EK210 Final Project Report:

Trash Compactor
William Holden, Irena Roggeveen, Megan Stewart
Professor Bifano -- Section I9
Fall 2018
Table of Contents

Executive Summary (2)

Introduction and Problem Statement (2)

Design alternatives considered (2)

Basis for Design Selection (3-4)

Evaluation of Results (4-5)

Supporting Materials (6-9)

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Executive Summary
Our team has been asked to create a trash compactor that does not use traditional
methods. This compactor should reduce the volume of trash to be 30% less. It is to compress the
trash efficiently and compress automatically with minimal sound. It also must be fit to be used in
a standard kitchen, thus the design must fit inside a kitchen cabinet. It must be less than $400 so
as to remain affordable for the normal household. The design was not to include hydraulic and
electrically motorized lead screw mechanism. Our design uses air pressure to create the
compressive force. The design is modeled for the use of standard trash bags and was completed
within the 13 weeks of class.

Introduction and Problem Statement

Trash, it’s everywhere. In this day and age, the amount of waste produced by a single
household can be overwhelming. Trash compactors help to reduce the volume of trash, meaning
the homeowner doesn’t have to take the trash out as frequently and therefore fewer trash bags are
used. Many compactors utilize hydraulic or lead screw mechanisms, our goal is to utilize another
method for compression. This device is to require low maintenance and low resource cost to be
affordable and durable in the standard household. Trash compactors produce a great amount of
crushing force and this can make these devices potentially dangerous. We aim to make our
device completely safe for all users.

Design Alternatives Considered

In the process of designing the trash compactor, we considered many means to achieve
each function, decreasing the volume of the chamber, beginning compression, locking the
chamber as compression occurs, and keeping the bin structurally in the same place.
To decrease the volume of the chamber, the bin could have had a permanent magnet on
one side and an electromagnet on the other. When the current runs through the electromagnet, it
becomes magnetized and would move toward the opposite wall. Another option was making the
chamber decrease in volume purely mechanically through a crank mechanism. We ultimately
went with a pneumatic actuator and air pump.
To begin compression, we considered an ultrasonic sensor, a timer to compress once
daily, and a button. The ultrasonic sensor would have sensed the depth of the trash and signaled
to the arduino once it reached a certain distance from the top, which would begin compression.

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The timer would allow the arduino to automatically begin compression once daily. The button
allows the user to begin compression when they feel it is necessary.
To keep the user safe, the chamber must locked as compression occurs. We considered
making the door a part of the circuit by having metal on the inner face of the door and on the
outer face of the counter. They would connect when closed, completing the circuit and break,
stopping any compression when open. We went with an electric lock powered by an arduino. It is
normally in a locked position, so it will be on normally, allowing the door to open. When the
system operates it will be off, in the locked position. Additionally, we looked into a mechanical
lock that the user is responsible for closing when they have closed the cabinet.
Our last function was keeping the bin in the correct place. We considered placing the
compressor on drawer tracks so that it could extend out of the cabinet to place trash inside. We
also considered utilizing magnets to keep the inner compartment in place. We went with screws
keeping the project in place.

Basis for Design Selection

The selected design was chosen as it meeted specs and seemed structurally simple and
sound. Due to delays in receiving critical parts, as well as a size miscalculation, slight
adjustments had to be made to the original design. However, these adjustments did not change
the fundamental aspects of the design as they mainly modified the size of the structure.

The fundamental aspects of the final design are the air compressor, pneumatic actuator,
trash receptacle, and circuitry to make the device function on its own. When the device is turned
on with the button the lock is switched to the lock position, preventing the user from opening the
cabinet door when the compression is underway. All valves of the operation are closed and the
air compressor is turned on. The pressure is allowed to build in the air compressor for twenty
seconds. After this time the valve that allows air into the back of pneumatic actuator is open. The
valve that allows air to escape into the atmosphere at the front of the pneumatic actuator is open.
This provides the force of air needed to extend the pison and move the movable wall of the trash
receptacle in, compressing the trash within. Air is pushed through the mechanism in this way for
eight seconds. Then the valves switch, that at the back of the pneumatic actuator is closed to the
air compressor and open to the atmosphere, that at the front of the pneumatic actuator is
connected to the air compressor and closed to the atmosphere. This brings the piston back into
the pneumatic actuator and pulls the wall of the trash receptacle back out, restoring the original
position. The system then turns itself off and the door is unlocked.

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 The bin was designed to have three stationary walls with a fourth wall that is pushed in
and pulled out. This moving wall is the component that compresses the trash. The four walls
were framed with 80-20 so that their shape could be customizable to our cabinet size. This also
allowed us to build a moveable wall, a feature most garbage cans on the market do not have. The
sides were made of acrylic. In future designs these walls should be updated to a stronger, less
brittle material so as to protect the plates from breaking during the compression process. The
moveable wall was secured to drawer tracks on the base of the cabinet. This allows the wall to
move smoothly when pushed back and forth. This also prevents the wall from moving more than
we desire as the drawer tracks are limited in their length to extend and retract as they are built as
a specific size. The trash bag hangs from the walls of the trash receptacle. This design allows for
a clean compression of the mechanism for compressing the trash never touches the trash directly.
This design minimizes cleanup and thus is better for the user.

The pneumatic actuator was chosen as the source of compression as it was a

powerful tool that met the specifications of not involving a motorized lead screw or hydraulics.
Knowing we had to use air pressure the pneumatic actuator was the most reliable form of
converting the pressure force into physical force and movement of the compacting wall of the
design. Using air pressure within the container that was also to hold trash would have created a
mess, and making sure the actual trash bin is airtight would be costly and difficult. Using the
pneumatic actuator allowed us to contain the air and use the pressure from an air compressor to
push the sliding piece of the trash bin in and out.

We tried various designs for air compressors. Our initial design could not be optimized
for the setup and had to be modified with the air compressor present in our final design. This air
compressor, however, does not work to full capacity. This being so, in future designs the arduino
settings will have to be modified as to accommodate for a fully functioning air compressor. This
would involve greatly reducing the wait time after turning the machine on and before the piston
is extended. These settings would modify to restrict the force applied to the movable wall of the
trash compactor by the pneumatic actuator.

Evaluation of Results
We faced a variety of obstacles during the designing process. First, our air compressor
requires a voltage unsafe for use on a standard breadboard. To fix this we avoided wiring this
component through the breadboard and instead we wired these high voltages within an
electronics enclosure box to eliminate the risk of damaging electronic components. Another issue
we faced was that we could not extend or retract the piston while one of the ports was blocked

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because air needs to escape on one side, else there would be a massive buildup of pressure in
both chambers of the actuator. To resolve this issue we installed a second set of valves in each
branch of the hose to allow air pressure to escape while the other hose was pressurizing. Last, we
opted to not use an ultrasonic sensor to trigger the Arduino as we had initially planned. Early
tests with the sensor indicated that it was unpredictable. For instance, when an object was held
steadily a few centimeters from the sensor it would read a distance of 0. We feared this could
diminish the overall functionality of the device and decided to use a push button to activate the
machine instead. Overall our design performed well, meeting most of the objectives and metrics.
Some objectives were not met for various reasons, detailed below.
Objectives, Metrics, and Constraints

Objective, Metric, or Constraint Met Explanation

Reduce volume of trash by at ✓ With the trash container filled 100% with old
least 30% newspapers and small pieces of cardboard the
volume is decreased by a factor of 50%

Completes one full cycle in ✓ One full compression cycle is completed in just 38
under 5 minutes seconds

Sound produced is under 60 X The sound produced by the air compressor is over 80
decibels decibels

Compresses automatically X The user must press a button to activate the machine;
after that the rest of the process is fully automatic

Safe for household use ✓ An electronic lock secures the door closed while the
compactor is activating,

Costs under $400 to produce ✓ The final prototype costs $328.22.

Cost including materials not used is $395.72

No hydraulic and electrically ✓ Compression force is generated using an air pump

motorized lead screw and a pneumatic actuator
mechanisms

Standard trash bags ✓ No special trash bags required; standard 12-16

gallon kitchen trash bags are recommended

Fits under standard kitchen ✓ At 22“ tall this trash compactor easily fits beneath
counter the standard kitchen counter height of 34.5”

Completed by week 13 of class ✓ This prototype was functional at week 13 of class

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 If asked to design another trash compactor now, we would use a smaller pneumatic
actuator and make it a top compressing system to reduce the amount of space it takes up. To
compact to a smaller volume and have the machine run for a shorter amount of time, we would
use a fully functional air compressor. We would also use cheaper material than acrylic to
construct the sides of the trash bin. Additionally we would use insulating material to surround the
air compressor and mitigate the noise it emits. We would also use a higher quality ultrasonic
sensor than the one that we tested in our early construction of the trash compactor.

Supporting Materials

Sketches

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Functional Analysis

Modeling
This is the power consumption of the trash compactor

Component Voltage (V) Current drawn Power (W) Active

(A)

arduino 12 0.042 0.504 always

lock 12 0.65 7.8 except

compression

air pump 120 2 240 during

compaction

valves(x2) gold - - 19 During

compaction

valves(X2) - - 19 During
white compaction
Active consumption: 286.30 W, Inactive consumption is 8.304W
Assuming the compactor is activated once per day and that the compaction duration is maximum

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(38 seconds) the compactor will consume 0.1992 kwh every day.
average kwh is 21.6 cents, so operation costs 4.2 cents each day
Force of compactor
Diameter of bore 2.5 in Area 4.91 in​2

Measured pressure in system = 7.7 psi

Force =P*A = 37.86 lb

Drawback: Acrylic sheet is brittle. Maximum yield stress is 3630 psi*Cross sectional area of
sheet: 5.9 in​2​ , consider impact of 1 in​2​ can withstand 3630 lb of force

Budget:

IN FINAL NOT USED

PROJECT MATERIAL
pneumatic bin with drawer
actuator 65.49 tracks 14.95
air pump 80.76 small air pump 21.23
drawer tracks 16.86 power converter 16.32
power strip 7.99 wood* 15
wires,resistors,
button 2.5
relays 12.9
8020 and acrylic
box 60
arduino 22
lock 19.72
valves 20
pipe fittings 20

sub totals 328.22 67.5

total 395.72

*wood is simply a placeholder for the customer’s cabinet, it would be directly installed

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Arduino Code
This is the code run by the arduino microcontroller; this allows the device to be almost fully
automated. One push of a button and the arduino takes care of the rest.