KEEPING ME FERTILE: EXECTIVE SUMMARY REPORT

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1 KEEPING ME FERTILE: EXECTIVE SUMMARY REPORT Abstract: By: Nick Randolph, Matt Hastzo, Mike Brennen, Pat Boniface, Zack Scherfy Team Keeping ME Fertile worked with a small greenhouse operator by the name of Christie Kirkbride to reduce the amount of labor required for filling large amounts and varieties of pots with soil. This was accomplished designing a soil mixing and dispensing system that would give her portable soil on demand at any location in her complex and would fill a large volume of pots quickly with minimal effort. This report details the design considerations and construction of this machine.

2 1.0 Background Christie Kirkbride owns and operates a small greenhouse operation consisting of three greenhouses. This complex is run by her and her family as a hobby and a source of supplemental income. This complex is primarily used to grow flowers for purchase by other customers for their own gardens. A typical day during spring is typically spent filling pots for all kinds of flowers for her greenhouse. In addition she also creates arrangements on request for her customers. 2.0 Problem Statement The challenge for Team Keeping ME Fertile was to cut down on the amount of manual labor required for the potting of plants by creating a portable machine that could do it automatically with very little work on her part. This machine would need to be portable, easy to operate, operate from standard power outlet, safe to operate near children, hold and dispense more than 2 bags (2.8 cu.ft) of soil, and be affordable to a part-time gardening operation. 3.0 Rationale Early market research for such a machine found that there was very little out in industry that could portably mix and dispense soil much less do it for a reasonable price for a small greenhouse operation. Machines such as the machine found in figure 1 below did not come close to meeting the requirements set forth by the customer. Figure 1: Davis Mixing Machine

3 Figure 2: Market Research Figure 2 shows four of the machines that came in the ballpark of meeting the customer requirements, however, all of these machines could not satisfy the constraints posed by the design problem. Team Keeping ME Fertile would create a machine that would be able to mix and dispense soil on demand, wherever she needed it for a price point that a single greenhouse operator could realistically afford. It would be slim enough to fit inside a standard door, hold far more soil then she required thus greatly reducing the number of times she had to stop and refill, run of standard power and dispense soil into a pot at the press of a button, things that no other machine on the market could offer. 4.0 Development Team Keeping ME Fertile began design work by working alongside our customer to find the most labor intensive tasks in her process. Design work began by brainstorming possible solutions to her problem. Initial ideas focused on similar machines found in agriculture and then adapted for our use. Figure 3: Preliminary Design Ideas

4 Both a tubular drag and then a screw feed were looked at to dispense soil. Both systems however proved to be too difficult to manufacture given the resources available to our team. Ultimately a final design was settled on that used a bucket elevator that was widely used in industry. Figure 4: Near Final Design Utilizing Failure Modes and Effects Analysis(FMEA in combination with Design For MAnufactureablity(DFMA), the design was modified to be more effective. The gear train was simplified, the bend in the dispenser was removed on account of manufacturing issues, the tensioner was removed for similar reasons, The motor grew in size to cope with the soil loads and several over minor modifications were made to make the machine more reliable and cost effective. Figure 5: Final Design Concept

5 5.0 Construction Due to the complexity of the machine, an outside manufacturing company had to be used in order to fabricate the major components. Figure 6: Machine at Place of Manufacture The parts were fabricated using a combination plasma cutter and sheet metal break. Parts were then tac-welded together for transport back to Ohio University. There they were welded together by Patrick Boniface, The team s expert welder. Figure 7: Frame Weld Later, the motor was mounted to a base plate on the frame and pulleys were mounted overtop that. Drive belts were placed and rigged. Pillow block bearing were mounted to angle iron then attached to the main auger shaft.

6 7.0 Function The prototype machine could hold and dispense 8 bags of soil. The main auger shaft mixes the soil and forces it towards the bucket pickup which runs along the bottom of the hopper. The soil is then picked up by the buckets where it is flung into the dispensing chute. The pot is placed under the chute where it is filled then moved for the next pot. This process repeats however many times is required. The machine is operated by a simple start-stop switch placed on the side of the hopper in easy reach. The machine will also stop if the grate is lifted off the machine. For filling, more soil is simply dumped from the bag into the hopper and it is ready for use again. 8.0 Evaluation The final prototype dispensed soil almost as intended. The soil did not come out in the amount thought but this could be easily remedied had the team had more time to do belt work. Additional padding on the pulleys will also be required to cut down on noise. There was no customer feedback since the prototype was not delivered until after this report. Additional painting would also have to be done to prevent corrosion. 9.0 Future Project Prospects The need for an inexpensive portable soil mixing and dispensing unit is very prevalent in the greenhouse industry. This product could easily be marketed to greenhouse operations, small farms or anywhere large amounts of pots need to be filled in different locations. This would make an excellent future project since there is still room for improvement, especially in the dispensing portion. Also, this machine is very specific to our customers needs. Continuation work on this project is infeasible since it is complete and cannot be improved without major redesign Manufacturing Drawings Due to file size, Manufacturing drawings are located in PDF attached to website.