Improvement in Design of Universal Testing Machine

Salman Amin, Sami Ullah, Rafay Safdar, Hamza Altaf

ABSTRACT

Material properties like yield strength, ultimate tensile strength (UTS), compressive strength and
fracture strength play crucial role in design and manufacturing of every part in all machines with
no exceptions. The values of these properties are obtained by testing a standardized specimen of a
material in a universal testing machine (UTM). In Pakistan no research has been performed on
design and manufacturing of universal testing machine. This research is intended to present a
modified mechanical and electrical design of UTM. This paper provides details of mechanical
design of UTM along with FEA analysis of critical parts. Complete electronic circuitry of machine
has also been presented as well. Modification in mechanical design includes use of gear train
instead of belt and pulley mechanism for power transmission and modification in electrical design
is the use of stepper motor instead of conventional servo motor to enhance position control
accuracy and reduce power consumption. This paper also analyzes impacts of low power
consumption of proposed stepper motor on CO2 emissions and hence also covers environmental
impacts of machine operation.
Key Words: UTM, FEA, gear train, stepper motor, CO2

1. INTRODUCTION these machines were being developed from

1850-1880, the design was not standardized
UTM (Universal Testing Machine) belongs and large number of the manufacturers were
to category of machines that are used for striving to build their own machine [2].In
material characterization. This machine can 1880 a Philadelphia engineer Tinius Olsen, a
perform a variety of tests like tensile test, Norwegian immigrant designed and patented
shear test, torsion test, compression test, a machine that later became famous as the
creep test and etc. depending upon its design “Little Giant”. Back then all of the material
and capability. These machines are used in tests required separate machine and only one
almost every design industry to obtain test could be performed on one machine.
characteristic properties of material being Olsen’s instrument was the first machine that
used to manufacture products. UTMs test could perform tensile, transverse and
provide quality control staff and engineers compression tests all alone. Olsen’s
with valuable data that is used not only to mechanism became the ancestor of all
characterize materials but can also be used subsequent testing machines that started
for pass/fail testing of finished parts and being produced worldwide and on Feb 6th
assemblies [1]. Universal Testing Machines 1880 Olsen submitted an application for a
have been in existence since 1800’s in patent ‘new and useful improvement in
various forms. One of the primitive use was testing machines” and patent no. 228214 was
to test the strength of steel to be used in steam given to him on June 1, 1880 [3].Since then a
power boilers. While many basic models of lot of advancements have been made to the
design of UTM’s to improve the accuracy of Analysis of carbon emission in
results, to reduce cost and improve controls environmental analysis shows that designed
and software systems. machine is also efficient in reducing carbon
emissions to the environment. In the next
Major components of UTM include section of this paper methodology that we
mechanical structure, ball screws, load cell, adopted to design this machine has been
extensometer, motor, motor driver and other discussed and then details of mechanical
electronic circuitry components have been design and electronic circuit have been
shown in labelled diagram of complete documented and at the end analysis of carbon
machine Fig.2. Testing in UTMs is done emission during manufacturing and operation
while adopting some standard procedures i.e. of 50 kN machine has been performed. Once
size and shape of specimen should be in manufactured this machine would local
accordance to some standard, rate of industries and academic institutes save the
loading/strain rate should be pre-defined and hefty extra cost they have to bear in the form
frequency of data plotting should also be in import duties on these type of machines.
line with the required accuracy of results.
ASTM-E8 standard [4] had been chosen for
testing on designed UTM because it is
acceptable in large number of countries 2. METHODOLOGY
around the world. Moreover, designed The approach taken to complete this project
machine is controlling rate of load was to study the already available Universal
application on test specimen through the Testing Machines and then use reverse
speed of cross head whose range is 1-100 engineering along with creativity to devise a
mm/min. The speed of cross head, that user pragmatic working solution. Conventionally,
enters is adjusted by making stepper motor servo motors are used to power these
rotate at required rpm. machines but the stepper motor used in the
Our research is focused to improve the design new design has a lower electrical power
and control of machine effectively while rating which not only saves product and
keeping the economic and environmental electricity costs but also makes the machine
aspects in view. This paper shows more environment friendly.
improvements in mechanical and electrical After doing months of literature review we
aspects of UTM design. In the mechanical were able to understand the overall design as
design the belt and pulley mechanism, for the well as function of each individual
transmission of torque from motor pinion to component of UTM. After that the 3D-model
ball screws has been replaced by gear of each of component of machine was made
assembly. This would remove the error in using SolidWorks (2017) software. At first
position measurement arising due to slippage exact dimensions of components were not
of belt on pulleys. Moreover, in electronics known so observation of the machine which
area modification pertains to the type of was already available at the GIK institute
actuating motor. Stepper motor has been gave us estimate of dimensions of machine
brought into use instead of previously used components according to different load
servo motor which is known for its better capacities.
accuracy in position measurement.
Furthermore, the rating of motor used in As the design process is iterative so we kept
designed machine has been compared with on making changes to the design accordingly
that of an already available model in market. to meet the conflicting requirements such as
high safety and local manufacturing
capability, compatibility of load cells and
grips and their availability and other make or
buy decisions at the conceptual design stage.
Ball screws were selected to be able to meet
load bearing requirements from standard
products catalogue by HIWIN Corp.
Moreover, the decision to use stepper motor
instead of servo motor was also made after
comprehensive consultation with advisors
due to high position accuracy and low power
consumption as compared to traditional servo
motor. Furthermore, the decision of using
gear train instead of belt and pulley for the
transmission was also made unanimously by
the design team and the advisors given less
chances of position measuring error with the
use of gear train. Fig.1 shows the flow of
signals or commands in the electrical circuit
of designed machine.
Design of this machine is H-type, vertical
table top or floor placing. This design was
selected after performing design selection
methods. The methods used for concept
design selection are PUGH’s Method and
Measurement Scale Comparison. The
selection parameters were Load Capacity,
Test Types, Moveable Length, Column Type, Fig.1- Electrical Signal Flow in UTM
Maintenance, Reliability and Overall Cost of
machine. A prototype was also developed to
test the working of designed electronic circuit
of machine.
3. ELECTRONIC CIRCUITRY

V- GND
V+ ANG
Vin

Stepper_Motor ACS712
1 5V
B- A+ 2
B+ A-
Motor_Driver 3 3V3
NEMA34 4
RESET
A+ ENA-
A- ENA+
B+ DIR- 5
B- DIR+
Vin PUL- 6
GND PUL+
7
Motor_Power
8
VIN
36V
P10
1
Arduino_Power 1
2 P1
P11 3 P2
2

P12 4 P3
3

P13 5 P4
4
5
V- GND E+ VCC
P5
Rd
Bk

V+ ANG 6 E- SCK
Load Cell 6
Vin
7
A- DT
P6
We
Gn

A+ GND
7
ACS712 8
B- B+
P7 8
Arduino_PWM_2
Amplifier HX711 P8
Arduino_PWM_1

Fig. 2-Electronic Circuitry of Designed Machine

The components that we used for integration Starting with motor connections, NEMA 34
and interfacing of control systems of our stepper motor has 4 wires A+, A-, B+ and B-
machine are as follow and have been shown . A+ and A- wires of stepper motor are
in Fig.2: connected to A+ and A- connections of motor
driver through V+ and V- of ACS712 current
1) Microcontroller-Arduino sensor respectively. Similarly, B+ and B-
2) Nema 34-stepper Motor wires of motor are connected to B+ and B- of
ACS712 current sensors motor driver again
3) Stepper motor driver
through V+ and V- wires.
4) AC to DC power supply
5) Load cell ACS712 sensors also get 5V voltage from
6) HX711 amplifier Arduino. ANG pin of ACS712 of A+- motor
wires is connected to digital pin 10 of
7) Current sensors ACS712 Arduino while that of B+-motor wires is
connected to digital pin 12 of Arduino. Motor
Description of connections driver is getting 36 V from DC power supply;
Arduino Mega has been used for controlling its ENA+ pin is connected to digital pin 13 of
motor motion and configuring load cell. Arduino, DIR+ pin is connected to digital pin
8 of Arduino while PUL+ pin is connected to machine operation. Deep grove ball bearings
digital pin 9 of Arduino via male to male are used to align ball screws vertically which
jumper wires. ENA-, DIR-, and PUL- pins of are housed in upper support plate. Model of
motor driver are grounded. Now coming to machine with components labeled is shown
load cell, it also has got four wires of different in Fig.3.
colors i.e. red, black, white and green coming
out of it. Red wire is connected to E+, white
to A+, black to E- and green to A- of HX 711
amplifier. HX 711 amplifier is being used to
amplify signals of load cell as the signals
produced by load cell are too weak to be
detected by Arduino directly. That is why
load cell is connected to Arduino via HX711
module. HX711 also receives 5V from
Arduino at its Vcc pin. SCK pin of HX 711 is
connected to digital pin 2 while DT pin is
connected to digital pin 3 of Arduino.
To control motion of motor a code have been
written that converts the value for cross head
speed (entered by user) into required rpm of
motor shaft and sets motor rotating at that
speed. Through this code a signal is given to
motor driver through Arduino and motor
rotates accordingly. Output of load cell is
recorded through HX711 and Arduino and it Fig.3 - Labelled diagram of complete machine
can be plotted against extensometer data to
have a stress-strain curve. Gear transmission mechanism is used to
transfer rotational motion of motor to ball
4. MECHANICAL DESIGN & screws. It consists of triangular arrangement
with one pinion (with smallest diameter), two
ANALYSIS
idler gears, and two (with largest diameter)
Machine structure with specimen gripped to driven gears which are attached to ball
base is used in designing of machine. Cross- screws. Assembly of gear transmission is
head applies load to specimen by its upward shown in Fig.4.
or downward motion. Cross head is basically
a solid block of metal with housing space for
load cell and flange nuts of ball screws. The
motion of cross-head is speed controlled, and
this is driven by the stepper motor for high
accuracy in movements. The linear vertical
motion of cross-head is provided by using
ball screws, which converts rotational motion
to linear motion. Guide supports are used for
constraint motion of cross-head in vertical Fig.4 - Gear train
direction and to provide support to upper Base of machine is a solid block of metal with
support plate, linear bearings or bushings are cavities for bearing housing for ball screw
used to prevent any unwanted friction during
and guide supports. It is fixed to the frame
which is placed on either floor or table top.
Base is shown in Fig.5.

Fig.7– FEA of Cross Head

𝜎𝑣𝑜𝑛−𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 = 41.62 𝑀𝑃𝑎

𝜎𝑌 = 530 𝑀𝑃𝑎
Fig.5 – Base Plate 𝜎𝑣𝑜𝑛−𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 < 𝜎𝑌
The major loads applied on the cross head Factor of Safety = 12.7
and base is during testing of materials which
is up to 50000 N. To take this loading in to 5. TESTING
account static load analysis was performed
using ANSYS 2016. Load of 60000 N was Prototype of machine was developed to test
applied to determine factor of safety and electronic systems and software. This
bending stresses using von-Mises failure prototype resembles the real design of
criteria. The cross-head and base material machine in every aspect which was necessary
used in analysis was AISI 1045 CD. The for testing purpose, specifications of
results are shown in Fig.6 and Fig.7. prototype are shown in table-1.
There is one motor which drives belt and
pulley mechanism. The speed of cross-head
is controlled by syncing motor rotations with
cross-head motion. For one rotation of motor
displacement of cross-head is measured and
using time to make this displacement speed
of cross-head is calculated. For strain
measurement change in length is measured
by counting how many rotations lead screw
make for one rotation of motor and dividing
this value by gauge length of specimen. Load
applied is measured by using load cell. All
Fig.6 – FEA of Base Plate
these calculations are performed by
𝜎𝑣𝑜𝑛−𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 = 99.36 𝑀𝑃𝑎 programming in MATLAB 2018b software
and stress strain graph is plotted on GUI
𝜎𝑌 = 530 𝑀𝑃𝑎 (Graphical user interface) using data
accusation by using ARDUINO
𝜎𝑣𝑜𝑛−𝑀𝑖𝑠𝑒𝑠 < 𝜎𝑌 microcontroller. Prototype with parts labeled
Factor of safety = 5 is shown in Fig.8.
 Table-1 6. ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
The two categories in which UTM has
Characteristic Description/Specification
environmental impact are: Design &
Sizing 1:0.5 manufacturing of machine and its operation.
The waste material produced during
Wooden Composite manufacturing is swarf (metal chips) from
(Machine Frame) machining of mechanical parts such as cross-
Material head, base etc. Swarf does not have much
Mild Steel (Screws,
Pulley, Motor Mount) impact on the environment because it can be
recycled by melting but there is some CO2
Load emission associated with recycling. Special
200 N
Capacity equipment is available for recycling which
convert scrap to briquettes (metal cylinders).
Actuating Electromechanical (Belt
These mechanical parts are made of steel and
Mechanism & Pulley)
carbon emission factor for recycling is 0.44
Orientation Vertical kgCO2/kg steel [5]. So, recycling is
producing less carbon dioxide which is a
Software Matlab GUI good factor for environment. These
Micro briquettes can be used again in
ARDUINO manufacturing or it can be sold separately as
Controller
a separate by-product.
Specimen Lead Wire, Copper Wire
The other carbon emission is associated with
design of machine. This include emission
related to material used in machine like steel,
copper, plastics, aluminum, etc. The
emissions in this respect are calculated with
kg of CO2 produced per kg of respective
material values. CO2 emissions are tabulated
in Table-2.
Table-2

Material Mass CO2

(kg) Emission (kg
of CO2)

Steel 418.6 650.923

Copper 0.2 0.542
Plastic 0.02 0.0372
Aluminum 1 11.46
Fig.8-Labelled Diagram of Developed
Prototype
Total carbon emissions in design of machine results of critical parts have been shown.
is calculated to be about 662 kg CO2. Furthermore, the electronic circuit has also
been presented and validated by its
The environmental impact is due to operating successful implementation on developed
equipment like motor, computers, and prototype. This machine has also been
microcontrollers etc. which include power designed so as to keep manufacturing and
consumption. This machine is using stepper operational costs at minimum. Moreover, the
motor which consumes low power and performance results of fully developed 50kN
provide better control, conventional machine will be submitted in near future.
machines use servo motors with high torque
capacity which consumes more power. The
stepper motor used in this design is coupled
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