Enclosure design for an automated vacuum application

Abstract

The plastic injection industries make use of the Deflashing Machine, which requires to recycle the filter that collects the plastic shaving dust, down to 0.2um. A series of automated subsystems, located in portable frame table, were already designed with the purpose to remove dust from the filter using jet air nozzles and collecting it with a dust collector. The only system not yet designed was an enclosed system with capacity to isolate the plastic dust from the atmosphere and to hold a given external pressure load, caused from vacuum pressure, of 15 Psi. A design concept was made, then optimized with the use of plates theory, comparing stress and deflection results with computer aided engineering and design (CAE/D). The results of the finished design provided an enclosed system with 1.5 safety factor, 88% deflection decrease from the conceptual design and which consumed only 19.4% of the general budget ($21,000). Key Terms ⎯ Finite Element Analysis, Large Deflection, Plate Theory, Vacuum Pressure.