Mobile solar smoothie station

Abstract

Falls Brook Centre is a demonstration center and a charity based out of New Brunswick. They have been in business for 22 years and focus on educating and inspiring communities to adopt environmentally sound practices. Falls Brook Centre has contacted the Mechanical Engineering department at the University of New Brunswick to design and build them a mobile solar smoothie station. The smoothie station will be a modified food cart that will have a cooler to store the smoothie ingredients and a blender to make the smoothies. The trike will be electrically assisted and house solar panels to help charge the batteries. It will also be trucked to events all over New Brunswick. The main purpose of this cart will be to promote healthy living, renewable energy, and sustainable practices within the community, while providing smoothies featuring locally sourced ingredients. Falls Brook does not currently have any food carts in use. The center would like the food cart to operate for 5-6 hours shifts, using as much renewable energy as possible. Ideally the batteries would not reach below 70% charge, as this greatly extends their life expectancy. The designed cart must attain to the physical space requirements, be fully mobile, capable of fitting into a truck for long distance transport, provide adequate area for smoothie ingredient storage and production of the smoothies. Key safety hazards of the project include electrical hazards, such as proper suitability of wiring to handle current loads, proper ventilation of battery compartments and adequate electrical insulation. Mechanical hazards, such as reliable throttle and braking controls, proper gearing and steering systems to give the driver full control and proper framework design to hold the require loads. Health hazards revolve around keeping the food ingredients at a safe temperature range for consumption.