Northrop Grumman Cork Recycling and Re-use

Project Description

Northrop Grumman uses cork as an insulating material in the fabrication of solid rocket motors. In order to reduce life cycle waste, we are interested in minimizing the amount of scrap that goes to landfill by repurposing, recycling, and/or reusing the excess material.

The purpose of this project is to develop a product that uses repurposed, recycled, or reused leftover cork materials.

Northrop Grumman has asked that the project cost at a minimum breaks even with the cost to send the scrap cork to a waste center.

Design Description

The first step of the process it to shred the cork sheets (left). Next, the shredded cork is sent through a grinder to get the desirable size of cork particles (middle). The result is grinded up cork to be used as oil spill cleanup (right). At each step of the process rubber seals and clampsare implemented to prevent the spread of formaldehyde in the air.

Performance Review

Conclusion

Future Work: Streamlined and more efficient way of bagging the processed cork. Study the possibility of reusing the cork after it has been used as a spill cleanup.

Lessons Learned: Accounting for delays in timeline. There are multiple answers to one problem. Problem definition is arguably the most important step.

Project Success: The product hit all the requirements and constraints leading to an overall successful project.