The object of this year’s competition is for each team to design and assemble a device that will climb, vertically, a 2.5-meter string in the shortest time.  To do so, teams will have to drive a take-up spool, upon which the climbing string is wound.  The take-up spool is rigidly attached to a wooden pulley mounted on the same shaft, and is driven by a rubber band connected to a pulley on a 12 V, d.c., electric motor.   There are seven wooden spools of different diameters in each kit.  Teams may select any combination for your take-up spool and drive pulley.  The trick is to get the combination that will give your team the fastest climbing speed.   Also, teams will have to design and construct a framework out of Popsicle sticks and glue to support the system.  Teams have been given a kit containing all of the essential materials.  What teams do with the materials in the kit is up to each team.
 
Teams will need to analyze the torques in the system from the load on the wind-up spool and the gear ratio for the chosen driven pulley-motor pulley combination and, from that and the supplied torque vs. speed curve for the motor, compute the rotational speed of the wind-up spool.  Several trials will be needed to find the optimum pulley-wind-up-spool combination.
 

From left Mr. Ken Hayward (Computer Support Specialist, SPC), Dr. James Olliver (Provost, SPC), Ms. Lynne Wolf (Assistant to Provost, SPC), and Mr. Paul Stevenson (ASME SDC Chairman).
 

Thanks to our FWCS-ASME Team Volunteers:
Paul Stevenson (Chair)         Mike Krawczyk
Roy Lawrence                          David Boyd
Steve Lynch                             Marc Wilson
Pete Grotsky                            John Kelly
Matt Montgomery                    Paul Tanguay