 Pop Bottling Machine Wins National Award for MSU Students
Ever dream of your personal pop bottling machine, one that fills a liter bottle and delivers it to you?
MSU students Kevin Amende, Dustin Cram and David Story did, and
they can show you how it works in less than three minutes.
During the first two minutes, the students set up the 35-pound
machine they made out of typewriter parts, printer pieces and a
computer hard drive. It has five motors, each run by a AA
battery. Then they push what used to be a shutter release for a
camera. In the next 26 seconds, the machine grabs a one-liter pop
bottle that's lying on its side, pulls it one meter up a ramp,
sets it upright, fills it with water and caps it.
"It was really a lot of work and a lot of failures. Each part of
it was designed several times," said Cram who figured the team
spilled several gallons of water in his basement while attempting
to invent a machine they could enter in the annual design contest
sponsored by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME).
But the students -- all majoring in mechanical engineering
technology (MET) -- finally got it right. Besides winning second
place and $1,000 in the international competition for 2000, they
won $500 for the ASME/MET Club at MSU. They also created a tool
they could use to inspire underclassmen who are still studying
mechanical theories. And they found the invention to be a good
selling point for the local ASME/MET Club. Amende, a senior from
Sheridan, Wyo., is president. Story, a senior from Corvallis,
Mont., is vice president. Cram, a junior from Cody, Wyo., is a
member.
"We have demonstrated it (the machine) to a lot of the beginning
engineering classes," Amende said.
The idea for a pop bottling machine came from the ASME which
sponsors an international design competition every year, Amende
continued. One year, the organization called for students to make
a remote-controlled car that could maneuver through an obstacle
course, pick up a rock and return to the beginning. Another MSU
team took first place in that contest. For 2001, the ASME asked
competitors to design a sip-and-puff fishing pole for people with
disabilities.
"After reviewing the criteria on their web site, we decided we
would go and attempt it," Amende said of the pop bottling
project.
The MSU students basically worked from January through April last
year to create the machine they entered in the Region 8 contest.
Then they spent the rest of the year modifying their machine
before the international competition in November. The new machine
allowed them to shave more than a minute off their regional time.
Speed is a key factor in winning, but other elements include the
time it takes to set up the machine, the time it takes to run the
bottling operation, the amount of water that makes it into the
bottle, and capping, Amende said. Accuracy in placing the bottle
on a target area is extra.
Another MSU team is now working on its entry for the 2001
contest, but the pop bottling team said their experience will
continue to benefit them.
"Employers like to see students involved in other activities that
kind of expand their horizons," said Story who plans to enter the
work force after graduation. "It was a great opportunity."
Evelyn Boswell
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