Build a Soft-Drink Can Crusher Prototype

[Huilen]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and i need your help. I need to do a soft-drink can crusher for my final project. and we need to create a prototype of a pneumatic mechanical system for crushing the cans into pellets. It must be crush a minimum of 3 cans at a time.SPecifications: 1) the systems operates using air pressure and can be automated by push button or control valves. 2) the cans shall be lifted 3 at a time using vacuum effects to the location to be crushed. Do you have any rough idea how to do this or any link that shows something similar to this project? and i need to know what is the bore size of air cylinder that we need to use and how many force and the pressure is required to crush. Any idea would be really appreciated. and thanks in advance. :)

 

[russ_watters]

You could use 3 of these mounted next to each other: http://www.acehardware.com/product/index.jsp?productId=1274502&cp=1259945

For the required force/pressure, you can easily find them experimentally.

 

[Bob S]

You can use compressed air to move the cans instead of vacuum. A friend of mine designed a commercial system for sorting fresh eggs using puffs of compressed air to push individual eggs onto different conveyors.

 

[berkeman]

Hi everyone, I'm new here and i need your help. I need to do a soft-drink can crusher for my final project. and we need to create a prototype of a pneumatic mechanical system for crushing the cans into pellets. It must be crush a minimum of 3 cans at a time.SPecifications: 1) the systems operates using air pressure and can be automated by push button or control valves. 2) the cans shall be lifted 3 at a time using vacuum effects to the location to be crushed. Do you have any rough idea how to do this or any link that shows something similar to this project? and i need to know what is the bore size of air cylinder that we need to use and how many force and the pressure is required to crush. Any idea would be really appreciated. and thanks in advance. :)

You may get extra credit for making your design use the minimum energy necessary to crush the cans -- call it "Green" or some similar buzzword.

Do you know the trick for crushing cans with much less energy than a standard crusher uses? Try crushing cans by hand for a bit, and I'll bet you figure out the trick.

 

[Danger]

Do you know the trick to crushing cans with much less energy than a standard crusher uses?

I know how I do it, but that would add unnecessary complexity to the mechanism.

 

[berkeman]

I know how I do it, but that would add unnecessary complexity to the mechanism.

No way Jose. Er, I mean Danger. All part of the full cam progression mechanism...

 

[berkeman]

Hint -- 4 corners mid-line pre-crush, then a twisting crush. What's the best mechanical way to do that?...

 

[Danger]

I assume that your question is directed at the OP, in order to make him think it through, so I'm not going to tell you my idea.

 

[berkeman]

Looks like the OP isn't coming back anytime soon. How do you do it?

BTW, have you seen the bar trick where you bet a guy a dollar (or a pound) to see who can crush a beer can the quickest against their forehead the quickest? You let him go first, and then say "Okay, you win." LOL

 

[Danger]

The way that I do it by hand is to twist it as if wringing out a rag, then squash the ends together. Mechanically, (if I wanted to use that technique) I'd build something like an electric jar opener combined with an arbour press. It seems to me that it would be more practical, and probably just as effective, to simply use a cylindrical housing to confine the can with a piston to compress it.
I've never heard of that bar trick, but it does remind me of an hilarious event from my youth. Some bullet-head from across the border tried to show off with that 'smash the can on your forehead' trick to impress some girls in the bar. His cultural knowledge appeared to be somewhat lacking, since he didn't realize that Canadian cans were made of steel rather than aluminum. He ended up with something like 15 stitches, after he came to.

 

[berkeman]

OMG, that's hilarious. Must have been pretty entertaining for the bar!

 

[Danger]

Not just for the bar. Everyone in the tri-county area has been laughing about it for almost 40 years. A bonus is that it only took about 4 Canuck beers to get him pissed enough to try it.

 

[dr dodge]

had a buddy that made one with 2-15 inch 60 series tires spinning (tread to tread, pretty danged fast) together. one driven w/ chain drive with a 3/4 horse electric motor. that thing would smash a trash can full of cans fast as heck! not totally pneumatic, but very cool, non the less.
I had almost forgotten about that thing, and I do have a big pile of cans...hhuummmm

dr