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Automated Pressure Gauge Filling Station
Spring 2020 MAE 156B Sponsored Project
University of California San Diego
Background: ReoTemp instruments is a San Diego based ISO 9001-2008 company that is a leading manufacturer of
pressure and temperature measurement devices. ReoTemp fills the inside cavities of their pressure gauges with a fluid, primarily glycerin, for the purpose of vibration dampening, gear lubrication, and lens anti-fog.
A manual system was used to fill pressure gauges at both the San Diego and Houston manufacturing sites. Currently, a personnel operate on a manual filling station that pump heated glycerin, wait for the liquid to level, and then fill the liquid to the top. This filling station is shown in the figure below. The current system was highly susceptible to inconsistent fill levels with intensive man-hours required. As a result, having the whole system fully automated and capable of filling batches of various gauge sizes and shapes would be ideal in reducing labor hours and maintaining consistent and high-quality results.
ReoTemp requested a system to automate this process and an MAE 156 design team from UCSD set to work on this project during the Fall 2019 and Winter 2020 session. The first team that worked on this project focused on building a PLC system to pump glycerin. This team sought to integrate that work into a fully automated loading and off-loading conveyor loop system and improve upon the pumping system. The main objective was a fully automated system that can handle a set of 30 gauges without human intervention.
Objectives: The primary objective of this project was to design, build, and test a fully automated system capable of filling batches of up to 30 gauges from start to finish. This process involved loading the gauges onto a conveyor belt from a storage cart, filling each gauge to the correct level of glycerin, and off-loading the gauges into a storage system. This team was also to make important improvements on the work done by the previous team, including a 400% increase in glycerin filling speed and a more durable gauge holder stand. A secondary objective was to automate the size detection of the various gauge sizes.The entire system needed to be user friendly, safe, robust, and easy to replicate.
Final Design: The final design was a conveyor loop system that consists of two powered conveyor straight sections, two curved roller tracks, a PLC filling system, and a fluid heater. The roller loop design allowed for up to 49 gauges to be transported to and from the filling station automatically, with a low risk of gauges spilling fluid or tipping over. The photoelectric sensor detected the presence of a gauge holder under the injection module, and then the color sensor detected the color on the holder baseplate. Each color corresponds to a different fill volume, so the PLC knew how much fluid to inject into the gauge. The fluid heater reduced the viscosity of the fluid, allowing for faster filling speed.
CAD Model of Final Design (Left) and Final System (Right).
CAD Model and Image of Gauge Holder.
Summary of Performance Results:
The final conveyor loop had the capacity to handle 49 gauge holders that moved smoothly around the loop. With the introduction of an Arduino to drive the peristaltic pump's stepper motor and a heating system, the largest gauge (PM60) took under 5 minutes to fill. This was 4 times increase in speed from the previous team's system. The system produced reliable fill volumes and was able to start and stop with accuracy.
Video of Conveyor Loop Pushing 4 Gauge Holders and 45 baseplates.
Filling of PR25 pressure gauge with color detection.
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