University of Maine

2010 MET Senior Design Project

Maine Day Competition

In order to judge the best pill crusher out of the 6 groups that participated in this project, a competition was held on Maine Day, April 27, 2011 in the Hill Auditorium on the University of Maine campus. Each team gave a short presentation of their design, followed by a nurses evaluation and finally a pill crushing competition. For the crushing competition, each team was given 5 sets of pills and was timed as to how long it took to crush each set with a maximum of 2 minutes.. Each pill set was placed through a screen and if all the powder did not go through than the team was given the maximum time of 2 minutes for that set. Each crusher was judged on several criteria, including cost, operation force, noise, ergonomics, and safety. At the end of the competition, the points for each category were added up and the team with the lowest overall score won.

Home

Team Members

Design Specifications

Benchmarking

Concept Testing

Original Design

Force Testing

Final Design

Fabrication

Competition

Green Team

TEAM

RED

ORANGE

YELLOW

GREEN

BLUE

BLACK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DESIGN PRESENTATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

POINTS

3

5

6

4

1

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

MATERIAL COST (RETAIL)

$300.47

$152.06

$641.41

$181.79

$248.03

$48.88

POINTS

5

2

6

3

4

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRUSHER WEIGHT, POUNDS

14.50

12.96

16.89

12.90

25.41

3.99

POINTS

4

3

5

2

6

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPERATION FORCE, POUNDS

1.00

5.67

5.28

8.00

10.00

2.70

POINTS

1

4

3

5

6

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

OPERATION NOISE, DB

104

119

96

87

68

78

POINTS

5

6

4

3

1

2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DESIGN EVALUATION

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ergonomics

2

1

3

4

6

5

Safety

2

1

4

6

3

5

Medication isolation

6

5

4

3

1

2

Durability

5

4

6

3

2

1

Suitability for use on med cart

5

2

4

6

3

1

Marketability

5

6

4

3

1

2

Aesthetics

4

3

1

6

5

2

TOTAL DESIGN POINTS

29

22

26

31

21

18

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NURSE'S PREFERENCE

 

 

 

 

 

 

POINTS

5

6

4

3

2

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CRUSHING COMPETITION

 

 

 

 

 

 

(4)  325mg Aspirin pills

16

12

18

120

38

27

(4)  325mg Aspirin pills

16

12

120

120

32

27

(4)  600 mg One-A- Day pills

120

120

120

120

120

112

(4)  600 mg One-A- Day pills

120

120

120

120

120

45

(2)  600 mg Calcium pills

120

48

120

120

120

43

TOTAL TIME, (10 minutes max)

392

312

498

600

430

254

POINTS

3

2

5

6

4

1

POINTS*25

75

50

125

150

100

25

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TOTAL POINTS

387.86

387.86

449

419

305

151

FINISH

3

3

5

4

2

1