Oil Fill Station Project
This project was designed in order to boost production capabilities for FlowWorx Energy's Multivariable Pressure Transmitters by threefold giving the capability to expand the company by increasing revenue.
Initial Plans
The initial concept design for this project involved retrofitting an old semi-portable oil vacuum diffusion pump cart used by a previous business. The outdated machine parts were removed in order to obtain the base cart and a design was developed with new parts while minimizing extra custom mounts or attachment points onto the cart.
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The main pump from the old cart, however, was kept in order to be repurposed into the new design after checking functionality. This design ran into development issues with structural support capabilities and required improvement
Updated plans
The next design required a complete overhaul of the frame and was custom designed in order to meet production needs. The theory behind functionality remained much the same but air lines, oil lines, and part locations moved in order to accommodate comfort for the user.
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Running into another roadblock, this time with budget, the frame was reanalyzed for weight distribution and allowed for a price reduction by using smaller and slightly weaker pieces on the frame as the frame was designed to be excessively stronger than necessary.
CAD Design
Using SolidWorks 3D CAD software, all designs were constructed in order to optimize internal systems, create 3D walkaround abilities, and to ensure that parts would fit properly as well as analyze weight distribution and total cart weight for each design.
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Most parts were designed in-house by me
Design to the left is the final design created and largely represents the finished product. Design was completed in both 2018 SolidWorks and 2021 SolidWorks.
Final Product
The final product created was successful in all but one desired specification. The cart was fairly easy to move should rearrangement of production area be required, production capabilities were increased by just a little over three times original capacity, and ease of use was improved to minimize interaction and safety risks. The single failed specification was the vacuum pressure reached. Original Specifications called for 10^-7 hPa or lower but the station only reached 10^-5 hPa. However, this pressure proved successful to achieve desired results.