Safety Improvements for a Powder Compaction Process

Sponsor: US Synthetic

Team: Excalibrate

Coach: Mark Crawford

Students: Josh Bryson, Dan Mannwill, Stuart McAllister, Jeremy Osguthorne

Hydraulic presses, used for salt compaction, have dies that must be changed and aligned frequently to avoid damage to the tooling and press. The previous die changing process was slow and required the press operator to bypass the safety curtain while the press was moving, to check for die alignment.

The new design by team Excalibrate, allows for a much safer process to help operators detect unaligned presses without using their hands. It also allows for quicker die changes and is compatible with existing press hardware.

The new solution prevents worker injury and saves 26 hours a year of set up time. It also prevents costly damage to dies by detecting the misalignment before the production begins.