The 2006 Toppy Bottle Separator Team
| From left to Right: David Webb, Jason Varini, Scott Rodgers, Siba Mohanty |
Problem Statement
Team Toppy is challenged to design a device that will improve the effectiveness of bottle distribution. We will design and model prototype a device that will quickly remove and stack boxes of bottles that have been damaged during movement.
Project Summary
The Toppy Company manufactures mobile and stationary load turners for printing facilities, food industries, pharmaceutical companies, and other industries. The machines that Toppy manufactures are similar to a modern forklift. However, Toppy’s machines have the ability to pick up a loaded pallet, invert the pallet, and place the inverted pallet back on the ground. The ability to easily invert such loads cut costs by increasing production capacity and efficiency. Toppy’s load turners also reduce the risk of injury and fatigue, by eliminating the need to flip multiple loads by hand.
Toppy is interested in pursuing opportunities in various industries, one of which is the bottle distributing industry. Bottle distributors, as well as customers who receive shipments, frequently encounter situations where bottled liquid materials packed in boxes are damaged. The damaged materials must be removed and separated from the undamaged materials. This is a tedious and time-consuming operation, because it requires employees to manually restack the good materials on to a new pallet while discarding the damaged materials. This process disrupts the production and distribution processes, which leads to increased labor costs and decreased production capacity.
The majority of bottle distributors stack “layers” of boxes on to a pallet for shipping purposes. An entire layer of boxes often becomes damaged in the process of shipping and receiving, as a result of collisions or the improper stacking of pallets. The bottle distributors are in need of a fast method to set aside the intact layers of boxes, removing the damaged layer, and replacing the intact layer back on top of the pallet.
Team Toppy proposes to design a device to accomplish this task. This box-separating device will have the ability to lift or move entire layers of intact boxes. The bottle separator project will give students the opportunity to create a unique product, while utilizing their engineering skills and knowledge. Experience in many disciplines of mechanical engineering will be necessary to solve the problem. Also, the project gives students an opportunity to fulfill a real-world industrial demand.