TOKEN PRESS

hydraulic, motors, sensors, electronics, software, fabricated components

Paper Token Press is an interactive exhibit developed for Children’s Museum Houston that allows visitors to transform a roll of paper into a compressed paper token. Visitors prepare and insert the paper, activate the machine, and watch as the system moves through a sequence of mechanical actions to form and return the finished token.

I designed and developed the exhibit’s electromechanical systems, integrating a hydraulic press, motorized mechanisms, sensors, physical controls, custom electronics, and software into a coordinated visitor experience. The system uses multiple sensors and safety checks to track each stage of the process and control the movement of the press and token through the machine.

The project required extensive prototyping, fabrication, programming, electronics, mechanical problem-solving, and testing to turn a complex industrial process into an interactive experience that could operate reliably in a public museum environment.