Automated Pump Polisher
Problem
One of the machines at Pillar5 is used to fill 6 mL bottles of Clear Eyes. To ensure the exact amount of liquid in each bottle, the product is pressed into a hollow pump and forced into the nozzles for injection into the bottles. From regular use, the pumps were becoming scratched which put a large strain on the machine and was causing components to break. The pumps were too expensive to replace, so I was tasked with designing an automated machine to polish the pumps effectively.
Considerations
Polishing process must be automated to avoid user error and inconsistencies
Machine must be portable and easy to assemble and disassemble
Should not be too expensive or difficult to manufacture, materials and components should be readily available
Must be safe for the operators considering the moving parts of the machine
Design 1 - Lead Screw
After discussing with the team, the best polishing method seemed to be using a hone. The hone must spin at 1000 rpm and move up and down multiple times at around 60 rpm into the clamped pump. The first design used a lead screw attached to a DC motor to control the positioning of the hone. This design was deemed too complicated to control electrically, so was not pursued.
Design 2 - Cam
The next revision of the automated polisher used a cam and roller design since that would be electrically simpler and easier to control. However, the problem was that keeping the rotating cam attached to the roller was difficult as the operator must detach the two after polishing in order to raise the hone from the pump. I incorporated springs into the design but eventually thought of a simpler way...
Design 3 - Crank
The final iteration of the design used a crank wheel to move the hone up and down since that provided a stronger connection and greater range of motion. The new design also included a water container submerging the pump to wash away debris during the polishing process. The project team was satisfied with this design so I proceeded to add in the screws, nuts and other finishing touches. I also designed a removable plexiglass enclosure to ensure safety of the operators.