Grater-Inator Senior Design Report

Turning a hand tool into a power tool is the quintessential efficiency upgrade. Grating cheese manually is time consuming and physically demanding, especially in a restaurant setting like Olive Garden. This report details the design and creation of a proof-of-concept for a fully automatic cheese grater. This was done by investigating similar products and alternatives to chosen design criteria. Input from current Olive Garden employees was gathered to direct the team in its investigation of critical design elements. The central design mates the currently-in-use manual cheese grater to an accompanying 3D printed chassis to create a power-assist system that handles the rotation of the drum and the pressure necessary to compress the cheese. The proposed design meets defined criteria and increases convenience for users. Moreover, ergonomic considerations such as ambidextrous grip design and intuitive controls promote user comfort and ease of use. The resulting power tool makes the job of grating cheese more efficient, ergonomic, and fun for the end user.