Materials

& Design
Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608
www.elsevier.com/locate/matdes

Development of a mechanical device for concealing

underground urban solid residual containers
R. Vijande Dı́az *, J.M. Sierra, J.L. Cortizo, E. Rodrı́guez, R. Fernández
Department of Mechanical and Civil Engineering, University of Oviedo, Campus de Viesques, 33204 Gijón, Spain

Received 4 June 2004; accepted 18 August 2004

Available online 7 October 2004

Abstract

In this paper, a design process of a mechanical device for concealing underground the urban solid residual containers is described.
A computer aided design, with simulation and animation software, was used in this work. This software allows us to analyse the
kinematics of the virtual prototype before producing the real one. Methodological process of the preliminary design, valuation
of alternatives and the design finally adopted are presented. There is also special reference to the tribological problems found in
the design. The design is an innovative solution, which also takes environmental issues into consideration: preserving monumental
areas of the city, bettering the quality of life of the inhabitants and showing the local governmentÕs concern regarding the environ-
ment. The design has been patented by the company that collaborated in the development.

2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Environmental performance (E); Selection of components (H); Wear (E)

1. Introduction, specifications and objective of the work
The Mechanical Engineering department of the Uni-
versity of Oviedo has carried out the design tasks, elab-
oration of plans and calculations, manufacturing and
recognition of a prototype of an electro-mechanic sys-
tem for concealing underground the urban solid residual
containers, that is presented in this article. The Com-
pany has presented the patent application for the design.
The number of the application is P200001117.
PRIMUR (Projects and Installation of Urban Mate-
rial, S.A.), the company that has financed the study, is
mainly dedicated to the production of urban material
in Spain.
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 985 181 925; fax: +34 985 181
945.
E-mail address: rvijande@uniovi.es (R.V. Dı́az).
Initially PRIMUR proposed the following aspects
and specifications to be kept in mind during develop-
ment which could be summarized in Fig. 1:
(a) To keep the garbage out of the citizensÕ way.
(b) To reduce the environmental impact of the garbage
to the minimum.
(c) Reduction of negative visual impact.
(d) To reduce the collection frequency, making it possi-
ble to use containers of great dimensions.
(e) Modulate structure for one, two or more
containers.
(f) To make vessel/receptacle in prefabricated concrete
or in a non-corrosive structure.
(g) To make a corrosion resistant construction.
(h) Good resistance to the corrosion and vandalism.
(i) To make a water-proof system that is easy to
install.
(j) Tip-back cover.

0261-3069/$ - see front matter
2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.matdes.2004.08.012
 R.V. Dı́az et al. / Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608 603

Fig. 1. Project objective in images: to hide rubbish containers.

(k) Full detectors.

(l) Appropriate capacity of the opening for entrance of
bags.
(m) Capacity of each container will be 3200 l or
bigger.
(n) Easy use for the user and accessible without
danger.
(o) Opening activated by remote control, unloading
warning device, etc.
(p) Life cycle of materials: 10 years.
(q) Mechanical elements: attention to product quality.

2. Project stages

The work was developed, as are all design projects

[1], in several phases or steps, which are highlighted
below:

Stage 1: Selection of proposed models.

Stage 2: Opening and closing mechanism of the mouth.
Stage 3: Opening and closing mechanism of the cover.
Stage 4: Mechanisms and systems of container lifting.
2.1. Stage 1: selection of proposed models
In this step, the definitive design selection, from
among all those presented by the working group and
in agreement with company specifications, is carried
out. The following was indicated: load capacity (weight,
dimensions, number of containers, etc.), closing systems,
sealing, drainage and opening/mouths to dump waste
products. Energy systems: electric, hydraulic, wind
power, solar power, etc. Activate mechanism systems
and components.
Here are some of the most relevant characteristics,
from our point of view, of the selected model (shown
in Fig. 2)
Fig. 2. Selected model parts.
 The platform that lifts and lowers the containers,
must be moved at a constant speed. It could be oper-
ated by electric or hydraulic power.
 At the same time that the platform rises with the con-
tainer, the cover must opened up to allow the con-
tainer to be emptied into the garbage lorry.
 As the platform with the container goes down, the
cover also closes again over the pit.
 The cover has a rotating movement.
 The mouth or opening where the rubbish bags are
introduced is located on the cover and positioned in
front of the geometric centre of the container.
2.2. Development of the selected model
Once the different proposals were studied, all design
details and calculations of the selected model were devel-
604 R.V. Dı́az et al. / Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608

oped. Due to the fact that the three remaining design

steps have had a bigger relationship with tribological
problems, they are described in a separate item.

3. Tribological problems in the design

3.1. Stage 2: opening and closing mechanism of mouth

In this stage four possible solutions have been ana-

lyzed (see Figs. 3–6).

3.1.1. Option 1 (Fig. 3)

Fig. 4. Alternative 2 of the mouth/opening.
A mechanism, consisting of articulate links, is acti-
vated when the user steps on a bar located on the lower
front.
This mechanism allows the opening and closing of the
circular top cover in order to introduce rubbish bags.
This transmission presented high friction in a linear
guide, and little precision in the movement due to diffi-
culties in the precise positioning of the articulated pins,
and wear.

3.1.2. Option 2a (Fig. 4)

The second alternative differed from the first one in
that it used a system toothed cut wheel gearing and
links. Friction was decreased and the movement preci-
sion improved, but it required big gears. Consequently,
inertia increases substantially which hinders their use.

3.1.3. Option 2b (Fig. 5)

It is similar to option 2a, although in this option (see
built prototype, chain transmission allowed for precise Fig. 5. Prototype showing chain transmission to the mouth opening.

Fig. 3. Alternative 1 of the opening.

 R.V. Dı́az et al. / Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608 605

Fig. 6. Rotary drum in opening and closing mechanism of mouth.

running, smooth operation, and low friction, as well as This solution simplifies the design and, because the
better adaptation to the available space [2]. cam is fixed to the platform, a one and only action mo-
tor is needed for all assembly.
Nevertheless, two shock absorbers were added to the
3.1.4. Option 3: final solution (Fig. 6)
unit to correct the small impacts that take place with
The drive mechanism is the same described in option
each of the rollers when entering or leaving contact with
2b with the addition of a rotary drum combination
the cover. Additionally, the guides, with the sliding roll-
opening, which provides user safety and self-cleaning
ers, prevents the cover surpassing its vertical point, in
function.
case of wind gusts or due to the influence of the position
of the centre of gravity.
3.2. Stage 3: opening and closing mechanism of the cover
3.3. Stage 4: mechanisms and systems for container lifting
This mechanism was one of the most problematic
from the kinetic-tribologic point of view due to the high
3.3.1. Option 1 (Fig. 8)
loads and combination of movements that it shows.
At first a platform was chosen as shown in Fig. 8,
The cover has a rotation movement. Additionally,
which was dragged by an electric motor with a brake
this rotation motion of the cover must be variable (high
that, by means of a belt transmission, rotated a worm
speed at the beginning of the opening to avoid crashes
gear and a nut, both fixed to the platform.
with the container and slow at the end to decrease the
At this time the option of using a motive hydraulic
inertia).
system was discarded, in favour of an electric one, due
The lifting platform moves at a constant speed.
to contamination and price reasons.
It was, then, necessary to coordinate both motions by
Due to the interest in decreasing the depth of the
means of synchronized independent mechanisms so that
receptacle, it was necessary to decrease the separation
the cover leaves sufficient room for the lifting of the con-
length D among the support rollers that support the
tainer. For example, a hydraulic or electrician mecha-
load of the moving platform. In consequence, the
nism to open up and to close the cover, and another
momentum on these rollers and nut increased in such
one to open up and to close the platform.
a way that it caused the materials of the nut (brass
and antifrictional) not to support them and therefore
3.2.1. Final solution (Fig. 7) causing its deformation.
It was decided that a singular drag system would be
used. The mechanism must have two degrees of free- 3.3.2. Option 2 (Fig. 9)
dom: a cam with rollers in their periphery for, by means It was thought using two motors with their respective
of rolling, to decrease the friction. worm gear and nut would be a solution. The difficult
606 R.V. Dı́az et al. / Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608

Fig. 7. Opening and closing mechanism of the cover: drag sequence by cam and rollers.

synchronization of motors and their elevated cost made

us disregard this option. The ensemble, for two contain-
ers, would be like it is shown in Fig. 9.

3.3.3. Final solution (Figs. 10, 12 and 13)

Three important modifications were made on the
above pattern:

1. Pushing the platform by means of a lift scissor for a

better load distribution.
2. As consequence of 1, use only one motor.
3. Placing the worm gear hanging from the upper sup-
port instead of the lower support. This way it works
by traction instead of by compression, which elimi-
nates the possibility of deformation. Consequently,
the nut slides with more ease.

Fig. 10 shows the prototype developed with these

modifications and the three positions of the cover open-
ing mechanism and the lifting of the platform for the
container. The scissor mechanism function, which can Fig. 9. Proposal with platform activated using two motors.

be seen, supports the container platform parallel to the

Fig. 8. Containers transport platform.
floor, so that the flexion effect in the nut and power
screw produced in prototype, Fig. 8, is eliminated. This
therefore eliminates all the wear and heating problems
that affected the original disposition. Another important
quality of the scissor mechanism is the small space
needed in the lowered position, only 200 mm. Therefore
reducing the total size of the pit. Cam–rollers, which can
also be seen in the diagram, allow the cover opening to
be synchronized with the container lifting platform.
Fig. 11 shows the drive mechanism positioning. It con-
sists of an electric motor (3 kW), without brakes nor
gears. The slow lifting speed of the container platform,
 R.V. Dı́az et al. / Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608
Fig. 10. Scaled prototype: (a) Closed, (b) Opening, (c) Completely
opened.
Fig. 11. Motor, belt transmission and power screw positioning for the
lifting mechanism.
0.07 m/s (the container lifts in 30 s), the power screw pitch
Tr 48 · 8 P8, the motor speed of 1500 rpm and the belt
transmission speed reduction (Dwg = 200 mm; dwk = 71
mm), makes the speed gear unnecessary, and the self-
locking power screw allows us to omit the brake. All of
this simplifies the system and reduces the final cost.
607
Fig. 12. Photo of the prototype with the adopted final solution.
Fig. 13. Final appearance of the first installation carried out as test
prototype by the users of the city of Gijón.
In this design, it is also very important to use an axial
bearing to fix the power screw at the top of the structure,
so that the power screw supports the axial load and not
axial compression. This prevents the buckling problems
and allows us to use a smaller diameter power screw and
nut. It also prevents heating problems and premature
wear.
4. Conclusions
In this work that has been presented, we want to
highlight some aspects that we consider interesting:
1. Those stages of the design that have had a bigger
influence in tribologic considerations have been
emphasised.
608 R.V. Dı́az et al. / Materials and Design 26 (2005) 602–608
2. It is important to always consider the tribological
aspects during the first design phase, because it can
condition the final product developed [3].
3. Prototypes have been elaborated for the lifting and
lowering mechanism of the container, for the opening
and closing of the cover, and for the mouth opening.
The tribological behaviours have been kept in mind
in all the cases.
4. An original solution has been achieved, electro-me-
chanic activation, durable, reliable and economically
viable for the company.
5. In the project development, new techniques based on
design applications, simulation and animation in
three dimensions have been used. From this we can
obtain virtual models of products before actual prod-
ucts [4,5].
References
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expertos. Tesis Doctoral, Universidad de Oviedo, Mayo; 1998.
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cálculo de elementos mecánicos, para su aplicación en proyectos de
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44:319–333.
[4] Dym Fletcher J. (Profesor de Ingenierı́a de Diseño en Harvey
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