Design and Fabrication of Electrically Actuated, Semi-automated Dual White Marker Board

Abstract

This paper examines the design, fabrication, and testing of an electrically actuated, semi-automated dual white marker board. The study was conducted using sound and established fundamental engineering principles, such as torsion of circular shafts, power requirement, shear stress induced in shafts, and gear design, all part of the hoist mechanism. Analysis showed that the tension in the cable holding the boards is 14.715 N, the torque transmitted by the gears rotating the hollow shaft is 20.83 Nm, the speed of the driver gear is 31.35 rpm, the capacity of the battery that drives the motor-gear-shaft system was carefully selected to be nominal voltage of 12 volts and a capacity of 7 ampere-hour (12V, 7AH). After fabrication, a series of tests were conducted, and the results showed that the average time taken to pull the board up was 9.5 s, while for the downward movement, it took an average of 15.5 s. The total fabrication cost of the entire system was One Hundred and Sixty-Seven Thousand Nigerian Naira (N167,000) about  at the time the study was carried out. Conclusively, this design showed that multiple marker boards can be semi-automated for effective learning in the classroom, which is the main aim of this research work.