25x Scale Prototype

Hand-operated, 25x scale prototype for cylindrical seed plasma reactor.

Year: 2023

Role: R&D Engineer

Collaborators: Head Plasma Scientist

Problem

How to scale a 30-gram seed reactor design for initial production, when you are constrained to keep the same overall dimensions of the device due to consistency of experimental data? And where robotic automation is still beyond reach of time and resources? 

Strategy

Simplify the handling for each technician as much as possible: units must be easily carried (no more than shoulder width long), lightweight, interchangeable and durable enough to be knocked/ shaken without losing dimensional tolerance. Material must be plasma/Uv/corrosion resistant and food safe while not using stainless steels. Sought to emulate a sort of ‘screen printing’ type of action. Also needed to solve access- the larger the array of cells, the farther technicians needed to reach inside of the gas-tight enclosure. Parts need to be mass produced and interchangeable as much as possible, to minimize hand-fitting, and enable spares.

Results

Solution: sliding rail system to improve access, added cam cleats to automatically lock trays in place with sliding action. Spring loaded electrical connections to further reduce technician movements. Modular design to allow spare trays to be made. 3-member truss design to maximize rigidity while keeping lightweight. Later DOEs allowed combination of cells into one long cell; consistent design interfaces and dimensions enabled this conversion to be done quickly. This design outperformed all consultant-made fully automated devices, until a more effective automated system could be constructed. And allowed the completion of customer orders, and accelerated experimental progress.