Date of Award

2022

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Dr. Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

Greystone as a company manufactures high quantities of tight tolerance metal machined parts. They have several devices at their Lincoln, RI location called Automated Inspection Machines known as AIMs. The problem Greystone presented to the capstone design team is that the defective parts recognized by the AIM are offloaded into a single defect bin. The problem arises that sorting the defects by type is currently a costly and time consuming process that Greystone hopes to automate. Greystone requested that the team’s system works with the existing PLC and RSlogix software used by their AIMs, is portable around their facility, as well as does not require any redesign of the AIM. Another major criteria is having at least 8 separate defect categories, able to handle one defect every 2 seconds. The team has worked towards and built a prototype design for a gravity operated system that separates all of the defects into categories. The prototype was initially designed in CAD software Autodesk Inventor. The team settled on a chute that uses flaps to deflect falling defective parts into their respective bins. It was decided to use linear pull action solenoids as the method to move the flaps, and a hinge mechanism to fasten them to the chute. For the sake of the prototype and a result of rslogix not being readily available to the team, the prototype uses an Arduino microcontroller along with a TIP120 transistor to control the timing of activating the solenoids. The material for the actual main body chute of our sorting system was decided on to be transparent polycarbonate. The overall dimensions of the chute were narrowed based on the dimensions of Greystone’s products. The polycarbonate flaps were cold welded to the hinge pins using JB Weld. The arm assembly that controlled the motion of the flap was a smaller arm attached directly to the tip of the solenoid plunger followed by a second larger arm of 3D printed PLA material, the second larger arm is attached to the hinge point at which the flap is cold welded to. The arduino was programmed to mimic possible scenarios such as one part being rejected, both parts being rejected for the same reason (defect type), and the parts being rejected for different reasons. The method in which the sorting system handles each scenario was controlled by the timing of the flaps opening and closing. The timing of the flaps is entirely controlled by the Arduino using C++ code. A GUI, graphical user interface was designed to display a menu for the user to select the defect type and control the timing of the flaps opening. The entire chute is mounted inside of a 2020 aluminum cart, with casters for transportation. The offload chutes to guide the parts after deflection by the flaps are made of 3D printed PETG material.

Comments

Team Name: Team 30, The Aimbots

Sponsor: Greystone of Lincoln

Document Reference: URI-MCE-402-030-2022

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