P18433: Nicaragua Bottle Upcycling Product Design and Manufacturing
/public/

Preliminary Detailed Design

Table of Contents

Team Vision for Preliminary Detailed Design Phase

PHASE 3 TEAM VISION

What is our plan?

What have we completed?

Design and Flowcharts

Updated System Architecture

Our system architecture has been updated to include specific parts that will carry out the various functions of the system as well as notable interactions between such parts.
System Architecture

System Architecture

Feasibility: Analysis, Simulation

Chip Input Feasibility

The density of the plastic chips was found by massing a known volume of the chips acquired from Tycom Recycling. The mass of the chips input into the machine must be the same as the mass of the gutter after extraction, with an additional mass in order to over fill the mold. The mass of the gutter was found by multiplying the density of PET by the volume of the gutter.
Chip Input Calculations

Chip Input Calculations

The working chip input feasibility calculations can be found here.

Heat Transfer Mechanics

The energy needed in Watts to heat the melting chamber and PET plastic was found by calculating the energy per mass divided by the time to heat for both the plastic and the chamber as well as the heat of fusion for changing the plastic from a solid to a liquid state. With these initial calculations, the energy required came out to about 145 Watts. However this is excluding the losses to the environment that will inevitably take place and sap heat from our chamber. We hope to reduce losses by adding insulation for the entire heating chamber, thus lowering our input energy. These calculations will help us choose the resistance heater that will be ideal for our system.
Heat Transfer Calculations

Heat Transfer Calculations

The working heat transfer feasibility calculations can be found here.

Mold Compression Feasibility

The metal mold will be experiencing compression at an elevated temperature well above room temperature. The materials we have proposed at this point are the aluminum alloys AL 6061 (common), AL 2011 (higher machinability), AL 7075 (high strength), and steel AISI 1018 (common).

The yield and ultimate strengths of the aluminum alloys are observed to decrease with increasing temperature. We have initially concluded that the fatigue strength will also decrease at the same rate. These strengths of the aluminum alloys at our working temperature of 260 degrees Celsius are seen to be roughly 9-12% of their maximum strength at room temperature. Using this, the fatigue strength at the working temperature can be calculated from the available value of fatigue strength at room temperature.

The key assumptions included within these calculations are as follows:

The working mold compression feasibility calculations can be found here.

Feasibility Calculations For Aluminum 7075

Feasibility Calculations For Aluminum 7075

From the calculations above for Aluminum 7075, the max force we can apply to the heated mold prior to deformation is 153.9 kN when considering fatigue strength and 516.1 kN when considering shear in the smallest cross section of the mold. These values are highlighted in green.

Aluminum Type Comparisons

Based on our feasibility analysis we have decided that AL 7075 is the best suited for our build. Although it will require more energy to heat and will retain the heat for longer, it has a higher durability under pressure and will be able to withstand higher forces without deformation. The integrity of the mold takes priority over the energy required to heat our mold.

Justification for Using Steel

Since steel has a lower thermal conductivity as compared to other metals, it will retain heat for longer. If we add insulation to further reduce heat loss, it will allows us to keep our heating chamber at a high temperature for a long period of time. This will reduce the overall time between cycles because there will be less time spent reheating the chamber. Steel is also stronger than aluminum and will be able to withstand the pressure needed to transfer the plastic into the mold. Since this system will be running multiple cycles per day, the repetitive application of compression forces will cause wear on the material and steel's higher fatigue strength means it will hold up for longer.

Our Current Design

Current Design Picture

Current Design Picture

Overall Design Framing

Overall Design Framing

High-level Control Diagram

High-level Control Diagram

Current Gutter Design

Current Gutter Design

End Product Design & Prototyping

The customer requirements helped to guide the design of the gutter and the following checklist allows us to monitor and ensure that our product is meeting our customers' needs.

Customer Requirements vs. Gutter Design

Customer Requirements vs. Gutter Design

A engineering drawing of the product design can be found here.

The prototyping we are currently working on includes 3D printing a shortened model of the gutter to investigate methods of attachment between gutters and to buildings. Here is a picture of the 3D printed 4 inch gutter section.

3D Printed Gutter Prototype

3D Printed Gutter Prototype

From our prototype, we will be able to investigate the attachment method connecting individual gutter sections and the structural integrity of the assembly. Results from these analyses will allow us to iterate our product design and move forward with designing the product mold.

Bill of Material (BOM)

The Bill of Materials for our current design is broken up into the following aspects:

The working Bill of Materials can be found here.

Bill of Materials

Bill of Materials

Test Plans

Our test plan for experimentally verifying the engineering requirements are broken up into the following categories:

The working Test Plans can be found here.

These Test Plans were formulated from the Engineering Requirements, which can be found here.

The Test Procedures to describe the testing processes can be found here.

Test Plan Chart

Test Plan Chart

Test Plan Sheet

Test Plan Sheet

The layout of these Test Plans were based off of the Test Plans from the prior design group P13027

Risk Assessment

Updates to our Risk Assessment

New Risks:

Risks mitigated:

Risk Assessment Chart

Risk Assessment Chart

A working Risk Assessment file can be found here.

Design Review Materials

Our Preliminary Detailed Design Review will take place at 11:00AM on Thursday, November 9th in SUS-3160

Plans for next phase

PHASE 4 TEAM VISION
DDR Completion Matrix Chart

DDR Completion Matrix Chart

Team Vision at a High Level:

- Electronics Project:

- Purchasing / Metalworking

- 3D Printing Project

Personal 3 Week Plans

Home | Planning & Execution | Imagine RIT

Problem Definition | Systems Design | Preliminary Detailed Design | Detailed Design

Build & Test Prep | Subsystem Build & Test | Integrated System Build & Test | Customer Handoff & Final Project Documentation