Fri, 02 Jul 2010 07:47:29 GMT

From Arcane:

well, since you went idle, and I'm about to go to bed.. I have some device for your sorting. I know it won't work for your asme thing because of the rules, but an awsome idea for separating the materials is their melting point.

melt the materials, the plastic will melt away first, followed by the glass. the tin will melt a little before the steel. and they SHOULD all stay liquid, though I didn't check their evaporation points, and this is based on ooooold research... but you should be able to let them gather in a massive pool where they'll stratify over time if kept still and a temperature conducive to being molten is maintained.

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:30:31 GMT

I say you should try

Hello and welcome!

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 05:12:23 GMT

First of all, thank you for stopping by to help out. We really appreciate it!

Our goal is to have several people with a verity of backgrounds explore this problem and help us find new and innovative solutions. Just because you're not an engineer doesn't mean you don't have good ideas! Besides, engineers miss all sorts of things because they are engineers and we know this.

That is why you have been called on to help!

So here's the parameters of our problem that you should keep in mind when you brainstorm here:
   - Assume our budget is infinite. You have access to all the money in the world and all of its resources. [Example: 10 metric tons of plutonium? No problem!]
   - Assume everything is physically possible. You have access to massless, frictionless pullies. [Example: Oh, its so top heavy it'll fall over for sure in real life? No problem!]
  - Assume your idea, no matter how basic an answer it seems, no matter how far-fetched it seems, is awesome! And all awesome ideas must be posted right away!
  - Assume that just because your first idea was awesome, doesn't mean a different idea that addresses the same task isn't equally awesome. We want to have as many ideas as possible, so if you come up with something new, please post it!
  - Assume that just because your awesome thought was for the old task that it is still good.

Here are some quick posting guidelines:
  - No spamming.
  - Keep it PG.
  - You're welcome to piggy back if you think you can get more out of someone's intimal idea, but do try to avoid getting side-tracked.
  - Remember, you are not here to judge ideas, you are here to come up with new ones. Do not insult some else's awesome idea, no matter how not-awesome you think it might be.
  - Lastly, we don't mind if you post the same idea as someone else, because sometimes a new way of explaining it can shine new light on the situation. However, repetitive re-stating of one single idea is not allowed. If an idea has been stated three different ways, we ask that you challenge yourself and come up with a new idea. Or piggy back off of that idea.

Here's the current task (this will certainly change over time, we will tell you when it does):
Your task is to come up with ideas for ways of doing one (or multiple) of the following:
-sorting stuff
-telling plastic apart from aluminum
-telling plastic apart from tin/steel
-telling plastic apart from glass
-telling glass apart from aluminum
-telling glass apart from tin/steel
-telling tin/steel apart from aluminum
-a means of feeding bottles of various sizes reliably into a machine

Since this is for an actual ASME competition, here's a link to the original rules and here's a link to the FAQ for those rules. Your ideas do not have to be in the rules, but if you want some inspiration, its a good place to look.

This is your FAQ post. If you aren't sure what is being asked of you, ask here.

As for posting your ideas, we made this a free-posting community. You don't have to join on to put your thoughts up. aws_team is both the mod account here and also the team's account. We are all engineers and nerdy and straight forward sort of people, but we are also full of technobabble. We understand if you need a translation and are not offended if you ask.

The Brainstorm

Hello and welcome!