Green Team

University of Maine

2010 MET Senior Design Project

Welcome

            

             For our senior design project, we decided to design and build the ultimate pill crusher for use in hospitals and nursing homes. After talking with various nurses who use this equipment daily, as well as analyzing the current products on the market, our focus was to build a product that was easier to use, more compact, and more effective than those currently available. By being able to crush pills faster and more completely, valuable time and money can be saved because there will be less waste and nurses can spend their time doing other important tasks. Furthermore, crushing the pills into a finer powder allows them to be more easily mixed with food or drinks for administration to patients.

             The inspiration for our design came from a Yankee screwdriver, which uses a  helical screw mechanism to convert a downward force into both a compression and a torsional load. Using compound levers, the user can apply a small force at one end, which is then magnified to provide a significant crushing force to the pills. The combined downward force and grinding action created will pulverize the pills into a fine powder quietly and effectively. This website is dedicated to outlining the entire design and fabrication process of this device.

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Team Members

Design Specifications

Benchmarking

Concept Testing

Original Design

Force Testing

Final Design

Fabrication

Competition