This design project is for the 2000 Student Design Contest developed by the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME). This year's contest is entitled, "Bottling System." To compete, one's system must successfully transport, orient, fill, and cap a plastic one-liter soft drink bottle in a minimal amount of time. The design for how this is accomplished is left up to the designer. However, it is not quite as simple as it sounds. There are many requirements set forth by the ASME concerning the operations of these designs. Most importantly, the system may only be actuated only by unmodified Radio Shack DC motors and each motor may be powered only by a single AA battery. No other energy sources are allowed for actuation. Additionally, the entire system must fit within a rigid 30x50x30 cm box before assembly. These two restrictions alone severely restrict the number of design possibilities.

At the starting position, the bottle will be lying horizontally with its open mouth one meter from the target center. Water will then be poured into a reservoir on the system and the system will be activated. Once activated, the bottle will be transported as fast as possible and set upright in the center of the target. Once the bottle is in location, it will be filled and capped as quickly as possible. The system is allowed up to two minutes to position, orient, fill, and cap the bottle and return to its original position ready to receive a new bottle and cap. Although the overall goal of this project was to make a system which would transport, orient, fill, and cap a plastic one-liter soda bottle, my specific goal for this project was to design the portion of the system which performs the actual filling of the bottle.

The concept that I have developed to accomplished this consists of 2 basic components: a reservoir to hold the water, and a valve that will release the water into the bottle. This begins when the bottle transport system positions the bottle on the target position. When the bottle moves into place, it hits a limit switch to activate my filling system. The switch is connected to an electrical circuit, which will start up the DC motor. The motor will be connected to a gearbox to will increase the torque output of the motor. The output shaft of the gearbox has a spool attached to it which has fishing line connected to it. This fishing line runs up over a pulley (which is mounted on a ring stand) and down into the funnel where it is connected to a toilet valve.

The funnel is mounted on a ring stand. Inside the funnel is an ABS plate, which has a 1.75-inch diameter hole in it. Its purpose is to support the toilet valve. The plastic plate is glued to the inside of the funnel and has caulking around the edge to both waterproof the seal and help the water flow towards the hole. Also connected to the plate with glue and caulk is a 1-inch diameter PVC pipe. The toilet valve is connected to the PVC pipe and rests in the 1.75-inch hole.

When the motor is activated, the shaft from the gearbox rotates and winds up the fishing line on the spool. This pulls on the toilet valve, lifting it up, and releasing the water into the bottom of the funnel. The water then flows out of the funnel and through a tube into the bottle. The motor then reverses through the use of a timing circuit. This puts slack in the fishing line so the valve may return to its original position, ready for more water to be added for a second trial.

This design outlined above was the concept that best met the requirements set forth by the ASME. Not only did it meet all of the requirements, but it also surpassed some. For example, the minimum time that is allowed for the entire system to transport, fill, and cap the bottle is 2 minutes. My portion of the design only takes about 11 seconds to fill the bottle. This is significantly less than one third of the overall time.