Team 11 - Conclusions and Future Work

Conclusions

This semester, our team set out to engineer an effective way to automate the stamping and inking process for envelopes. While we did not get to see the mechanism actually stamp and ink itself due to the lack of a real stamp and ink pad, we still consider this project a great success. The desired motion of the stamping and inking motion were proven in the Final Prototype, theoretical analysis and qualitative assessments proved that the mechanism would apply ample force to effectively stamp and ink, and the mechanism proved to be fairly robust with minimal friction, despite a few compromises made during the assembly process. 

Future Work

While our integrated stamping and inking mechanism can be considered a success, there are a few changes, both minor and major, that we would like to address in future iterations of this mechanism. In early iterations of our mechanism, we found that our interfacing clamps transmitting high torques about the input shaft frequently slipped due to an insufficient clamping force. While this issue was temporarily resolved using larger clamps with more screws, we would like to drill a tapped hole in the input shaft itself to create keyed points where the gear and linkage could screw into. This way, the mechanism would not be able to physically slip unless the key screws sheared.

An issue with the conceptual design of the mechanism itself was the placement of the ink pad. In our final prototype, the ink pad was placed vertically- which would not work in practice because the ink would pool at the bottom of the ink pad. Thus, for future iterations, a way to mount the ink pad such that it is parallel to the ground while maintaining the same inking-stamping motion would be needed. In order to keep the same motion, it is likely that an additional linkage mechanism would need to be added in series with this existing mechanism. Another option would be to simply turn the mechanism such that it stamps parallel to the ground rather than perpendicular to the ground, but this would make packaging more cumbersome for the prospective customers.

Finally, integrating an automatic paper/envelope feeding mechanism would allow this mechanism to be fully automated. As it stands, a human worker would be needed to remove and insert envelopes between each stamping. With a printer-style feeder driven by conveyor belts, this human worker could be eliminated and the entire process can be automated for bulk envelope stamping.