FufuPot
Spring 2024

Scope: 4 months

Role: Hardware Engineer

Team Size: 11 engineers

Budget: $2500

Problem: Create a tabletop kitchen appliance that automizes the labor Intensive process of making boxed fufu

Includes:

A dual paddle mixing systems to mix the varying stages of fufu
A planetary gear system
A water dispensing system that accurately releases the needed amount of water for a recipe
An induction coil heating plate for cooking the fufu
A pot locking systems that allows for the removal of the pot
An 80-20 frame
A screen for user control and adjustability

My contributions: Mixing Subsytem

Tools:

Skills:

Contributions: Mixing Paddles

Tested different KitchAid paddles to determine the best paddles for different stages of cooked fufu
Designed a dual paddle design using sheet metal that allows the mixing of the powdery initial form, and stiff final dough form of boxed fufu
Includes an outer paddle that assists in mixing the powder off the edges of the pot
Includes an inner dough hook paddle for the later stages of cooking fufu
paddles are intgrated with the planetary gear system and are controlled by a DC motor

Contributions: Planetary Gear system

Includes a ring gear that is stationary, a single planet gear, and a shaft through the middle connecting to the motor
uses an SLA 3d printed enclosure for the gears that allow for smooth rotation between parts
The outer paddles connect to a 3d printed component that is secured to the center shaft, allowing it to rotate
the dough hook is connected to the planetary gear, which is mounted to the same housing as the outer paddles, but also rotates around its own axis as it spins around the ring gear
Worm gears are used to connect the motor to the planetary gear system.

Planetary Gear system: Results

Initial testing of the gears revealed issues with alignment of the worm gears, causing the motor to make loud noises and eventually stop. Given the size of the frame, there wasn't enough space for the motor to move properly to align the shaft. After many different considerations, the frame was eventually able to be adjusted and the alignment was fixed.
After the initial testing and changes, the gears worked very well and as intended!

Final paddle design

Mixing Paddles: Results

The paddles were affective in mixing the dough form of the fufu, however struggled to properly mix the powder form into the water.
- More testing needs to be done with the shape of the outer paddle, as well as testing the clearance between the paddle and the pot to better redesign the paddle to be more effective.
The final built design did not perfectly align with the CAD model, resulting in the paddles being too high up to properly mix fufu.
- We did not have enough time to reorder parts, so the the 3d printed printed parts were redesigned to compensate for the height different, allowing the project to better represent what we intended when handing it off to the clients
- For future iterations, the sheet metal paddles themselves should be redesign to sit lower on the machine.

Worm gear system

3d-printed test for planetary gears

The mechanical engineers on the team!