KUWTP Ep. 28 | 29th November 2024 | Attempting to fix the turbine

Finals season or my final season? In the midst of our finals, we decided to squeeze some time and head to the MnT lab to fix the problem of our food dispenser getting jammed!

During the presentation, a major issue we faced was that food dispenser’s turbine was made of rubber and too soft. This caused the dog kibble to get stuck between the blades of the turbine and the sides of the container. A solution to this would be to purchase a motor with stronger rotating power, however there wasn’t sufficient time for us to purchase a motor. Hence, we decided to innovate and instead make modifications to our turbine.

The first modification we tried was to reinforce the turbine blades with corrugated board, making it firmer and thus less receptive to bending. However, this did not work and the blades were still as soft and bendy. The second modification we tried was to add pieces of cardboard between each blade, analogous to jamming a board to prevent the blades from bending. This method proved to be more fruitful, and instances of the dog food getting stuck reduced but was still prominent.

Overall, our modification was only semi-successful and we believe the only way to truly to eradicate the problem would be to get a motor with stronger rotating power!

Enjoy the clip below of our food dispenser in action ◡̈