Project Goal: Design, build and verify a motorized ultramicrotome stage to replace the manual stage adjustments with higher precision movements through automation.

An ultramicrotome uses a diamond knife to slice samples of various materials to nanoscale dimensions. The knife is located in a trough placed on the top of the upper stage. The existing design uses manual translation to align the knife with the sample at a specified distance.

The purpose of this project was to motorize the lower stage, allowing users to move the diamond knife with at least as much, if not more, precision than the existing design. The changes are expected to make the ultramicrotome even more appealing to consumers.

This new design uses stepper motors to accurately position and align the knife along both the x-axis and the y-axis. The steppers are controlled by command buttons. In addition, the controller digitally stores the specific position of the knife, making it easier for users to automatically adjust the stage to their preferred settings.

Project Goal: Redesign a Glass Knife Maker to be more user-friendly and aesthetically pleasing, while maintaining the quality of the glass knives produced by the existing design.

Glass knives are widely used in universities and laboratories around the world as a viable and cost-effective alternative to diamond or tungsten knives. The Glass Knife Maker, or GKM ,is an RMC Boeckeler product that breaks strips of glass at precise angles to produce ultra-sharp glass knives. The knives are used for ultramicrotomy and cryo-ultramicrotomy methods for cutting specimens into extremely thin slices. Boeckeler's existing Glass Knife Maker is considered one of the best instruments in the world for producing ultra-sharp glass knives. However, design modifications will help maintain the GKM’s competitive pricing and performance.

The team used SolidWorks to develop a new design then integrated commercial off-the-shelf parts and fabricated components to create a ready-for-testing prototype.

This project resulted in a simple, durable and mechanically sound design. Areas of improvement include aesthetics, user-friendliness, safety, compactness, production consistency and efficiency of the glass knifemaking process. Most importantly, the new instrument maintains the quality of the glass knives produced.