Final Project Brief for MIME Capstone Design 2018-19

Date: May 22nd, 2019

Team # 609

Automation of Sustainable Produce Container Assembly

Salem Alsanea Majid Al Hadhrami Sarmad Khattak Traphum

School of School of School of Leelarueangroj
Mechanical, Mechanical, Mechanical, School of
Industrial and Industrial and Industrial and Mechanical,
Manufacturing Manufacturing Manufacturing Industrial and
Engineering (MIME) Engineering (MIME) Engineering (MIME) Manufacturing
Oregon State Oregon State Oregon State Engineering (MIME)
University University University Oregon State
University

Abstract

The purpose of this project is to meet the goal of Sun Sugar Farms who are looking to automate the process of
assembling the sustainable produce container. Sun Sugar Farms want to replace plastic clamshell containers with the
sustainable produce containers as they are biodegradable, recyclable and compostable. Another reason to encourage
the use of these containers is because they can be shipped flat to save space and be assembled on site. The goal of
this project was to build a portable prototype that can be carried around by farmers on different parts of the farms as
they pack produce items into the containers. The team worked around ideas including linear actuators and stepper
motors that would act on the different surfaces of the container and push it into a fixture made of eastern white
maple. The fixture is designed in a way that when the container is pushed through it, the container is folded in
multiple steps. Tests were conducted to push the container by hand at first. All arising issues were dealt with to
make the folding process is smooth and then the actuators and stepper motors were implemented. The actuators are
connected to a T-slot extrusion that goes around the fixture and the motors are fixed within the fixture.
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1. Summary of the Project Scope

1.1 Introduction

The world we live in today is full of plastic waste. Plastics are everywhere in the form of water bottles, take-out
containers, to-go coffee cups, disposable utensils, grocery bags, even fruit containers. These plastic products are
mostly single-use and have an average lifetime of 15 minutes. At the end of the day, most of these non-recyclable
plastic containers end up in landfills and oceans. There are approximately 8 million tons of plastic currently floating
on and in every ocean in the world [1]. That being said, there are several markets and farmers who are trying to
compete with these plastic clamshells by producing a low-price sustainable produce container that is recyclable and
decomposes easily in any environment.

1.2 The People Involved:

• The course instructor as the team’s mentor: Jeff Hoffman

• The sponsor as the team’s client/customer: Linda Fritz
• The technical advisor as the team’s key stakeholders: Katherine Edmonds
• Team members: Sarmad Khattak, Salem Alsanea, Majid Al Hadhrami, Traphum Leelarueangroj

Linda Fritz is the client of the team and the owner of Sun Sugar Farms and CRESBI system, a crate system that is
collapsible, lightweight, and reusable. Linda Fritz is the person behind the ideas of replacing the plastic containers
with the new sustainable produce containers. She has planned, designed, and created many environmentally-friendly
products for farmers and groceries shoppers such as CRESBI Crate. The latest innovation Linda has designed is the
sustainable produce container that can be decomposed in a backyard compost pile without harming the environment.

Sarmad Khattak is the project manager of the team, in charge of all communications that occur between the course
instructor, the sponsor, the technical advisor, and the team members. The project manager is also responsible for
planning, scheduling, and leading the team meetings.

Salem Alsanea acts as the information manager responsible for all research and resources available on/off campus
that will benefit the project.

Majid Al Hadhrami is the technical manager in charge of parts selection, orders, and machine manufacturing.

Traphum Leelarueangroj is the lead of all design modeling (CAD) and manufacturing. He is responsible for
developing primary sketches and the 3D design layouts for the final selection of project design accurately.

1.3 Project Background:

The project of team #609 is working alongside Sun Sugar Farms, LLC, which is a sustainable farm operation that is
dedicated to minimizing plastic waste by using sustainable produce containers to replace plastic clamshells. The
project consists of planning, designing, and building an automated assembly prototype that can fold the provided
containers. The team is expected to design a mechanism that is capable of folding containers with two different sizes
made out of two different materials.

The sustainable produce containers are made out of Candesce Solid Bleached Sulphate (SBS) paperboard and
KraftPak [2]. The eco-friendly containers are shipped flat in bundles to save space and assembled onsite at small
farms or markets. The success of this project will allow these farmers to better compete with the plastic clamshells
and minimize the plastic waste in the near future. The automated assembly prototype would also replace the labor
work to manually fold the containers and also reduce the expenses for the farm. The focus of the team is to design
and build an automated assembly system that will allow the sustainable produce container to be folded automatically
and can be used first by Sun Sugar Farms as well as small farms, and eventually around the world.

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1.4 Project Solutions and Constraints:

In the past, the sustainable produce containers were each folded manually by employees. What would not work was
that if the sustainable produce containers were ordered in a large scale by a bigger market, the company would not
want their employees to sit down and fold each container one by one. In order to spread awareness of plastics waste,
there has to be a better, faster, and more convenient way than folding the containers by hand. By building an
automated assembly system for small farms, this prototype could be a big game changer for the sustainable produce
containers to overcome the use of plastic containers. The automated system prototype will be used with various
containers with different sizes and materials. Therefore, the system needs to be precise, adjustable, and repeatable in
order to perfectly fold the sustainable produce container.

Some of the existing solutions that can be used in this project is to create a solid flat platform and use multiple
foldable metal sheets programmed to fold each side in order. According to Won Ji International Group, a fully
automatic Box-folding machine is used to fold a foil box. The machine is created by using a 1 in. flat metal block for
the base followed by the hydraulic press to hold the flat box in place and multiple flat sheets with a rod rotated by a
motor for each piece [3]. This idea would work perfectly if the folding mechanism of the sustainable produce
containers were simple, but the design contains many unique concepts and a locking mechanism that the team found
challenging. As the team decides and agrees on the most efficient way of folding with the lowest minimum steps,
some of the mechanisms found from Won Ji International Group might be helpful.

One of the constraints that the team has is writing a computer program for automation and knowledge related to
electric circuits. The team members lack experience with circuits and computer programming, which can be a great
setback for the completion of this project. To overcome this problem, all team members should conduct additional
research about this topic and avail all resources on/off campus. There were some design constraints provided by the
sponsor that cannot be altered. First, the original container design must be kept as it is, which can be difficult to
work with since the design contains multiple holes and extra folding sides. Secondly, the prototype must fold the
sustainable produce container in multiple sizes with multiple materials. The last constraint is keeping the budget to
be as low as $200-300 because the prototype might be used in small farms. The potential risks of this project include
assembly malfunction due to the paper stuck in the holes and the paper sheet might bend due to overextended length
while the prototype is operating, and the potential solution is to create an uneven level with higher platform for the
sides before the prototype starts folding.

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2. Design Process

2.1 Introduction to Design Process

During the first conference call with Linda, she briefly explained her container design, shown in Figure 1 and 2,
broke down the key components, potential problems, and some existing solutions to assemble the container. The
container design contains a total of 10 folds before the container is fully assembled. She also discussed one of her
latest prototype designs using a 3D printer that she has recently came up with to help the team bring some new ideas
toward this project. The main focus of the conference call was about the potential design change of the container
because changing the existing container design may help the team to reduce the complexity of the prototype ideas.
However, the container design must be kept as it is because the manufacturer was already going into mass
production and she believes there is a way that the team can find solutions to the existing design, otherwise, she is
willing to change the container design if needed. The team also created customer requirements which were sent to
Linda for feedback. She then addressed changes, which the team fixed and submitted to Jeff Hoffman, shown in
Table 1.

Figure 1. The sustainable produce container (flat) designed by Linda Fritz [2]

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Figure 2. The sustainable produce container (assembled) designed by Linda Fritz [2]

2.2 Customer Requirements

Table 1. Customer Requirements

CR # Customer Requirements
1 The prototype should be durable
2 The prototype should be affordable
3 The prototype should be light weight
4 The prototype should be able to fold the box
5 The prototype should have a long lifespan
6 The folding time should be faster than manual folding
7 The prototype should minimize power usage
8 The prototype should have a kill switch

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2.3 Design Alternatives

Each of the team members came up with their own designs and presented them at the group meeting. At first, there
were four main designs that came from each of the team’s members before the team chose one design to move
forward. The first design was to create a fixed flat platform with a metal housing fixture and uses multiple linear
actuators to fold each surface. The actuators are attached to the housing fixture and controlled by a switch. Each
actuator would be programmed in Arduino with various times to fold the container from different steps and angles.
The team did not choose to move forward with this first design because there was a total of 12 linear actuators and
its complexity exceeded the timeframe and budget of the project. The second design was similar with the first design
but stepper motors and flat metal sheets with hinges were used instead of using the actuators to fold the container.
Each motor would also be programmed in Arduino with different operating time to fold each side in each step. The
team did not choose this design because it was not compact and would exceed the timeframe. The second design
was using 11 stepper motors and more than 25 hinges. The third design was the combination of using stepper motors
and linear actuators. There was a total of five stepper motors and six linear actuators. We did not choose this design
because the cost of the design was over the budget. The design the team decided to move forward with was inspired
by the idea of a cavity fixture, shown Figure 3 [5]. A fixture that a flat container can be pushed down and undergo
various folding steps as it is descending through the fixture and fully assembled when it reaches the bottom of the
fixture. The design contains only three linear actuators and two stepper motors, which is twice less components than
previous design. After consulting with Jeff Hoffman, the team decided to move forward with this design because it
is more compact than all of the designs, less components used, less expensive to manufacture, and meets all the
customer requirements.

Figure 3. An inspired design of a cavity fixture that the team decided to move forward with. [5]

2.4 Design Components:

The main prototype design, shown in Figure 4, will first be made of Maplewood for testing the functionality and
accuracy of the fixture tolerances. The final prototype may use 3D printer if the sponsor agrees to increase the
budget of the project because the prototype with PETF filament can produce an extremely strong fixture, high yield
stress, and has a peak temperature tolerance up to 250 ºC [4]. The dimension of the design is 292 mm. x 292 mm. x
296 mm. in length, width and height, respectively. The metal frame made from 6061 aluminum T-slot extrusion will
be used for holding the main fixture, actuators, and other components. A total of three linear actuators, two stepper
motors, a motherboard, and a kill switch programmed with Arduino will be attached to the metal frame and to
control the moving components of this design. The team also created customer requirements that were sent to Linda
for feedback. She then addressed changes which the team fixed and submitted to Jeff Hoffman, shown in Table 1.

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Figure 4. The prototype design showing the front of the product. The material used is Eastern White Maplewood
and sheet metal for boundaries. The metal frame is not included in the CAD model for the ease of understanding.
[Modeled in SolidWorks3D]

2.5 Design Solution

The design solution chosen for this project is a solid fixture shown in Figure 4. A total of three linear actuators and
two stepped motors programmed with Arduino will be used in this design solution. There are a total of six stages
starting from a flat container to a fully assembled container. The flat container will be placed on top of the fixture
within the boundaries as shown in Figure 5. The vertical linear actuator acting from the top of the fixture will push
the container into the fixture, making the side surfaces fold at an angle of 90 degree and the back surfaces 100
degrees, shown in Figure 6. The back surface of the container will be slanted at an angle of 10 degrees, allowing the
side surfaces to successfully fold inward during the next step, Figure 7. The actuator will continue to push the
container down until the containers reaches the bottom of the base of the fixture as shown in Figure 8. The side
surfaces in front of the fixture will also fold up to an angle of 90 degrees but since the CAD model of the container
was made in sheet metal feature and has limited functionality, the surfaces were not able to be folded. Once the
container reaches the bottom of the fixture, a vertical actuator will be put in reverse. Two horizontal linear actuators
will push at the container towards the back of the fixture, one acting on the top surface and one on the bottom
surface. The top actuator will stop and put in reverse once the side surfaces of the container are folded inward while
the bottom actuator continues to push the container, Figure 9. The bottom actuator will continue to push until the top
surface folds down, leaving only the side surfaces ready to be locked in the next step. Once the container is ready to
be locked from the side, a flapping mechanism with two stepped motors will be used to close the side surfaces and
lock the container in place before the horizontal actuator continue to push the container out the back of the fixture,
shown in Figure 10 and 11.

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Figure 5. A flat container is placed on top of the fixture Figure 6. An arrow represents a vertical linear
within the boundaries set with specific dimensions actuator acting on a flat container making the side
measured from the size of the container. and the back surfaces fold.

Figure 7. The vertical linear actuator continues to push Figure 8. Two side surfaces in front of the fixture
down, making the side surfaces fold inward. will be folded as well but due to the limited feature
in SolidWorks, they were not able to be folded.

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Figure 9. Two horizontal actuators act on the top Figure 10. The bottom actuator continues to push the
and the bottom surfaces, making the top-side surfaces container towards the back of the fixture, making
fold inward. the top surface to fold down.

Figure 11. Two stepped motors will be used to make Figure 12. A fully assembled container outside of
a rotation movement to lock the side surfaces inward. the fixture.

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3. Project Results

After the completion of the prototype, the team was able to test if the machine is able to fold the paperboard
containers. Moreover, the team was able to test the customer requirements and fulfill Capstone Design project. The
prototype was capable of folding a single container with the specific dimensions in 47 seconds. In addition, the
prototype weighs 60 pounds, which within the range the customer specified. The kill switch was tested and it
stopped the machine immediately and it is visible from 20 feet. The cost of building the prototype was less than
1000 dollar which means it is affordable because the main target is large farms. Testing for durability is difficult,
however, knowing that the prototype is built from white maple can assure that the prototype can withstand high
loads. Moreover, maple can last for a long time which cover the lifespan customer requirement. The power
consumption was reduced by choosing actuators that can operate on minimal electricity supply.

4. Conclusion

Sun Sugar Farms has asked the team to design a folding system for new sustainable produce containers to replace
the plastic clamshells currently used. The goal of this project is to deliver an automated system prototype that will
fold the sustainable produce container by the end of Spring term 2019. The team is currently testing the actuators
and stepper motors with Arduino with the help of all resources on campus. The final design that the team has chosen
to move forward with includes using the Eastern White Maplewood as our raw material for the fixture, three linear
actuators for folding the container sides, two stepper motors to complete the assembly in the last step of operation,
and 6061 aluminum T-slot extrusion to hold all components in place. The team hopes that by the beginning of June
2019, the Eastern White Maplewood version of the prototype with the actuators and stepper motors can be tested on
the functionality automictically. Once the Eastern White Maplewood version is fully functional, the team will start
detecting any potential malfunctions and prevent any failure. The most significant problem would be staying under
the given budget with the lowest cost possible. This prototype will eventually go under mass production or be
distributed to local farms, therefore the concept should be straightforward, and the instruction should be simple.

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5. References

[1] “Facts. About Plastic. Help - Plastic Oceans Foundation.” Plastic Oceans Foundation, from
plasticoceans.org/the-facts/.

[2] Fritz, L, n.d, “New ‘Sustainable Produce Container’ - Compostable Alternative to Plastic
Clamshells.” Repurposed Reusable Bags, from www.cresbicrate.com/special-pricing/sustainable-clamshell.

[3] Fully Automatic box Folding Machine. Made in South Korea. (2015). [video] from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-59zGlgzY9Q

[4] Kivela, L. (2018), “PETF vs PLA -3D Printing Filaments Compared”. All3dp, from all3dp.com/2/petg-vs-pla-3d-
printing-filaments-compared/

[5] Fast Pack Packaging, n.d., “Easy Fold Jig Fixture”, from www.fastpack.net/easy-fold-jig-fixture-
tool-machine-makes-folding-corrugated-mailers-trays-boxes-displays-easy/

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