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.
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.
Two ball bearings were selected from a catalog to hold the weight of the assembly and allow smooth motion.
Before and after assembly of the machine was complete, we timed the various components and programmed the Raspberry Pie to time the operation of the grinder, mixer, extruder, and water valve to enable a smooth bread production line.