Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

Date of Degree Completion

Spring 2020

Department

Mechanical Engineering Technology

Committee Chair

Dr. Craig Johnson

Second Committee Member

Professor Roger Beardsley

Third Committee Member

Professor Charles Pringle

Abstract

Previous students working on the JCATI project have created an oven that will be used for the Pyrolysis process of carbon fiber composites. The oven requires someone to operate it manually, as in they must lift up the cover, place the amount of material desired, and stop the oven when it reaches the desired time. This process can and should be made automated. This was achieved by creating a device that can select the amount of material needed for a batch, automatically put it in the oven through the cover, and then bring the material out of the oven at the desired time. The final design achieved all of these in three different devices. The first is a Dispenser that stores all the material that comes from the shredder and automatically releases the desired amount of material at the beginning of a cycle. Next, a rotating panel was installed onto the cover to allow the material to pass through without letting out too much heat or argon gas from inside. Finally, another rotating panel automatically turns to release the material at the end of the cycle. To test the device, the device underwent trial runs with the heat turned off to make sure that the material landed where it needed to and that all parts operated in sync with each other and did not activate until needed to.

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