Vertical Rollers Testing

During the previous two days, we attempted to design and prototype different roller orientations with minimal success. Before we were able to record a video of the horizontal roller setup, we determined that the setup held the ball well(going forward). While attempting to move the prototype backward, the ball would not stay in contact with the roller.

Oy. We determined that his was definately a problem. Horizontal roller utilizing a 1/2″ diameter round shaft will not meet our required specifications.

We moved onto an idea that our student design group envisioned… dual vertical rollers.

The vertical roller test(s) utilized the following parameters:

1. One roller spinning at half speed, one at full

2. One roller with rotational resistance, one roller at half speed(This test demonstrated the best results)

3. Both rollers spinning at full speed

We determined that the vertical roller setup requires that the ball is only pulled into the prototype under a specific set of conditions. (It doesn’t really work…..)

Please note that this is a proof of concept test.

(There was a video here that has sadly been lost in the archives.)

The artist depiction below displays the team hard at work on new prototypes.