Topology Optimization of Plastic Shredding Machine Blade Carriage

In mechanical components design, excess utilization of materials is one of the major problems, which as a consequence increases the costs of the machines. Topology optimization is one of the optimization techniques that manages the material distribution in a way that minimizes the amount of the material utilized without negatively affecting the strength. In this paper, the topology optimization of blade carriage (one of the main components of plastic shredding rotors) was conducted. The component was modeled by the SOLIDWORKS software package and the topology optimization was conducted on the ANSYS workbench. This topology optimization of blade carriage after smoothing resulted in 17.5% mass reduction, with a negligible decrement in the factor of safety.