A ball bearing fatigue testing apparatus to gather data and develop a life-cycle model. The system simulates the produce peelers from the project sponsor -Vanmark Equipment-. This project consisted of Iz Varland and three other senior Mechanical Engineering students at Boise State University. Iz was the sole student to design and produce the electrical and software systems.​

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The design is made up of a motorized shaft that rotates a ball bearing in a replica plastic enclosure of the Vanmark Equipment peeler bearing slot. Axial and radial load is applied to the bearing while the shaft spins to create the test scenario. A spring mechanism introduces vibrations to replicate the noise caused by the produce impacts inside the peeler. A ifm VVB306 sensor is used to collect 3-dimensional vibration data and temperature. The variables, of axial load, radial load, rpm, temperature, and 3-axis vibration values are used to generate a fatigue life model.

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The raw data is collected by a Raspberry Pi 4 B+ with a Pinetek IOL-Hat and transferred over ethernet to a computer running a custom graphing program. The custom program is additionally able to start, pause, and clear tests, control test settings on the Pi, and export the data to multiple formats.

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The electrical system was designed in KiCad and machined as a custom PCB using a 3-axis mill by Iz Varland.