MFET480

Senior Design Project Proposal: Automated Cupcake-Making Machine

MFET 480 --- Fall 2013

Erika Healy, Danielle Kunkel, David Long, Colin Tancredi,

Zach Waechter, Dylan Wagner, Mike Wallyn, Chris White

!Submitted: Friday, December 13, 2013

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Letter of Transmittal

!December 13, 2013 !Senior MFET 480 Students Knoy Hall Room 258 !Dear Program Administrator: !!Enclosed is the Senior Design proposal for the 2013-2014 school year. This

report will detail all aspects of the project and include detailed listings of

parts needed and functionality, etc. This report will be complete with labeled

pictures and specified custom parts. We agree this project will be

completed by the specified date and fully functional for our project show

date.

!If there are any fully questions or concerns, please contact the Senior Design team in Knoy 258 or send an email to [email protected]. !Sincerely, !Erika Healy

Danielle Kunkel

David Long

Colin Tancredi

Zach Waechter

Dylan Wagner

Mike Wallyn

Chris White

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!Table of Contents

Executive summary...............................................................................................page 4

Statement of Problem...........................................................................................page 10

Proposed Solution................................................................................................page 12

Technical Descriptions

1. Robot Movements.....................................................................................page 14

2. End Of Arm Tooling...................................................................................page 16

3. Stabilizer Plate & Holder...........................................................................page 18

4. Tins & Liners.............................................................................................page 23

5. Batter Dispenser.......................................................................................page 25

6. Conveyor..................................................................................................page 27

7. Oven.........................................................................................................page 30

8. Sorting Flipper..........................................................................................page 31

9. Product Locator........................................................................................page 34

10.Icing Dispenser........................................................................................page 37

11.Sprinkle Dispenser...................................................................................page 42

12.Lids...........................................................................................................page 47

13.Final Drop Area........................................................................................page 49

14.Clean-Up Process…………………………………………………………….page 53

15.HMI Development....................................................................................page 56

16.Tracking...................................................................................................page 58

Conclusion..........................................................................................................page 59

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Executive Summary – Chris White

The Manufacturing Engineering Technology department of Purdue University has

requested that the students in its senior design course, MFET 480 and MFET 481,

complete a project that showcases the knowledge and skills gained in the MFET

curriculum. To accomplish this task, the students pooled different project ideas together

to determine which project best suits the skill sets of each student while also pushing

boundaries and possibly venturing into uncharted territory by including tasks that may

be unfamiliar to some. This course spans from August 19, 2013 to May 9, 2014 giving

us two semesters, or 32 weeks, to complete this project. Any proposed ideas that would

even be considered would have to adhere to this time frame. So, with all of this in mind,

it was decided that the project would be an automated cupcake line.

Why this project?

The class decided on the automated cupcake line not only because we felt that

this project fulfilled the requirements for the course but also because it sounded like fun;

we liked the idea of designing and manufacturing an assembly line that will produce

cupcakes to order. It is understood that delivering this project demands a lot of time and

effort. It will force each student to use their current skillset as well as develop new

abilities, all while working alongside others. Since we really liked the idea of a cupcake

assembly line, we will be more motivated to put in the necessary time to have an

impressive project. Whether or not we were successful in motivating ourselves to

complete this project in a timely fashion cannot be determined until the completion of

the project. We do, however, find this project very interesting, and think that it will really

“show off” the capabilities of the individuals in our MFET graduating class. ! 4

How will it work?

There is a lot that goes into this automated process as a whole; therefore, we

decided to break this process up into zones/stations. These stations consist of the

ordering station, batter station, baking, cooling/queuing station, icing station, sprinkles

station, lid station, and pick-up station. These stations all work in conjunction with each

other in order to complete the task of making cupcakes to order. Here is a brief

breakdown of each station and their individual processes.

Ordering Station

In order for the appropriate cupcake to be made, the customer will be presented

with order options. This will be accomplished using an HMI screen. The screen will

display all of the available cupcake variations that the customer can choose from. First,

it will ask “Vanilla or Chocolate Cake?” Then, “Vanilla or Chocolate Icing?” followed by a

prompt which asks “Which of the three sprinkle options would you like?” A “None” option

will also be included for the icing and sprinkles, but once the “No Icing” option is

selected, no sprinkles can be included. Once the order has been recorded, it is then

sent to a database that will store all orders. The order is then transferred to the PLC to

initiate the cupcake-making process. There will be several pre-made cupcakes in queue

so that when a cupcake is ordered, the cupcake that the customer will receive will

actually come from the cooling/queuing station. The cupcake that is being made will

actually be used to refill the void left in the queuing station by the cupcake that was just

ordered.

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Batter Station

When the process is initiated, the adept robot will use the vacuum gripper end of

arm tooling to pick up the stabilizer plate and place it on the conveyer that leads to the

oven. There will be a product stop there to keep the plate from entering the oven without

the cupcake being on it. Once the stabilizer plate is placed, a gantry will reach down into

the cupcake tin feeder and grab a tin. This tin is then grabbed by the clamp gripper of

the adept robot and transported to the gantry area where the cupcake tin liners will be

stationed. A liner will be picked up with the same type of gantry system that the cupcake

tins were picked up with, but this time the robot will position the cupcake tin directly

underneath the liner and the liner will be placed inside of the cupcake tin. Once the liner

is placed inside of the cupcake tin, the robot arm positions the cupcake tin underneath

the batter dispenser. There will be a photo eye sensor that will let the batter dispenser

know that there is an empty cupcake tin that needs to be filled. The batter then

dispenses a set amount of batter into the tin and then the tin is transported to the

stabilizer plate that is on the conveyer.

Baking Station

From the batter station, the uncooked cupcake is moved into the oven using the

conveyor. There will be a guard at the end of the conveyor leading into the oven that will

direct the cupcake to a certain spot in the oven. This will allow the cupcake to always

come out of the oven in the correct location so that cupcake handling from that point is

consistent. The oven will be heated to 325° F and the oven conveyor speed will be

adjusted to allow the cupcake to cook properly.

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Cooling/Queuing Station

As the cupcakes leave the oven, the cupcake will be moved to its designated

cooling area. There will be two queuing lines, one for vanilla cupcakes and one for

chocolate cupcakes. The cupcake will be sorted and directed into the correct queuing

line. As mentioned in the ordering section, the cupcake that is being ordered is coming

from the queuing area, so when a cupcake leaves the queuing area, this cupcake will

replace it. This allows ample time for the cupcake to cool because there will be at least

4 or 5 cupcake ahead of it in the queuing line, therefore when the time comes for this

cupcake to be ordered, it will have had enough time to cool.

Icing Station

When a cupcake is released from the cooling/queuing station, it is directed to the

icing station. The cupcake is then stopped below the icing dispenser by a product

locater. This locater is used to position each cupcake in the same position below the

icing dispenser to allow for accurate dispensing. This locater is essentially a product

stop that only drops once the icing dispensing is complete. The icing will be dispensed

directly above the center of the top of the cupcake. The lift function of the lift and rotate

actuator will raise the cupcake until the nozzle of the dispenser is only a small distance

above the cupcake. This will allow the icing to only dispense in one location because

the pressure on the icing from the dispenser forces the icing to spread over the top of

the cupcake. The iced cupcake is then lowered back down to the line and the product

stop drops.

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Sprinkles Station

Once the cupcake leaves the icing station, the cupcake will enter the sprinkles

station. At the sprinkles station, there is another product locater used to position the

cupcake directly below the sprinkle dispenser funnel. The sprinkle machine will sense

with a photo eye when a cupcake is ready for sprinkles and the appropriate sprinkle

hopper will be initialized. The sprinkles will be dispensed and a hopper will catch them

and guide them to the top of the cupcake. The cupcake is then lowered back down to

the line and the product stop drops.

Lid Station

After the cupcake leaves the sprinkles station, it is then moved to the lid station.

There is yet another product locater at the lid station to position the cupcake directly

below the gantry that handles the lids. Once the cupcake arrives, the gantry grabs a lid

and positions it above the cupcake. Then the lid is placed on to the cupcake tin and

pressed onto the tin by the gantry. This will assure the lid is properly fixed to the

cupcake tin.

Pick-up Station

The final station of this cupcake-making process is the product pick-up station.

This station is where the finished cupcake is picked up by the customer and where the

stabilizer plates will be collected. There will be an extension added to the conveyer with

rollers on it to allow the cupcake to continue to roll into the pick-up area.

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!Statement of Problem – David Long

The MFET 480 Senior Project Class was task with developing a unique project.

This project needed to utilize the skills that we have obtained through the completion of

the MFET and MET required classes, internships, and extra-curricular projects. This

project had several decisions that needed to be decided.

The first decision of the project was to decide what product we are

manufacturing. Our team was tasked with finding a product that was commonly

acceptable. The product needed to be reasonable inexpensive.

The second decision was to determine if it was possible to create the

manufacturing process to create the product. Once the product is selected, our team

had to determine if there is a process that can be created to produce the product. This

is determine by what we can use from past projects and by what we needed to design.

The third decision is to determine how the flow of the product will take place.

Once the process of create the product is determine, the group needed to determine the

most efficient and effective flow of the product. The team needed to determine which

subassemblies connected to what other subassemblies.

The forth is to determine if all the subassemblies of the project can be assembled

and be effective. The team had to determine is any problems with connecting certain

subassemblies together. If there was any problems with any connections in the system,

then a solution need to be found.

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The fifth requirement is to analyze and assess the time table of the project, to

ensure that the deadline is met. Our group had to determine all the steps needed to

complete the project in the time table, before the deadline. The team had to determine

the order and priority of each process.

The sixth is to analyze and assess the cost to and ensure that the needed

materials and products are order and received with enough time to implement in the

system. The team had to decide what products are needed to create each of the

subassemblies. The team then had to determine if the material is in stock or if the

material needed to be ordered.

These problems needed to be solved to be able to begin building the assembly

line.

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!Proposed Solution – Mike Wallyn

Our proposed solution is to create a fully-automated cupcake machine (shown in

Figure X). This machine will have a robot

area that has the tins and stabilizers

stacked up along with the batter

dispensers off to the side. Using the end

of arm tooling, the robot picks up a tin

and liner and places them on a stabilizer

plate. From there, the robot takes the

tin/plate and places it under the batter

dispensers, where the dispensers give out a measured amount of chosen batter. The

robot then takes the raw batter to the oven for cooking.

After cooking in the roller oven, the cupcake falls onto the line, where it is sorted

based on what type of batter it used; chocolate or vanilla. Here they will cool until a

person orders a cupcake. The drop line releases one cupcake of the correct variety to

be iced and sprinkled. Product locators at both dispensing stations ensure that the

cupcake tin and stabilizer are centered underneath the dispensers. As per customer ! 12

Figure X: Floor plan of the entire cupcake processing area.

specifications, the cupcake is iced with one of two different icing types and sprinkled

with one of three types of sprinkles.

The final step in the process is to put a lid on the cupcake. One final product stop

lines up the cupcake underneath a gantry that has a stack of lids in the center of the

drop line. The product stop drops and the completed cupcake rolls up to the final drop

area, where people can pick up their cupcake. Figure 6-1 depicts the floor plan of the

processing area.

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!Robot Movements – Zach Waechter

To make a cupcake there first needs to be a tin and liner filled with batter. When

making cupcakes by hand this is done very easily and without much thought. To

automate this process a SCARA configuration robot (shown in Figure 1-1) will be

employed to simulate what will normally be done by hand. The robot will be the piece of

equipment that is in charge of placing the stabilizer plate, tin, and liner on the start of the

conveyor. The robot will also be what carries the tin to the batter dispenser in order to

get the tin filled with batter.

The first movement that the robot will

take is to pick up a stabilizer plate and

place it on the start of the conveyor. The

plate will be placed behind product stops to

ensure that it doesn’t move until the filled tin

is placed on it. The robot will use a

vacuum gripper to pick up the stabilizer plate. Once the stabilizer plate is placed on the

conveyor, the robot will switch to a different end of arm tooling. Instead of the vacuum

gripper, a clamp will be employed. It will fit around the tin to keep the tin from collapsing

in on itself. Once the end of arm tooling has been switched, the robot will move over to

where the tins are held. One of the tins should already be hanging from a vacuum.

Once the robot has closed around the tin, the vacuum will turn off. This will leave the tin

in the clamp on the end of the robot. The robot will then continue on to where the liners

are. A liner should be hanging on a vacuum, similar to how the tin was hanging. The ! 14

Figure 1-1: Epson SCARA configuration robot

robot will place the tin under the liner, and then the vacuum on the liner will be turned

off. This will result in a tin with liner being in the clamp. After the robot has the tin with

liner, it will move over and place them below the batter dispenser. Here the dispenser

will fill the tin with the desired flavor of batter. Once this has been done the tin will be

placed on the stabilizer plate that is waiting on the conveyor already. After everything

has been stationed on the conveyor, the product stop will lower allowing the cupcake to

make its way to the oven for baking.

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End of Arm Tooling – David Long

The container needs to be assembled and transferred to a loading station then to

the first conveyor system. They system also needs to be notified if the containers are

nearly depleted. This process can be achieved by using two end of arm tooling for the

robot. The vacuum can be used to assemble the container, and the grip can be used to

move the container to the loading area and finally to the conveyor system. A sensor will

notify if the containers are getting low. The design would be similar to what is shown in

Figure 2-1.

Equipment Needed

- HAAS

- Electric Drill

Fabrication

Step 1- Cut 3 holes into 6” Bar

Step 2- Cut block into gripper design

Step 3- Connect bar to robot

Step 4- Connect vacuum to bar

Step 5- Connect rod to bar

Step 6- Connect pneumatic actuator to bar

Step 7- Connect gripper arms to pneumatic actuator

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Figure 2-1

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End Of Arm Tooling BOM

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Name Description Quantit

y

Cost Supplier

Vacuum Gripper Vacuum Gripper 1 In Stock MFET Department

Proximity Switch Inductive Switch 1 In Stock MFET Department

Multipurpose 304

Stainless Steel Bar

1" x 4"x6” 1 68.91 McMaster Carr

Pneumatic Cylinder Pneumatic Cylinder 1 In Stock MFET Department

6”Bar of Stainless

Steel

6” Bar of Stainless

Steel

1 In Stock MFET Department

3/8X4 4” Bolt 1 7.54 McMaster Carr

3/8”-16 Nylon-Insert Hex

Locknuts

3 4.14 McMaster Carr

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Stabilizer Plate & Holder – Chris White

Stabilizer Plate

The stabilizer plate serves one major purpose: to keep the cupcake from tipping

over while traveling on the conveyor. There are fairly large gaps between a few of the

conveyor rollers that could prevent the cupcake tin from staying upright if the tin were to

travel the conveyor with no stabilizer plate. This plate will be thick enough to fully

support the cupcake tin, rigid enough to prevent the

cupcake tin from tipping over, and appropriately sized

to fit through all processes used in the cupcake line.

The stabilizer plate will have two small pins on the

top of each plate (shown in Figure 3-1) and a groove

on the bottom of each plate (shown in Figure 3-2). The idea is to allow the stabilizer

plates to be able to be stacked onto the plate holder

while also maintaining their position so that the robot

handling of them will be simple.

The material used for this stabilizer plate will

be a 4x12x.625 6061 – T6 aluminum plate.

Aluminum is light enough to make the robot handling of the plate simple but rigid

enough to complete the task of stabilizing the cupcake tin while on the conveyor. Also,

with the plate having to go through the cooking process of the cupcake as well,

aluminum is able to withstand the cooking temperature while also being food grade.

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Figure 3-1

Figure 3-2

A CNC Haas mill will be used to fabricate this plate. The milling tool will be a 1/8”

high speed steel end mill. 3D SolidWorks has CAD/CAM capabilities which can be used

to program the CNC Haas mill to machine this plate. This type of aluminum can be

easily machined because of its hard nature so machining it with the Haas mill should not

be a problem.

!Stabilizer Plate BOM

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Material Description Vender QTY PriceAluminum Bar 3.25x36 6061 Aluminum McMaster Carr 2 $304.98

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Stabilizer Plate Holder

The stabilizer plate holder (shown in Figure 3-4) is a simple device used to stack

the stabilizer plates in a consistent location. Essentially, this stabilizer plate holder is

made up of one long pin, two short pins, and a plate at the bottom. The two short pins

are positioning pins used to fit in the groove

on the bottom of the stabilizer plate. The long

pin will be used in conjunction with the end of

arm tooling on the robot. This pin will act as a

way to communicate to the operator that

there are no more stabilizer plates on the

holder and that they need to be refilled.

How this stabilizer plate holder will work with the robot arm is that when the robot

goes down to grab the last stabilizer plate, the long pin will touch the proximity sensor

that is attached to the robot arm and a signal will be sent from the sensor to the PLC to

inform the operator that there are no more stabilizer plates on the holder. The steps

below explain how the stabilizer plates will stack onto the stabilizer plate holder.

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Figure 3-4

1. Position the stabilizer plate so that the groove on the bottom of the stabilizer plate

is lined up over the two small pins.

!

2. Lower the plate onto the positioning pins.

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3. Stack the other plates onto the first plate using the same method beginning at

step 1.

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!

As far as materials, this plate holder will be made using a 6x36x.125 6061 – T6

aluminum sheet and aluminum dowel pins. The aluminum sheet can have the corners

notched out and the pins can be welded to the plate or fastened. All of these materials

can be purchased online.

!Stabilizer Plate Holder BOM

!

!

Material Description Vender QTY PriceAluminum Plate 6x36x.125 6061 Aluminum McMaster Carr 1 $17.19Dowel Pins .25x1 Dowel Pins McMaster Carr 5 $9.11

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Tins & Liners – Dylan Wagner

To dispense the tins we are going to use a simple

vacuum with linear actuation method. Instead of having the

vacuum mounted onto the linear action we will mount it to a

stationary plate and have the actuation move into it. This cuts

down on the amount of movement with air lines and cuts down

our chances on getting an airline pinched in the stroke.

It will work by first receiving a signal from the PLC that a

tin is needed. The vacuum will then turn on and the linear

actuator will begin to actuate. The PLC then will wait for a

signal back from a vacuum sensor located near the vacuum to

say it has latched onto a tin. The actuator will then turn off and

reverse direction so the tins will begin falling down, keeping the

latched tin on the vacuum suction device. Once a timer sets

true indicating all the tins have fallen

back down the PLC will tell the robot to

move and grab the tin. Once the

robot indicates to the PLC that it

has its grippers open and is in

position to receive the tin the vacuum of the dispenser will turn

off and the tin will fall into position on the robot end of arm

tooling. The robot PLC will then notify the robot that is has a

tin and it will begin to move to its next location.

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Figure 4-1: This shows the linear actuator extending out for the tin

Figure 4-2: The upper part of the tin dispenser that contains that vacuum head for holding

The materials needed for this device are fairly short due to its non-complex

design. We will use a small aluminum plate with a 1” aluminum stock to make a simple

mount for the vacuum gripper. We will then need a clear tube of inner diameter 3-1/2”

to be able to house the tins for storage. Also needed is a linear actuator. More than

likely we will be able to use an actuator that we have already in the lab. This will make

for a quick build time and cut down on our overall time spent on this part.

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Figure 4-3: The bottom part of the tin dispenser that contains the linear actuator and also the main hopper for

Figure 4-4: Shows the completed tin

dispenser assembly.

Batter Dispenser – Mike Wallyn ! The batter dispenser has a lot of limitations attached to it. It needs to be able to consistently dispense an exact amount of batter into a cupcake tin and do it with minimal mess. Also, it must be easily loadable and cleanable. And as with most every other component of our machine, the batter dispenser must be food safe.

While some ideas for a custom built batter vat were thrown around, a premade automatic pancake batter dispenser turned out to be the most effective solution to dispense batter, as shown in Figure 5-1. The dispenser works by adjusting the knob for the appropriate dispense amount, then pushing down on the piston to dispense the batter.

Two of these “cupcake” batter dispensers will be mounted in a simple metal cradle that will hold them in place in the robot area. Underneath each dispenser will be a photo eye that will be able to detect when the robot places a cupcake tin underneath one of the dispensers. The photo eye will trigger a linear actuator mounted to the dispenser that will dispense the batter into the tin, after which the robot will take the batter and tin to the oven for cooking. Figure 5-2 shows a rough model of the entire assembly.

!Batter Dispenser BOM

Material Description Vendor Quantity

Price

Pancake Batter Dispenser

WINCO 2 $73.75 ea.

Photoeye Rockwell Automation

2 $0

CQ2B 12-100DC Z Linear Actuator

SMC 2 TBD

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Figure 5-1: The Pancake Batter Dispenser

!Potential Problems:

• Robot misses the photo eye

• Wrong dispenser dispenses

• Spillage

• Cupcake tin doesn’t trip the dispensers

!Solid Model:

12x108 T-304 Stainless Steel

McMaster-Carr 2 $165.48 ea.

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!

!

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Figure 5-2: Complete Batter Dispensing Assembly. Note that the drawing will be updated when exact

measurements are obtained.

!Conveyor – Danielle Kunkel

The conveyor is a critical component for transferring the uncooked cupcake,

which is on the stabilizer plate, to the oven. A mockup of the conveyor is shown in

Figure 6-1. The conveyor is motor driven. The stabilizer plate is put onto the conveyor.

The photo eye on the conveyor will sense that the stabilizer plate is there, telling the

product stop to push up. This allows for the filled cupcake tin to be put on the stabilizer

plate that is already on the conveyor. After the stabilizer plate and cupcake are all set,

the product stop can be released, allowing the arrangement to move forward along the

line. When the stabilizer plate and cupcake get to the end of the conveyor there is a

decline into the oven, which allows for a smooth transfer.

!Potential Problems:

• Conveyor doesn’t move

• Stabilizer plate and cupcake fall off of conveyor

• Product stop doesn’t stop cupcake or goes up too quickly

• Cupcake gets stuck on conveyor

• Cupcake doesn’t transfer to oven properly

!Required Equipment:

• Conveyor Rollers (we have old ones to refurbish)

• Motor

• Conveyor Belts

• Photo Eye

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• Product Stop

• Misc. Hardware

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Figure 6-1

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Conveyor BOM

!

Material Description Vender Qty Price

Photo eye Photo eye Rockwell

1 $0

Product Stop Refurbished ones Purdue 1 $0

Conveyor Rollers

Refurbished ones Purdue 1 $0

Conveyor Belts High-Performance Urethane Flat Belts, 3/4"

Width, 5/8" Min Pulley Diameter

McMaster Carr

2 $31.62

Motor DC Motor, Square Flange Face-Mount,

24VDC, 1/10 hp, 4200 rpm

McMaster Carr

1 $142.99

80/20 Barstock 80/20 Barstock 1.5” 80/20 inc

20ft $0

Aluminum Sheet Metal

Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum, Sheet, .125"

Thick, 36" x 36"

McMaster Carr

1 $164.34

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!Oven – Dylan Wagner

The oven (shown in Figure 7-1) is the heart of this cupcake machine. That being

said, there needs to be extensive research done on what needs to be done with the

wiring and set up of the oven. According to the 2012-2013 senior design group, the only

thing that needs to be fixed is switching the

controls back to control voltage and not the

high voltage it’s at. We will need to look at the

wiring for the conveyor motor and see if we

can swap the leads to switch the direction of

the motor. If the leads cannot be swapped we

will need to physically turn the oven 180

degrees so that it is feeding into the cage

instead of the current set up (feeding out.)

As far as the temperature control is concerned, the oven was able to heat up

to over 400+ degrees last year so we should be able to find a happy medium and pair it

with a good conveyor speed to create a perfect cupcake.

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Figure 7-1

!Sorting Flipper – Danielle Kunkel

The current design of our layout will allow for two different flavors of batter, vanilla

and chocolate. After the cupcake comes out of the oven it is essential that it is put in the

correct lane of the conveyor, this is possible by the flipper. For example, when the

vanilla cupcake comes out of the oven and onto the conveyor the flipper will turn a

certain amount of degrees to allow the cupcake to go into the correct line as shown in

Figure 8-1. If the next cupcake would happen to be a chocolate cupcake that comes out

of the oven and onto the conveyor, the flipper will turn a certain amount of degrees to

allow the cupcake to go into the correct line as shown in Figure 8-2. The flipper’s turning

is possible by a rotary actuator (see Figure 8-3).

!Potential Problems:

• Flipper turned the wrong way

• Flipper not turned enough

• Cupcake getting stuck on conveyor

!Required Equipment:

• SMC NC(D)RA1*50-100 rotary actuator

• Misc. mounting

• Airlines

• Flipper

• Aluminum Rod

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Figure 8-1

Figure 8-2

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Sorting Flipper BOM

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Material Description Vender Qty Price

Rotary Actuator NC(D)RA1*50-100 rotary actuator

SMC 1 tbd

Aluminum Rod Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum Rod, 1"

Diameter, 3' Length

McMaster Carr

1 $35.17

Aluminum Plate Multipurpose 6061 Aluminum, 1 1/2" Thick,

12" x 12"

McMaster Carr

1 $114.58

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Figure 8-3

!Product Locator – Zach Waechter

The main purpose of the product locator is to ensure

that the product (cupcake) comes to rest in a consistent

location every pass. Since the stabilizer plate is of a circular

construction, to locate it consistently two points of contact will

be used. The product stops will be built so that just two

points hit on the circle. This will make the product be self-

centering. This can be seen in Figure 9-1.

The construction of the product stop will start with a 3.5” wide adapter plate. The

adapter plate will be the physical piece that attaches to the actuator. To the adapter

plate, two smaller plates, the bolt holding plates, will be fastened to the ends. These

bolt holding plates will be 1” by 2.5”. These plates

will provide the length needed to raise the bolts

between the conveyor rollers. The bolts that actually

touch the stabilizer plate will be 3” long. They will be

adjustable by just varying the amount they are

screwed into the bolt holding plates. The bolts will

be 3/8” in diameter. The completed construction

can be seen in Figure 9-2.

The current construction of the product stops on the pizza line is of a very similar

construction. This means that only minor alterations will be needed. The only difference

between them and the ones we will need is length. The ones currently employed are 8”

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Figure 9-1: Product locator mated with Stabilizer Plate

Figure 9-2: Completed product stop

long. This is far too wide and the stabilizer plate will slide right between them. SO by

shortening them to just 3.5” it will ensure that the stabilizer plate contacts the stops

instead of sliding between the bolts. The smaller size will also ensure that two of them

can be implemented side-by-side. This is an important feature as there will be a time

when there are going to be two lines of cupcakes running next to each other. Each line

will need its own product stop in order to keep the cupcakes organized.

There are several different issues that could possibly arise from this construction.

One being that the length of the bolts interferes with the running of the product stop. If

the bolts are too short they will fail to stop the product, and if they are too long then the

bolts will stop the product even when they are retracted. This can be overcome by

altering the length of the bolts if the problem does occur. Another problem may be that

if when the products are run side by side the actuators themselves are too wide to be

placed under the line. This can be overcome by staggering the product locators so that

there is extra room to place the actuators.

Product Locator BOM

Part Name Description Quantity Price

Actuator Lifting Mechanism 1 per product stop TBD

Adapter Plate Metal plate 3.5” x 1.2” x 0.5” 1 per product stop TBD

Bolt Holding Plate Metal Plate 1”x2.5”x0.2” 2 per product stop TBD

! 37

!Bolts ⅜” bolt 3” long 2 per product stop TBD

! 38

!Icing Dispenser – Colin Tancredi

Each customer will have the choice to add icing to their cupcake or not. Should

they not want icing, this step will be skipped altogether for that individual cupcake. But

for those who wish to have the cupcake iced, the following process will be followed:

In order to apply a desirable amount of icing onto each cupcake, the lift

mechanism of the lift-and-rotate actuator on the drop-line will be used. Above this

mechanism, we will fix a 6 inch stainless-steel cylindrical tube, closed on the bottom

(except for a small opening for the pastry bag nozzle to escape), with a circular

depressor on the top end to be attached to a linear actuator. As mentioned, attached to

the icing bag will be a star-shaped metal icing nozzle. The nozzle will be held in place in

the cylinder using a tapered rubber grommet around the opening in the bottom of the

cylinder. This ensures consistent location of the nozzle-end. There will be two identical

stations in series, one with vanilla, and the other with chocolate.

Possible Errors:

• Air pockets in icing bag

• Cupcake location inconsistencies

• Leaking icing bag/breaking bag

• Nozzle movement

• Cupcake falling off ‘Lift & Rotate’ platform

!!!

! 39

!How it works:

1. Cupcake and stabilizer plate will approach lift and rotate mechanism.

!

!2. Stops will locate cupcake to proper position; photo eye senses cupcake present,

lift initiates.

!

!! 40

!3. Linear actuator will press depressor plate against icing bag to squeeze icing out

nozzle.

!

!4. Just before the actuators motion is complete, the cupcake and plate will be

lowered back down to line, creating the desired effect.!

! !

! 41

5. Stops will drop and cupcake will move onto sprinkle station.!

!

!Icing Dispenser BOM

Part Name Quantity Price Vendor

6 inch diameter stainless-steel

tubing,

1 foot long

2 Total (1 per icing station)

$222.13 McMaster.com

Pastry bags 1 pack of 100 $6.99 Ebay.com

Pastry nozzle assortment

1 set of 24 pcs $9.99 Ebay.com

Thomson Electrak 1 Linear Actuator

2 $300-$400

(depending on model available)

Thomsonlinear.com

Aluminum bar stock Varies $200-$300 (in lab)

Vanilla Icing 1 Tub $59.95 Thebakerskitchen.net

! 42

!!

Chocolate Icing 1 Tub $59.95 Thebakerskitchen.net

ESTIMATED TOTAL: $1060.00

! 43

Sprinkle Dispenser – Erika Healy

The sprinkle dispensing station is designed to dispense sprinkles onto an iced

cupcake. Once the cupcake has been decorated with the appropriate icing, the

conveyor will move it to the sprinkle station. The cupcake will be stopped and located by

product stop pins. A photo eye sensor on the underside of the funnel will sense when a

cupcake is under it and the appropriate sprinkles corresponding to that order

(determined by tracking) will be dispensed. As shown in Figure 11-1 and Figure 11-2,

this machine was designed to funnel the three different sprinkle types to one centralized

location where the cupcake will stop every time it needs sprinkles. The logic behind this

design is to ease programming because the cupcake will always stop in one spot and

initialize tracking to fetch the appropriate sprinkles as oppose to using three sensors to

sense which sprinkles the cupcake needs. The outlet at the tip of the funnel is sized so

that the sprinkles will evenly distribute among the cupcake and not end up in one

concentrated area.

! 44Figure 11-1 Figure 11-2

The design of the individual sprinkle hopper consists of three tubes and a rotary

actuator. Figure 11-3 shows a solid model and Figure 11-4 shows hidden lines. The

middle of the three tubes rotates while the top and bottom remain stationary. The

hopper will be filled with sprinkles from the top and the top tube will act as the holder.

Once the appropriate sprinkles are identified, the rotary actuator will rotate the middle

tube of the corresponding hopper 180 degrees which will align the hole in the hopper

with the hole in the middle tube and allow sprinkles to fall and fill the hollow tube of the

middle tube. The rotary actuator will then rotate back to its original position, allowing the

sprinkles to fall out and down the slide that lets out directly over the cupcake.

!!!!!!!!!!!

! 45Figure 11-3 Figure 11-4

!Figure 11-5, Figure 11-6, Figure 11-7 (shown below) show the entire sprinkle

dispenser from different angles. Each hopper will be held in the fixture with set screws

screwed through the sides of the fixture to hold the hoppers centered in place.

! 46

Figure 11-5: full front view of the sprinkle machine

Figure 11-6: angled front view Figure 11-7: angled back view

There will be three options for sprinkles: chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, and pink sprinkles. The sprinkles will be purchased in a 3-pack bundle from CK Products Jimmies for $34.09 for three 16-ounce bags (see Figure 11-8). Based on the assumption that a total of 1,000 cupcakes will be baked and each cupcake will need 0.2 ounces of sprinkles, roughly 3 bundles will be purchased for a total of 3 pounds of each option of sprinkles.!

!!!!

!!

Sprinkle Dispenser BOM

!

Potential Problems:

- Jamming/Clogging

- Sprinkles landing around instead of on the cupcake

- Sprinkles only fall on a small concentrated area of the cupcake

!! 47

Figure 11-8

Lids – Zach Waechter

The problem addressed by this section

is how to put the lids on the finished cupcake.

In order to attach the lids to the finished

product, a gantry robot (shown in Figure 12-1)

will be implemented. The robot will have a

stack of lids on one side of the conveyor belt.

It will go over to the stack of lids, and using

suction, will pick up one of the lids. If static

affects the number of lids that the robot picks up, then a brush will be attached to the

top of the lid holder in order to keep from picking up more than one lid at a time. The

robot will then take the lid over to where the finished product is waiting behind a product

stop. The robot will know that the product is waiting for the lid to be attached by a photo

eye. The photo eye will be just before the product stop. The cupcake will cover the

photo eye telling the gantry robot to lower a lid. It will seal the lid by pressing it down.

The end of arm tooling used by the gantry will be a

hollowed out cylinder as can be seen in Fig 12-2. It will

seal the lid by pressing on just the edges. As the robot

presses on the lid, the vacuum gripper will slide back inside

the end of arm tooling and then release the lid. The

finished product will then carry on and the gantry robot will

pick up another lid and wait for the next finished product.

! 48

Figure 12-2: Underside of end of arm tooling.

Figure 12-1: Picture of complete gantry robot

The majority of the materials needed to build this robot will be from PHD. The

horizontal slide will have 1000mm of travel, and the vertical travel will be 300mm. There

will also be 20” tall supports. The entire list of parts are as follows: horizontal gantry

axis 1000mm travel, vertical gantry axis 300mm travel, SFM to SK adapter kit, 20” tall

double stanchion mounting base, a baseplate, and a few switches. The other materials

needed are a 2” tall piece of pipe with a 2” diameter. A piece of pipe .5” in diameter to

be fastened to the top of that and a 1” adapter plate 1/8” thick to be fastened on the end

of the smaller pipe. The adapter plate will be what actually screws to the gantry

assembly.

The problems that may arise during the construction and running of the gantry

robot have a lot to do with clearance issues. If the height of the legs that hold up the

gantry are not the right length, the lid may either not reach the cupcake tin or may crash

into the side of the cupcake. Also the gantry must be wide enough to span across the

conveyor belt. If not adjustments will have to be made. Another possible error that

could arise is if the supply of lids runs out. The end of arm tooling will know it has a lid

by a vacuum sensor. If there are no lids available the bottom of the end of arm tooling

will hit before that vacuum sensor and let the operator know that the lids need to be

refilled.

!

! 49

!Final Staging Area – David Long

The problem is to create

a mechanism that can transport

the product off the conveyor

system and allow for retrieval of

the product by the consumer.

The solution to this problem is to

create a ramp with rollers to slide the cupcake off of the conveyor. The cupcake then

reaches an open ended holder; this will allow the consumer to retrieve the cupcake that

the individual ordered. The design in figure 13-1 demonstrates how this ramp may look

like. Final Staging Area BOM

!

!

Name Description QTY COST SUPPLIER

Multipurpose

304 Stainless

Steel SHEET

.120" Thick, 12"

x 24"

1 $54.92 McMaster Carr

Conveyor

Rollers

Conveyor

Rollers

2 In Stock MFET Department

! 50

Figure 13-1

Figure 13-1

Equipment Needed

• HAAS

• Electric Drill

• Band Saw

• Arc Welder

Fabrication

!Step 1- Cut the four 3” strips of sheet

metal

Step 2- Cut hole in specified strips for

rollers per figure 13-2

Step 3- Take off back plastic wall

Step 4- Take off back brace

Step 5- Cut the back black to even out

the top

Step 6- Cut the 5 holes in back brace

per figure 13-3

Step 7- Cut 12X6 Hole in plastic wall

Step 8- Cut 3 holes into the bottom plate

per figure 13-4

Step 9- Cut bottom to the specified

shape per figure 13-5

Step10- Weld the four 3” strip in

specified areas to form a Y shape per

figure 13-6

Step 11- Clean up the ramp and take off

edges

Step 12- Install rollers into sloped ramp

per figure 13-7

Step 13 – Reinstall Back brace in new

down slope position

Step 14- Reinstall back plastic wall

! 51

Step 15- Use three brackets to connect

back brace to sloped ramp

Step 16- Modify if necessary

!

! 52

! 53

Figure 13-5

Figure 13-6

Figure 13-7

!Clean-Up Process – Chris White

Because there are so many components on this cupcake line, the cleaning of

each station is essential. Each station that incorporates food products needs the most

attention as we need to keep this line in accordance with FDA regulations. Any time the

cupcake line is used, cleaning needs to take place immediately after use in order to

make cleaning easier and to allow for a quick start-up the next time the line is used.

Each station of this line has its own cleanup procedure and will be explained below.

Batter Station

This station has the potential to be the messiest station of the whole line;

therefore, the cleaning of this station is essential. The batter will be dispensed from bad

inside of the dispenser, so when the cupcake line is not running the bags should be

removed to check for possible batter residue inside of the dispenser. The dispenser can

be wiped down with a cloth and water and should be done immediately following the

use of the line to prevent batter build up. The dispenser nozzle should be wiped off

inside and out because the batter dispenses through the nozzle so there could be caked

up batter that needs to be removed. Also, the area directly beneath the dispenser

nozzle should be wiped down in instances where batter may have continued to

dispensed or dripped extra batter.

Icing Station

The icing station should be cleaned in a similar fashion as the batter station. The

icing is dispensed from a bag inside of the dispenser, so in order to clean the inside of ! 54

the dispenser, the bag must first be removed. The inside of the dispenser is to be wiped

down, with a cloth and water, to get rid of possible icing residue that may have been left

behind by the icing bag. Also the dispenser nozzle should be wiped do to prevent icing

build up inside of the nozzle. Directly below the nozzle is also a problem area that

should be cleaned because dispenser could dispense extra icing or even possibly drip

icing onto the lift and rotate platform.

Sprinkles Station

The sprinkles station also has the potential to be a very messy station because

depending on how well the sprinkles are dispensed, sprinkles could go everywhere.

There will be a tray underneath the conveyer positioned beneath the sprinkles

dispenser. This tray will attempt to catch any sprinkles that miss the cupcake. The tray

should be emptied and wiped down after each use of the cupcake line or if it is full to

prevent overfilling.

Pick-up Station

The pick-up station doesn’t really run the risk of having different food items

dispense there but there will be several stabilizer plates that will gather in this area.

These plates can simply be gathered and removed from this area during and after the

use of this cupcake line. These plates can then be set to the side until they need to be

placed on the stabilizer plate holder.

!!

! 55

!Overall Cleaning

Because this cupcake line needs to be food grade, everything has to be wiped

down to prevent dust or food build-up. Any moving piece of equipment needs to be

properly lubricated as need.

!

! 56

HMI Development – Dylan Wagner

The HMI’s will play a huge role in our process. The PanelView Plus 1000 (shown

in Figure 15-1) will be used solely for the purpose of ordering and system control. The

Versa View CE 1500H will be used for the purpose of tracking and being able to watch

where a customer’s cupcake is located

within the system.

The PanelView Plus 1000 will be

mounted inside a control box with other

various push buttons and safety

overrides. Here we will be able to control

all our systems needs and we will be able

to put the system into auto or manual,

and also control our maintenance

activities. The maintenance activities we

will be able to control include manual

reloading of all our hoppers and feeders,

clearing jams, possible over temperature

overrides, whole system manual/auto.

This panelviews features will be locked

so that only authorized members will be allowed to change settings within the system.

Also within the PanelView 1000 we will be able to control the ordering system. Here is

where we can change any tracking information that might not have been put in by the

user correctly.

! 57

Figure 15-1: PanelView Plus 1000 located in control box. It is used to control the system and input orders.

The VersaView CE 1500H (shown in Figure 15-2) will be used primarily as a

tracking screen. This will notify users when there cupcake is done and will show them

where the cupcake they selected is currently in the system. Depending on how much

time we have extra this

could also be used in the

ordering process. That way

the back area wouldn’t be a

cluttered and it would allow

us to easily be able to

process 2 orders at a time.

Being that these two

panelviews are already

wired into the system we will

not have to spend much time in the actual hardware of the system. We will be able to

jump into the software and start programming these right away.

!

! 58

Figure 15-2: VersaView CE 1500H

!Tracking – Dylan Wagner

The tracking idea that we are going to implement is one that is used in many car

plants throughout the country. It uses a method of synchronous copy statements

activated by a sensor indicating the palate made it to the next station. The data will be

stored in user defined data types and the information held will included; Name of

customer, type of cupcake (Choc or Vanilla), type of icing, and finally selection of

sprinkles. Also we will include an option for “To Go.” If this option is chosen the user’s

cupcake will receive a lid for easy on the go transportation. The tracking system will be

completely run from the processor but will be displayed thru the HMI. Any changes to

the data must be made by an authorized user. This style of tracking will assume a clean

transfer of data from the previous station. We believe this method will assure us the

easiest tracking method with the equipment provided.

!!

! 59

Conclusion – Mike Wallyn

While our senior design project’s main focus is to build a machine that brings

together what we have learned about manufacturing automation, our final design for the

automated cupcake machine includes a great deal of consideration towards cost, while

maintaining simplicity wherever we can. For example, rather than have a complex,

home built batter dispensing system, we opted instead for purchasing a pancake batter

dispenser. This tool is relatively inexpensive and solves multiple problems that arose

while designing a custom built batter dispenser, namely repeatability of dispensing and

the correct amount of batter to dispense with minimal mess. In other cases, we went

with designs that have been tested and proven on other projects like senior design

projects or old Automation Fair machines, such as incorporating the jelly bean

dispensing process into our plan for how we dispense the sprinkles onto the cupcake.

Nevertheless, we are still attempting to push the envelope by having an online ordering

system where people can remotely order up their cupcakes.

One of our biggest concerns for this project was making sure that anything that

needed to be fabricated, wired, programmed, etc. was done by us. We've learned a

great deal in the courses leading up to our project and we wanted to take advantage of

that knowledge as much as possible. Having someone else do the wiring or fabricating

for us is a complete waste when most of us already have that know-how.

All told, our primary goal of bringing our acquired knowledge together to produce

a manufacturing assembly line will be a huge success. We’ve managed to incorporate

PLCs, Robots, HMIs, and internet connectivity into our machine. Not only that, we’ve

managed to keep costs down as much as possible while still creating an effective ! 60

machine. We feel that we have effectively met every requirement put forth for this

project and met it satisfactorily.

If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to contact any one of us:

Erika Healy......................................................................................emhealy@purdue.edu

Danielle Kunkel................................................................................dkunkel@purdue.edu

David Long........................................................................................long15@purdue.edu

Colin Tancredi................................................................................ctancred@purdue.edu

Zachary Waechter........................................................................zwaechte@purdue.edu

Dylan Wagner.................................................................................wagnerdpu@live.com

Michael Wallyn...............................................................................mwallyn@purdue.edu

Chris White....................................................................................white113@purdue.edu

! 61