Automated Position Controlled Rivet Sorting and Quality Assurance Machine for Flexco

• Amar El Metennani
• Timothy Langan
• Haris Mansoor
• Andrew Weber

We were tasked with automating the rivet quality assurance system in place at Flexo, a conveyor belt solutions company, by removing operator input and bias. The product is intended to automatically measure seven critical features and sort cylindrical rivets with a flanged head and inner hole to provide data for analysis. The completed automated system must have an extremely high rate of correctly measured and sorted rivets with an absolute minimal amount of operator intervention. The project started with an in-depth examination of the existing manual process of hand measuring rivets. Once the metrics and limitations of the process in the factory were determined background research on potential solutions was conducted. Multiple individual solutions to each critical feature were determined and various preliminary designs were created. The possible solutions were then tested for the various metrics and against the existing process to determine viability, budget, and efficacy of the designs. The final design incorporates a position-control dc motor in sync with four dial indicators. The motor rotates a disk loaded with rivets. At various positions around the rotary disk the dial indicators take specific measurements. These measurements are stored and simultaneously checked with the dimensions of rivets within tolerance. Rivets that are registered as out of tolerance have their position in the rotary disk saved. After every measurement is taken, the disk rotates over a linear solenoid that extends to eject the bad rivets. Good rivets are then cleared from the disk using a small metal strip. The machine will offer a solution to Flexco that decreases long-term costs and increases quality in the manufacturing of rivets.

See supporting documentation in the team’s Box drive.