DESIGN, FABRICATION AND

ANALYSIS OF DUAL CAN CRUSHER

MECHANICS OF MACHINES
(314205)

Group members:
Abdul Wahab Hamza (160501023)
Saqlain Razzaq (160501011)
Abdul Rehman Anwar (160501033)

Submitted to: Dr. Maryum Sattar

Department of Mechanical Engineering.

PROBLEM STATEMENT:
The main aim of our project is to implement Mechanics of Machines in real life. For this
purpose, following tasks will be performed:
1. To design and fabricate a dual can crusher
2. To perform position, vector and acceleration analysis on slider crank mechanism followed
by can crusher.

Abstract:
This project mainly focuses on design, fabrication and analysis of a dual can crusher. Can
crusher is a tool that is used for crushing empty aluminum cans for easier recycling. The can
crusher employs a slider-crank as it’s a sliding mechanism. This allows the crusher to exert a
larger amount of mechanical leverage to the can. The hand-driven crank-arm which then
slides the crushing block forward via a connecting rod. This project highlights the application
of Mechanics of Machines in real life. It is also designed keeping in consideration of PLO
related to environment and sustainability. A design of the can crusher was made on CREO.
Then the required parts were fabricated using different machining operations. Position,
velocity and acceleration analysis was performed on MATLAB and graphs were plotted
accordingly.

Literature Review:

Can Crusher:
A can crusher is an instrument used to crush soda can. This is done in order to make the
storage easier and provides more space in the bin. The can crusher employs a slider-crank as
it’s a sliding mechanism. This allows the crusher to exert a larger amount of mechanical
leverage to the can. The hand-driven crank-arm which then slides the crushing block
forward via a connecting rod. Following figure shows a three-dimensional model of a dual
can crusher.

Figure 1: Can crusher

Slider Crank Mechanism:

A slider-crank linkage is a four-link mechanism with three revolute joints and one prismatic,
or sliding, joint. The rotation of the crank drives the linear movement the slider, or the
expansion of gases against a sliding piston in a cylinder can drive the rotation of the crank. It
consists of arrangement of mechanical parts designed to convert straight-line motion to rotary
motion, as in a reciprocating piston engine, or to convert rotary motion to straight-line
motion, as in a reciprocating piston pump or a can crusher. There are two types of slider
crank mechanisms

1. In-line: An in-line slider-crank has its slider positioned so the line of travel of the hinged
joint of the slider passes through the base joint of the crank. This creates a symmetric slider
movement back and forth as the crank rotates.

2. Offset: If the line of travel of the hinged joint of the slider does not pass through the base
pivot of the crank, the slider movement is not symmetric. It moves faster in one direction than
the other. This is called a quick-return mechanism.

Following figure shows the kinematic diagram of a slider crank mechanism

Figure 2: Kinematic diagram of slider crank mechanism

Degree of freedom of Slider Crank Mechanism:

Degree of freedom (DOF) of a mechanical system is the number of independent parameters
that define its configuration. It is the number of parameters that determine the state of a
physical system and is important to the analysis of systems of bodies. Degree of freedom is
calculated by Gruebler’s equation given below

D.O.F=3(n-1)-2jp-jh
Where,
n = total no. of links in a mechanism
jp = total no. of primary joints (pin, slider)
jh = total no. of higher order joints (cams, gears)
No. of links
Here in our case there are 4 links so
n=4
1) link 1 → cam
2) link 2 → connecting rod
3) link 3 → slider block
4) link 4 → frame
No. of joints
There are 4 primary joints which include 3 pin joints and one sliding joint. So Jp=4
a) Joint A → pin joint of cam and frame
b) Joint B → pin joint connecting cam and connecting rod
c) Joint C → pin joint connecting slider block and connecting rod
d) Joint D → slider joint of slider block

While there are no higher order joints. So Jh=0

Calculation of degree of freedom
Substituting the values in Gruebler’s equation, we get

D.O.F=3(n-1)-2jp-jh
D.O.F=3(4-1)-2(4)-0
D.O.F=1
So degree of freedom of our mechanism is one.

CAD Model:
A design of dual can crusher was made on CREO software .Following figures show an
isometric and orthographic views of a dual can crusher.
SOFTWARE USED
CREO parametric 4.0

ISOMETRIC AND ORTHOGRAPHIC VIEWS:

Figure 3: Isometric view of can crusher

Figure 4: side and top view of can crusher respectively.

Figure 5: front of can crusher

Calculations and Results:
In this section we will analyze the variation of displacement, velocity and acceleration with
respect to the Crank rotation. For this purpose an equation will be derived below for
position. It will be then differentiated with respect to the crank angle for an equation for
velocity. Similarly the velocity equation will be differentiated with respect to crank angle for
an equation for acceleration.

Here
PN= crank radius(r)
ON= connecting rod length (L)
OP= distance between crank pin and piston pin (x)
A= crank angle ὠ= angular velocity of crank

Position of slider w.r.t crank angle

Using law of cosine in the above triangle OPN, we get

𝑙 2 = 𝑥 2 + 𝑟 2 − 2𝑥𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴

𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 = 𝑥 2 − 2𝑥𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴 + 𝑟 2 − 𝑟 2

𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 = 𝑥 2 − 2𝑥𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴 + 𝑟 2 (cos 2 𝐴 + 𝑆𝑖𝑛2 𝐴) − 1)

𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 −𝑟 2 sin2 𝐴 = (𝑥 − 𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴)2

Taking underoot on both sides, we get

𝑥 = 𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴 + (𝑙 2 − r 2 sin2 𝐴)1/2

The above equation gives us the position of slider w.r.t crank angle

Velocity of slider w.r.t crank angle:

Differentiating the above equation w.r.t crank angle, we get

𝑑𝑥 𝑑
= ((𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑛𝐴 + (𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 sin2 𝐴 )1/2 )
𝑑𝐴 𝑑𝐴
dx r 2 sinAcosA
= −rsinA − 1
dA (l2 − r 2 sin2 𝐴 )2
The above equation gives us the velocity of slider w.r.t crank angle.

Acceleration of slider w.r.t crank angle:

Taking second derivative of position equation, we get

𝑑2𝑥 𝑑 𝑟 2 𝑠𝑖𝑛𝐴𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴
= (−𝑟𝑠𝑖𝑛𝐴 − )
𝑑𝐴2 𝑑𝐴 (𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 sin2 𝐴)^1/2

𝑑2𝑥 𝑟 4 sin2 𝐴 𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴2 𝑟 2 (cos 2 𝐴 −sin2 𝐴)

= −𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑠𝐴 − −
𝑑𝐴2 √(𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 sin2 𝐴)3 √𝑙 2 − 𝑟 2 sin2 𝐴

The above equation gives us the acceleration of slider w.r.t to crank angle.

MATLAB Implementation:
Now the above derived formulas will be implemented in MATLAB and required graphs will
be plotted:

r=0.1; %crank_radius
l=0.3; %connecting_rod_length
syms A t
Z=(r*cos(A))+sqrt((l.^2)-power(r*sin(A),2));
Zd=diff(Z,A)
i=0:45:360;
Z1=(r*cos(i))+sqrt((l.^2)-power(r*sin(i),2));
Znew=-(r*sin(i))-((r.^2) .*sin(i).*cos(i))/(sqrt((l.^2) -(r.^2 *sin(i))));
Zac=-(r*cos(i))-((r.^4 .*sin(i).^2 .*cos(i).^2)/(l.^2 -r.^2 .*sin(i).^2).^1/6)-((r.^2
*cos(i).^2 -r.^2*sin(i).^2)/sqrt(l.^2 -r.^2 .*sin(i).^2));
figure(1)
plot(i,Z1)
figure(2)
plot(i,Znew)
figure(3)
plot(i,Zac)
The above code implemented gave us the following graphs:

Figure 6: Graph between slider position and crank displacement

From the above graph we can infer that slider position is maximum when crank is displaced at
an angle of 260° and slider position will be at minimum when crank is displaced 135°
Figure 7: Graph between slider velocity and crank displacement

The above plotted graph between crank displacement and slider velocity depicts that the
velocity is maximum when the crank is displaced at an angle of 250° and is minimum at an angle
of 360°.
Figure 8: Graph between slider acceleration and crank displacement

The above plotted graph between crank displacement and slider acceleration depicts that the
acceleration is maximum when the crank is displaced at an angle of 120º and is minimum when
crank is displaced at an angle of 270º.

Conclusion:
In this whole project Mechanics of machines is observed via a practical problem Can Crusher
designed manually by assuming dimensions of its components to the best possible fit. Then an
equation is derived from generic free body diagram of slider crank mechanism taking angle as a
variable A and position as a variable x. After we have all three required equations for position,
velocity and acceleration respectively. They are implemented on MATLAB for getting an idea about
variation of above three with angle.

And from these graphs we found maximum and minimum position angles which are 260 and 135
respectively. Also maximum and minimum velocity angles are 250 and 360 respectively, like wise
maximum and minimum acceleration angles are 120 and 270 respectively. Also data is cross
matched with prototype by rotating crank upto resulted angles and got nearly same results.

References:
 Machines and Mechanisms Applied Kinematic Analysis by David H. Myszka
 Theory of Machines and Mechanisms , John J. Uicker, Gordon R. Pennock, Joseph E.
Shigley
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lLHMoRemmMg
 https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/
 https://www.britannica.com/technology/slider-crank-mechanism