碎纸取乐
Engineering students use senior capstone to assist with alum's business and help keep plastic out of landfills.
运动鞋的寿命取决于它的使用. Running or walking, sport or recreation, function or merely fashion—they all wear out eventually. If they haven’t been completely worn out, sneakers may end up in a used clothing bin. More than likely, though, they will end up in a landfill, where it takes decades for them to degrade.
十大网投平台信誉排行榜毕业生尼克·尤尼斯正在努力打破这种循环. 在过去的几年里，他的公司UnisBrands一直在 用回收塑料和3D打印机制作鞋子 并于2020年2月加入了运动鞋系列. “We take water bottles, grind them down, and make them into the shoes,他说. “一旦顾客穿完鞋子，他们就可以退货. We shred the shoes; customers then can get a discount on their next pair.”
UnisBrands的旧碎纸机
来源:十大网投平台信誉排行榜
For such a business model to succeed, having a high-quality shredder is imperative. The company’s existing shredder had some serious limitations and needed a significant upgrade. 克雷格Brennecke, 实践教授, 工程, 将其描述为“一把剪不开的剪刀”, 那会使纸弯曲.“在布伦内克的指导下, two 十大网投平台信誉排行榜阿尔图纳分校 机电工程技术 (EMET) majors, 莎拉·罗塞利斯和凯尔·诺尔斯, 解决这些限制作为他们的高级顶点项目, 一路上扫清了几个障碍.
The project goal was to create a shredder that could shred the soles in a way that the rPET (recycled polyethylene terephthalate) would not “gunk it up,罗塞利乌斯解释道. “这种材料的特性非常不同，非常灵活. 它会想要弯曲并填满碎纸机的空隙. 我们需要找到产生剪切作用的点.”
他们的第一个障碍, 学生们最终重新设计和重建了碎纸机, 诺尔斯说, which was “the most difficult and time-consuming part” of the project. 通常用于顶点项目, “you spend the fall prepping but we spent that whole semester trying to get the shredder to work.”
When they received the original shredder, it had no safety features. 在他们的改造过程中, “我们创造了一个带旋转刀片的床, adding a programmable logic controller (PLC) and a human-machine interface (HMI),罗塞利乌斯说. But because “the shredder is dangerous; it can rip apart flexible material,” the students added safety relays and even used a 3D printer to make a “plunger” to push the sole material into the shredder, 诺尔斯补充道.
除了碎纸机, the students needed to figure out a mechanism to help sort the different sole colors, 诺尔斯说这是他的主要关注点. 这意味着要提出设计方案, 最后是一个旋转到合适的箱子的溜槽. Originally they considered rotating the bins instead of the chute but they realized the final configuration “would be easier to troubleshoot, 更容易修复,他说.
Knowles then “had to figure out the [sorter] dimensions, how it would fit under the table.他还设计了用于存放碎料的箱子. “We couldn’t find anything on-line that had the shape and dimensions that we needed,于是他自己动手了. “I heated up acrylic for a whole day and bent it into the shapes.”
Probably the biggest potential hurdle to completing the project was the campus shutdown and switch to online learning in mid-March, 关闭了PSU实验室. 然而, 在英联邦校园工作有很多好处——在这种情况下, Brennecke说, “the students were so appreciative to work with PSU 阿尔图纳 Lab staff to complete their project,”
尺寸也是一个意想不到的障碍. 他们计划放一张四英尺高的碎纸机桌, 假设那里有双扇门, Brennecke说, but they had to reduce the size when they learned the doors were all single-door width. Brennecke acknowledges the attention the students paid to the company’s needs: “Kyle and Sara didn’t just want to create a design to complete their capstone project, they were conscientious that the project would work at its best for UnisBrands.”
UnisBrands's new shredder, a senior EMET capstone project by 莎拉·罗塞利斯和凯尔·诺尔斯.
来源:十大网投平台信誉排行榜
Unis is looking forward to bringing the final product to his company. 罗塞利斯和诺尔斯拿了个碎纸机, 他承认, “wasn’t functional at all and they brought it to the point where all the bugs are worked out. 他们非常专注于把它做到完美. 希望, 我们将在下个月内得到它,“时间框架取决于大学的重新开放.
罗塞利乌斯对自己的经历非常乐观. “Kyle and I developed and designed everything with the guidance of Penn State,” she says. 即使她说, “他们让我们失败,” she understands the value of that: “It was such a growing experience. 他们就是这样塑造你的. 你已经准备好了所有这些心理工具.” She credits 十大网投平台信誉排行榜阿尔图纳分校’s EMET program for her success: “Through the EMET course, 我的经历帮助我在去年夏天获得了实习机会. 它有助于增强你的信心和解决问题. The junior-year 实习 is [located] somewhere you want to work; it’s an investment to me and the company.”
而罗塞利厄斯和诺尔斯已经完成了他们的工作, they have ideas for the shredder’s future: a small band saw to cut pieces that are too large to fit in the shredder and an air compressor so that any small parts that don’t pass completely through the shredder can be blown out. Those items can be easily added to the shredder table in its present design—which is good because with two new shoe collections planned for release in the fall UnisBrands is going to need that shredder.
Throughout the project, Brennecke was very impressed with Knowles’s and Roselius’s performance. “As a team, they were one of the best that I have advised since joining Penn State. It was always a pleasure to sit down for our weekly meetings and discuss the details of their project. 在两个学期的第一个学期结束之前, they had already designed their project and were deep into the machining of components for the final project.” And in two semesters—even with one truncated—the hurdles were cleared.
