Design of an automated wood-pallet machine

This article discusses an applied engineering project on the design and test of a wood-pallet machine that was supervised and sponsored by the Technology Application Center (TAC) at Old Dominion University. A hydraulic-power machine was designed to press six metal plates simultaneously onto six end surfaces of a wood pallet, which is used to stack items during movement or storage. Operation of this machine significantly reduces the manual hammering from four minutes to forty-five seconds. Students were guided to design the mechanical components and hydraulic power system. The animating software uses Automation Studio and Autodesk Inventor to simulate the system during the design stage before the machine is fabricated. Design equations are also evaluated in this article.