Ruh Industries Soap Dispenser

Background:

Hundreds of students use school bathrooms every day and the item each one of them must touch are the soap dispensers. This is why our group decided to design a soap dispenser that requires no hands to be used. Not only will our soap dispenser be handless but it will be more durable than versions installed currently. With instances of students breaking soap dispensers, stealing them, and even urinating them, we decided to tackle this issue and create a soap dispenser that is handless and can withstand the brutal nature of some students. Because of the intricate nature of our product we have brought multiple mentors who are experts in diverse fields to bring our soap dispenser to fruition. Our Mentors include Dr. Sims, the principal of San Marin, Tracy Henderson, Harvard graduate, expert in finance, and finally Ira Bing an electrical and chemical engineer.

Objectives:

1. Design Indestructible Soap Dispenser

2. Evaluate Our Design

3. Modify Our Design

4. Develop Prototype

5. Finalize Project

6. Implement Our Design in the School

Broader Scope:

The archaic soap dispensers of the school bathrooms need to be revised. Our remodeled design solves 2 problems. Primarily, since we are in a pandemic we sought to design our soap dispenser from the ground up to reduce contact. By adding a sensor and a motor to our design we made our system touchless to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Additionally, since our soap dispenser possesses a lock to enclose the housing of the internal components it will prevent students from attempting to open the soap dispensers and steal the soap or other components, ruining it for other students, as observed in the “devious lick” social media challenges.

Time Frame:

Task

Start

End

Phase One

Project Proposal To Mentors

12/1/2021

12/16/202021

Phase Two

Project Research / Testing Phase

12/17/202021

2/14/2022

Phase Three

Project Construction Phase

2/15/2021

4/4/2022

Phase Four

Project Finalization / Implementation Phase

4/5/2021

5/23/2022

Project Proposal To Mentors: We have had ongoing discussion with our mentors to develop our project. We have consulted with Dr Sims on implementing our design, consulted with Tracy Hendersen our budgeting specialist, and consulted with Irya Bing our electrical engineer mentor to help us flesh out our design and assist us with connecting the electronic components.

Project Research / Testing Phase: We plan on researching and testing a variety of components related to our design. During this phase of our project we hope to select our water pump motor, ultrasonic sensor, single-board microcontroller, aerosol spray, battery, adhesive, aluminium shell, and motor to trigger our aerosol spray. While we have ideas of what type of components we are looking to implement, we look forward to testing the components during this phase to see their compatibility.

Project Construction Phase: During this phase we will construct all of our components together. We will likely connect all of our components to the aluminium shell using an adhesive, and we will tape the wiring to the internal walls to simplify the internals of the design. We will likely run some additional tests to see the durability of our system and how effectively it can dispense our soap / aerosol.

Project Finalization / Implementation Phase: After making improvements to our design based upon the results from our testing we seek to finalize our design. By this point we have hoped to flesh out our design and we will likely be working on the minor improvements to coding of our design. After we have finalized our design we will work with our mentor Mark Sims, the principle of san marin, to implement our design in the staff bathrooms to test its effectiveness before incorporating our design into the general public restrooms of SM.

Project Budget:

A soap dispenser that is handless activated will be more expensive than creating one that isn’t. With research on parts for soap dispensers we have concluded that a budget of 200 dollars should be sufficient to cover the cost of creating our soap dispenser. We calculated this budget by researching the average price of all the materials and came to the conclusion of 200 dollars being sufficient to fund our project.

Materials:

ASI 5001-SS Disposa-Valve Soap Dispenser Stainless Steel Shell: 100$

Motor For Aerosol: Encoder Metal Gearmotor High Speed 300RPM Gear Motor: 17$

VIVOSUN 130GPH Submersible Pump(500L/H, 6W), Ultra Quiet Water Pump with 2.6ft High Lift, Fountain Pump with 5ft Power Cord, 2 Nozzles 2.5$

Or Gikfun DC 3V 5V Micro Submersible Mini Water Pump (Pack of 4pcs) EK1893 10$

Infrared Sensor 10$

Yankee Candle Clean Cotton Concentrated Room Spray 10$

Arduino Microcontroller: Already own but 20$

3.7V Arduino Battery 10$

Adhesive Strips 5$

Tube: 2$

Soap 5$

TOTAL: 175$

Adding up all of our components we predict our soap dispenser will cost 175$. However this is with our most expensive components and does not include those we already possess. We predict that by working with our budget expert Tracy Hendersen can get this cost down to the 150-165$ range.

Development Process (Padlet Link)

• Research and Study

In order to create a durable and handless operated soap dispenser we will need to research the manufacturing process of soap dispensers. This research will be conducted by utilizing the internet and our devices access public information on how soap dispensers are designed and created. We will research what materials will be suitable for the durable model we want to create, and what technology we will need for a soap dispenser to be handless.

• Design

After conducting our in depth research on how soap dispensers are made we will begin our design phase. This phase will consist of creating sketches, models, and plans for building the dispenser. The design will encompass the entire use and functionality of the soap dispenser. This ranges from how it attaches to the wall, how the soap will be stored and dispensed, and how we can achieve durability and handless operations.

• Building

Once a design model has been finalized we will be ready to execute the design by creating the physical version. We will order the parts necessary that have been discovered in the research and design process. Once we have our materials it is just a matter for putting the pieces together. The San Marin Engineering department has a maker’s space with all of the needed resources to create our soap dispenser including all the tools nesecarry.

• Implementation

Once the final product has been created it will be implemented into bathrooms at San Marin. Dr. Sims, one of our mentors, has promised us two bathrooms in the office where we can install our soap dispensers. This is where they will be tested and the effectiveness of the final product will be tested. If our product is loved by all of its users Dr. Sims will ask us to build more to add to all the San Marin Bathrooms.

Research:

We will break our research into three specific components. The first is the technology for the touchless sensors, the second is researching the motors to dispense the soap, and the third will be deodorizing methods specifically in a bathroom setting. We plan to run a variety of tests with our soap dispensers testing out our different designs. Once we iterate through the various versions and reach our final model we will implement our design in the staff bathroom promised by Mr Sims. Once this occurs we will take a video of our soap dispenser and include it within a survey sent to all classes to see if it is something that the San Marin students would like to have in their bathrooms.

Current Solutions

The most arduous part about making our design is figuring out our mechanism to make the soap automatically dispense for cheap. In our initial research phase we identified a variety of designs to make this possible, however the one we are most confident in utilizes a water pump motor and a tube to dispense the soap when the infared sensor detects a hand under the device. (See Final Sketch). Additionally, to trigger our aerosol spray we seek to use a motor to press down on the trigger of the spray for a few seconds to deodorize the bathroom once the soap has been dispensed.

Sensor Dispensing Technologies

-Infrared sensors detect infrared energy that is emitted by one’s body heat. When hands are placed in the proximity of the sensor, the infrared energy quickly fluctuates. This fluctuation triggers the pump to activate and dispense the designated amount of soap

-Dispensers will only distribute a set amount of soap per motion activation. A predetermined amount to be dispensed can be set to a highly efficient quantity in which waste will be minimal.

-Photo Sensors

This mechanism is composed of two parts, a source of focused light (usually a laser beam) and a light sensor. When the user’s hands are placed in line of the beam of light, the pump mechanism is activated by the disruption that is sensed by the light sensor.

Long Term Power solutions-Litiam ion batterys

They are rechargeable and contain lithium-ion cells. Lithium ions move between positive and negative terminals inside the battery cell. When current flows through the circuit, it causes electrons to flow back and forth across the gap between the electrodes. As soon as the charge reaches zero, the battery stops working. Recharging takes place in about 2 hours.

They are also known as alkaline batteries. Alkanes are cheap and easy to find at any store. You will see many different brands such as Duracell, Energizer, Panasonic, etc.

We plan on using long term batteries that can hold a charge for a long period of time before needing to be replaced or recharged.

Research on Deodorizing methods for bathrooms.

Air fresheners use “volatile substances”, meaning the molecules easily change form from liquid to gas (even at room temperature). Our sense of smell is tuned in to detect gas molecules drifting around the air, more so than it is to detect liquids. Spray air fresheners are aerosols. The word aerosol means “dissolves in air”, so the liquid that shoots out of an air freshener under pressure quickly evaporates when released into the standard pressure of open air. The aerosol propellant is mixed with fragrance molecules before being released into the air, where it covers up the bad odours. Most of the time, they simply replace a bad smell with a stronger, nicer smell. Certain air fresheners also aim to reduce your sensitivity towards smells; so, instead of masking once scent with another, they anesthetise your nose to reduce your sensitivity to bad scents (reducing their unpleasant impact).

Engineering Concepts

All having previously worked with Arduino microcontroller units in Stem Physics my group should be adequately capable with the coding of the project. Additionally, I have had extra experience with Arduino and the use of motors in my Cal Poly Epic Engineering Camp.