The Warman Design and Build Competition

Treasured by universities and students alike since its inception in 1988, the Warman Design and Build competition has allowed leading Universities to take engineering out of the classroom and into practice, allowing bright-minded students to create unique engineering solutions to help save the fictional planet of Gondwana.

The Competition is sponsored by Weir Minerals Australia Ltd (formerly known as Warman International) and is coordinated by the National Committee on Engineering Design (NCED) of Engineers Australia, affiliated with the Mechanical College.

Warman Design and Build Competition 2023: Competition Dates Announced

The Warman Design and Build Competition challenges students to push the boundaries of Mechanical Engineering by developing practical solutions to theoretical problems.

The 36th Warman Design and Build Competition will take place on 21 and 22 October 2023. Like last year, the competition will be held virtually and individual teams will be participating in the competition from their university campuses across the two days.

The Mission: Project Refuel

The people of Gondwana need an innovative engineering solution.

For the past 35 years the people of Gondwana, a small planet orbiting a sun on the outer fringes of our galaxy, have triumphed over their new planet’s harsh environment. They have overcome complex problems using only the resources they have at hand and assistance from the brilliant minds of engineers from Earth.

These engineers have traversed impossible ravines with limited resources, contained dangerous nuclear contaminations and solved engineering feats that have made people’s lives easier and safer.

Once again the people of Gondwana are faced with uncertainty… and once again student engineers from Earth are here to help.

Challenge

Your team of student engineers has been set the task of designing and building a scale, demonstration system which is capable of separately picking up three Fuel and three Oxidiser vessels and safely depositing them into their respective storage silos, which are typically located on small raised platforms.
Over the last 35 years, Earth’s engineering students have rendered invaluable assistance with such engineering problems, and we anticipate you will again be successful on this thirty-sixth occasion

Context

Gondwana is a small planet orbiting a star on the outer fringes of the Milky Way. Rich in natural resources, the Gondwanans have mined and distributed precious metals throughout the Galaxy. The first stage of the extraction of the metals from the mined ore is using a metallurgical concentrator. This
involves grinding the ore to a fineness which allows the metal bearing particles to be separated from the valueless material or gangue. Water laden with gangue is then pumped to large tailings dams, where the solids settle and the recovered water is returned to the concentrator for reuse. In one application, the gangue has to be pumped across a 2km wide chasm. The pipe is supported by a wire rope spanning the chasm.

Planned maintenance of the slurry pump requires a new impellor to be transported across the chasm. But a recent storm washed out the only bridge, preventing delivery of the urgently needed part. The only way to transport the impellor is by using the wire rope spanning the chasm. An intergalactic transporter has delivered an impellor to a nearby warehouse but the design of a system to collect, transport and deliver the part using the wire rope has stumped the Gondwanan engineers. Young engineers from Earth have once again been asked to assist by designing a system and proving the concept
using a scaled down version.

Over the last 35 years, engineering students have rendered invaluable assistance with such engineering problems, and on this thirty-sixth occasion, the Gondwanans again seek help from a new team of budding engineers to demonstrate a solution.

Objective

Prototype a reduced scale, proof-of-concept transport system, later referred to as the “system”, which will precisely deliver scale representations of the Propellant Fuel vessels and the Propellant Oxidiser vessels, from their respective drop zones to their respective storage silos. Referring to Figure 1, the team will have freedom to position the six spherical vessels (three fuel and three oxidiser) at your chosen location within the respective zone boundaries and the team will install the system within the boundaries of the Setup/Start Zone. The fuel vessels will be simulated using tennis balls. The oxidiser vessels will be simulated using squash balls. Your system must start in the Setup/Start Zone and be fully contained within an imaginary 400mm sided cube. When activated via a single starting action, your system will autonomously collect the vessels (in the order of your choice) and deliver them to their respective storage silos. Vessels containing the different fluids must not come into contact at any time, your system must not simultaneously carry (fully support) vessels containing the different fluids, and you must not deposit a vessel in the incorrect storage silo. Failure to comply with any of these three requirements will pose unacceptable risks. Your system should return to, and/or finish the run completely within the Setup/Start Zone. The maximum allowed time for the operation is 120 seconds.

Warman Design and Build Competition 2023: Rules released

The Warman Design and Build Competition challenges students to push the boundaries of Mechanical Engineering by developing practical solutions to theoretical problems.

We are working on the international competition dates and event format and more information will be posted to teams and competition organisers as soon as it is available. Please see below link to download Competition rules for 2023 and form to be completed to receive further information from participating universities.

Competition rules 2023 EOI Form

Warman Design and Build Competition 2022 International Final Winners Saved Gondwana Planet

The mechanical engineering first and second year students representing 15 university teams from Australia, Malaysia and New Zealand came together head to head to compete for the coveted 2022 Warman Design and Build Competition on 8 – 9 October.

The Warman competition has been proudly sponsored by Weir Minerals and coordinated by the National Committee on Engineering Design (NCED) of Engineers Australia, affiliated with the Mechanical College for 35 years.

The competition provides students a rare opportunity to practice hands on engineering design skills. Students also participate in a site tour of Weir Minerals and walk through the full production cycle of a leading global engineering company specialised in the design and manufacture of highly-engineered products and services for minerals, oil and gas, and power industries.

Around 80 of the brightest students representing 15 university teams competed over the two days. These included the University of Canterbury, University of Auckland, UNSW Canberra, University of Technology Sydney, University of Newcastle, Griffith University Gold Coast campus, Monash University – Clayton Campus, Deakin University, Griffith University Nathan campus, RMIT University, University of Adelaide, University of South Australia, Flinders University, University of Western Australia and Monash University Malaysia.

Competing in heats at their universities only the team with the best ideas and execution progressed to the finals, for a chance of the tittle of Warman Design and Build Competition.

An intergalactic transporter has delivered an impellor to a nearby warehouse but the design of a system to collect, transport and deliver the part using the wire rope has stumped the Gondwanan engineers. Students from Earth have once again been asked to assist by designing a system to deliver a payload across a chasm in order to assist the fictional people of Gondwana, a small planet on the outer fringes of our Galaxy.

On competition day, the tension and excitement in teams was palpable as the teams competed in the virtual competition, that was live streamed over the weekend.

2022 Warman Design and Build Competition International Final winners: