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Soapy Joe's Improved Drying Project

MAE 156B Capstone Project, Sponsored by Soapy Joe's

University of California, San Diego - Spring 2020

Background:

Who is Soapy Joe's

Soapy Joe’s is the largest car-washing company in San Diego, and they provide high-quality car-washing services to a relatively large number of vehicle users in San Diego county.

Figure 1. The Drying Tunnel in Soapy Joe's

What is the Problem

Though now automatic car-washing systems employed by Soapy Joe’s are highly developed, the drying system is not capable of getting all parts of vehicles dry.

Figure 2. Problem with the current system

The problem Soapy Joe’s encounters are that the back windows of SUVs are not completely dried. Those clean back windows not only increase the satisfaction of their customers but also would are important for safety purposes.

Therefore, the purpose of this project is to help Soapy Joe’s improve their current drying systems while maintaining the current power consumption.

Overview:

The goal of the project

The goal of this project is to improve the car wash efficiency, particularly of washing and drying SUVs, of their current system. The current system has advanced technology, the Mammoth Air Dryer designed by Sonny’s The Car Wash Factory.

The Mammoth Dryer is able to pivot with the vehicle in the tunnel to increase the drying time of the back window. However, due to the angle of the Mammoth nozzles, the wind can hardly reach the top of SUV’s back window and leaving the rear window wet after drying.

Figure 3. Mammoth Air Dryer

Our solution is to design a new nozzle for the Mammoth Air Dryer system.

Figure 4. The Design of New Nozzle

Video 1. Our Solution: Integrated Nozzle

How it Works

Figure 5. How it works

The new design changes the wind direction towards the undried area, instead of pointing down as before, while keeps the rest area dried efficiently as before.

Performance Results

The new nozzles completely dried the rear window within the same time duration given. The material of the new nozzles is soft enough to be harmless to vehiclesurfaces.

Figure 6. Back Window Dried with Original Design(Left) Figure 7. Back Window Dried with Our Design(Right)

Video 2. Comparison of Before and After using Our Integrated Nozzle

Objectives:

• Increase the drying efficiency by making the back windows of SUVs as dry as possible

• Making sure power cost will stay the same / the number of blowers remain the same since a large number of vehicles come for services everyday, and just one extra blower will increase a lot of cost for them

• The time to complete the entire process of service for each vehicle remains the same since the speed of conveyors is fixed

• Avoid damage to vehicles when new designs are implemented

Presentation: Senior Design Day Presentation

Presentation Recording: Senior Design Day Presentation Recording

Executive Summary: Executive Summary