​For my senior year Capstone project, my team designed a built a prototype for a cheap vacuum system for lifting cardboard boxes onto and off of shipping pallets. After doing some market research, we found that there winches which were cheap and slow, or large vacuum systems which were fast and expensive (due to each lifter sharing a common vacuum pump). We wanted to design a system that was capable of lifting low weight boxes quickly at low cost.

​Goals:

• Stack boxes up to 8’ high
• Continuous operation for 10 hour shift
• Capable of lifting 40lb cardboard boxes without damage
• 10 second cycle time from floor to top of 6’ stack based on user needs research (250% productivity increase based on research)
• Production cost under $2500

Process:

• Created initial concept with rigid i-beam mount
• Perform acceleration analysis to select motor
• Calculated feasibility of holding and lowing braking systems
• Conducted analysis of pressure and flow requirements for various qualities of cardboard 
• Calculate pressure drop along coil hose
• Designed custom spool to reduce stress in cable 
• Completed ergonomics study on control wand
• Created CAD models in SolidWorks

Outcome:

• Initial prototype able to meet weight and time limits with little learning curve
• Gave prototype and research to Capstone department for second iteration project 

Problems Overcome:

• Compared inertial flywheel to connected drive for power transmission, used connected drive due to issues with smooth clutching
• initial design for 1/4in hose found to be unusable due to required pressure drop, calculated optimum internal diameter to be 3/4in
• active lowering systems too expensive for cost goal,  modified go kart clutch for use as passive system