pneumatic or power assisted floor corker

[salcoco]

presently living in a retirement community where I make wine for the community and myself. Bad shoulders making it difficult to cork bottles so I am looking for some kind of power assist floor corker. found some on You Tube posted quite a few years ago but have no way of contacting inventors. Any one have construction plans or willing to sell a pneumatic or other power assisted floor corker?

 

[NorCal]

I’ve thought about adding a pneumatic air cylinder to my existing corker. Wouldn’t be hard to do.

The issue I had is the safety aspect when something goes wrong; if the bottle is not lined up in the hole, having some pressure sensitive kill valve that would actuate before it would break the bottle, but allow enough force to insert the cork.

Another thought is extending the arm on the manual corker. It will have a longer travel, but will require a lot less pressure to accomplish the same task.

 

[salcoco]

here is a You Tube video of one that I thought would work . I could not find a method of contacting the user. I would gladly finance an effort if reasonable.

 

[Rice_Guy]

For corking have you considered a linear actuator for power? The safeties should be easier with electric, 100 to 150 mm is all the depth neded, there are a lot of choices in max force.
www.amazon.com/Progressive-Automations-Linear-Actuator-Stroke/dp/B006P58UUG/ref=pd_di_sccai_3/135-1273676-7507800?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B006P58UUG&pd_rd_r=9fddb0cb-569c-4abd-bf89-dbc3ca7c6285&pd_rd_w=L5cmQ&pd_rd_wg=TR5kX&pf_rd_p=e532f109-986a-4c2d-85fc-16555146f6b4&pf_rd_r=HF5DNHKC2YXZ73PM8VPM&psc=1&refRID=HF5DNHKC2YXZ73PM8VPM

(still am toying with how to do it?)

 

[vacuumpumpman]

I came up with this corker last week - It is extremely cool - BUT IS VERY DANGEROUS !!
There are many pre-cautions that need to be in place prior to using this

I did not use a foot pedal as others have mentioned. It does take alot of force to compress and push a cork into a bottle.

I looked into the Linear-actuator @Rice_Guy and it appears that it would take a minimum 30 seconds per bottle and it has only a 25% duty cycle

I needed alot more than 150 mm of stroke to get this to work - BTW

 

[Rice_Guy]

very cool Steve and very fast.
A guess is @salcoco will buy one like this from you.

The concept I have on paper starts out with a box shape frame, a plunger on top which is pulled straight down, between 100 and 150 mm directly into the vacuum corking tool (?? force). All the power delivery is below so the center of gravity is low. An Arduino board is controlling safety's/ starting the cycle/ detecting the stop point/ reversing the cycle/ possible also alternating inserting the cork and placing a guard over the vacuum head,
From the look of it you welded a longer arm on original lever gaining leverage (1.5 to 1). A larger diameter cylinder could also increase the force output (pneumatic pictured is 1 inch by 6 ??). For safety you should consider controlling the speed by putting a needle valve in the air line and control the maximum force with an air regulator.

Any idea what force you are designing for?

 

[vacuumpumpman]

very cool Steve and very fast.
A guess is @salcoco will buy one like this from you.

The concept I have on paper starts out with a box shape frame, a plunger on top which is pulled straight down, between 100 and 150 mm directly into the vacuum corking tool (?? force). All the power delivery is below so the center of gravity is low. An Arduino board is controlling safety's/ starting the cycle/ detecting the stop point/ reversing the cycle/ possible also alternating inserting the cork and placing a guard over the vacuum head,
From the look of it you welded a longer arm on original lever gaining leverage (1.5 to 1). A larger diameter cylinder could also increase the force output (pneumatic pictured is 1 inch by 6 ??). For safety you should consider controlling the speed by putting a needle valve in the air line and control the maximum force with an air regulator.

Any idea what force you are designing for?

I think your design would be much better suited for safety reasons .
When do you think you might have one in operation ?

I did not gain or add to the leverage point to the arm - I only did it so I could mount the cylinder on the backside. It is very precise where it is located.

Yes - I am aware all about pneumatics and how they work

I tried using a flow valve and I found out that it needs the power and momentum to compress and insert the cork

Yes - there is an easy way to figure out the force of the corker lever - Purchase a heavy duty fish scale and attach it to the handle and measure how much force it would take to push in a cork.

Yes I figured out how much force it would take - but that would take all the fun out of it

 

[Rice_Guy]

My guess going into this was maximum force was the only design issue for buying a part. Momentum too?, , can't really get that with electric unless loading it like a hunting bow.
Do you have the specifications on the pneumatic cylinder you used?

I tried using a flow valve and I found out that it needs the power and momentum to compress and insert the cork

 

[stickman]

Often times just a restrictor on the exhaust port is all that is needed to control the speed.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Often times just a restrictor on the exhaust port is all that is needed to control the speed.

Yes - That is correct

I did noticed if I put a flow control valve in - even in the full open position - it was enough restriction to slow down the momentum and not have the power to compress the cork and push it in.