Plastic Component Separator
Task: Position and hold the bottle in place.
Operation: the bottle is placed on top of the worm gears, which spin the bottle so the barcode scanner can determine the bottle type. The worm gears move the bottle towards the stopping post until the cap trips the laser sensor. Then the red mount is lowered onto the bottle via the linear actuator to hold it on place. At the end of the process, the leftmost worm gear retracts to drop the bottle into storage.
Task: Unscrew the bottle cap.
Operation: The cart moves along mounted rails to the center of the system in line with the bottle cap. The actuator on the left of the cart lowers the flywheel assembly onto the bottle cap. The motor activates spinning the wheel and unscrewing the cap until the tripwire atop the storage bin is tripped. The cart then returns to its start position.
Task: Cut the safety ring off the bottle.
Operation: The cart moves along mounted rails to the center of the system in line with the safety ring. The blades, one above and one below the ring, are brought to the center via a servo powering a dual rack and pinion system. The motors for the blades activate and the blades cut the ring until the tripwire atop the storage bin is tripped. The cart returns to its start position.