Designing a Folding Device
Summary and Reflection
Throughout the past two semesters, I have been working with a group of three other mechanical
engineering students, along with our industry sponsor and our faculty advisor, to develop devices that can help reduce the production of plastic waste by incentivizing the use of Sustainable Produce Containers, a compostable, recyclable alternative to plastic clamsheell produce containers, by making them faster and easier to assemble. Our capstone group has created two devices, a manual jig and a fully automated device nicknamed the "Scorpion". We were able to create full working prototypes for each design, which can be seen below.
Jig
Scorpion
At various points in the spring semester, in addition to designing, modeling, building, programming, and
testing the prototypes, we also produced deliverables to track our progress and promote our devices. The first of these was at the midpoint of the semester in late February, where we wrote a progress report and gave a midterm presentation to a panel of faculty from the mechanical engineering department. Both were very well-received, and the judges noted the uniqueness and potential of our designs, something that we had focused on throughout the design process. The report can be found here and the slides used for the presentation can be found here.
Following the midterm progress check, we focused our energy on creating a fully automated working
prototype of the Scorpion design. We were able to do so successfully. One of the major points for the project was working toward our presentation at the CEAS Expo, where all of the seniors in the College of Engineering and Applied Science have the chance to show off their design projects to a wide audience and vie for a chance at prize money. As part of the preparation process for the Expo, we filmed the video below to give a brief overview of our project for judges to view ahead of time.
Expo Screening Video
We also put together a poster for our booth at the expo, where we will also be displaying our devices and
previous iterations so people can see our design process. The poster is shown below and is also linked here so it can be seen in a larger format (it's 36" by 48" in real life, so the picture doesn't exactly do it justice!).
Expo Poster
The CEAS Expo went incredibly well for our team, Folding a Better Future. It was a chaotic day, with a lot of
presentations for judges, spectators, and students, but we were rewarded for our work, winning the top prize for the Product and Device Category and the Most Complex prize from the Mechanical Engineering department. I am so glad that I had the opportunity to work with this amazing team, and I hope to see our designs folding Sustainable Produce Containers to help reduce plastic waste in the future!
Folding a Better Future at the CEAS Expo