Grant: Applied Research and Development Grants - Level 1

Reducing emissions in automobiles with internal combustion engines continues to be a major concern. This proposal focuses on the catalytic converter, the main component to reduce harmful emissions. When heated to the right temperature, converters transform toxic exhaust gases into harmless emissions. However, the effect is minimal when the converters core is cold, releasing untreated emissions for a few minutes after a cold start.Advanced Technology Emission Solutions (ATES), has devised an innovation that involves warming the core quickly using the electric induction method. This Smart Induction Catalyst (SI-Cat) has a rod in each cell of the converter core that warms up so it quickly becomes operational. Currently, SI-Cat production involves manual rod insertion, which is tedious and time consuming. This project proposes an automated rod insertion system to produce the SI-Cat faster and more economically for large-scale production. Through this proposal, the applied research team at Sheridan Colleges Centre for Advanced Manufacturing and Design Technologies (CAMDT) in Brampton, Ontario seeks to initiate a long-term venture with ATES. The objective is to design and fabricate tooling to be used for inserting the rods, allowing for multiple rods to be inserted sequentially without the need of frequent reloading. Further, the research aims to employ a robot and vision system to analyze the cores geometry, plan out a pattern, and use the robots end effector to insert the rods according to the pattern. Finally, the team will test the system for accuracy and repeatability to ensure viability in a mass production setting.