Automatisk lockmekanism : från idé till prototyp

Sammanfattning: Wavecraft AB develops medical equipment for heating of organic synthesises. The heating is done with microwaves, which improves the process in both speed and accuracy compared to the more traditional methods where heating elements are used. This report discusses the developement of an automatic lid mechanism for one of Wavecraft's product prototypes. The company assumes that the final product will be integrated by customers into fully automated systems, and the upgrade from a manually to an automatically controlled lid is therefore an important step in the product's developement process. The first stage och the project was an idea generation process. The ideas generated here were organized into five different concepts of which the best one was selected through the use of a concept matrix. A model of the selected concept was made in SolidWorks and eventually built as a prototype. The result of the project was a mechanism where the lid open and close by a vertically moving block, on the back of the device. The linear movement of the block is aquired through the rotation of a screw, driven by an electrical motor. The mechanism was tested against the company's requirements and showed satisfying results in all areas except for durability. The reason is believed to be the change of components in certain parts of the prototype, due to demands on low cost. If these components were to be manufactured as the report suggests, the mechanism would be expected to gain durability and also meet the durability requirements.