Bread Making Machine

✓ The bread making machine turns wheat grain into bread using a simple automatic process.

✓ The design combined expertise in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, programming, and product design.

✓ A Windshield Wiper Motor was used to spread out the extruded doe onto the conveyor belt. The motor’s rotary motion was converted to linear motion

In 2016, the Bloomfield Science Museum decided to design an agricultural exhibition.

Bread Machine full CAD model – the right side is where the wheat is grinded, and doe is mixed. The doe travels to the left into the oven

The bread machine was intended to show museum visitors how bread is industrially manufactured.

The machine works in the following manner:

• Wheat grain are loaded at the top of a rectangular cone.

• The cone feeds the grain into a grinder.

• The grinder connects to a mixer/extruder machine.

• The doe is extruded on to a conveyor belt which goes into an oven.

BREAD MACHINE

FULL CAD MODEL

The right side is where the wheat is grinded, and doe is mixed. The doe travels to the left into the oven

A team consisting of a system engineer, two electrical engineers, a product designer, 3 technicians and myself was tasked with this design.

We started with the requirements:

1) The machine must run with only a press of a button

2) Easily serviceable

3) Easily operated by non-engineers

4) Transparent walls so visitors can see how the mechanisms in action

We chose a versatile pasta machine that can mix doe as well as extrude it. The electrical engineers hacked the pasta maker and connected it to a raspberry pie. I installed an electric water valve to regulate the water coming into the mixer chamber. A coffee grinder was chosen to grind the wheat.

We considered several ways to load wheat, which is quite heavy, into the machine. It came down to a choice between hanging the wheat container on a rope pully system or simply mounting the wheat directly on top of the grinder machine. We chose the direct mounting for simplicity and safety reasons.

I wanted the conveyor belt to aid in the extrusion of the doe. I also wanted to use the entire width of the conveyor belt. Therefore, we mounted the wheat cone, grinder, and mixer/extruder on one stack and used a windshield wiper engine to push it from side to side. The rotating axle coming out of the engine is translated to a linear motion which produces swath movement. Rods with swiveling ball joints facilitate this movement. Video of the machine in motion.