Farm Grade Distributor Redesign & Cost Savings
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Date
2019-12-04
Authors
Marquez, Mark Anthony
DaCosta, Megan
Patel, Kavan
Abhazim, Zerlina
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Abstract
AGI-VIS is a supplier of commercial agricultural equipment and is in the early stages of expanding its product line to include farm grade equipment. AGI-VIS tasked our team to design a farm grade version of their distributors. The company has failed to sell many distributors in the past two years due to large manufacturing costs as a result of long labour hours. On average, a mild steel distributor with eight outlets has a total manufacturing cost of $10360 (Material Cost of $4364 and Labor Cost of $5996) and takes 92 hours to assemble. The goal of this project is to design a farm grade distributor with a total manufacturing cost of $7770, which is 25% less than the commercial version. In the concept generation phase of this project, a total of six main concepts were generated with a focus on different body shell types. The chosen body shell for the final design involves significantly less forming due to the octagonal geometry, an angled lower section that coincides with the required 50-degree product discharge angle, and eight outlet spouts. The angled nature of the new distributor body concept allowed for a simplified outlet spout design made from standard 12-inch, 10-gauge mild steel tubing that is cut to length with welded round flanges. Similarly, the inlet and internal swing spout will use the same standard tubes and flanges which allow for the parts to be assembled simultaneously. A significant change from the commercial version is that the farm grade distributor, except for a few components (outlets, swing spout, service door and drive assembly) will be composed of galvanized steel. The use of galvanized steel will allow for many distributor components to be bolted, simplifying the overall distributor assembly process and making replacing parts more feasible. The final design also includes features such as an air vent, drip tray, cleanout holes, outlet spout covers, lifting lugs built into the body shell flanges, a 12-inch to 11-inch diameter bolt-on swing spout transition, hanger supports, an inspection window and shipping legs. Finally, the main project objective of developing a farm grade distributor with a 25%...