Prototype Development of Low-Cost SemiAutomated Foam Shredder Equipment

The Furniture Industry of the Philippines is one of the most labor-intensive and artistic industries in the country which develops the hardworking, creative and enterprising qualities of Filipinos in manufacturing best-quality furniture. With this, the Philippines is dubbed as the “Milan of Asia.” In Pampanga alone, there are several furniture SMEs which manufactures for both local and international clients. Aside from the saw dusts as the by product, scrap foams are also a hurdle for the furniture manufacturers in Pampanga and Central Luzon. Due to the continuous demand of the furniture industries in Pampanga, the study incubated to develop a lowcost semi-automated foam shredder prototypes that will cater the need of furniture industries to crash foams within the customer specification to create a new set of raw materials. The system requirements for the prototypes followed the first utility model that was created. The target of the study is to reduce the production and operating cost of the foam shredder without compromising the capacity, quality and aesthetics of the prototype. The prototype must pass the requirements as follows: (a) safe and efficient, (b) easy to use; (c) reliable and maintainable; (d) yielding capacity of 40 kgs/hr. Ten (10) furniture companies are selected in order to conduct the validation testing of the prototypes developed.