Team Members & Role:

• Erin Bergeron – Team Lead
• Austin Gurney – Analysis Lead
• Adam Howard – Design Lead
• Kurt Karram – Fabrication Lead
• Nate Wytrwal – Evaluation Lead

Abstract:
The rack and diverter tote accumulation system has been developed to increase the production efficiency of one of Callaway Golf’s golf ball production lines. Our system solution hopes to solve Callaway’s main two priorities: decreasing the frequency of operators interfacing with the system and to eliminate waste caused by tote overflow. The rack and diverter system, implemented downstream of the injection molder, will transfer and then store golf balls into totes. Callaway requires a cost-effective solution that will enable minimal changes to upstream and downstream processes. As such, existing technologies such as conveyance systems, vertical transportation, and accumulation systems are not optimized for Callaway’s process. Our design is an out-of-the-box approach to the conveyance system Callaway originally proposed. Our solution is to accumulate the balls in a vertical rack preloaded with empty totes where balls are fed to the totes via a diverter system. The design is also scalable, where multiple systems can be integrated in parallel to increase tote storage capacity. By keeping totes stationary, as opposed to conventional accumulation systems, our solution decreases cost, optimizes simplicity, and decreases stress on moving components.