VISVESVARAYA TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY Jnana Sangama, Belgavi, Karnataka – 590 014 Project Report on “AUTOMATED RUBBER TAPPING MACHINE” Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of degree of BACHELOR OF ENGINEERING IN MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SUBMITTED BY SAGAR K 1NH14ME109 SREESH S KRISHNA 1NH14ME123 SUSHREETH PUTHRAN 1NH14ME128 SYED ANIES 1NH14ME130 Under the guidance of Mr. SUJEETH SWAMI Asst. Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING NEW HORIZON COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING BANGALORE-560 103 2017-18 DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING CERTIFICATE It is certified that the project entitled “AUTOMATED RUBBER TAPPING MACHINE” is work carried out by Sagar K, Sreesh S Krishna,Sushreeth Puthran,Syed Anies, a bonafide student of New Horizon College of Engineering, Bangalore in partial fulfillment for the award of degree of Bachelor of Engineering in Mechanical Engineering of the Visvesvaraya Technological University, Belgaum during the year 2017-18. It is further certified that all corrections/suggestions indicated for internal assessment has been incorporated in the report deposited in the departmental library. The Project Report has been approved as it satisfies the academic requirements in respect of Project Work prescribed for the said degree. Signature of the guide Signature of the HOD Signature of the Principal Mr. SUJEETH SWAMI Dr. M S GANESHA PRASAD Dr. MANJUNATHA Asst. Professor Dean-Student Affairs & HOD-ME, Principal Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, NHCE NHCE NHCE Name(s) of the student: University Seat Number(s): 1. SAGAR K 1NH14ME109 2. SREESH S KRISHNA 1NH14ME123 3. SUSHREETH PUTHRAN 1NH14ME128 4. SYED ANIES 1NH14ME130 External Examiner(s) Signature with Date 1. 2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT The sense of contentment and elation that accompanies the successful completion of our task would be incomplete without mentioning the names of the people who helped in accomplishment of this project whose constant guidance, support and encouragement resulted in its realization. We are deeply indebted to our Project Guide, Mr. SUJEETH SWAMI, Assistant Professor, Dept. of M.E Engineering, NHCE, Bangalore for his valuable guidance, encouragement and supervision in completing the project and without whose support this task would have been only a mere thought. We sincerely thank our H.O.D, Dr. M S GANESHA PRASAD, Department of M.E Engineering, NHCE, Bangalore for all his support and extending corporation. We are thankful to acknowledge our profound gratitude to our Principal, Dr. MANJUNATHA, NHCE, Bangalore, for all the infrastructure and facilities provided during our study in this institution. We express our sincere thanks to Teaching and Non-Teaching staff of E&C Dept. and all our friends who helped us directly or indirectly for the successful completion of the work Finally, We want to express our deepest respect to our parents, lecturers, friends and loved ones for their continued moral and material support and in helping us to finalize the Project. Sagar K 1NH14ME109 Sreesh S Krishna 1NH14ME123 Sushreeth Puthran 1NH14ME128 Syed Anies 1NH14ME130 ABSTRACT Rubber tapping is the process of extraction of latex from rubber trees. Rubber tree tapping is considered to be a skill oriented job. During the tapping process, the taper has to make a downward half spiral incision on the tree bark to extract the white milky liquid called latex. On a typical day, a rubber tapper has to tap about 500 to 800 rubber trees manually with a tapping tool within a specified time of the day. Availability of skilled laborers who could accomplish this mammoth task is getting scarce as days pass by. Even though cheap unskilled labor is available, without appropriate time and training they would end up damaging the tree. The automated rubber tapering machine designed here would replace the manual labor required for the tapping process. Also with a clock feature to control the timing of the tapping process, higher yield of rubber latex could be obtained. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I ABSTRACT II TABLE OF CONTENTS III LIST OF FIGURES IV LIST OF TABLES V 1.INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction of the project 2-4 1.2 Conventional approach 4-6 1.3 Manual rubber tapping 6 1.4 Rubber tree trunk 6 1.5 Starting the tapping 7-9 1.6 Harvesting the latex 9-10 1.7 Harvesting the latex at right time 10-11 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Advance rubber tree tapping machine 13-14 2.2 Automated rubber tapping machine 14-15 2.3 Comparison with the existing approaches 15 2.4 Semi automatic rubber tree tapping machine 16 2.5 Musculoskeletal problems and ergonomic risk assessment 16-17 in Rubber tappers:A community-based study in southern Thailand 2.6 Autonomous navigation in rubber plantations 17 3.SYSTEM OVERVIEW 3.1 Schematic of the mechanical model 19 3.2 Block diagram description 20 3.2.1 Arduino UNO3(atmega328) 20 3.2.2 Relay board 20 3.2.3 Vertical motor 20 3.2.4 Horizontal motor 21 3.2.5 IR sensors 21 3.2.6 Limit switch 22 3.2.7 Power supply 22 4.COMPONENTS AND METHODOLOGY 4.1 DC geared motors 23-25 4.1.1 Motor used for the horizontal movement 25 4.1.2 Motor used for the vertical movement 25-26 4.2 Lead screw 26-27 4.2.1 Square thread form 27-28 4.3 Gear 28-29 4.3.1 Spur gears 29-30 4.4 Cutting tools 30-31 4.5 Arduino Uno Rev 3 31-32 4.5.1 Technical specification 32-33 4.5.2 Power 34-35 4.5.3 Memory 35 4.5.4 Input and Output 35-37 4.6 Relay 37-38 4.7 Relay driver 37 4.7.1 Features 38 4.7.2 Pin functions 38-40 4.8 IR sensors 40-41 5.SOFTWARE DESCRIPTION 5.1 Programming using arduino 43-44 5.1.1 Automatic reset 44-45 5.2 Mechanical design using creo pro software 45-46 6.WORKING PRINCIPLE 6.1 Working principle 48-49 6.2 Flow chart 49-50 6.3 Calculations 51-52 7.RESULT 53 8. CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK 55 REFERENCES 56 LIST OF FIGURES Fig.No Figure Name Page.No 1.1 Rubber plantation 3 1.2 Manual rubber tapping process 5 1.3 Collecting the rubber latex 5 1.4 Cross-section of rubber tree 7 1.5 Surface of bark 7 1.6 Spiral cut 8 1.7 Tool 8 1.8 Collecting process 9 1.9 Side view of bark 10 3.1 Schematic of mechanical model 19 3.2 Block diagram 20 4.1 Cross-sectional view of DC motor 24 4.2 Geared DC motor 60rpm 25 4.3 Geared DC motor 200pm 26 4.4 Lead screw 27 4.5 Lead screw parameters 27 4.6 Picture of a gear 28 4.7 Gear parameters 28 4.8 Power transmission 29 4.9 Cutting tool 30 4.10 Cutting tool parameters 31 4.11 Arduino Uno Rev 31 4.12 Pin mapping 35 4.13 Arduino parts 36 4.14 IR sensor 41 5.1 Arduino program 43 5.2 Frame structure 3D model 45 5.3 Motor and blade placement design 46 5.4 Final 3D CAD design 46 6.1 Block diagram of model 48 6.2 Flow chart 50 7.1 Working model 53 LIST OF TABLES Table.No Table Name Page.No 4.1 Lead screw specification 28 4.2 Spur gear specification 30 4.3 Technical specification of arduino 32 4.4 Pin functions of relay driver 38 4.5 Sensor specification 41 Automated Rubber Tapping Machine 2017-18 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Department of Mechanical Engineering., NHCE, Bangalore Page 1 Automated Rubber Tapping Machine 2017-18 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction of the Project Rubber is a plantation crop that is widely grown in southern India. There exists a vast majority of rubber cultivators in Karnataka and Kerala. The rubber plant is not a native plant of India. Dutch colonialists who also cultivated rubber in their plantations in Indonesia introduced the rubber plant to Kerala, India; because of its similar tropical climate. Rubber is an economic crop. The rubber plant produces sticky, white latex that is collected and processed to produce natural rubber. Natural rubber is an elastomer that was originally derived from latex, a milky colloid produced from Hevea brasiliensis or Rubber tree. A rubber plant has to grow for about seven years before it can be harvested on a regular basis. A rubber tree can produce latex for over 25 years from when it is first tapped. Rubber trees have straight trunks and smooth green leaves. The tree would be ‘tapped’, that is, an incision is made into the bark of the tree. The latex from within the tree seeps to the surface of the cut and trickles down the cut into a container, tied to the trunk of the tree .This rubber latex is harvested from trees through a process called “rubber tapping”. The tree bark on the inner side contains layers of vessels called lactiferous vessels. This contains the rubber latex. A cut is to be made into layer that contains these vessels to extract the latex. This layer of vessels is very close to the Cambium layer of the rubber tree. During the tapping process care should be taken as to avoid the blade in the tapering tool to go deep into the bark and damage the cambium. If the cambium is damaged, the damaged area will form bulged uneven surface post healing. The damaged cambium makes the tree susceptible to microbial attacks, which in worst case could kill the tree.