SKR Engineering College designs semi-automatic crystal printing machine

Chennai: Students from SKR Engineering College in Chennai have come up with a crystal printing machine, a semi-automatic which can print upto 3,000 pieces per hour. It consists of a rotating table, pneumatic cylinders, punching setup and automatic arm. It is controlled by a programmable logic controller (PLC).

“If we load any object the machine will measure, print and unload the object. Compared to a manual machine which can print 300 pieces per hour, this semi-automatic machine can print 3,000 pieces per hour,” said R.Sathish, one of the two final year students who designed the machine. Another student from the department P.Vinodh Kumar also worked in this project.

It can print on any object or material like plastic, metal, ceramics. This machine was developed as part of the MSME project. “Any object within the 30 cm length and 12 cm width can be printed on this machine. We developed this machine at 25% of the cost of the machine developed by China,” said M.Senthil Kumar, Professor, Mechanical engineering department and Principal, SKR Engineering College. He and another faculty Rajesh Kumar guided the students on this project. “The important aspect is that we mastered the PLC technology which is like a brain for automatic machines. Still we need to address some issues. Then we can develop more automatic machines for industrial use,” he said.