University of Michigan BLUELab Guatemala Team

Starting fall 2008 a group of dedicated, energetic and really bright students from the University of Michigan  BLUELab accepted a challenge from the Appropriate Technology Collaborative (ATC).  To design a treadle pump using only materials that might be found in Tanzania or another mostly rural African or SE Asian country.  Moreover they would have to document the design such that other NGOs or individuals could easily read their drawings and copy their work.

BLUELab Treadle Pump Prototype

The BLUELab team responded with a robust design + documents that set a new standard in ease of use.  They chose to work with us in Guatemala as an exercise in working with limited resources.

The following is from a letter I sent to our host NGO, AIDG:

The BLUELab team has been working on an open source treadle pump design since the start of school 2008.  They got as far as a prototype or proof of concept model in their workshop, drew up incredibly detailed and easy to read documents and arrived in Guatemala after a daylong delay due to weather in the US.  They also had to cut their visit short by a day on the other end due to flight scheduling problems.

The BLUELab team made up for lost time by being very well organized.  They formed working groups for each component of the assembly.  The reality of building in the developing world was made clear early when certain types of plastic weren’t available, pipe sizes were different from standards in the US and steel parts were also different from standards we have in the shop back home.  Much was redesigned on the fly.

BLUELab worked all day at the AIDG workshop (thank you very much!) and then reviewed the next day’s assignments over a late dinner every night.  They were successful in proving their prototype works on the last day of the build, at the last hour, with their bags already packed and their shuttle waiting.

BLUELab posted their work on their website and within 3 days NGOs from Africa were already asking for copies of their drawings.  We plan on posting the revised design on the ATC website at the end of the semester and BLUELab is considering returning to Guatemala to build the new design.

Guatemala is probably not the place where treadle pumps will make a good business sense, but it is a great place to learn what it is like to build with limited resources.  The experience for the student team, working with people from Guatemala and living embedded in a new culture will change how they view their work.

Documents are available upon request.  We will be publishing the final documents when the BLUELab team is done redesigning based on what we learned in Guatemala.

Prototype drawings are available:  Prototype Treadle Pump Drawings

Treadle Pump Prototype

A team of students from the University of Michigan BLUELab produced their first prototype of a treadle pump in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala last week. There are currently many treadle pumps patented and manufactured by NGOs, but the BLUELab pump is unique in that all the drawings and specifications are available online for free. The goal is to get many NGOs the capacity to manufacture these life enhancing pumps and to have them produced in the countries where they will be used.

The Appropriate Technology Collaborative worked with the BLUELab students providing the design challenge and the opportunity to build their design in a developing country. ATC chose to build the project in Guatemala to simulate building in the countries where the pump will be most appropriate (sub Saharan Africa, South Asia). Guatemala offers the challenge of building with limited resources without the expense and carbon emissions associated with traveling to and building in Tanzania for example.

A shout out to the Appropriate Infrastructure Development Group – Guatemala office, for hosting ATC and BLUELab for the project build. The experience was incredible, the design team worked long hours adapting their design to locally available materials and conditions and produced a working prototype. BLUELab has already started the process of taking what they have learned in Guatemala to improve the design of the pump. The revised drawings will be made available online as soon as they are completed.

The value of Open Source design is that intellectual property and information can be spread quickly. Already there have been inquiries into the pump design from an NGO in Liberia and the pump isn’t yet published on the ATC website. This inquiry is a good indicator of interest in open source appropriate technology design.

Photos from the Treadle Pump Workshop 2009 are available at Picassa BLUELab Photos

The BLUELab has designed a very efficient and low cost treadle pump for use by rural farmers.  Our project here is to check out the constructability of the design in the field using locally available materials.  Already this process has produced very valuable information on how to design for construction in the developing world.

We got to Xela Sunday night.  The BLUELab team got a chance to see the Parque Central area of Xela and we stopped in at El Balcon in Pasaje Enrique to look out over Parque Central and much of Xela.  The night sky was mostly clear and we could see the volcanic peaks that surround the city in the distance.

Monday we found out that we couldn’t start work at the AIDG workshop till the PM so we organized teams who will work on sub-assemblies and review the build process.  When Jose Ordonez arrived from AIDG several of us took off in the AIDG pickup truck to purchase materials.

Jose doesn’t drive so Ben Connor Barrie took the honors which ended up with Ben driving in rush hour traffic with 6 meter lengths of steel on the roof and students riding in the back.  Ben managed to merge into a packed and fast moving round-about and get out at the right exit while taking directions in Spanish.

The build is now under way with the teams working through a few local condition induced design changes.

Photos to follow.

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