San Luis Opisbo Children's Museum

Children's Museum of San Luis Opisbo

Written by Casey Hughes

In late 2011 the mechanical engineering team, lead by Katy Hahn, at California Polytechnic University contacted Concept Zero (a business I co-own with Nicky Nada) to help them create some displays for the Children's Museum of San Luis Opisbo, California. I was working at the time on a specialized suspension liquid that would work with plastics - allowing more flexibility for display options, higher safety standards, and lighter, more flexible designs. The requirement for Cal Poly was for two displays, one being a 1 liter flint glass display (as used previously by Concept Zero at the Science Museum of Minnesota) and the second request was to supply them with one of our first plastic window prototypes for display in a science museum. Both displays turned out fantastically and were received with much enthusiasm. This is only the beginning of our success in designing safe and engaging exhibits for science organizations wishing to engage the public using the absolutely interesting properties of ferrofluid and our dynamic suspension liquid. 

University Of Colorado Ferrofluid Exhibits

Design Team 14

University of Colorado

Project Team: Millie Blackstun, Elaine Brogna, Amanda Childress, Matt Collegeman, Peter Davis, Brandon Schwartz

Company Mentor: Nick Stites, Darren McSweeney
Faculty Advisor: Shirley Chessman

In October of 2011, I was contacted by Millie Blackstun who is part of Mechanical Engineering Senior Design Team 14 at the University of Colorado in Boulder. If you have any questions about their work, you can contact Millie at (millblackstun@gmail.com)  

The objective was to create a series of exhibits to be incorporated into the Integrated Teaching and Learning Laboratory at the engineering center on the CU campus. The ITLL seeks to provide engineering students and the general public with hands on demonstrations of engineering feats. This particular set of exhibits gives physical form to magnetic fields through the unique properties of ferrofluid. 

*All pictures and video are courtesy of Team 14.

SPICE RACK DISPLAY

The FerroTec EFH1 ferrofluid is suspended in CZFerro Gen4 SL to prevent it from staining the glass jars. Team 14 came up with an very clever vertical and horizontal T-mount for the magnets. If you ever played with neodymium magnets before, you'll know why a safe and durable mount is needed to handle them in a environment where they interact with first time users. A truly smooth and clean display design by the team :)

HAND CRANK DISPLAY

The crank in the far back raises the top magnet up and down via a lead screw and worm gear set. The crank on the left raises and lowers the bottom magnet with a rack and pinion set. The third crank spins the bottom magnet in a circle with spur gears and a keyed shaft. The cranks controlling the bottom magnet can be used independently or simultaneously. The magnetic field interaction between the two magnets produces some really cool magnetic field lines.

NANO TREE DISPLAY

This is the new and improved electromagnetic "Nano Tree" that one of the members of Team 14 optimized. There was a team working on the

project last, but they only had an electromagnet exhibit. The new magnet uses half the power, puts out the same strong magnetic field, and producer 1/5 of the heat.