AUTOMATED SANDBAG FEEDING SYSTEM
This project was part of the senior design project requirement for graduating with a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering for San Jose State University. A team of six was formed at the start of the Fall semester in September and worked together with a sponsor during the year to develop the bag feeding system.
Our sponsor developed a portable machine that would fill sandbag filling machine capable of being deployed to disaster zone areas where flooding may cause damage. Several operators handfed each bag into clips for the machine to use. The sponsor needed a replacement that would be fully automatic, reliable, fast (9 bags/min) and easy to use. The project had already been in development for several years by previous senior project teams.
OVERVIEW
The first fully working prototype was completed at the end of December and was created mostly out of wood scraps. The main objective was the working proof of concept due to how far the team deviated from designs of previous years. One of the most significant changes was the decision to use pneumatic actuators in place of electric motors. The decision was made to simplify the operation and movements of the machine
FIRST ITERATION
FINAL ITERATION
The final iteration of the project moved on from the wood frame to a steel unistrut frame. The team originally planned to use aluminum extrusions but the increased weight from the extra pneumatics and the bag magazine would have caused excessive bending. The team added a second actuator for the arms for consistency, more reliable vacuum cups (determined through testing), and watertight enclosures for the electronics.
