Final Project Proposal

Project Ideation

1- Tell us about the purpose of your project. Which problem does it solve? Why do you care about this? What were you inspired by? Include images and videos of similar projects

Paper Cutting Machine

It is a cutting machine that cuts paper sheets according to exact dimensions

It saves a lot of time and effort in cutting paper for different purposes and also accurately

I though once about a machine like this when I was making origami and notebooks because these tasks usually require a custom paper sizes in a lot of quantity which aren't always available, and require a lot of time and effort for just to start folding or creating the original task after that

Also from the "Making" point of view I think that it will involve motors, gears, moving mechanism, sensors and input pad which I believe will result in a very useful and also challenging learning journey

2- Describe the project idea and general features. How would it work?

The project's idea is simply consists of roller, a blade and an input pad
The roller will be connected to a motor that is controlled by the Arduino to move the papers according to a specific dimension and then a cutter blade which is connected to another motor and moving on a rail will cut the paper, and then the process repeats again until the required quantity is finished
The input pad will be used to enter the required dimensions and quantity of cuts

Other feature can include

A color sensor that detect the color of the sheet to cut it according to the already given data when it is required to cut different paper sizes according to different colors so the machine can work on it's own without needing to remove the papers and replace them with another color and reentering the job data
A sensor to stop the machine if something is detected in front of the blade for safety reasons

3- Sketch your project: You may use pen and paper or a simple sketching tool like Microsoft Paint or Photoshop

Project Planning

4- Describe the Technical Modules that your project consists of

Construction Parts

The machine's main body will be made of laser cut wooden parts 3mm assembled together using tabs and t-slots, in addition to some 3D printed parts for the rod's and cutter holders, and will also require w rubber belts, couple of pullies, steel rods and cutter blade

Input

(Sensing, Tactile Input, and/or Graphical Input)

Touch screen / Key Pad , color sensor, infrared sensor

Action

(Physical and/or Graphic)

the machine will cut paper sheets according to the user's input of length and number of cuts on the LCD screen, a motor connected to a rod will drive the papers according to the required length, another motor connected to a belt will drive the cutter blade to cut the paper, and repeat the process again until the order complete

Brain

the brain which will control all moving parts and process the user input will be Arduino UNO

Power Management

the machine will be powered by an external power

5- Create a cardboard prototype of your project, demonstrating the project face as well as internal movements and mechanisms. Include a demo video and photos of the prototype.

20220207_003422_1.mp4

6- Categorize your project’s User Features into: Minimum, Complete, and Nice-to-have features. List the required action and input components per feature.

Minimum Features: are the least amount of features that would demonstrate the coverage of all the technical modules and their complete integration

Complete Features: are the set of features that will complete your original project objective and vision

Nice-to-have Features: are the extra set of features that will make the project cooler, yet they need extra time, effort, and/or resources to finish

Minimum User Features

The machine will cut paper sheets of max length of A4 according to the user's input of length and number of cuts
- Action: DC motor and Stepper motor
- Sensing: None
- User Input: Key Pad, LCD screen, Push button

Complete User Features

The machine will cut paper sheets of max length of A4 according to the user's input of length and number of cuts and the blade will stop if motion is detected on it's way as a safety measurement
- Action: DC motor and Stepper motor
- Sensing: Laser Module & Laser Receiver Module
- User Input: Key Pad, LCD screen, Push button

Nice-to-have User Features

The machine will cut paper sheets of different colors according to the user's input of length and number of cuts for each color, and the blade will stop if motion is detected on it's way, and also another feeding rod is used for automatically feeding the machine with papers from a pile
- Action: DC motor and 2 Stepper motor
- Sensing: Laser Module & Laser Receiver Module
- User Input: Key Pad, LCD screen, Push button

7- What are the project tasks and its time-frame?

Task

Sub-Tasks

From:

To:

Electronics & Programming on a breadboard

Inserting basic code of the keypad and programming the input sequence and the conversion logic
inserting basic code of the stepper motor and programming the conversion from the input to a matching step count
programming the limit switches, cutter reverse logic, and also the laser sensor

1-Mar-22

6-Mar-22

12-Mar-22

5-Mar-22

11-Mar-22

14-Mar-22

Design Enclosure

design main body on Fusion 360
design the special bodies for fixing different elements, and gears
slicing the special bodies on CURA and making sure they are within the quota limits

26-Feb-22

7-Mar-22

13-Mar-22

6-Mar-22

12-Mar-22

15-Mar-22

Fabrication & Integration