Final Design Showcase

Ionic Cleaning System

Final Design

The final design consists of five main elements: the simulated environment enclosure, the test enclosure, dust dispersion device, ionizing product unit, and a power control unit.

In-Depth 3D Model View

Five Main Components

Simulated Environment Enclosure

The acrylic enclosure serves as a micro-environment that allows airflow control, partial restrain of dust, and potentially temperature and humidity variation.

Dust Dispersion Device

This device is composed of a bucket suspended in the air with a fine mesh attached at the bottom and ERM motors to deliver the dust at command.

Ionizing Product Unit

The unit consists of an ionizer and two DC fans attached with a mounting structure to allow angle adjustments. The components are attached to a DIN 3 rail for attachment and partial cable management.

Testing Enclosure

This space contains the glass sample for experimentation and the ionizing product unit to reduce the dust adhesion. The components can be re-oriented for different configurations.

Power Control System

The control unit consists of Arduino MEGA 2560 boards with a MOSFET circuit for the ionizer and an Adafruit multioutput shield for motors and fans control.

Simulated Environment Enclosure

Acrylic Case

The simulated environment enclosure was constructed with multiple purposes in mind. It counts with the following:

Strong aluminum extrusion framing
Transparent acrylic panels for visual inspections
Bottom rubber sealing
T-slot channels for cable management

T-Slotted Framing

These aluminum channels not only provide great structural stability, but due to the shape, the wiring could be managed within the framing.

Acrylic Sheets

The acrylic sheets were laser cut to size to be able to enclose the entire project setup. Open spaces were left in the enclosure to be able to set up the project within, not restrict airflow, and also allow the dust to be refilled during testing.

Bottom Rubber Sealing

At the bottom of the enclosure, rubber sealing was applied to create a proper seal to help prevent dust from escaping the enclosure.

Dust Dispersion Device

Dust Container

The bucket is simply a container to hold the dust that will be used for testing. The bottom is cut out and a mesh is fitted to allow fine particles to pass through. Due to the mesh being very small, it causes the dust to have enough surface tension to not fall through, thus two rotary motors are attached to the sides of the bucket to disturb that layer and allow the dust to fall at command.

Steel Stand

The steel stand was manufactured for the stability and suspension of the bucket. It is made out of steel to be heavy enough to withstand not only the weight of the bucket filled with dust, but also the vibrations caused by the rotary motors. At the top, it has a steel rod that passes through the two beams and the bucket to serve as the suspension mechanism.

Test Dust

A personalized mix created for testing was used. This dust consisted of a few components to mimic the type of airborne contaminants found outdoors including charcoal, chalk, red clay, beach sand, dust, fertilizer, and dry leaves.

Rotary Motors

The rotary motors mounted to the bucket cause vibrations to disturb the dust layer at the bottom of the bucket. The speed and time intervals at which the motors operate is adjusted via code uploaded to an Arduino board with motor shield.

In-Depth 3D Model View

Ionizing Product Unit

Ionizing Setup

The purpose of the ionizing product is to create a negatively charged current that is aimed towards the glass panel. The purpose is to introduce anions that will attract and bind to nearby dust particles. In turn, this will reduce the amount of dust that reaches and manages to adhere to the glass's surface.

Noctua NF-R8 Fans

The fans utilized for testing are small DC fans that are in charge of dispersing negatively charged particles produced by an ionizer.

Ionizer

The ionizer is a component that creates anions that are released via an output cable. These negatively charged ions electrically neutralized dust particles, causing them to become too heavy to remain airborne.

In-Depth 3D Model View

Glass Panel Frame Enclosure

Enclosure

The first important aspect of the project is a glass panel frame enclosure. The Attabox polycarbonate enclosure is responsible for containing the glass panel frame and the ionizing product unit. The box has T-bracket inserts that allows these units to be mounted via the use of spacers.

Frame

The frame consists of an aluminum window slider channels. It is cut to size to be able to enclose a glass panel. Holes are drilled onto the side to allow T-brackets to be secured via screws.

Glass Panel

A glass panel is cut to the proper size and then surrounded by aluminum channels. The frame is then fitted with a rubber seal to stabilize the glass panel as well as to prevent dust from traveling within and past the frame.

Power Control System

Arduino Microcontroller

The control system relies on the use of Arduino, various codes, and associated modules used for the connection of test components.

Tenergy Battery Pack

Due to multiple attempts at powering the ionizer, many power supplies and adapters were fried. Through testing multiple options, the team figured out the only best way to power the ionizer was to give it direct current through a rechargeable battery pack.

Test Results

Quantifying Data

Dust is quantified with Digital Image Correlation (DIC) from a picture of the glass sample over a checkerboard pattern.

Original Image

After a testing period of multiple hours, the glass panel is removed from the enclosure and placed on top of a checkerboard pattern to photograph.

Grayscale Transformation

The image is transformed into grayscale to quantify the intensity of the light at each pixel and obtain an average of each square.

Results: Dust Adhesion

The dusty panel is compared to a clean panel reference using the following equation to obtain a percentage of dust distribution and average:

Control Test

100D% → Reference

Test run with no active system is conducted as reference value for the testing period.

Fans-Only Test

73D% → 27% Dust Reduction

Test run using only the fan components of the ionizing unit is conducted for comparison.

Ionizing Unit Test

35D% → 65% Dust Reduction

Final run with the ionizing product unit working to demonstrate dust reduction.

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