Before we could move any further we had to do some crush tests to determine the forces our machine will need to produce. We used a Tinius-Olsen materials testing machine here at VTC. This machine is normally used to determine the forces required to destroy a material in shear, stress, or strain. Here are a few pictures of the machine:
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| The Tinius-Olsen machine |
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| The middle plate can be set at any height, and the bottom plate is lifted using hydraulics |
Our first round of tests was for a target 1" cube. We used various forms that we created to crush the cans similar to the way we would on our crusher. For the first crush we jumped right to the 24oz. cans, since we knew that would provide the most resistance, and therefore require more force to crush. The final crush came in at a whopping 8,000 lbs of force! This was far more than either of us expected, and brought into question whether or not we could feasibly crush down to this size. Either way, we knew we would have to test other sizes as well. Here is our first set of results.
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| We started with the 24oz can but tested all three sizes for more complete test results |
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