Electricity + Control October 2015

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ROUND UP
Engineering students develop future technology
Engineering students at the University ofWitwatersrand (WITS) are
aiming to revolutionise the food and beverage industry by develop-
ing new concepts and innovative designs as part of their participation
in the 2015 PneuDrive Challenge, sponsored by SEW-EURODRIVE.
The annual PneuDrive Challenge aims to provide mechanical, elec-
trical and mechatronic students with the opportunity to combine
theory with the latest drive engineering technology.
They are expected to come up with a concept design and business
case, which involves cost analyses and the feasibility of companies
using their designs.
Three teams atWITS are working hard to win top prize – a ten-day
all expenses paid trip to Germany, where the winners will present
their design to the head office of the sponsor company.The competi-
tion sees universities receiving state of the art equipment for their
laboratories from the sponsor as part of their prize.
Autonomous robotic cleaner
The first team consists of Vuledzani Madala, Portia Sibambo, Tisetso
Ramolobe and Nkosinathi Shongwe. They are designing a robotic
floor cleaner for hazardous environments.
The team came up with the concept of the robot after visiting a
brewery in Pretoria and identifying the need for this design.
The robot uses a mechanical broom and mop which extends to
the floor and absorbs liquid, while pushing solid waste inside its
storage bin.The autonomous cleaner is able to separate liquid waste
from solid waste without assistance.
Their design is focused on assisting industrial companies to avoid
the costs of paying external cleaners, however, they must also sup-
port their business case by including cost comparisons between
using their robot, and employing cleaners.
Sibambo, who is the leader of the group, focused on the pneu-
matic systemwhile the others split the drawing, design and research
among themselves.
Turning waste into energy
The second team consists of Craig Daniel, Micha Dedekind and
Richard Grieves. Their project is based on waste reduction, by
converting organic waste to methane through anaerobic digestion.
They aim to cut costs for businesses by giving them the opportu-
nity to use renewable energy. Daniel indicates that they are focusing
on the elements that need to be controlled in order to get the pH
right within the tanks and to ensure that they do not over-pressurise.
For their business case, Daniel’s team claims that their design will
help companies to not only get rid of their waste in-house, but to
convert that waste into a bio gas that can be used for other purposes
such as heating. Although they admit that it would be costly to set up,
they insist that the long-term cost benefits outweigh the set-up costs.
Depalletiser for bottle recycling
The third team consists of Muhammed Mangera, Markus Janse van
Rensburg and Mikhail Villet, who are designing an overhead arm
that picks up plastic sheets and removes them from empty bottles
inside pallets. Janse van Rensburg explains that the main focus
of the design is the recycling of bottles. “We would like to target
companies that do depalletising manually, as our design eliminates
the process of having to unpack, clean, refill and thereafter recycle.”
“Our design is compact, high-performance and requires minimal
maintenance. As a result, we believe we can improve productivity,
resulting in time and cost savings,” Janse van Rensburg adds.
All three teams from WITS will send through their designs for
judging by 8 October 2015, along with teams from other universities
nationwide.The winning team is due to be announced in December
2015.
SMC Pneumatics South Africa has announced that they will be
the pneumatic partner for the competition going forward.
Enquiries:Visit
CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION
Vuledzani Madala, Portia
Sibambo, Tisetso Ramolobe
and Nkosinathi Shongwe,
Craig Daniel, Richard Grieves,
Muhammed Mangera,
Markus Janse van Rensburg,
Mikhail Villet and Micha
Dedekind.
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