IME Senior Design 2022

With its rise in popularity, thousands of industries worldwide have switched to 3D printing for production due to its low-cost for manufacturing and testing parts. The 3D printing process involves melting plastic materials at high temperatures to build up the desired product. However, melting plastic emits harmful chemicals into the air, which can cause health risks ranging from mild to severe. Some solutions to tackle this problem include adding an enclosure and filtering the air. An enclosure is a box that keeps the emissions within it so they are not released into the open air, while also filtering to remove some or all the emissions.

We designed a carbon capture system, which includes sensors, filters, and an enclosure for a 3D printer farm. A 3D printing farm is a group of printers running together for larger-scale production. This task is sponsored by Ford Motor Company and the Centers of Research Excellence in Science and Technology’s Center for Additive Manufacturing who will use it for future development. The proposed system improves user safety and environmental impacts. We used CAD to digitally create a printer enclosure suitable for the 3D printing farm. Sensors verify that adding an enclosure with filters lowers emissions released into the open air.

We tested with a Creality Ender 3 Pro, a 3D printer model provided by the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. We also proposed an improved layout of the 3D printing room at the college to perfect workflow with OSHA standards in mind. There are plans to implement the 3D print farm enclosure and room layout in the college’s 3D printer room.

The City of Tallahassee spends more than $200,000 a year in labor costs maintaining right of ways (ROW) around the city. The ROW is the grass between the sidewalk and the road. Tallahassee does not have a law requiring private property owners to keep up their adjacent ROWs. The city performs work on these private properties ROWs as requested or when it becomes too overgrown, interfering with the road or sidewalk. To determine the total costs of these jobs, we worked closely with the city.

Total cost of ROW work includes labor, equipment, fuel and employee benefits. We focused on the labor cost for 2019-2021. There are seven types of work done: blind corners, edging, graffiti, litter, mowing, sidewalk cleaning and trimming. Mowing makes up more than half the total labor cost. We presented the city with a data application that includes custom charts and tables detailing cost information.

We investigated 10 cities in Florida that require property owners to upkeep their ROW, providing COT with examples of alternative ROW maintenance options.

After reviewing costs, the city will better understand how much is spent on ROW maintenance and can compare their costs to others. Our project allows our sponsor to determine the best course of action for the future of ROW maintenance in Tallahassee.

Tallahassee has a population of more than 197,000, which is increasing every year. Bulk waste is therefore increasing. Bulky waste or bulky refuse is a technical term to describe waste types that are too large to be accepted by the regular waste collection. To keep up with pick up demand, Tallahassee Public Utilities collects bulk trash every day to prevent build-up around the city. If Tallahassee’s population increase continues, current trash routes may not be able to keep up with future demand.

We looked for ways to help the city keep up with potential increased bulk waste pick-ups. Our goal was to determine if an extra route would help improve current collection methods. First, we determined if there are enough routes to keep up with current demand and if additional pickups are possible.

We measured the travel and collection time for each dump site location and created a simulation to see the current strengths and weaknesses with this data. The results reveal how much each route can service under maximum demand. Our model shows that 134 bulk trash piles can be collected in one day. Each route costs around $714,000, so minimizing the number of routes to meet demand would be financially beneficial to the city. Ultimately, a method of measurement and simulation could help improve TPUs bulk waste collection system. Other cities that use similar collection methods may find this process useful, as well.

The M.T. Mustian Center at Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare (TMH) has a disorganized medical supply room. Staff are frustrated when checking out supplies for surgical services, in particular.

This disorganization increases the risk of not getting proper medical supplies to surgeons in a timely manner. This directly affects the quality of patient treatment and could be the difference between life or death. The supply room’s disorder also makes returning supplies more difficult. For this reason, we improved how surgical supplies are stored in the supply room and created a new system for receiving and restocking supplies.

Medical supplies are always going to waste. Surgeons tend to order too many supplies and usually don’t use them all. These supplies are eventually wasted due to expiration, contamination or damage. Just one medical supply item could cost up to $10,000, contributing to millions of dollars in waste each year. We designed a plan that will decrease over-ordering to reduce waste and improve organization of supplies.

We determined the return rate for supplies and used this data to determine which supplies are being wasted. By decreasing the number of supplies by 25%, we found more space in the supply room to properly organize necessary supplies. TMH plans to use our solutions to improve medical staff job performance, limit the purchase of unneeded supplies and decrease waste. We believe our solutions can be applied to other departments in TMH and other hospitals, as well.

Canon Solutions America (CSA) printers produce thousands of books daily for their client, Company A. These jobs are affected by printing errors and machine failures, leading to the reprint of hundreds of books. We improved the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) of Canon’s book production printers. OEE gages efficiency; it measures the operation of a manufacturing line to its full potential. We improved the OEE rate by decreasing machine downtime.

We ran a time study to collect data from Company A’s facility showing how long it takes to complete different tasks. We focused on shift changes, shift cleanings, downstream issues and operational starts and stops. This data showed us where to implement new techniques to reduce the completion time of these jobs. For example, the lack of experience among the Company A employees led to tasks taking longer and the machine being down for a longer period. We implemented increased training helping workers become more comfortable with the printer equipment.

Overall, improving the OEE enhances the efficiency in the number of books produced per hour. If Canon does not meet their desired OEE rate with our suggestions, the rate will increase by approximately 10%. We provided a new break schedule, replacing employees rather than shutting down the entire printing line for breaks. The positive impact of our team’s adjustments can be applied to other Canon facilities. These changes help to increase Canon’s profits as their clients become capable of printing more books in a set amount of time.