The Interactive Recharging Station Team (Team I.R.S.) has taken up the request by Dr. Sarah Oman to design a new interactive recharging station for use in NAU’s Engineering Building. Objectives of this project are to design and build a recharging station that is interactive, enjoyable to use and educational for the user when they are interfacing with the device. Successful completion of this project will result in the installation of a recharging station that will be used by current and future students, faculty and NAU visitors which will positively promote the NAU Engineering Department and teach users interesting engineering concepts pertaining to the conversion of energy. Beneficiaries of this project are users of the station as well as people who are interested in learning engineering principals that regard energy conversion. .
The Final Design that Team I.R.S. chose utilizes a 1:6 sprocket expansion installed on the main shaft of the chair which turns the 5 to 24V DC generator. The shaft was machined at the NAU machine shop and inserted into taper roller bearing pressed on the base of the chair. Other components such as the generator mounting plate and electrical box mounting plate were outsourced and water jet cut from aluminum.
Refer to the 'Gallery' tab to see pictures of the manufacturing and testing procedures along with the final assembled chair. For more information on the disgn aspects and criteria, refer to the 'Reports' tab.