Project Outreach Summary

Composite Recycle: Feed Control

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ABSTRACT

The Boeing Company gave Central Washington University an opportunity for students to research and come up with an idea to reduce costs and landfill waste caused by the trimmings from the 777x composite wing pieces. The engineering and manufacturing for this project is about transporting composite material through to the delamination and chipper process. The delamination process uses a ram to press two claw shaped devices together that bends and deforms the material in opposite directions. The chipper process uses counter rotating saw blades spaced 1/8” apart to produce small shredded material. It is important for this newly designed feed control to move the composite material at a steady speed and grip the material with enough force to move it towards the delamination and chipper process. It should function without jamming, breaking, and ejecting the material improperly. The feed control has shafts with sharp grooves, turning the feed control at a steady 10 inches per minute making the whole mechanism function more efficiently. The system is designed to run the material through for 5 seconds, stop 14 seconds for the ramming process and repeat. The feed control mechanism manufactures the shafts for best fit, putting those parts together and manually moving the feed. Testing showed that the composite material moving along to the delamination process works, properly holding the material and preventing jams. The volume of material that could be fed through the system was 5 cubic inches per minute.

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Description
The purpose of the composites recycling project, is to provide a framework and a feed rate to pull and hold the composites “carbon fiber” in a steady and firm matter to be bent and delayered in the delaminating process. There will be some sort of device made to crush or roll the material to be delayered. There needs to be a feed control to be able to run the process through the framework at a certain speed. When the composite passes through the delayering process, it will go through cutters to shred the composites into tiny pieces. The composites will then be put in the fire for the resin to burn and disintegrate while the fiber will be left to be reused.

 

Motivation
The inspiration of this project came from last year when two students were working on this project but could not get it to work properly. The material was not being gripped properly to go through the framework, the feed rate was not matching with the cutter, and instead of matching the feed rate and the cutter, the cutter was overpowered. The framework needs to be redone to hold the composite material securely and go through at a more reasonable feed rate. As a group, the goal is to make the composite run, delaminate, cut, and to burn the resin and only be left with the fiber to reuse. 

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Function Statement
The purpose of the feed rate is to be able to move the material through the framework at a steady pace, grip the material securely in place, at a realistic speed.

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Requirements
The feed rate should be able to process the composite material at about 10-30 inches per minute. The 2 shafts running the feed should be able to run the feed and stop in 1 sec or less when ramming is being done delayering the composite. The framework should be firm to withhold all the process it will be going under approx. 100 pounds. The cutter should cut the material in a certain speed and manner approx. 500 RPM.

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Engineering Merit
The feed rate and feed mechanism should be able to withhold the composite material without jamming or breaking the layering process. It should delaminate 80 percent of the material.
 
Scope of Effort
The machine should be able to pull, hold, and push the material through the feed mechanism that will be running at constant speed and stopping when ramming material. The speed should secure and work with the material to not break it or jam it. 

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Success Criteria
The system is designed to be able to recycle the composites in material to be reused in the industry. The shafts and pulleys should work together in the right way to move the material through the feed rate steady and through the cutters to end the process with fire. All the amount of composite recycled should increase with the corrections being made to the mechanism.
 

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