Design And Fabrication Of An Automatic Whiteboard Cleaner

ABSTRACT

Now-a-days white boards are widely used in almost every educational institute. About 70-80% educational institute around the world uses white board as the writing medium in their class room. They are large in size, for that reason it is very time consuming process to erase the writings from the board with duster. Using duster also reduce the visual quality of the board. If a class continue about one hour then about 8-10% time become waste because of cleaning the board using duster. Considering this “The board wiper”, an automatic system can solve these problems. The board wiper will shorten the time and also the effort. It takes around 8 sec to clear the board without destroying the quality. The wiper has horizontal movements and it wipes the board twice at a short time. The wiper consists of electric motor, supports, a wiper bar and a microcontroller to give that an automation figure. It is possible to control the wiper by a remote control system and this allows the controller to wipe the board from a reasonable distance. And it has an advantage to remove the wiper if it’s necessary to clean and the whole wiper system can be established at a very low cost. So, “The Automatic board wiper” is a spectacular replacement of “duster” and it can be suggested to use this to reduce the effort of the board user as well as to introduce the classroom with an automation system.

CHAPTER ONE

1.1                                                        INTRODUCTION

A whiteboard or dry erase board is a name for a glossy surface, most commonly coloured white, where non –permanent markings can be made. Whiteboards operate analogously to chalkboard in that they allow markings to temporarily adhere to the surface of the board. The popularity of whiteboards increased rapidly in the mid–1980s and they have become a fixture in many offices, meeting rooms, school classrooms and other work environments. In the mid–1960s, the first whiteboard (also called marker boards) began to appear on the market.

In classrooms, their widespread adoption didn‘t occur until the late 1980s and early 1990s when concern over allergies and other potential health risks posed by chalk dust prompted the replacement of many blackboards with whiteboards.

The first whiteboards were very expensive and were made of a melamine surface. It was the ―perfect‖ solution to the chalkboard, except that it ghosted in a short time and was not easy to keep clean.

In our lecture rooms, the dire need for a duster that would be readily available at all times for cleaning the whiteboards has been a major concern, the height of some boards cleaners also affect the section of the board to be cleaned. Even when the board cleaners are available, it takes lecture time away from the lecturer to erase the board. This need for a faster, time saving and readily available cleaner has given birth to the design of an automated white board cleaner that can clean the board in the least amount of the time possible.

1.2                    BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE AND PROJECT CONCEPT

The mechanism of the automated board cleaner entails a horizontal motion. The design is aimed at reducing the stress of manual cleaning. The duster which spans horizontally across the width of the board is to clean to and fro across the board. The design is such that when the switch is turned on, the motor transmits energy which turns the shaft which in turn, drives the pulley. The duster is fixed to the pulley chains which move to and fro (horizontal motion) along its plane, thereby cleaning the board.

The idea behind the project basically is to simplify the manual use of duster which is quite tedious. This came about as a result of the observation carried out during lectures.

Lecturers or students waste time while cleaning the board, hence slowing down lecture hours. Although, different designs have evolved over the years as regards the fabrication of an automated whiteboard cleaner, the main purpose of these designs have not combated the stressful nature of cleaning boards. This project adds to the variety of designs aimed at mitigating the stress associated with cleaning boards

 1.3                                                 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

Cleaning blackboards or whiteboards consumes a lot of time while teaching. We here propose an automated blackboard, whiteboard cleaning mechanism that cleans entire boards automatically with just a button click. This system uses a set of frames, brackets, supporting rods, Dusters, motor, rollers and driving circuitry in order to achieve this mechanism.

1.4                                         SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

The system is designed to save a lot of time and unnecessary effort needed in cleaning boards. It is designed to clean boards in a less than half the time required to clean the blackboard/whiteboard by a human. For this purpose we use dusters mounted on shafts which are in turn connected on a supporting frame. These shafts are connected in such a way, so as to provide a proper circular cleaning motion that is needed for cleaning the board. We now use a motor to drive these shafts in required direction. Now we also need to ensure entire board gets cleaned. So we use a set of rollers to mount the upper and lower part of frame in that section. We now use a second motor to drive the entire duster frame in a horizontal motion so that we get the entire board cleaned as the frame reaches the other end of the board. Thus we put forward the design and fabrication of an automatic blackboard/whiteboard cleaner mechanism.

1.5                                             OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

Though the use of smart boards is increasing, many institutions in the developed and developing world still make use of white boards. The objective of this work is to design a device that will reduce the man-power involved in cleaning white boards after use. The objective of this project is to reduce the stress of cleaning the board by using an automated duster. This objective would be achieved  through  the  following  specific  objectives  (i) conceptualization of an automated whiteboard cleaner (ii) preliminary and  detailed  design  of  new  mechanism  (iii)  fabrication  of  the automated  whiteboard  cleaner  (iv)  performance  testing  of  the automated whiteboard cleaner.

1.6                                          ADVANTAGES OF THE PROJECT

• Easy Cleaning
• No Manual Effort Needed
• Fast Board Cleaning

1.7                                              PROBLEM OF THE PROJECT

In the  light  of  designing  an  automated  whiteboard  cleaner,  the limitations of two major existing designs will be considered. That is, the electric board cleaner and the automatic whiteboard cleaner which makes use of belts. Most belts have low wear and tear resistance and with the frequent operation of the duster (i.e the cleaning process), the belt is likely to cut and hence makes the device or the cleaner less useful.  In  the  process  of  trying  to  change  the  belt,  the  whole components may have to be loosened which is time – consuming.

However, as for the case of the electric board cleaner, the idea of applying manual effort still comes in. The difference being that effort applied is less since it is powered electrically. This project is aimed at modifying the automatic whiteboard cleaner by replacing the belts with chains which will improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the cleaner.