Mini-Hand Extension

Lam Research supplies equipment for manufacturing silicon wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing. Their equipment is highly sophisticated and therefore costly, both in time and money, to repair. Much of the time and money spent to service those machines when they require maintenance or repair is spent on disassembly, so Lam seeks a faster way to service their equipment. Al Schoepp, a Senior Technical Director at Lam Research, came to Cal Poly seeking a team of students to design and build a device that could emulate the human hand well enough to handle hardware and thread nuts and bolts but also be usable inside one of the manufacturing machines at Lam. Team R.E.A.C.H., consisting of Aulivia Bounchaleun, Haden Cory, Scott Onsum, and Zack Phillips, have designed a device called the R.E.A.C.H. device, which stands for Reach Extender And Component Handler, to help Lam Research save both time and money when servicing their equipment. The device is operable with one hand, has an integrated vision and lighting system with a wireless monitor, can extend the user’s reach up to almost 24 inches, and can fit through a two inch diameter hole while carrying a ½-13 nut. This report details the design process that Team R.E.A.C.H. used to develop the R.E.A.C.H. device starting from the initial background research and problem definition all the way up through the detailed analysis and technical drawings of the prototype