ALUMINUM MEAT TENDERIZER

 

Name:         Lytrel Brown
 

For:             EGR 367
 

Date:          April 23, 1999
 

Attn:           Dr. Hugh Jack

 

 

SUMMARY

The purpose of the semester project for Manufacturing Processes, EGR 367, is to give engineering students exposure to at least 10 different types of manufacturing processes. These processes include milling, cutting, taping, drilling, etc. This report describes the design ,construction and considerations used in the design of an aluminum meat tenderizer.
 

DESIGN

The design of the meat tenderizer consists of two major components. These parts are a circular handle and a rectangular head with teeth on one side.

The handle requires numerous processes. These processes include knurling, tapping, turning, facing, threading, under-cutting and chamfering. The head was produced by facing, drilling, cutting and tapping. The processes can be seen in greater detain in the construction section that follows.

The head was drilled in the center to a depth of 1.75" where it was then tapped to a depth of 1.25". This was done using a drill and also required a hand tapping tool to insure the tap was complete. A mill was angled 45° clockwise to build the teeth on the head. The handle was threaded using a standard ½-13UNC threading tool a length of 1.25". The length of the thread and tap is 1.25" to provide a flush and very tight fit with the head.

The basic design consists of screwing the handle in to the head so that it is flush. A drawing of each part, an assembly drawing and a final drawing can be seen below by clicking on the text.
 

 
CONSTRUCTION
 
The meat tenderizer was constructed using three machines, a lathe, a mill and a band saw. These machines and the material used was provided by Grand Valley State University. The handle was mainly completed on the lathe, whereas the head was entirely built on a mill. The major purpose of the band saw was for cutting the initial material down. A detailed description of how each part was completed can be seen in the process plans below by clicking on the button.
   
CONSIDERATIONS

One major consideration for this project is lack of knowledge of manufacturing/machining processes and machine tools. This leads to much more time being spent on this project than is needed. Some major concerns were simply what tools to use, how to set the feeds and speeds and exactly how to approach the desired design.

Another consideration is, once the handle of the meat tenderizer has been knurled, it must be protected with some sort of material. This can either be a thick paper towel or a thin sheet of metal. Another option is to wait until all other processes have been completed on the handle and then knurl the section that requires it. After knurling the handle in operation 60 of the project, I would have waited until later to do that process.

Threading and tapping are very intricate process, and should be practiced on another piece of material before trying it on the original part.
 

CONCLUSION

This project took approximately 8.25 hours to construct. The times indicated also include set-up time. As previously stated in the consideration section above, this process could have taken much less time with added knowledge and confidence in manufacturing processes.

The overall design is close to the proposed design. The final product has a few knicks and scratches on it and is not exactly the desired dimensions indicated. This is largely due to lack of experience using the machining equipment.

The construction of the meat tenderizer went really well with the assistance of a fellow classmate Brian Kuieck and the shop supervisor Bob Bero. Designing and constructing the aluminum meat tenderizer was very hands on and required a lot of thinking. It combined many different manufacturing processes and an initial design into one final working product. The functional meat tenderizer is show in a picture below and the total time for both parts is shown in a results table.