Publication Date

Fall 12-13-2019

Document Type

Final Report

Embargo Date

12-13-2019

Problem Statement

There is a massive amount of waste around the textile industry. New garments are constantly being made and old garments are consistently finding themselves in landfills. This project aims to cut down on this waste. Mary Susan RuppertStroescu of the Sam Fox School at Washington University in St. Louis has developed a process to turn old garments into new ones in a practice known as up-cycling. By cutting old garments into half-inch strips, laying and adhering them flat on a sheet of dissolvable paper, and sewing over them in interesting patterns she is able to create extraordinary new designs. This project aims improve the efficiency of the laying and adhering stage of this process. It is currently the messiest and most time consuming stage. Our challenge is to create a device that is capable of laying down well-adhered fabric smoothly. The device must also operate quickly to give Dr. Ruppert-Stroescu the opportunity to increase the scale of her work. The report that follows provides an in-depth look at the process for designing such a device. Included are insights from interviews with our customer, initial prototypes, and refined prototypes. We conclude with an analysis of the final prototype and provide areas for additional improvement of our design.

Author's School

McKelvey School of Engineering

Author's Department

Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science

Class Name

Mechanical Engineering Design Project (MEMS 411)

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