Bar Feeder Station
Problem statement
If you were to renovate your house and take time and money to buy a new tool from the store and it broke within the first week, you would lose trust in that brand of tools. Extensive fatigue testing is essential for tool companies to invest in to ensure they put out high quality products, and Milwaukee Tool is coming out with a new tool that will need an automated bar feeder to utilize their renowned fatigue testing. Bar feeders have already been invented such as the Feedall Model 1700 Bar Feeder, that once manually loaded, can continuously cycle bars out one at a time [1], and can cycle bar stock from .25” up to .75” in diameter. While this seems like a great solution, typical bar feeders for this application cost between $20,000 and $40,000 [2] and are more than what is needed for the fatigue testing Milwaukee Tool will be doing. We intend on making an automated bar feeder for Milwaukee Tool that will take in 3-foot-long rods of material while automatically dispensing them individually, in addition to having its electronics communicate with compatible company equipment. Ultimately, our automated bar feeder will provide Milwaukee Tool with a custom piece of equipment that caters to the fatigue testing they do that has made them a worldwide leader in the tooling industry.
Team members
Zach Painter – facilitator
Zac Carlborg – communicator
Matthew Klemm – accountant
Seth Hickman – admin
Client
Brady Haas
Milwaukee Tool