Low-cost Open-Hardware scientific and educational device for tectonic analogue modelling. See Wikipedia entry on tectonic analogue modeling.
It can move at speeds from 1 mm/h to 100 mm/h.
The stroke of the gantry is 270 mm but it can be easily customized for other lengths.
The cost of the components is no more than 500 €, although for increased performance, precision components can be used at higher cost.
There are some optional components for measuring the distance that would increase the cost.
It is not too complicated to build. It should be simpler than building a 3D printer or CNC.
For a more theoretical information about the system and detailed explanations of the experiments, you can check the paper: Designing Low-Cost Open-Hardware Electromechanical Scientific Equipment: A Geological Analogue Modeling Sandbox
This is the second version of the Open Hardware Sandbox. Link to the first version
Hardware License: CERN-OHL-S 2.0
Software License: LGPL 3.0 or later
Documentation License: CC BY 4.0
This device is certified open hardware by the Open Source Hardware Association.
It is about 500€ without taxes and shipping costs.
There could be cheaper alternatives in your area.
You can use more expensive mechanical components to increase the overall precision of the system
Sandbox bill of materials (.ods file)
Optical or magnetic linear sensor can be included in the Sandbox to monitor the displacement. These are optional subsystems, but they are very helpful to calibrate the Sandbox.
This section includes graphs of the results and Python scripts to analyze the data from the magnetic sensor.
The whole experiment took 3 hours and 45 minutes, the following sequence is fast-forwarded.
The experiment took 4 hours (at the end the camera was moved)
This work has been developed at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Spain. It has been a collaboration between the Area of Electronic Technology and the group Tecvolrisk of the Area of Geology.
Some students have collaborated in the project doing their capstone project in Industrial Engineering.
- Adrián Zeus Román: Initial project
- Cristina Fernández García: Finished first version
- David Muñoz Bernal: FreeCAD workbench that includes many CAD parts of the project
- Javier Letón: Added the linear optical sensor
- Alicia Merchán: future work in adding a second degree of freedom
If you use this hardware, you may want to cite the research article: Designing Low-Cost Open-Hardware Electromechanical Scientific Equipment: A Geological Analogue Modeling Sandbox
F. Machado et al., "Designing Low-Cost Open-Hardware Electromechanical Scientific Equipment: A Geological Analogue Modeling Sandbox," in IEEE Access, vol. 11, pp. 31716-31746, 2023, doi: 10.1109/ACCESS.2023.3262617.