Vent Insertion Tool
               Infinity Consulting and Design
                             

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Team Profile:

Our team consist of  four Mechanical Engineering students ready to graduate in May1997!

                                      
                                     DAVE PAHLAS-STEVE CHOI-PJ MANSISIDOR-TIFFINI RODDICK
                  

Team Goal:       

To make our customer's current system more efficient by decreasing the time it takes to insert vents.

Customer:

Our customer is D8 in Potlatch, Idaho, located 17 miles north from the University of  Idaho. D8 manufactures molds made of cast Al 3506 and hardened Al 6061. Their molds are used for styrofoam packaging, bicycle helmets, and miscellaneous.  The figure below is an Al cast mold-notice the inserted vents.  The vent insertion process is our team goal.                                                                                                                         
                                            

              Figure: Al cast mold showing inserted vents.

Contact:              D8
                       Freeze Road
                       Potlatch, ID. 83855

Current Process:

Currently, D8 employees insert the vents by hand and then proceed to drive them in with a hammer or tool. This vent insertion process takes approximately 10 seconds/vent, which is not a fun task and is time consuming. Our goal is to design, fabricate, test, and deliver a system that is effective in operational and time performance.

Constraints:

Vents:

• Come in different sizes, widths, slotted, perferated, radial concentric
• Common size: 10 mm; smaller areas 8 mm
• 25 mm grid spacing
• 75% of the vents used are slotted
• Vent insertion accounts for 5-10% of mold cost
• D8 inserts 20,000-50,000 vents per month
• Vents shipped only in bags
• Vent size and alignment vary dependent on mold

Drill Hole:  Size of hole for vents depend on:

• Build up 12-15 mm--drill for vent insertion
• Material of mold
• Wall thickness of mold
• Hole drilled to large/small depends on drill tip wear and operator

Insertion Process:

• 50% deals with flat surfaces the other 50% deals with akward angles
• It takes 4-5 blows of a hammer for proper insertion
• Vents need to be aligned vertically or horizontally
• Vents need to drive depth of hole drilled in mold by 10%; they should be even with the mold surface or .001 below
• Vents should be inserted flush with the mold surface
• Insertion tool must not scratch mold surface
• Drill hole size may be oversized or undersized

Human Factor Issues:

• OSHA regulations
• Ear protection currently worn: possibly dampen the frequency of the operational tool
• Safety glasses worn at all times
• Work bench/table, where vents are inserted into molds, vary in height; usually wait high
• Gel gloves sometimes used during operation of insertion tool
• Lighting:  good but shadows corrected by having light at stations
• Operator:  M/F, upper body stregth, entry level, fast pace, fast decision maker, tolerate impact of tool
• Shifts:  5-6 days a week, 7 hours a day
• Conditions:  fatigue, possibly develop CDS

New Process:

The process consists of a 10" vibrating bowl that orients the vents slot-side down, single file.  The vents then travel down a track and drop into clips that are then loaded onto the vent insertion tool. The vent insertion tool was our team's creation.

               

Figure 2.1: Vent insertion tool cutaway view.                        Figure2.2: Our creation! The vent insertion tool (open position).

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