friction, it did not meet all the legal requirements that the mechanism had to fulfill, and the locking mechanism that was implemented in the design did not work consistently. My job as an intern at HSD Associates was to create an improved design for both the landing and cage door, solving the problems of the current mechanisms, taking into account the legal and spatial requirements, and optimizing for strength, cost, and size.

During my internship I worked at the office in Zuidhorn, first researching the problem, and afterwards going through the design steps. The first step in the design process was the conceptual phase, where I evaluated different approaches to the design problem, from tackling all the individual problems directly and keeping most of the design intact, to completely new concepts. After evaluation, it was decided to work on a new conceptual design, as the current mechanism had some fundamental flaws. This meant I had a lot of freedom to create my own design. After the conceptual phase I created detailed CAD models of both the landing and cage door drive mechanisms. The new designs do not suffer from wear and friction, satisfy all legal requirements, and take up a smaller volume than the current mechanisms.