College - Author 1

College of Engineering

Department - Author 1

General Engineering Department

Degree Name - Author 1

BS in General Engineering

Date

6-2020

Primary Advisor

John Ridgely, College of Engineering, Mechanical Engineering Department

Abstract/Summary

Small businesses with short run product catalogs have trouble finding the right size box that will work for multiple products. In turn, this leads most businesses to use oversized boxes resulting in unnecessary shipping fees. The objective of this project was to develop and test a cost-effective prototype of a box making machine that could create a short run of custom sized boxes. A Co2 laser was found to be the best option for cutting cardboard and a vertically standing machine was designed to feed the cardboard via rollers. To control cardboard movement stepper motors were used and controlled using an Arduino Uno. A User Interface (UI) was developed using Excel VBA to communicate with the Arduino Uno and to pass on box size and type. The prototype proved to be effective in cutting cardboard patterns. Testing revealed the prototype could be twice as fast as manual cutting methods if an 80W laser tube or larger were used. The source code used to build this project serves as a good reference for future needs of accurate stepper motor movement and PC UI development.

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