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17. Applications and Implications

This week was about ansewring key planning questions re: the final project.

Goals

Propose a final project masterpiece that integrates the range of units covered answering:

What will it do? Who's done what beforehand? What will you design? What materials and components will be used? Where will come from? How much will they cost? What parts and systems will be made? What processes will be used? What questions need to be answered? How will it be evaluated?

Accomplishments Answered key question re: final project planning

Answers to key planning questions

What will it do?

Goal is to create a kitchen appliance that can wash and dry greens and other vegetables via a pre set cycle both saving time (and potentially water)

Who's done what beforehand?

So far I only found limited similar project within the fab academy community and a few outside.

Fab Academy projects

1) here

Outside of fab academy:

  1. I like the automated spinning salad dryer that the You Tuber The Practical Engineer designed

I think that he has a good spinner design and using this approach can allow me to allow users to put in any colander they wish.

  1. Commercial solution are mainly ultrasonic, manual or focused on drying (salad spinners)

Here are some examples

What will you design? I will design all aspect of the project with 4 major components

1) The box / frame of the machine and water reservoir

2) The spinning mechanism

3) The machine lid and water dispensing mechanism

4) Control board electronics - main board, pump breakout board, motor breakout board, button breakout board

What materials and components will be used?

The main materials are 1) T Rails + Plexiglass

2) 3D print filament - TPU, PLA and XTC3D finishing resin

3) Electronic components and PCB boards, motor/ESC and pump

4) Molding plastic / rubber

Below is a full BOM

Where will come from?

Most are either provided by lab, purchased from Digi key or Amazon

How much will they cost?

You can find the link to the suppliers in the attached file

What parts and systems will be made?

Washbasin/box/frame, drain/skirt, spinning plate, lid, water reservoir, electronics boards.

Only things not made are: Motor + ESC, pump, salad spinner bowl, water tube, sprinkler head, power supply

What processes will be used? - 3D print - Laser cutting - PCB Board milling - Molding and casting / resin - System integration

What questions need to be answered?

  • Spinning mechanism - chain/band vs. direct drive (already answered)
  • Frame materials - (already answered - TRail )
  • Water drainage approach - TPU printed sloped base

How will it be evaluated?

  • does it wash and clean greens / veggies

Under what license is the project

The project is published under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License


Last update: June 26, 2023