ENME 414 Computer Aided Design
Team 1
Spring 1998
The project of developing a mouth motion simulator has been carried out for the last two semesters. The objective of this project is to develop a combined mechanical and electrical system capable of simulating the chewing motion of a human mouth. Two student teams made many contributions in the development. The third development(which is our brainchild) stage mainly focuses on two critical issues:
Introduction to our project:
In the continuing drive to improve the quality of dental care, ways must be devised to accurately assess improvements made to dental materials. In particular a way must be devised to assess the suitability of new dental materials, as they become available. The Mouth Motion Simulator (MMS) is an apparatus that will allow those in the dental health community to accurately test and asses the wear properties of materials that could potentially be used to improve the quality and longevity of dental fillings, crowns, and dentures.Improvements to the existing version of the MMS would continue the evolution of the project. The overall objective is to modify the existing apparatus and improve the MMS. The revised design will test materials in a manner that replicates a more natural human chewing motion. In addition, the separate loads, the MMS applies to the artificial teeth, will be monitored and controlled via LabVIEW.Not only does the MMS project benefit from the redesign but the members of Team 1 also gain valuable experience and knowledge of an actual engineering redesign.