Mike's senior design project involves a robot named "Puma". He programmed Puma to dip metal pins into molten aluminum, then into a box where they are sprayed with cold water. The purpose of the project is to show which materials are best for not getting aluminum stuck to them, and therefore would be good for casting.
Videos: (with sounds)
#1: 4.2 Mb. Puma pre-heats pins, stirs them in the molten aluminum, and then Mike's lab partner tries to brush it off a pin.
Click here to view the Windows Media Player movie file#2: 2.9 Mb. Puma pre-heats pins, stirs them in the molten aluminum, and then Mike's lab partner tries to brush it off a pin.
Click here to view the Windows Media Player movie file#3: 49 Mb: Mike's Monologue. This was done pretty late into the night, but Mike explains all the steps, shows you the old computer, the temperature of the furnace for the molten aluminum (set point is 850 deg C, actual temperature is ~788 deg C because the top is open), and then gives you a second view of the experiment. This is a big file and will take a while to download even for broadband users.
Click here to view the Windows Media Player file