Green Team

University of Maine

2010 MET Senior Design Project

Testing

Quick Grip

Epoxy was placed in a plastic medicine cup and left to harden in order to make a solid mold.

600 mg calcium pills were placed in a separate cup.

The 2 cups were placed between the Quick Grip jaws so that they nested in each other and crushed the pills.

The result after crushing three 600 mg calcium pills. This was our most effective test but it demonstrated that a grinding motion is needed to accompany the compression force in order to properly pulverize the pills.

Vise Test

             A 600 mg Mucinex pill was placed in a plastic bag and crushed in a metal vise to determine the effectiveness of a screw force. This test illustrated that while a screw was effective in generating sufficient force, it would be too slow and require too much input from the user. In addition, the bags used to contain the pills became ripped after each test, indicating that plastic cups would be a better alternative.

C-Clamp Test

             A C-Clamp was used to crush a pill to test the combination of force and torque. This test revealed that even the slight grinding motion of the clamp jaws helped break up the pill more effectively and should be incorporated into the final design.

 

 

Pill Force Test

 

             To test the force required to crush a pill, we placed various pills on a bathroom scale and an evenly distributed load was applied by pressing down on them with a bar until they crushed; the required force was then read from the scale and the results are shown below:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Based on these results, our pill crusher must generate between 90-100 lbs of force in order to be effective, while only requiring 10 lbs of input force by a 5th percentile female as specified in the guidelines.

Home

Team Members

Design Specifications

Benchmarking

Concept Testing

Original Design

Force Testing

Final Design

Fabrication

Competition