automatic t-shirt folding machine

5/22/2018 Automatic T-shirt Folding Machine

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AUTOMATIC T-SHIRT FOLDING MACHINE

1

GANPAT UNIVERSITYU. V. Patel College of Engineering

Ganpat University, Kherva-382711

Ta & Dist.: Mehsana (North Gujarat)

Ph.: 02762-286805, 286081

Fax (D): 286080

E-mail: [email protected]

Web: www.uvpce.ac.in

AUTOMATIC T-SHIRT FOLDING

MACHINEProject Report

DEEPAK SHROFF (09MC116)

ABHAY ODHPAL (09MC127)

PARESH SOMANI (0MC130)


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CERTIFICATE

Towards partial fulfillment of requirement for the award of Degree of Bachelor of

MECHATRONICS ENGINEERING of GANPAT UNIVERSITY. This is

the record of candidates own work carried out by them under our supervision &

guidance. In our opinion the work submitted has reached a level required for being

accepted for exam. The matter embodied in this project has not been submitted to

any other university or institute.

Project Report on


Submitted By:




GUIDE: COUNTERSIGNED:

Prof. S.G.PATEL Prof. J. P. PATEL

Assistant Professor, Head of Department,

Mechatronics Engineering Department, Mechatronics Engineering Department,


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U.V. Patel College of Engineering, U.V. Patel College of Engineering,

Kherva, Mehsana. Kherva, Mehsana.

1.1.1IndexINTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION TO AUTOMATION

DEFINITION OF PROJECT

BACKGROUND OF PROJECT

2.CONCEPT

3.DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

3.1 HOW DID WE START MAKING THIS PROJECT

3.2 CONSTRUCTION AND FABRICATION

3.3 DESIGN OF ELECTRONIC CIRCUIT

3.4 PNEUMATIC CIRCUIT DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

4. WORKING AND RESULTS

5. PROBLEM FACED DURING CONSTRUCTION AND DESIGN

6. DESIGN CALCULATIONS

7. CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

8. FURURE SCOPES

9. REFERENCES


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1.1.2

Acknowledgments

Our project has been a result of our own hard work but this project could not have become a

reality without the support and help of many of our friends and faculty members. We take this

opportunity to acknowledge their help and thank them for their goodwill.

We would like to thank our Principal and Head of Department Shri J.P.PATEL for his

unwavering support and kind co-operation. He has been a great teacher and true mentor to us

throughout our degree.

We would also like to thank our project guide Shri S.G.PATEL for his support and conceptualhelp at various technical problems. Weve had the opportunity of being his students during three

semesters and have learnt a great deal from him. The very concept of the project as well as its

realization would not have been possible without him.

We would also like to acknowledge and thank the efforts of Shri D.K.SONI for helping us

during making of this project.

Lastly we would like to thank all the faculty members of Mechatronics departmentfor their

support throughout the year.

Apart from our faculty members weve also gained a lot of experience and expertise frominteracting with our classmates and friends. We would like to thank them all for being with us in

this journey and making it memorable.





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ABSTRACT

Our project AUTOMATIC T-SHIRT FOLDING MACHINE , the idea came into our mind by

viewing the t.v. serial BIG BANG THEORY in which one scientist name Sheldon Cooper used

such kind of t-shirt folding flaps to fold his t-shirts. We thought of making this machine by

operating it automatically.

Then we searched for existence of such kind of machines, and we found that there is a company

in Greece that makes automatic T-shirt folding machine and the name of the company is

THERMOTRON.

Initially we thought of making the project related to automatic car parking but the problem

related to Image Processing was faced by us. So we thought of making the T-Shirt folding

machine.

T-shirt folding machine aims at substantially contributing to increasing high-quality output of

textile products and especially ready-made clothes such as t-shirts, jeans, trousers, shirts, Punjabi

suits etc., to cater the needs of manufacturing units which have a capacity of producing 30000-

40000 t-shirts per day.


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INTRODUCTION

Automationis the use of machines, control systems and information technologies to

optimize productivity in the production of goods and delivery of services. The correct

incentive for applying automation is to increase productivity, and/or quality beyond that

possible with current human labor levels so as to realize economies of scale, and/or

realize predictable quality levels. In the scope of industrialisation, automation is a step

beyond mechanization. Whereas mechanization provides human operators

with machinery to assist them with the muscular requirements of work, automation

greatly decreases the need for human sensory and mental requirements while increasing

load capacity, speed, and repeatability. Automation plays an increasingly important role

in the world economy and in daily experience.

Automation has had a notable impact in a wide range of industries

beyond manufacturing (where it began). Once-ubiquitous telephone operators have been

replaced largely by automated telephone switchboards and answering machines. Medical

processes such as primary screening in electrocardiography or radiography and laboratory

analysis of human genes, sera, cells, and tissues are carried out at much greater speed and

accuracy by automated systems. Automated teller machines have reduced the need for

bank visits to obtain cash and carry out transactions. In general, automation has been

responsible for the shift in the world economy from industrial jobs to service jobs in the

20th and 21st centuries.

The main advantages of automation are:

Increased throughput or productivity.

Improved quality or increased predictability of quality.

Improved robustness (consistency), of processes or product.

Increased consistency of output.

Reduced direct human labor costs and expenses.

The following methods are often employed to improve productivity, quality, or robustness.

Install automation in operations to reduce cycle time.

Install automation where a high degree of accuracy is required.

Replacing human operators in tasks that involve hard physical or monotonous work.[3]

Replacing humans in tasks done in dangerous environments (i.e. fire, space, volcanoes,

nuclear facilities, underwater, etc.)

Performing tasks that are beyond human capabilities of size, weight, speed, endurance,

etc.

Economic improvement: Automation may improve in economy of enterprises, society or

most of humanity. For example, when an enterprise invests in automation, technology

recovers its investment; or when a state or country increases its income due to automation

like Germany or Japan in the 20th Century.

Reduces operation time and work handling time significantly.


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Frees up workers to take on other roles.

Provides higher level jobs in the development, deployment, maintenance and running of

the automated processes.

In garment industries, we already have screen printers, knitting machines, automatic

looms, packing machines to easy the work intensity of industries, reduce the labours, and

hence increase the overall production rate of the industry.

But what if folding of clothes is also possible automatically?

Driven by such curiosity, we start our adventure trying to find a more scientific &

technological way to get easier folding of clothes.

T-shirt folding machine aims at substantially contributing to increasing high-qualityoutput of textile products and especially ready-made clothes such as t-shirts, jeans,

trousers, shirts, Punjabi suits etc., to cater the needs of manufacturing units which have a

capacity of producing 30000-40000 t-shirts per day.

Besides designing the machine, it also aims at improving price per performance ratio.

Our project i.e. AUTOMATIC T-SHIRT FOLDING MACHINE , is to develop a more

efficient and easy cloth folding method by trying different methodologies and advanced

tools to completely eliminate the size variation of a fold, to substantially reduce the

number of labours needed and to reduce the time consumed to fold the t-shirts to a greatextent.


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CONCEPTManual t-shirt folding flaps were already available in the market as shown in figure

below.


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Here also, we can completely eliminate the variations in the fold of a t-shirt, but since it

is manual, so time consumed was not reduced much. Also as many labours were required

as much required by the simple traditional t-shirt folding process.

That is why, we decided to automate the process of t-shirt folding by using concepts

mentioned below.

We used electronic circuit to signal the pneumatic valves, which controlled the actuation

of pneumatic cylinder.

These pneumatic cylinders were used to actuate the flaps.

Also, not any proper positioning of this manual folding flaps was possible, but in

automatic t-shirt folding machine we have made a dedicated table with base consideringthe ergonomics of the average human height .

We have made the base detachable so, that only the base is needed to change for

changing the variation in the sizes and the variety of clothes (for example:- shirts, pants,

jackets, ladies suit etc.)

Only thing we need to change is to change the mode of machine i.e. to change the mode

from t-shirt folding to shirt folding or pant folding and so on.

DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION

How did we start making this project !!!

First stage experiment:-

After absorbing the critical experience of the first experiment by folding the t-shirt with the help

of bare hands, we come to a conclusion that the T-shirt which has lines made by folding will

leads to unrealistic and false appearance.

It also took too long to to get folded and all the t-shirts were having some variation in their sizes

as were observed when stack of ten t-shirts were made.

Second stage experiment :-

The designed experiments which introduce tools were conducted. During this phase we tried

folding the t-shirt using cardboard flaps.


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But then we decided to make flaps of machine with little modification using the concept of

cardboard flaps. The only difference in the new design was that every flap was hinged

individually and flap B can also be moved to place the folded t-shirts on to the stacker.

FINALLY, we decided to automate the whole process by using electronic circuit made using a

microcontroller (AT 89 C 51) and pneumatic cylinders.

Pictures of initial work are shown below.

We tried to make t-shirt folding flaps with the help of waste cardboard pieces and we were

succeded in folding the t-shirt.


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CONSTRUCTION

Fabrication

1. We made one base as shown in figure.

2. Drilling of holes on this stand of base to attach it to the main table with the help of nuts

and bolts.

The table is as shown below.


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3. Then we started designing the flaps.

The size of flaps were chosen as per the average size of t-shirt, folded t-shirt and size of

the packaging bag available in the market.

Flaps were designed as shown below.


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The red coloured joints as shown in figure are hinge joints.

Dimensions of the flaps are as follows.

4. These flaps were mounted over the plate which will be attached over the base so as to

make a perfect top.

It is also shown in figure below.


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5.

Some slots were made on the base plate so as to create some space for actuator(pneumatic cylinder) to actuate.

Holes were also drilled over this plate to attach flaps over it and also to attach this plate to

the main base.


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Complete setup after fabrication work is as shown below.


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6. After that , some extra fabrication work was done like welding angle rods horizontally

along with two vertical adjacent angle rods to make the table more stiff and balanced.

Also, the wooden base is attached 55 c.m. below the main base for mounting pneumatic

cylinders.

7. SolidWorks Design of mechanism used to connect the actuators with flaps are as shown.

Cylinders are mounted vertically over the wooden base below the main base. They are

mounted with the help of pivot joints so that cylinder can also oscillate about the axis

perpendicular to the stroke of cylinder as shown.

Total actuation angle is the sum of the angle of oscillation of cylinder and the angle

which the joint make with the flap.

The above mentioned joint connects the flap to the cylinder. It is fixed to the plate and

again, it is connected to the cylinder in pivoted manner.

This total actuation angle is nothing but the angle by which flap revolves or sweeps

around its axis from its home position. ( home position i.e. lying horizontally on the base

plate at 180 when ,cylinder is completely at its home position. )

We approximately get the angle of actuation of around 150 which is sufficient to get a

perfect fold of the t-shirt.

Electronic circuit design and construction

To rotate the flap automatically through Pneumatic cylinder a MICROCONTROLLER or

PLC is required.

But from them we had used MICROCONTROLLER. Because it reduce cost of project.

To operate Pneumatic cylinder automatically a Solenoid Valve is required.

To operate Solenoid valve, interfacing of controller with Solenoid Valve is used.

For our application, we had used ATMEGA 8 MICROCONTROLLER.


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For interfacing, number of electronic devices are required which are listed below:-

Capacitors

Switches

Hook-up wires

ULN2003A

IC 7805

Relays

DC Solenoid Valve

Microcontroller

A microcontroller (abbreviated C, uC or MCU) is a small computer on a single integrated

circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. This

programmes memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as

well as a typically small amount of RAM.

Advantages of Microcontroller

Microcontrollers are widely used in todays control systems for the following reasons


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! Design and Simulation " #ecause you are $rogramming with software% detailed

simulations may &e $erformed in ad'ance to assure correctness of code and system$erformance(

! Flexibility" )&ility to re$rogram using *lash% ++,-.M or +,-.M allows straightforward

changes in the control law used(

! High Integration " Most microcontrollers are essentially single chi$ com$uters withon/chi$ $rocessing% memory% and .( ome contain $eri$herals for serial

communication and reading analog signals with an analog/to/digital con'erter or )(

his differentiates a microcontroller from a micro$rocessor( Micro$rocessors reuire

that this functionality &e $ro'ided &y added com$onents(

! Cost " ost sa'ings come from se'eral locations( e'elo$ment costs are greatlydecreased &ecause of the designflei&ility ad'antages mentioned $re'iously( #ecause

so many com$onents are included on one % &oard area and com$onent sa'ings are

often e'ident as well(

! Easy to Use" :ust $rogram and go;


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USB Interface: No

in diagram!


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Capacitors:-

A capacitor is used to stores an electrical charge between the two plates.

Ceramic capacitorsbelong to the family of ELECTROSTATICcapacitors.

They are Non-Polar.

They dominate the lower range of capacitance values.


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They are available in both leaded and surface mount styles.

The vast majority are fixed capacitance value(their value is not user variable)

For our application we had used 33pf, 1000f & 47f capacitors.

ULN2003A


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The ULN2003A is high-voltage high-current Darlington transistor arrays. Each consists of seven

NPNDarlington pairs that feature high-voltage outputs with common-cathode clamp diodes forswitching inductive loads. The collector-current rating of a single Darlington pair is 500 mA.

The Darlington pairs can be paralleled for higher current capability. Applications include relay

drivers, hammer drivers, lamp drivers, display drivers (LED and gas discharge), line drivers, andlogic buffers. The ULN2003A and ULQ2003A have a 2.7-k series base resistor for eachDarlington pair for operation directly with TTL or 5-V CMOS devices.

There are 16 pins in ULN2003A out of which 7-inputs, 7-outputs, 1-COM & 1-Ground.12V

supply is needed to operate this IC so 12V is supplied on pin-9 & pin-8 is ground. In our

application we had used pins-3, 4, 5, 6 as input & pin-11, 12, 13, 14 as output. The main purpose

of this IC is to operate Relay .Microcontroller pins can provide a maximum of 1-2 mA current

and relays coil needs around 10mA to be energized for this reason this chip is used.

1Features

500-mA-Rated Collector Current (Single Output)

High-Voltage Outputs: 50 V Output Clamp Diodes

Inputs Compatible with Various Types of Logic

Relay-Driver Applications


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IC 7805(voltage regulator)

7805 is a 5V fixed three terminal positive voltage regulator IC. The IC has

features such as safe operating, area protection, thermal shut down, internal


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current limiting which makes the IC very rugged. Output currents up to 1A can be

drawn from the IC provided that there is a proper heat sink. The voltage source in

a circuit may have fluctuations and would not give the fixed voltage output. Thevoltage regulator IC maintains the output voltage at a constant value. The IC 7805

indicates the fixed output volt.

Relay


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Relays are electrical switches that open or close another circuit under certain

conditions.

The purpose of relay are as follows:-

1. Isolate controlling circuit from controlled circuit.

2. Control high voltage system with low voltage.

3. Control high current system with low current.

4. Logic Function

How a Relay Works

Advantages/Disadvantages

Much higher precision and more reliable and durable.

Improve the reliability and power quality of electrical power systems before, during and

after faults occur.

Capable of both digital and analog I/O.


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Higher cost

DC Solenoid Valve

A valve is a mechanical device for controlling the flow of a fluid or a substance.

A solenoid valve is an electromagnetic valve for use with liquid or gas controlled by

running or stopping an electrical current through a solenoid, which is a coil of wire, thus

changing the state of the valve.

Principle of working for the Solenoid valves:-

The operation of a solenoid valve is similar to that of a light switch, but typically controls

the flow of air or water, whereas a light switch typically controls the flow of electricity.

A solenoid valve has two main parts: the solenoid and the valve. The solenoid converts

electrical energy into mechanical energy which, in turn, opens or closes the valve

mechanically.

Solenoid valves may use metal seals or rubber seals, and may also have electrical

interfaces to allow for easy control.

A spring may be used to hold the valve opened or closed while the valve is not activated.


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When current flows in the coil, magnetic field is generated and it reduces the air gap.

Generally spring is used to create gap when coil is not energized.

Small signal can operate solenoids. Large back emf is generated when coil is switched

off.

Diode is used to suppress the back emf and it prevents the control electronics from

damage.

In switched on mode diode is reverse biased. During back emf diode is forward biased

and conducts and creates the alternative path for the current.


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Circuit diagram


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Hardware description

The components are connect on a Printed Circuit Board as per the given connection details in the

circuit diagram. The functioning of the circuit can be explained with respect to the action format

that occurs in the circuit. As the supply is switched ON and both the switches are open the

switching supplies ideally 5V is given to the microcontroller. Suppose if the any of the switch is

closed the supply gets directly shorted with the ground. This indicates the microcontroller about

the switch positions and thus generates the signal as per the given program for the respective

switches position. The transistor used allows current to conduct through it when ever a positive

pulse is given at its base that is given by the microcontroller in accordance with the program. As

the transistor is forward biased the supply that is used to actuate the Solenoid Valve gets

connected with the Valve terminal and valve start actuating. As soon as the 0 voltage is

encountered the NPN transistor used goes into reverse bias and stops its conduction so the valve

terminal supply gets disconnected till the base current is 0 volts. By this we can deduce that the

actuation of the valve is directly dependent on the supply given by microcontroller to the base

which indeed depends on the program written. So the speed of working of the circuit depends on

the number of switches used, for instance in the above circuit two switches are used so the

number of speed levels are 23

= 8. So the number of speed levels for X switches will be 2X

.


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Working of CircuitFig 1-4 shows the working of circuit. Here in real circuit instead of LEDS Solenoid Valve are

connected.

Fig-1


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Fig-2


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Fig-3


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Fig-4


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When the switch1 is closed and switch 2 is open in this position the supply from the

switch1 is shorted into the ground terminal so microcontroller get voltage so the switch

is considered as 1.

When switch1 is closed then it produce signal to pins p2.0 to p2.3 and between each

signal delay is provided.

When the switch2 is closed and switch 1 is open in this position the supply from the

switch1 is shorted into the ground terminal so microcontroller get voltage so the switch

is considered as 1.

When switch2 is closed then it produce signal to pins p2.0 to p2.3 and between eachsignal delay is provided and this procedure will repeat upto 10 times.

For stoping the program the reset circuitry is incorporated which is explained below:

Reset circuit:

Reset pin is an input and is active high. Upon applying a high pulse to this pin the

microcontroller will reset and terminates all activities.

Component list


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Name of component Make Value Number

AT89C51

Microcontroller

ATMEL 1

Resistor R1 10K! 1

Capacitor C1,C2,C3 33pF,33pF,10F 1

Switch S1,S2 3

Crystal oscillator X1 11.0592MHZ 1

ULN2003A ATMEL 1

Relay HC 6V 4

Solenoid Valve Jelpc 12V 4

IC 7895 LM 9-12V 1

Pneumatic circuit design and construction

Pneumatic circuit is as shown.

Cylinders used are of 250 mm stroke length and 20 mm bore.

We have used 5/2 solenoid operated spring return valves. These valves are configured with

electronic circuit to operate cylinders in a proper sequence.

WORKING AND RESULTS


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There are two modes of working

(1)For single t-shirt

When button 1 is pressed , the single t.shirt placed over the flaps gets folded.

(2)For 10 t-shirts

When button 2 is pressed, 10 t-shirts in one go can be folded. All u need to do is to

just place t-shirts onto the flaps and no need to press button again and again. Between

two t-shirts, the 5 second delay is given for placing another t-shirt after one gets

folded.

PROBLEMS FACED DURING CONSTRUCTION

During linkage design

During fabrication, the main problem faced by us was how to design a link which can

fold the flaps to desired angle and what mechanism to use while doing so.

We had two options to choose from namely,

(1)

To use pneumatic cylinders

(2)To use motors

With pneumatic cylinders, we had to do a lot of work related to the issues like what kind

of linkage to use for converting translator motion of the pneumatic cylinder to rotary

motion.

With motors, we had to use stepper motor but operation of that was quite slow. To fold t-

shirt we need fast swapping motion of the flaps (otherwise the t-shirt may get slipped

down over the flap), therefore we didnt choose stepper motor.

Then we decided to use permanent magnet d.c. motor (p.m.d.c.m), but again, its

movement was not accurate plus one another circuit was needed to control the motion of

the motor and also motors were bit costly.

The motors were not getting fitted properly onto the base plate and they were creating

hinderance to the home position of the flaps. Also, if we would have used the motors, the

channel joint (the joint used to connect flaps with the base plate ) would have been

designed accordingly to accommodate the shaft of the motor. This again would have

added a lot to the cost.


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THAT IS WHY, we diverted our minds towards using pneumatic cylinders and atlast, we

got an idea of the mechanism as mentioned in the construction above.

During fabrication

During fabrication, there wasnt any such problem except the mounting of cylinders. We

had to cut the cylinder mounting base of the table and reweld it as cylinders were not

getting adjusted. Cutting those welded joints was big task. Due to unavailability of

resources , we had to cut it with manual saw. Then we rewelded it to a proper position as

per new calculations.

During electronic circuit design

Relays coil was not able to operate with outputs from controller pin so we had used

ULN2003A (relay driver IC) to operate the relays.

When supply is given to Microcontroller then output pins of controller sets to higher state

,so to overcome this problem we had done certain changes in program.

CALCULATIONS

Ideal condition

Flap weight=300grams

Force

=m*g

=0.3*9.81

=2.943N

Area of Cylinder

= /4*d

="/4*(20)

=314.16mm


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=314.16*10^-6m

Pressure

=F/A

=2.943/(314.16*10^-6)

=9367.84N/m

0.1bar

But for quick operation we will take value of pressure to be p = 0.5bar (1)

Moment of hinge

M(h)=F*(20/100)

=2.943*(20/100)

=0.59

0.6N-m

Under loading condition

Weight will be approximately=300+100grams

=400grams

Flap Force =0.4*9.81

=3.924N

Pressure

=F/A

=3.924/(314.16/1000000)

=12490.45N/m

Assuming P=0.5bar (2)

From 1 & 2, we get, P=0.5bar so in ideal or in loading condition pressure will remain almost

constant.


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So, P = 0.5 bar

Moment when loading

M(h)=3.924*(20/100)

=0.7848N-m

As we need to take the constant pressure for every flap, so we will take the maximum pressure

i.e. the pressure required by flap A i.e. P = 0.5 bar.


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CONCLUSIVE REMARKS

During this wonderful project I have came across many difficulties but I have tackled them

successfully. During this, I have gained knowledge about various machines used in industries,

the ideas and tricks that are used in industry.

The project facilitate much more improved functions related with weight loss , simplifying

operation, and other aspects. And more over it will not add cost but we tried to minimize the cost

also. Even then we want to say that there is much space to improvement in the machine. The

experience will be very useful for our future.

During completing this project, we came to know the various problems that occur in any

process. And if you want to success you have to manage each and every part of any task or

project. Now we are more confident that we can also do something new and are interested to start

a new career in mechatronics engineering.


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FUTURE SCOPES

Folding & Packing Machine Thermal Press

Multi-steam Press Printing Machine

All processes shown above can be embedded in a single a machine.


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REFERENCES

#oo>s on Microcontroller he 8051 microcontroller and em&edded systems &y

:)B+ CDD,+ M)E F ?enneth : )yala

www($earsoned(co(inmuhammadalimaAidi

www(Microigital+d(com

www(8051(com

Magic,rints% )hmeda&ad

hermotron% #angaluru

,neumatic ystems #y ,( MaGumdar

Machine esign #y/ =( #( #handari

automatic t-shirt folding machine

Documents

acknowledgmentsour project

project guide shri s

faculty members weve

head of department shri

design calculations7

design of electronic

hisunwavering support

pneumatic circuit design