Can Crusher Project
4th Period- Tech
Kartikey Desai, Courtney Jones, Sarah Kasi, and Jon Ko

Table of Contents

Section Page #

Group Development……………………………………………………………………..……3

Roles and Responsibilities……………………………………………………….…….3

Team Constitution………………………………………………………………..…….3

Timeline……………………………………………………………………………………….4

Problem Statement……………………………………………………………………………5

Background………………………………………………………………………….………..5

Customers……………………………………………………………………………………. 5

Scope……………………………………………………………………………………….… 5-6

Deliverables………………………………………………………………………………….. 6

Brainstorming………………………………………………………………………...………7

Research and Generate Ideas……………………………………………………….………8-11

Research…………………………………………………………………………………

Calculations………………………………………………………………………………

Criteria and Constraints…………………………………………………………….………11

Explore Possibilities………………………………………………………………….…… 12-15

Designs…………………………………………………...…………………………..13-16

Adhesives…………………………………………………………………………….17

Materials……………………………………………………………………………...14-15

Selecting an Approach………………………………………………………………………15-17

Designs………………………………………………………………………………15

Adhesives……………………………………………………………………………16

Brackets……………………………………………………………………………...17

Developing a Design Proposal…………………………………………………………..….21-24

Bill of Materials………………………………………………………………………….21

Build Process…………………….………………….………………………………..21-23

Test Plan…………………………………………………...……………………………..24

Prototype………………………………………………………………………………………....X

Test and Monitor………………………………………………...... …………………………X

Refine……………………………………………………………………………………………..X

Lessons Learned………………………………………………………………………………....X

Summary…………………………………………………………………………………………X

CAD Drawings……..……………………………………………………………………...…….X

Group Development

Role / Person / Responsibility
Leader / Courtney Jones / Keep everyone on task and assign assignments
Scribe / Kartikey Desai / Write documents and keep notes of everything
Scribe / Sarah Kasi / Write documents and keep notes of everything
Timekeeper / Jon Ko / Keep us on schedule and tells us where we are in our timeline

Team Constitution

Rules, Regulations, and Expectations

1.  All team members should respect each other and the ideas that are shared.

2.  All team members must do work.

3.  All team members must help in the building process of the can crusher.

4.  We must be open to working outside of class.

5.  We must stay on task and focused at ALL TIMES.

6.  Everyone MUST put forth their maximum effort.

7.  No one dominates the team.

8.  All team members must STAY POSITIVE.

Timeline

Can Crusher
Project Timeline
Group Members: Kartikey Desai, Courtney Jones, Sarah Kasi, Jon Ko
Note: All work documented by team scribes or individual task owner

Problem Statement

Roadrunner Trucking wants us to build a can crusher that will reduce the volume of their aluminum cans.

Background

We work for Alpha Engineering Company, and Roadrunner Trucking has contacted us because they have a lot of aluminum can wastes. In order to reduce the waste, we were asked to create a can crusher that will reduce the volume of the aluminum cans by seventy percent. If they do not find a way to reduce the volume of these cans they will have to pay a fine of $0.05 per can.

Can crushers are primarily used to save space and recycling. Can crushers make it possible to make small stackable piles that save space. There are many designs that can crushers come in. Some of the designs are pneumatic, hydraulic, aluminum, and wood. Jesse M. Wright was the man who invented the aluminum can crusher in 1937, but he did not get it patented until August 30, 1938.

Customers

Our two customers are Mr. Pritchard, our ITC instructor, and Roadrunner Trucking Company.

Scope

Our task for this project is to design and create a can crusher that will minimize the volume of aluminum cans by 70%. The can crusher will be made up of various parts including a lever, body, and aluminum bin. Sarah and I will be documenting all of the work we do in the designing and building to create our technical report. We will be composing a Power Point that will be presented during class. We will be turning in our can crusher, technical report, and Power Point presentation to Mr. Pritchard at the close of the project.

We will be utilizing different resources throughout the project to successfully complete our research. We also have the privilege to utilize the following individuals:

·  Technical – Mr. Pritchard

·  Math Calculations – Miss Hernacki

·  CAD Drawings – Mr. Hund

The materials that we will be using for this project are wood, PVC, metal brackets, metal hinges, screws, and nails. In addition, we will also use many shop tools including the band saw, claw hammer (to go with nails), drill press / hand held portable electric drill, and sander. The approximate cost of all the material we will need to purchase is $40.

The key constraints given by our customers are:

·  Maximum space of 18”×24”×30”

·  Minimum of one simple machine

·  Aluminum can must fall into the aluminum can bin once crushed

·  Aluminum can bin must slide in and out of crusher

·  Aluminum can bin must hold 20 uncrushed cans

·  Design must be one unit

·  Must be manually operated

·  All parts must be made not bought

There are a few conflicts we have with meeting outside of class. Kartikey and Jon Ko are in tennis so it will be hard for all four of us to meet after school due to their practices. Another issue we will face is meeting during study hall. Sarah and Jon Ko do not have a study hall throughout the week. Also, Courtney and Kartikey do not have study hall during the same period, so they cannot work together; they can only work by themselves. Other than that,we have no issues in meeting outside of school.

Deliverables

At the end of this project we will give our customers 3 different outputs.
The 3 outputs are the can crusher, technical report, and PowerPoint presentation. The can crusher will be composed of the lever, body, and aluminum can bin. The technical report will take us through the 12-step design process and it will contain our final CAD drawings. The PowerPoint presentation will be a complete overview of our whole project

Brainstorming

·  Overall:

o  What adhesive should we use? Wood glue? Hot glue? Super glue?

o  Will the can crusher be operated by hand or foot?

·  Aluminum Can Bin:

o  What material should it be made of? (Wood?)

o  What size should it be?

o  How thick should the material be? (Does it matter?)

o  If we can make it hold more than 20 crushed cans, should we? (Or would that be a waste of material?)

o  Should it be really tall but narrow? Wide but flat? Square sides like a cube?

o  How will it slide in and out of the crusher? (Like a drawer?)

o  Will we need a handle in order to slide it out of the crusher?

o  Do we need to do anything specifically so that it smoothly slides out of the crusher? (Or would this be a waste of material?)

·  Lever:

o  What material(s) should it be made of?

o  What other parts will we need to get? Metal hinges? Screws?

o  How thick should the material be? (Does it matter?)

o  How big / long should it be?

o  The longer the lever is, the less input force is required. Is there a way we can mathematically calculate the length of the lever so that too much input force is not required to crush the can to 30% its original size?

·  Base:

o  What material should it be made of? (Wood?)

o  How big will it be?

o  Should we make it so that it could hold something bigger than the size of a standard aluminum can, or would that be a waste of material?

Research and Development

·  Overall

o  Potential methods of attaching the parts are: wood glue, super glue, hot glue, duct tape, and screw and nails. Hot glue will be messy, and will not be as strong as the other potential solutions. Screw and nails will require the use of a drill. Screws and nails are mess free and do not take drying time. The downside to screws and nails are that if a mistake is made, it is hard to fix since the holes cannot be filled. Wood glue and superglue are both fairly strong and will take around 15second to dry. Wood glue is stronger, and is cheaper. Superglue is strong, but can be messy and costs more for the quantity we will need.

o  Manual can crushers can be operated by either hand or foot. There are a variety of different types of can crushers. All of our designs are different, but they are all hand operated. Designs that require more input force are generally crushed by foot, and can crushers that require very little input force (such as crushers with long levers) are operated by hand.

·  Aluminum Can Bin

o  It would be ideal to make it using wood. It can be made of other materials such as metal, but that would be more difficult and cost more.

o  The exact size depends on the design. It should be capable of holding 20 crushed cans. (This can be calculated by finding the volume.) But making it so it holds way more than 20 crushed cans would be a waste of material. Also, it should fit in the 18” x 24” x 30” requirement.

o  The material thickness will depend on what they have at the store, although, Home Depot has a variety of wood thicknesses. It should be thick enough so that it is sturdy, but not too thick that it is both a waste of material and space. 1/2” to 3/4" thick is acceptable.

o  The aluminum can bin can slide out of the base like a drawer, but there do not need to special appliances that help it slide smoothly (that would be a waste of material).

o  A handle on the aluminum can bin would be most ideal, to pull the bin out of the base since it is going to slide out like a drawer. However, the handle should be designed big enough to fit an adult’s hand, but also as small as possible so save material. (If using wood, the handle will have to be sanded a lot to prevent splinters.)

o  Although not required on the aluminum can bin, metal brackets would make the bin more sturdy. If using metal brackets, we must be careful when dimensioning both the bin and base.

·  Lever

o  The lever should be made of metal, wood, or aluminum. Plastic would not work because it is not sturdy enough to exert that much pressure. Wood seems to be the best option. It is highly available in a variety of sizes, and our customers will let us use wood. In addition, it will be strong enough and easy to work with.

o  The material should be thick so it can stand against a lot of force. 3/3” to 1” thick is the minimum. 2” by 4” wood is a potential option.

o  The lever should be long, not short, so we can use less input force. Since it is a simple machine, the longer the lever, the less force required.

o  Depending on the design, the lever may require other parts such as hinges. Metal hinges, such as the ones that are in doors, are easily available.

·  Base

o  The materials that we are allowed to use for the base are wood, aluminum, plastic, and metal to construct the base of the can crusher.

o  The size of the base will be decided by the group, but the maximum space it can occupy is 18” in length and 24” in height.

o  The frame does not need to be too thick, only a ½” to ¾” thickness is necessary if using wood.

o  Metal brackets would help the strength of the base. Metal brackets would help prevent the base from falling apart while crushing a can. They will also help align parts when gluing things together. The can be installed using screws or nails.

o  We should make the base larger that the size of twenty uncrushed aluminum cans to ensure that it will hold all of the cans. By making the base larger, it allows the cans to fit in a way where they are not closely packed together where they cannot be moved.

·  Can Crusher Calculations:

Can Dimensions: 2.625in in diameter (1.3125in in radius), 4.875in in height

Volume – 1 uncrushed can

V = πr2h

V = π x 1.31252 x 4.875

V = 26.38in3

Volume – 1 can reduced by 70%

V = πr2h x .3

V = π x 1.31252 x 4.875 x .3

V = 26.38 x .3

V = 7.914in3

Height of a crushed can (height reduced by 70%)

h = 4.875 × .3

h = 1.4625 in.

Volume – 20 uncrushed cans

V = πr2h x 20

V = π x 1.31252 x 4.875 x 20

V = 26.38 x 20

V = 527.66

Volume – 20 cans reduced by 70%

V = πr2h x .3 x 20

V = π x 1.31252 x 4.875 x .3 x 20

V = 26.38 x .3 x 20

V = 7.914 x 20

V = 158.28in3

Criteria and Constraints

·  Criteria:

o  Self-loading

o  Inexpensive

o  Reliable

o  Not time consuming

o  Simple

·  Constraints:

o  Maximum space the design can occupy is 18”x24”x30”.

o  Materials that can be used are wood, PVC, metal brackets, metal hinges, screws and nails.

o  Minimum of one simple machine.

o  Crushed aluminum can must immediately fall into the aluminum can bin without human intervention.

o  The aluminum can bin must slide in and out of the crusher.

o  The aluminum can bin must be sized to hold 20 crushed cans.

o  All parts of the can crusher must be fabricated.

o  The design is to be one unit.

o  Must be manually operated.

Explore Possibilities

Design

Kartikey’s Design

Pros(+) / Cons(-)
Simple / Used incline plain wrong
Dimensioned well / No thickness
Self-loading / Requires a lot of input force

Courtney’s Design