Second Round of Testing

After our first tests yielded such large forces we realized we needed more testing to see how different sizes would affect our results. We did more cans of each size, and crushed the cans to our minimum requirement of 1.5" x 1.5" x 1.5". This gave us the minimum forces that we would have to meet to crush the cans.

Forces are an average of three cans

As expected the force required to crush the can is 1700 lbs. Far more manageable than 8000 lbs. However, this is the minimum. So we did some further testing by taking some cans crushed to 1.5" x 1.5" and tested the forces to crush them to three different sizes on the final crush.

Click to enlarge

After these tests, we decided to go with the final crush size of 1.5" x 1.5" x 1". This brings our final required force to 3200 lbs, and brings us under the minimum crush size. And since more power means more money, this compromise will also reduce the cost of the machine.

While we aren't shooting for 8000 lbs anymore, our initial design is still going to need some reworking to provide more torque. So back to the drawing board.