Publication Date
12-2-2016
Document Type
Dissertation/Thesis
First Advisor
Pohlman, Nicholas A.||Sciammarella, Federico
Degree Name
B.S. (Bachelor of Science)
Legacy Department
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Abstract
Numerous industrial companies use 55 and 30 gallon barrels to hold, transport, and dispense liquids and chemicals. Due to this there are many businesses that will reuse their barrels. In order to reuse their barrels, they must clean them to ensure there is no cross contamination from contents that were in the barrel before placing new contents in them. This is normally a time consuming process for most businesses depending on the material that was inside the barrel. With the hefty time relationship related to cleaning barrels most companies either dispose of their barrels, either legally or sometimes illegally, or take the time to clean them to save money. It’s found that the environmental impact from both of these methods is fairly drastic either taking over 75 gallons of water to clean them or extensive energy processes to transport, destroy, and recycle these barrels. On top of the environmental concerns on a global level there are concerns on the internal level that include long cycle times for each barrel, operator safety, poor working conditions and possible contamination of new product being placed into the barrels. A new way of cleaning these barrels is designed such that there is a repeatable cleaning method for a given cycle time and barrel soil level. A drastic reduction in water using the newly designed system from 75 gallons to just under 2 gallons. A cycle time decrease is created on the magnitude of 50 times from 30 minutes to 38 seconds per barrel. The installed automated barrel cleaner is much safer than the previous method of cleaning as the operator does not have to handle the barrel during the cleaning cycle. Complete coverage of the interior surface of the barrel is obtained by designing a rotary head which spins in a full 360-degree path while being actuated up and down the interior of the barrel utilizing an electro-mechanical apparatus and a microcontroller.
Recommended Citation
Gumino, Brian C., "Automated barrel cleaner" (2016). Honors Capstones. 207.
https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/studentengagement-honorscapstones/207
482 FinalPresentationFINAL.pdf
Extent
38 Pages
Language
eng
Publisher
Northern Illinois University
Rights Statement
In Copyright
Rights Statement 2
NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.
Media Type
Text
