SVSU student Cody Preistley, of Mcmillan , designing General Motors mechanism for senior design project

2014 Aug 28

Three Saginaw Valley State University mechanical engineering students -- Cody Preistley, of Mcmillan , and Trevor Barkiewicz and Mike Vogtmann -- as part of their senior design project are building a quench tank sand removal system for General Motors.

A quench tank is filled with water and cools incinerator residues and hot materials during industrial processes.

The students have proposed a design for the project and plan to build the mechanism in the coming months.

The existing quench tank route has pipes that are at 90-degree angles, which can cause a build-up of the solid materials that are supposed to be discharged. This can result in bursting, clogging and leaking pipes, something the students hope to reduce.

The proposed route, designed by Barkiewicz, Priestley, and Vogtmann, will fix those glitches, the students say. More direct flow in the piping, high pressure rinse nozzles in the piping, and changes in the valves would help with their objectives to remove solid material from the quench tank while maintaining water levels and temperatures. Those solutions would, in turn, increase reliability and decrease maintenance.

The trio was among 26 students who participated in SVSU's mechanical engineering symposium Friday, Aug. 15, when students presented their senior design projects to students, faculty, staff and other guests who visited the Pioneer Hall event. All mechanical engineering students are required to have a company sponsor their project and must complete a working prototype in order to graduate.