JCATI CARBON FIBER RECYCLER
Testing
The carbon fiber crusher portion of the JCATI project is used to delaminate the carbon fiber and feed it into the shredder. The most important tests were if the machine is delaminating 100% of the carbon fiber and if it is feeding at a rate of 1 foot per minute. For the test, carbon fiber was fed into the machine, the tests that were performed while running are housing deflection, crusher wheel deflection, and lastly feed rate. While stopped the gap between wheels was measured and adjusted. This data helped to show any weak points or areas that need to be addressed.
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The testing of the machine was vastly different for each requirement. First off, the feed rate of the housing was tested using a visual marker on the carbon fiber strip at 1 foot and a stop watch. As the machine was running carbon fiber was fed in with a mark at 1 foot while recording the time to determine if the feed rate was 1 foot per minute or within tolerance. The next test for the crusher was the housing deflection. A dial gauge was set up on each side of the housing at the top. As the machine runs the dial gauges will show any deflection side to side in the housing. Lastly, to ensure the delamination is at 100% a visual inspection was made prior to feeding the test piece into the shredder. Also, after the visual inspection the shredders output will be analyzed to further determine delamination percentage.
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Feed rate was the first test to be ran for the third and final quarter of the project. The input RPM with the changed drivetrain was calculated to be 1240 RPM to give an output feed rate of one foot per minute. While testing this was proved to be to be true as the average feed rate was 1.04 feet per minute after testing. The test also highlighted areas that needed attention like the gear alignment and bearing blocks positions. These were easily fixed and set in place and testing continued smoothly into the second test.
The image to the right Figure T1 illustrates the feed rate test ran on the crusher. A piece of Carboard was used so that multiple trials could be run without wasting the carbon fiber supply at CWU. Marks were place 10 inches in and then 12 inches apart to record the feed rate over one foot.
Figure T1: Feed Rate Test
Figure T6 to the right is a video demonstration of the third test. The dial gauge shown in the video is measuring the deflection in the positive and negative direction. The results of this test was a deflection of one hundredth of an inch.
Figure T6: Housing Deflection Video
Gear backlash was an important preliminary test to actually fully loading the machine. Figure T2 to the right shows the testing setup for the secondary crusher gears. The dial gauge measures the linear motion of the gear. The result was a backlash of .005 inches, well within the spec of one hundredth.
Figure T2: Secondary Gear Backlash
The dial gauge shown in the FIgure T3 was used to test the backlash of the primary crusher wheel's geartrain. This measurement ensures full tooth engagement, with no slip or chance of chipping teeth. The final measurement for the primary gears was found to be .007 inches.
Figure T3: Primary Gear Backlash
Figure T4 displays the full load test of the Crusher System. This test measures the deflection side to side at the center of the housing. While testing under the full load the deflection was found to be only .01 inches. With 1/16th of an inch being the maximum deflection the machine is rigid enough to hold tolerance.
Figure T4: Housing Deflection
The results of the testing process are shown to the right in Figure T5. While testing the output form the shredder was showing promising results with good chip formations. Unfortunately the shredder began to have stalling issues on only 2 layers of the fiber. Overall, the machine proved successful in testing.
