MAYA PATEL

Toyota UK uses specially designed pliers to close their hose clips, to seal the end of hoses on a vehicle. A Pokayoke System ensures the correct number of hose clips have been closed at each process on the assembly line to increase the safety of a vehicle. Research showed the lever limit switch mechanism currently used on the pliers is unpredictable, as it does not always detect a connection and can be used to make a connection on other objects or clipped hose clips. This project aimed to determine how the mechanism can be improved to increase the consistency in detecting when a connection has been made correctly.

 

Design ideas were placed in a Pugh’s Matrix to establish a design with the most potential based on customer requirements. The end design used an ultrasonic sensor and LEDs to detect the difference in distance between an unclipped and clipped position. Analysis showed improvement upon the current mechanism by visually signalling to the engineer when a connection has been made correctly. Further research into a memory device is required to ensure the LEDs only signal that a connection has been made when the distances are met in the correct order.