Aaron Eastman
Senior Project
Testing Phase
Testing Results
Table 1. Summary of Results
The purpose of this portion of the carbon recycler is to delaminate the carbon fiber, to determine if the project was successful the following types of tests will be completed.
Feed Rate Test
This test was completed to measure the linear feed rate of the crushing system. The input torque of the motor was decided upon to meet the requirement of a linear feed rate of 1 foot per minute. This was done by setting the motor to 400 rpm and then timing how long it took for the carbon fiber that was marked twice, one foot apart, to make it through the system. The time was then converted to the linear feed rate. The test completed at 419 rpm was delivered a linear feed rate of 1.00 feet per minute, which met the requirement of 1 foot per minute. The white marks on the carbon fiber can be seen in Figure 2.
Figure 1. Feed Rate Test
Housing Deflection Test
The housing deflection test was completed to see how much the housing plates deflect during the crushing process. To meet the requirement it had to be below 0.1 inches. This test was completed by placing a dial caliper in between the small pillow blocks to measure the horizontal displacement of the housing. A group member assisted by taking a video of the crushing for 30 seconds so 3 data points could be identified during the video. It was initially planned to measure the displacement of the housing plate between the large pillow blocks but due to the spur gears and chain there was not enough room for the caliper. The max deflection that was observed was only .0035 inches passing the requirement. The dial caliper during the test can be seen in Figure 3.
Figure 3. Testing Setup for Housing Deflection Test
Delamination Test
The Delamination test was completed to determine the approximate percent delamination that the system could achieve. Before inserting the carbon fiber, all the layers were counted and recorded and then checked again after the crushing process. Then an approximate delamination percentage was calculated and reported on the results document. The approximate percent delamination that was achieved after many rounds of system improvements was 60%. The delaminated carbon fiber can be seen in Figures 4 and 5.
Figure 4. and Figure 5. Results of Delamination Test
