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Mechanical Design

Goals

Forewords

For this week our lab (6 people in total) split in 3 groups; I'm working with Pietro Rustici.
We changed our project a couple of times during the week, before settling on what we hope will be our final idea: at first we wanted to build a machine capable of sorting the leftover smd components (a conveyor belt brings the components under an USB microscope, they get identified and later sorted in different drawer using a syringe to pick them up).
Later on our local Guru (Fiore Basile) suggested that, including another end effector (a paste dispenser), we could try to build a rudimentary pick and place machine; we really liked the idea and fiddled with it a bit, but in the end discarded it and moved on.

The project

During this week we decided to build a machine able to dispense fluids into test tubes. The idea is to have one or multiple peristaltic pumps to select from one or multiple tanks of different liquids. The test tubes will be placed in a rotating platform, each test tube will have a colorful ring so that we can, thanks to a webcam, recognize the color and dispense the right combination of liquid.
I tried do draw the 3d model of the machine, for my modelling skills are still subpar and I could use a little practice; Pietro was kind enough to let me do it, even if it was clear that I would let him down somewhere down the road.

I was not able to complete the whole drawing (the frequent changes in the specifics didn't help much) but I was at least able to complete a mock up of the syringe holding mechanism which can move on 2 axis (one, let's call it X, using belts and a stepper motor and one Z thanks to a stepper motor and a scotch yoke mechanism).


Here is the .stl model and a link to the Onshape working file

Machine Wip by sgrc on Sketchfab

After a little brainstorming we decided to build a test tubes filler, for Pietro came out with a design for a home made peristaltic pump

Test-tuber by sgrc on Sketchfab

Links

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