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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Lumber mills often use center beam railcars, a flatcar with a central longitudinal I-beam, to transport
finished products; since the railcar has no enclosed sides, a winch and tensioning chain system is used to
secure the loads. Current procedures at Winston Plywood and Veneer require two employees for this
operation – one to climb to the top of the car to insert the tensioning link into its respective keyhole and
the other to remain grounded to tighten the winch and maintain safety protocol. The Railcar Cable
Fixation Automated Device, known more commonly as CFAD, reaches to reduce the time and manpower
required to secure lumber loads as well as increase safety by keeping the operator on the ground.

While the company providing resources has a short list of requirements for the CFAD, additional
technical and practical constraints had to be addressed to ensure an optimal outcome during each use. The
technical constraints focus on the operations of the CFAD where best-case results hinge largely on the
hardiness of its batteries and the precision of all device functions. Without the two, the practicality of the
device would be negligible, therefore dismissing the CFAD altogether. Other technical constraints include
a reduced time frame for operation completion and a standardized system voltage. The practical
constraints centralize the idea of safety, the most imperative being the OSHA standard. As prescribed by
the standard, the device must include an emergency stop button to prevent serious injuries by mechanical
or electrical operations. Should the design fail in this regard, the costs of operations and risks will surpass
any savings or increase in safety that define the CFAD’s purpose. Additional practical constraints reduce
the number of employees required for task completion, ensure a device weight less than the maximum
load weight of a forklift, and maintain a viable operating temperature range.

The CFAD approaches these constraints in a straight-forward manner. Due to the large current draw of
the device’s system and the minimum duration for daily use, the batteries used are high capacity with
longer lifespans to allow for two work days of use. The precision constraint is two-fold. The camera
obtains a high detection rate by intense training on the keyhole, and the device is held to a narrow range
of precision using small steps for movement and rotation. The time constraint is approached by using a
custom designed drive caster for a faster ground movement speed. Though the batteries used on the
CFAD are 12 VDC, two batteries will be placed in series to reach the 24 VDC industry standard. For
safety, there is an emergency stop on the control panel that will cut power to the device until the device is
reset. [Insert more about the rest of the practical constraints]

The CFAD is a new device that uses image processing to automate and speed the process of inserting
tensioning links into a center beam railcar. At current, the device can only be used to insert, but in the
future it may be modified to also remove the links when unloading the car. The success of the CFAD
implies faster loading times and safer practices for the load securement procedure.

ECE 4512: Design I April 4, 2019

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Figure 1. An Example Graphic for the Design Document Executive Summary

ECE 4512: Design I April 4, 2019