Design and Development of a Tugger Cart for Android Industries
Dan Larson, Zach Stevenson, Sandeep Singh Solanki · 2016
There are many hazards associated with the industrial powder coating process. Powder coating operations require the use of curing ovens at high temperatures to cure the parts. The high temperature environment may expose employees to higher risks which may compromise safety. The objective of this project was to develop a system to eliminate the need for an employee to enter the oven to retrieve curing racks. The previous system wasted large amounts of energy due to repeated heating and cooling of the oven to allow employees to enter the oven. A remotely controlled tugger cart would eliminate the need for cool down resulting in an increase in productivity while reducing employee risk. The cart was designed to travel under the racks to move the rack out of the oven. Critical performance requirements included safety, reliability, ease of operation and long battery life. The cart design used a modular concept that is versatile for use in different applications. Additional tests were required to test for the robustness of radio communication to ensure reliability. The proposed cart also had to be cost effective compared to similar systems available in the market.