Date of Award

2018

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

Team Pick It Up & Put It Down was challenged to design the lifting and tilting portion of a device that will transport chemical-filled plastic barrels from a pallet located on the "dirty” side of Amgen’s facilities airlock to another pallet located across a demarcation on the "clean” side of the same airlock. This device must also allow for the required 10-minute cleaning process to occur. The device must be reliable, safe, and work in a timely manner to eliminate the current labor-intensive process of manually manipulating these barrels, which can weigh up to 250 pounds. Operation of this device must comply with the particulate standards for an ISO-8 class clean room environment.

To meet the design requirements, the team completed thorough market research and review of the 2016-2017 design, assessing the best approach to solving Amgen’s problem. The team used market research and input from Amgen to identify design specifications necessary to develop an effective, quality product. Using brainstorming activities in tandem with patent and literature searches, 120 unique concepts were generated and judged based on their feasibility and effectiveness in solving the given challenge.

After careful consideration with the assistance of engineering and concept analysis, it was determined that use of electronics, by means of an electric linear actuator is the most effective concept in eliminating human labor input and abiding by the cleanliness standards. The team worked closely with the University of Rhode Island’s Mechanical Engineering Capstone Team 8, who was challenged to develop the overall device design. Detailed engineering analysis along with side by side development, integrated the lifting and tilting mechanism into a viable concept that functions with the overall design. The team spent the duration of the spring semester building, testing, and redesigning the prototype. At this point in time, the team has effectively developed a product that reduces the physical human manipulation of cleaning the barrels. The clamping and bottom prong system successfully secures barrels during the tilting process when the barrel is correctly placed in contact with the prongs and upper clamp. The team accomplished building an integrated device that improves the safety of day-to-day drum handling and the efficiency of the physical drum positioning for cleaning.

Comments

Sponsor: Amgen

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