DESIGNING FOR
THE FUTURE
The current global population is 7.2 billion. It is projected to increase by 1 billion over the next 12 years. There is only 5% of usable farming land left on earth. Food is a resource that humans must consume daily. These facts undeniably lead to a shortage of food in the future. It is essential to mankind survival that farming becomes more efficient and sustainable. This provided the motivation to design a more efficient transmission for the Victair Mistifier
The idea behind this project is to manufacture a gear box that will employ the PTO (power take off) from a tractor, and rotate two directional fans simultaneously, but in opposite directions.
The gear box receives power from the PTO of a tractor. The gearing inside the gearbox is geared up to increase the rotational speed of the fans. The gear box employs a through shaft design so that the input shaft and one of the fans will be collinear. Upon output, the two collinear fans rotate in opposite directions.
DESIGN
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INSPIRATION
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The Victair Mistifier utilizes a dual fan system that produces 80 %< 50-micron droplets - using component saving, low pump pressure at 30-100psi. We use two highly efficient forward-pitched centrifugal fans inside a special designed housing to compress and pressurize the air. As the 145+ mph pressurized air blast exits from the volutes, it expands roughly 5 times; air shearing the chemical droplets into an average mean 50-micron size. Breaking the larger droplets into the smaller 50-micron droplets will increase spray coverage. The highly turbulent swirling air dissipates quickly, helping to reduce the air drift.
After testing, we can see that we are well under our desired max temperature of 165F.
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WORK
VICTAIR MISTIFIER GEARBOX
The scope of the project is to design, develop, and test a gearbox that optimizes the overall function of the sprayer. This was achieved by replacing 19 major components with 8. This design decreases material costs, increases manufacturability, and decreases assembly time. The gearbox receives power from the tractor’s power take-off (PTO) via the input shaft. It transmits the power through machine elements to two shafts that power the sprayer fans. The fans will spin in opposite directions at an equal, desired rotational speed. The transmission will be enclosed in an engineered metal casted housing. The gearbox design was proven, by the prototype, to perform to specifications while maintaining an oil temperature of less than 90 degrees Celsius.
