A major role I played in this project was to be one of the team’s designers. A major part of my work was designing slit inserts for the end caps, which would be new additions to the end caps we saw on other tube furnaces online. A major issue we tried to avoid when designing these end caps was gas leakage and tensioning issues in the strips. This is why, when trying to come up with different part iterations, we designers had to make sure that the slit would fit roughly the strip's thickness, 60mm, so that no air would escape the system. We had to keep in mind, though, that we should not make the slit hole the exact strip thickness, as the client stressed that the strips fed through may sometimes not be perfectly flat or straight. Additionally, doing this would minimize excessive tension when feeding the strip at both ends, which could cause it to snap given its thinness (thinner than paper).

During the design stages of the project, our team initially wanted to make the slit insert friction-fitted, as it seemed like the simplest option we could find (image of the model shown on the left). Though that seemed enticing, this may be problematic, as the insert's structural integrity could degrade over time due to exposure to extremely high temperatures and potential thermal expansion. Because of this, I thought: why not attach the insert, inside-out, to the seal using high-temperature adhesives (image of the model shown on the right)? This would ensure the insert could maintain its structural integrity and minimize tension throughout its use.