Can
Crusher
Project
4th Period- Tech
Kartikey Desai, Courtney
Jones, Sarah Kasi, and Jon
Ko
Table of Contents
Group Development
Role
Leader
Person
Kartikey Desai
Scribe
Courtney Jones
Scribe
Sarah Kasi
Timekeeper
Jon Ko
Responsibility
Keep everyone on task and
assign assignments
Write documents and keep
notes of everything
Write documents and keep
notes of everything
Keep us on schedule
Team Constitution
Rules, Regulations, and Expectations
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
All team members should respect each other and the ideas that are shared.
All team members must do work.
All team members must help in the building process of the can crusher.
We must be open to working outside of class.
We must stay on task and focused at ALL TIMES.
Everyone MUST put forth their maximum effort.
No one dominates the team.
All team members must STAY POSITIVE.
Timeline
Developing a Can Crusher
Project Timeline
Group Members: Kartikey Desai, Courtney Jones, Sarah Kasi, Jon Ko
Note: All work documented by team scribes or individual task owner
Problem Statement
Roadrunner Trucking wants us to build a can crusher that will reduce the volume of their
aluminum cans.
Background
We work for Alpha Engineering Company, and Roadrunner Trucking has contacted us
because they have a lot of aluminum can wastes. In order to reduce the waste, we were asked to
create a can crusher that will reduce the volume of the aluminum cans by seventy percent. If they
do not find a way to reduce the volume of these cans they will have to pay a fine of $0.05 per
can.
Can crushers are primarily used to save space and recycling. Can crushers make it possible to
make small stackable piles that save space. There are many designs that can crushers come in.
Some of the designs are pneumatic, hydraulic, aluminum, and wood. Jesse M. Wright was the
man who invented the aluminum can crusher in 1937, but he did not get it patented until August
30, 1938.
Customers
Our two customers are Mr. Pritchard, our ITC instructor, and Roadrunner Trucking Company.
Scope
Our task for this project is to design and create a can crusher that will minimize the
volume of aluminum cans by 70%. The can crusher will be made up of various parts including a
lever, body, and aluminum bin. Sarah and I will be documenting all of the work we do in the
designing and building to create our technical report. We will be composing a Power Point that
will be presented during class. We will be turning in our can crusher, technical report, and Power
Point presentation to Mr. Pritchard at the close of the project.
We will be utilizing different resources throughout the project to successfully complete
our research. We also have the privilege to utilize the following individuals:



Technical – Mr. Pritchard
Math Calculations – Miss Hernacki
CAD Drawings – Mr. Hund
The materials that we will be using for this project are wood, PVC, metal brackets, metal
hinges, screws, and nails.
The key constraints given by our customers are:








Maximum space of 18”×24”×30”
Minimum of one simple machine
Aluminum can must fall into the aluminum can bin once crushed
Aluminum can bin must slide in and out of crusher
Aluminum can bin must hold 20 uncrushed cans
Design must be one unit
Must be manually operated
All parts must be made not bought
Deliverables
At the end of this project we will give our customers 3 different outputs.
The 3 outputs are the can crusher, technical report, and PowerPoint presentation. The can crusher
will be composed of the lever, body, and aluminum can bin. The technical report will take us
through the 12-step design process and it will contain our final CAD drawings. The PowerPoint
presentation will be a complete overview of our whole project
Brainstorming



Overall:
o What adhesive should we use? Wood glue? Hot glue? Super glue?
o Will the can crusher be operated by hand or foot?
Aluminum Can Bin:
o
What material should it be made of? (Wood?)
o
What size should it be?
o
How thick should the material be? (Does it matter?)
o
If we can make it hold more than 20 crushed cans, should we? (Or would that be a
waste of material?)
o
Should it be really tall but narrow? Wide but flat? Square sides like a cube?
o
How will it slide in and out of the crusher? (Like a drawer?)
o
Will we need a handle in order to slide it out of the crusher?
o
Do we need to do anything specifically so that it smoothly slides out of the
crusher? (Or would this be a waste of material?)
Lever:
o What material(s) should it be made of?
o What other parts will we need to get? Metal hinges? Screws?
o How thick should the material be? (Does it matter?)
o How big / long should it be?

o The longer the lever is, the less input force is required. Is there a way we can
mathematically calculate the length of the lever so that too much input force is not
required to crush the can to 30% its original size?
Base:
o What material should it be made of? (Wood?)
o How big will it be?
o Should we make it so that it could hold something bigger than the size of a
standard aluminum can, or would that be a waste of material?
Research and Development



Overall
Aluminum Can Bin
Lever
o The lever should be made of metal, wood, or aluminum. Plastic would not work
because it is not sturdy enough to exert that much pressure.
o
o
o
o

Base
o The materials that we are allowed to use for the base are wood, aluminum, plastic,
and metal to construct the base of the can crusher.
o The size of the base will be decided by the group, but the maximum space it can
occupy is 18” in length and 24” in height.
o We should make the base larger that the size of twenty uncrushed aluminum cans
to ensure that it will hold all of the cans. By making the base larger, it allows the
cans to fit in a way where they are not closely packed together where they cannot
be moved.
Criteria and Constraints


Criteria:
o Self-loading
o Inexpensive
o Reliable
o Not time consuming
o Simple
Constraints:
o Maximum space the design can occupy is 18”x24”x30”.
o Materials that can be used are wood, PVC, metal brackets, metal hinges, screws
and nails.
o Minimum of one simple machine.
o Crushed aluminum can must immediately fall into the aluminum can bin without
human intervention.
o The aluminum can bin must slide in and out of the crusher.
o The aluminum can bin must be sized to hold 20 crushed cans.
o All parts of the can crusher must be fabricated.
o The design is to be one unit.
o Must be manually operated.
Explore Possibilities
Design
Kartikey’s Design
Pros(+)
Cons(-)
Courtney’s Design
Pros(+)
Cons(-)
Multi-view and isometric drawings
Follows all size constraints
Very neat
not dimensioned well
No bin
Lever too complicated and would not work
Sarah’s Design
Pros(+)
Cons(-)
Aluminum can bin is really tall (all space will
be taken up
Follows all constraints
Very neat
Bin may tip over when crushing a can
complex
Not self-loading
Uses a lot of material
Jon Ko’s Design
Pros(+)
Cons(-)
Detailed
Good dimensions
Confusing
Materials used are expensive
Select an Approach
Designs:
Kartikey’s
Design
Criteria
Potential Designs
Courtney’s
Sarah’s
Design
Design
Jon Ko’s
Design
(Hybrid
Design?)
Self-loading
Inexpensive
Reliable
Quick to
build
Simple
Ease of use
Total
Scale: 1 -5; 1 being the worst, 5 the best
Adhesives:
Potential Designs
Criteria
Dries quickly
Inexpensive
Sticks to our material
Ease of appliance
Cleanliness
Reliability
Total
Wood Glue
4
4
4
3
4
4
23
Screws
Duct
and
Tape
nails
5
4
5
5
4
3
5
3
2
4
5
3
1
3
3
2
1
3
4
1
2
4
5
3
17
15
21
27
Scale: 1 -5; 1 being the worst, 5 the best
Hot Glue
Super Glue
Develop a Design Proposal
 CAD Drawings
 BILL OF MATERIALS
PART PART
DESCRIPTION
QUANTITY
UNIT
PRICE
SUBTOTAL
TAX
TOTAL
TOTAL
PRICE
$
$
$
 Build Process
 Test Plan
Test Criteria
How Tested
Expected results
Actual Results
Expected results
Actual Results
Prototype
Test and Monitor
Test Criteria
How Tested
Refine
Lessons Learned
Summary