As my final project in my Fundamentals of Computer Aided Design course, I designed a roller coaster's wheel bogie assembly. The goal of the project was to design an assembly of at least four parts and create engineering drawings of the assembly and each individual part. To create my model, I used Creo 7.0 and referenced products within the coaster industry such as bogies made by Intamin or Bolliger & Mabillard. To create the engineering drawings, I used Creo's built-in tools to create the drawings of the model itself and then used AutoCAD to make any final changes, annotate the drawings, and add a template with the title block.
.jpg)
I wanted to design the bogie assembly with its cost and use in mind. I primarily focused on the smoothness of the ride and the maintenance involved in operating a coaster.
​
To keep the coaster smooth for riders, I thought that the bogie assembly should be able to dampen some of the forces and absorb the impulse caused from possible imperfections in the track. I did this by making it possible for the side-stop and up-stops to hinge with a rubber block attached to absorb some of the forces and make the ride feel smoother as a result.
​
To address the maintenance, I made most pieces interchangeable and easy to replace. For example, both the side-stop and up-stop assemblies are identical so that any of the four sub-assemblies could be interchanged as needed with only one bolt for easy and quick access.
​
When it came to maintenance, my thought process followed that since coasters undergo constant upkeep and maintenance to stay in operation, my model should try to make this process easier which may result in less downtime and ideally would mean that the coaster would make up for its cost in the long run.