rtcosic
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In my mind, I had a section of large diameter pipe with three vertical slots running down most of its length. The cheese (or fruit or rubbish to be compacted) sits inside.
Thick round plate with three ears sits in the pipe on top of the target material to be compressed. The ears extend well beyond the OD of the pipe through the slots.
The stationary part of each seat mechanism attaches to an ear, so the screw runs externally. Three of them so the plate travels down square - and there is three times to power to do the squishing. It would be very easy to fit two to each ear to give six.
I suppose you could fit as many as you needed to increase the power. Change the design to have more ears until the integrity of the pipe is compromised by the proportion of its circumference that is cut away to accommodate all the slots!
I thought cheese and fruit presses had to have drainage slots anyway?
Add the cheap bathroom scales load cells to manage the pressure/time curve.
Edit: or as @sako243 says below use the current sensing feature of the seat mechanism to estimate it. But as you have different sized molds and raw materials of different composition and strain gauges are so cheap and you will have more than enough processing power I would measure the load directly. Just use the current sensing to cut power in the event of some malfunction.
I think the seat screw mechanism has a revolution counter for the memory function so that can be used to drive the pressure plate back up and clear of the pipe at the end of the cycle. Half of the pipe cut away at the top to provide access for loading. Or have the whole pressure plate and mechanism able to swing clear for loading.
The motors never stall as they are just turning an Acme screw to a particular position then the power is turned off. The Acme threaded screw doesn't unwind so doesn't need power permanently applied.
I am assuming this is a hobby and part of the enjoyment is in making the press and automating it. If this is commercial scale production.........................
Thick round plate with three ears sits in the pipe on top of the target material to be compressed. The ears extend well beyond the OD of the pipe through the slots.
The stationary part of each seat mechanism attaches to an ear, so the screw runs externally. Three of them so the plate travels down square - and there is three times to power to do the squishing. It would be very easy to fit two to each ear to give six.
I suppose you could fit as many as you needed to increase the power. Change the design to have more ears until the integrity of the pipe is compromised by the proportion of its circumference that is cut away to accommodate all the slots!
I thought cheese and fruit presses had to have drainage slots anyway?
Add the cheap bathroom scales load cells to manage the pressure/time curve.
Edit: or as @sako243 says below use the current sensing feature of the seat mechanism to estimate it. But as you have different sized molds and raw materials of different composition and strain gauges are so cheap and you will have more than enough processing power I would measure the load directly. Just use the current sensing to cut power in the event of some malfunction.
I think the seat screw mechanism has a revolution counter for the memory function so that can be used to drive the pressure plate back up and clear of the pipe at the end of the cycle. Half of the pipe cut away at the top to provide access for loading. Or have the whole pressure plate and mechanism able to swing clear for loading.
The motors never stall as they are just turning an Acme screw to a particular position then the power is turned off. The Acme threaded screw doesn't unwind so doesn't need power permanently applied.
I am assuming this is a hobby and part of the enjoyment is in making the press and automating it. If this is commercial scale production.........................