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| Industrial Engineering students from Universitas Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) have once again introduced a new innovation – an automatic briquette-making tool called the "Automatic Briquette Maker" – at the Industrial Engineering Expo, aiming to contribute to the success of Indonesia Emas 2045. (Photo: Special) |
Students from University of Muhammadiyah Malang (UMM) have once again introduced an innovative creation to support Indonesia Emas 2045. One notable achievement comes from Industrial Engineering students at the Industrial Engineering Expo, where they successfully designed an automatic briquette-making tool called the "Automatic Briquette Maker." Interestingly, this device can process wood waste into an alternative energy source. The idea for this brilliant innovation stemmed from their experience during an integrated practicum at a furniture factory, where they observed a significant amount of unused wood waste being generated.
One of the team members, Lucky Argo Bramantyas, mentioned that initially, they were uncertain about what kind of tool to design. Eventually, they identified the problem of excessive wood waste at the furniture factory. From there, the team decided to create a briquette-making tool. He explained that the main function of this tool is to mold and compress briquette dough made from wood waste as the raw material.
Interestingly, they further developed the prototype by adding an automatic cutting feature that operates according to the motor's movement, as well as machine control through Blynk software based on IoT. This certainly gives their product an edge over others available in the market.
In addition, the energy efficiency of the tool is quite good, requiring only 110V-220V of power. With the addition of the automatic cutter, each briquette produced has a consistent size of 5 cm. However, like any innovation process, challenges also arose during the development of this tool.
"The biggest challenge was ensuring that our coding could connect and be read by the ESP 32 microcontroller code, which is also connected to the Blynk software. Additionally, there were frequent failed trials, but thanks to our teamwork, we were able to overcome it," he explained.
Finally, Lucky and his team hope that the Automatic Briquette Maker can be further developed. For example, by adding an automatic dough maker, a horizontal cutter, and a weight sensor that will stop the machine when the raw materials run out. "We want the briquettes we create to become an environmentally friendly alternative energy source and help reduce dependence on coal-based energy in Indonesia," he concluded. (vin/wil/ind)
