Design and fabrication of a semi-automatic paper petal compression machine with a pneumatic system

Abstract

This research presents the design and creation of a semi-automatic paper petal press machine with pneumatics to wrinkle paper petals for making artificial flowers. It is consisted of a two-cylinder pneumatic circuit for pressing to wrinkle paper petals and an electrical control circuit. Time delay relays are used to control the operating steps of the cylinders as well as the control system is also designed to operate by pushing the start buttons simultaneously with both hands to increase safety while working. From operating test, the press machine can operate according to the design conditions and pressing to wrinkle paper petals of 55-gram and 65-gram weights, a dimension of 60x60 mm, with 20 to 40 sheets per one press at compressed air pressure of 6 bar are experimented. The experiment results show that 55-gram and 65-gram paper provide the similar results. Overall, the 40 sheets of paper petals yield the best results which have the obvious wrinkles and most consistent wrinkled appearance.