Additional Information

The goal of our project is to evenly and thoroughly apply an external (dry) fluid to an independently operating system to ensure maximum operating efficiency.  The chemical Molybdenum Disulfide, a dry lubricant, will be applied to a two-stroke engine while the engine is still operating, ensuring the shaft of the engine is evenly and thoroughly lubricated to increase operating efficiency.  Two-stroke engines are found in outboard motors, which can be found on small water craft, including vessels which would be operating in marine environments.





However, we have chosen to present this system using a simpler, more relatable medium.  To display the systems and principles of our idea, we will be creating an attachment to a soft serve machine which will evenly apply sprinkles to the ice cream as it flows through our attachment.  We decided to use ice cream and sprinkles because they are safer, easier to handle materials, and they are considerably more accessable than Molybdenum Disulfide and two-stroke engines.  In our representation, sprinkles will represent the dry fluid and must be applied to the ice cream as it leaves one of the spigots.  The ice cream will represent the independent system as it will flow through our apparatus unaffected by the addition of sprinkles.  I am confident our display will accurately display the processes we are working on.  We find that it is easier to become familiar with a system if it is first presented in simple terms.  Using sprinkles and ice cream will also give our project a broader interest group and therefore will be able to inform more people.  As such, we will be focusing the rest of our research and work on creating our apparatus to ensure we can do a thorough job, and this will help us to display the systems as best we can.

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My partner and I intend to build a device which can be applied, almost universally, to common soft serve machines found in most ice cream franchises.  These franchises can use the device as an alternate or primary means of applying sprinkles to ice cream.  Franchise employees will have to learn how to use the device so that they can better serve their customers.  Our product is perfect for any customer who wants a cone which has sprinkles throughout the ice cream, and not just on the exterior.




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Currently, sprinkles are only applied to the ice cream after the ice cream has been deposited in either a cone or cup.  Methods for applying the sprinkles are rudimentary at best.  For cones, the ice cream is rolled in sprinkles by the employee, however, there is always the possibility of having the ice cream fall out of the cone into the sprinkles.  This wastes ice cream, sprinkles, and ultimately costs the company money and time.  For ice cream in cups, the sprinkles are simply spooned onto the ice cream from the container.  This process takes time, and does not always ensure the ice cream is evenly coated.  Both processes are clearly not the best means of applying sprinkles, and with both processes, there are only sprinkles on the exterior of the ice cream.  Our product would eliminate all those problems, while applying sprinkles throughout the cone or cup.  This way, the customer gets more of what they want, and the franchises have a faster, more effective means of applying sprinkles to ice cream.




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The final design needs to have a simple, yet functional mood.  It must be easy to use, while still doing a good job completing the task.  It must be a well-made, long lasting product, which can handle the wear and tear acquired in everyday use.  Unfortunately, there are not many products which are similar to what we are going to be designing.  That was one of the intents of our project, to design and model something that is new, and completely our own idea.  However, some products which are representative of our mood are iPod, the Little Giant Ladder System, and Glad Tupperware.

Alternate Solution Number Two

               The second and final solution that fits the situation would be an attachment that has its own electrical power source. This power source would almost certainly be common batteries, most likely the AA variety. These batteries would be the alternative to having an actual power source of raw electricity, but of course that means we would not have to intrude on the system. The attachment and the machine would be completely separate entities. This does align more purely with my design brief, as the two would be separate in the fullest sense.
A battery works basically as follows:

Electrons collect on the negative terminal of the battery. If you connect a wire between the negative and positive terminals, the electrons will flow from the negative to the positive terminal as fast as they can (and wear out the battery very quickly -- this also tends to be dangerous, especially with large batteries, so it is not something you want to be doing). Normally, you connect some type of load to the battery using the wire. The load might be something like a light bulb, a motor or an electronic circuit like a radio.

­Inside the battery itself, a chemical reaction produces the electrons. The speed of electron production by this chemical reaction (the battery's internal resistance) controls how many electrons can flow between the terminals. Electrons flow from the battery into a wire, and must travel from the negative to the positive terminal for the chemical reaction to take place. That is why a battery can sit on a shelf for a year and still have plenty of power -- unless electrons are flowing from the negative to the positive terminal, the chemical reaction does not take place. Once you connect a wire, the reaction starts. The ability to harness this sort of reaction started with the voltaic pile.
It would be this reaction that we would use to power our piston. This piston, like in the previous solution would create vibrations in the machine. The sprinkles would feel this vibration, and would react to it. They would leave the attachment with an additional force that they did not have before. This force could be the key to having a successful project. Without the force, the sprinkles may not penetrate the ice cream, and would rather just fall off. The benefit of having this battery is it makes the attachment separate, which is a goal of ours.

Image 2 is the electrical circuit diagram of alternative solution number two. It is battery powered as shown above.

Alternate Solution Number One

The first potential idea for my solution would be to have the soft serve attachment retrieve its power from the actual soft serve ice cream machine. It would be integrated into the system and there would be no need to worry about a source of external power. We would use this power to make our attachment vibrate, which would result in the success of our project. The ice cream machine receives power from an outlet in the wall, which is receiving power from transformers. We would tap into this power supply and would convert the energy into vibration.
The electricity that the ice cream machine receives is used for a variety of tasks within the actual machine. The majority of the power goes into the refrigeration system. The refrigeration system is obviously what keeps the ice cream cold and what keeps it from spoiling. There is a coolant that lies within the machine. This coolant is heated, which results in a loss of temperature in the rest of the machine. It is this loss of temperature that allows the ice cream to stay cold. The electricity is needed to heat the coolant, and since this such an integral part of the ice cream system, I feel like it would be safer to not tap into the power source here.
The next thing that the electricity is used for is pushing the ice cream into the tubes. The back wall of the ice cream machine is made so that it can move back and forth. There is a piston that lies behind this wall and it pushes the wall inward, thus forcing the ice cream to leave the system. The wires that allow this transaction to take place are lying at the bottom half of the machine. These wires can be easily accessed, and it would not be very difficult to tap into the power supply. I feel like this is the optimal line to use to power our device. We would need to split the wire, and allow half of the energy to come into our attachment. This energy would be more than sufficient to power the vibrations our machine needs.
The power supply would be made available at the same location as the ice cream is being poured. It would be available in the form of a two pronged plug, with our attachment having the socket built into it. This would power tiny pistons to collide with the sides of our attachment. This collision would create vibrations that echoed throughout the machine. These vibrations would cause movement for the sprinkles, thus freeing them from their compartments. Then they would slide down the curved bottom of the attachment, and penetrate the ice cream.

This solution is extremely viable in terms of being efficient. The main problem would be the practacality. For store owners to use our product, they would then need to significantly alter their machines, risking breaking them or hurting themselves. This is a big setback, but some might think it would be worth having unlimited power. The machine would be extremely efficient undoubtedly, but it still remains to be seen whether or not it is the best option available.

The image above is of the electrical circuit diagram and how the 

soft serve attachment would be integrated into the system.

Testing Procedure

The finished product will be tested on one of the soft serve machines in Day's Ice Cream in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. Ideally, the ice cream will be evenly coated in sprinkles as it comes out of the spigot and passes through the attachment into the cone.

Procedure:

• the apparatus will be attached to one of the spigots on a soft serve machine
• one of the owner's of Day's will then use the attachment to fill a cone while the apparatus is engaged
• the entire process will be videotaped/photographed/observed first hand
• the finished cone will then be subjected to a "taste test" to ensure quality
• a brief survey/questionnaire will then be administered to test the entire process

1. Was the appartus easy to attach?
2. Did the apparatus complicate the task of filling a cone in any way?
3. Was the ice cream evenly coated in sprinkles as it passed through the apparatus?
4. Were the sprinkles distributed evenly throughout the cone?
5. Were there too many or too few sprinkles?
6. Did the sprinkles at any point become soggy?
7. Did you enjoy your cone?

My Personal Testing Procedure

1. Are the vibrations enough to cause the sprinkles to exit the attachment?
2. Does the battery have enough power to support the motor for an extended time?
3. Is the electrical system safe?
4. Is the electrical system contained within the device?
5. Are the batteries easy to replace in the machine?

Images Taken at Carvel

Background Information

Our problem is the application of a fluid into a pre-existing system. This situation occurs when a lubricant is introduced into a motor, but we are going to try and make our project more relatable to people of all ages. We will be attempting to introduce an attachment to a soft serve ice cream machine that will coat the stream of ice cream with sprinkles as it exits the machine. This will serve as a proxy to the engine design and will require the same thought process and roughly the same solution. By using ice cream instead of the actual motor, we will make the process more enjoyable and it will be an easier application of the process that our project is discussing in. The sprinkles will be the fluid being introduced, and the ice cream machine represents the pre-existing system. By adding the sprinkles into the ice cream, we are doing the same thing as adding the lubrication into a motor.

The primary people involved in this project will be myself and AA. We have conceived this project and we will be the ones who will work to create a solution to this problem. However, we clearly can not do this project alone. We are first and foremost being aided by our Systems Engineering II teachers, Mr. A and Ms. McD. I would like to take this time to thank Ms. McD for all of the help she has given us this time and all the help she will give us in the future. The other Systems Engineering II teachers are also involved in this project and they are Ms. G and Mr. C. We will be aided in the specific aspects of our project by our gracious mentors. They are; JW, TW, JG, DF, and TG. Mr. W and Mr. G will be helping us with the design process, Mr. W and Mr. F will be allowing us to use their ice cream system, and Mr. G will be helping us with the business aspect.

The purpose of this project is to introduce a fluid into a pre-existing system automatically. This is a key issue in motors today because currently it is people who introduce the lubrication into motors. If we could create an attachment that could introduce the fluid for us, that would eliminate the risk of injury to the people. Also, when people introduce the fluid, they must turn off the pre-existing system to prevent injury. However if the fluid was introduced automatically, there would be no risk of injury and thus the system could remain on. This would increase efficiency and lower cost of operating the system.

The mood for this project is going to be professional of course, but we are absolutely looking at the lighter side of it. We are using ice cream for that very reason. We want the project to have a lot of aspects of fun so that people will want to learn about it, but of course we also need it to be educational so people can learn from it. We need to find a happy median. The middle ground between educational and fun is where our project will live. I am very optimistic that we will be able to find this median very quickly and thus we will have a successful project. The design needs to be very functional of course, or else the design will fail.

There are not really any other examples of projects that do similar tasks. We are looking to create something new, that is the basis of our project. If there was a project that did something similar, there would be no need for our senior project. We will however be making adaptations to pre-existing entities and we do need to understand how those work. We need to be able to attach our design to the spigot of the soft serve machine.  We need to be able to conceive a design that responds to the pre-existing system and will give fluid to the machine only when it needs it. There are many different parts of this project that we will be looking at and trying to conquer.

Update 9/22

I would like to take this opportunity to clear up any confusion that a blog reader might be having at this point and time. We have made a switch of projects. We were originally part of the oil spill capping project, but it was clear that we were dissatisfied with that project, so my partner and I began looking for a replacement. We landed on the lubrication of a two part piston motor for a marine vessel. Our idea would be to introduce a fluid (the lubrication) into a pre-existing system (the motor). However, we do not have the resources to do this exact project with these exact parts. The chemical is not safe for two students to be using and that makes this project unviable.

However, we have created a proxy to this problem, so we can continue on with our project. We will be using sprinkles as the fluid and ice cream as the pre-existing system. We will be adding the sprinkles to the ice cream in hopes of getting the sprinkles in the ice cream without using actual human labor. This would provide for more efficient lubrication of the motor as well as a safer way to coat the engine. I apologize for any confusion surrounding this project, and will now be referring to the project as the Ice Cream Project. Please note that I am referring to the Ice Cream simply as a proxy and that the actual project is dealing with lubrication and piston motors.