A PROJECT REPORT ON

DESIGN OF A CAN CRUSHER MACHINE

Submitted by:
ENM 211-0126/2018 Mutwiri Muguna M
ENM 211-0129/2018 Persival Akeem
ENM 211-0028/ 2018 Victoria V Barasa
Submitted on:
09/08/2021

*insert project photo here

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The aim of this project is to design a manually operated can crushing
device for compacting aluminium beer and soda cans. A can crushing
machine is a device that is used to compact cans to the smallest unit
possible for the ease of recycling. Cans constitute a large part of garbage
in dumping sites and public places. In order to dispose of the waste
productively, a can crusher is an essential tool. This report describes the
process used to design the can crusher machine, involving the
mechanisms employed, materials used when considering the design, its
specifications and finally the product itself. The basic requirements for
project are the knowledge of Computer Aided Design software,
specifically Autodesk Inventor.
PROBLEM DEFINITION
Problem Scope
Canning is a process that was invented as a solution for post-harvest
losses. Later it was discovered that beverages like beer and soda too
could be canned and made available to the public[ CITATION Hig20 \l 1033 ].
This caused a demand in canned beverage products. As a result of
increased human consumption of these products, there has been an
increase in the demand for raw materials used to make those canned
products in industries but unfortunately, this is unsustainable as the
resources required are depletable. Most canned beverages use aluminium
as the canning material[ CITATION The16 \l 1033 ]. Recycling the aluminum
helps in the efforts to conserve the environment by reducing land
pollution and protecting natural habitats[ CITATION AWD19 \l 1033 ]. In order to
achieve these goals, as an engineer, there is a need to design a
sustainable solution that.
Technical Review
One of the major material used in the process of making canned goods is
aluminum[ CITATION The16 \l 1033 ]. Aluminum is not a naturally occurring
element. It has to be obtained from an ore that is bauxite, which
undergoes a lot of chemical and physical processing before it can be
turned into useful aluminum for production. If aluminum was to be
extracted this way every single time the ore would have been depleted
and lots of energy would have been wasted. Recycling aluminum from
used cans is 90% more efficient than mining the bauxite from scratch
and the can crusher machine is a major part of the process[ CITATION ASS17 \l
1033 ]. The main aim of a can crushing device is to compact the cans into
the smallest unit possible. For the average consumer, it is not practical to
have a machine that crushes soda or beer cans since consumption per
person is low but if you consider large businesses like restaurants, bars
and pubs, cafeterias, canteens and also recycling plants it is clear why
investing in can crushing machine would be important, efficient and
save on time[ CITATION Dib18 \l 1033 ].
In addition to this, waste management recourses in Kenya require more
efficient methods since the population keeps increasing and more waste
keeps being produced. When transporting waste materials to recycling
plants, it would be more efficient to have a uniform shape. The can
crusher ensures that this is achieved by reducing the size of the cans to
ensure more is transported per waste load. These materials needs to be
arranged properly to increase the carrying capacity of the vehicle and as
the cans being an indefinite shape needs to me made into uniform shape
and size for easy disposal. This is where the mechanical crusher comes
in to play. The crusher would crush the cans thus reducing the gap
between them and make them to uniform size and shape[CITATION 1As16 \t \l
1033 ]

Background of the work

The types of can crushers available in the market currently generally fall
under the following categories
i) Heavy duty can crushers: they use a spring and lever
mechanism to crush one can at a time
 ii) Screw-fix can crushers: they involve the use of a screw top ram
that is rotated and crushes the cans
iii) Pneumatic can crushers: they have pneumatic pistons that act as
the triggering mechanism for crushing the cans
iv) Manual can crushers: here the operation of the mechanism is
done by hand
[ CITATION Dew21 \l 1033 ]

From the above, the machinery available in the market crushes only one
can at a time which defeats the purpose of saving time and being
efficient.
To add on this, in larger industries, there exist hydraulic and pneumatic
can crushing machinery that is requires a lot of power and maintenance
to run effectively[ CITATION 1As16 \l 1033 ]. To smaller recycling plants, this is
out of question since it is extremely expensive to have such machinery
and would be a waste of resources since the recycling load is not as
much. The manually operated can crushing device described in this
report is more suitable for them.
Can crushers are available in different styles, sizes, speeds and power
output specifications. In this project, the can crusher developed operates
manually, can crush cans to occupy a minimal surface area and operates
such that it crushes multiple cans. The design is economic, efficient,
environmentally friendly and has a relatively simple mechanism.
Project Design
Design Requirements