Feed bin with integrated stripping

This direction looked promising, so I built a mock up to show what the final design might look like. The blue mesh on the rollers represents ex-met. One idea was to have a single roller with ex-met and rubber combined to give extra grip to the stripping end (bottom image).

V3 prototypes

Many thanks to Doug and Chris for stopping by and helping knock out some stripping/threshing prototypes!

Earlier in the week we had a idea session with a larger team, and today we mocked up some of the concepts to see how they worked:

Concept 1: "aperture" - A series of wires wound to create a sharp stripping edge while allowing for various sized panicles to be inserted. Image shows prototype and results.


Concept 2: "tube" - Beveled hole on curved surface to guide stripped material into thersher.

Concept 3: "pie tin" - Single hole in chamber to hold stripped material and then be dumped into thresher.

Breakthrough! - After mocking these up, we were wrestling with how to integrate the stripper into the existing roller assembly without having to force the user to insert or remove new pieces or re-position the system. It occured to us that we could utilize a smaller section of the rollers to integrate the stripping feature into the feed bin. This would allow the panicle to be stripped and the material to fall directly in to the rollers. Feeding the system one panicle at a time also "self metered" the amount of material fed into the rollers. We also added a guide at the bottom to separate the used panicle from the material.


This is a video of the 1st test:

Resulting millet, hand winnowed with cardboard:

Delivered!

The thresher prototypes have been delivered to CTI, and on to General Mills for testing. General Mills will send a system to Africa, and we will be building the 3rd generation system over the summer. We are planning to accompany our little V3 thresher to Mali to see it being used in context, but have alot of work to do in the meantime...

Build'n

Thom, Jeff and I spent Saturday morning at the workshop hammering out the last few details of the duplicate thresher.




After picking up the final parts, I worked for the better part of Sunday to assemble both units to make sure everything was working.



Once completed, I tore everything down and built a shipping crate. 4 hours later (design on the fly!) it was finished. I was able to fit both threshers (with stands) and all the residual parts in a 36"x24"x24" crate. What it lacks in size, it makes up for in weight...


If all goes well, it will be shipped Monday or Tuesday, and we can start planning with CTI about the next generation system. In the meantime, Thom will be playing with some interesting ideas that are a departure from the current direction, but could result in a substantial reduction in size, complexity and cost.

It was a lot of fun to be working on this project in a community workshop, as it gives others a chance to see what is going on and share in the positive energy!

Project number 2...

Over the summer we will be starting a project with Don Schoendorfer of the Free Wheelchair Mission, helping him refine a second generation wheelchair.

Need to be inspired to do good things? Take a moment and read about Don's story here

This will be a summer of growth for OneLab...bigger space, bigger teams, bigger dreams...


I have no idea where this is going or what it will look like in the end, but I know it feels right...

Our new home...

We stumbled onto a great little community workshop in Columbus called "The Idea Foundry" founded by some local engineers.

"The Idea Foundry is a community workshop, learning center, and occasional art gallery located in Columbus, OH. We are a collection of students, professionals, artists, engineers, and general creative enthusiasts who wish to bring imagination to reality. "

Thom and I stopped in to see what it was all about and noticed some key features right away:

#1 - a well stocked workshop with all sorts of tools...




#2 - A computer lab...


#3 - Pet rats...



and last but not least....HEAT!!!!!


Needless to say, Thom and I were all in, and are pleased to announce that this will be the new home for the OneLab Initiative! We look forward to working side by side with others in the community who want to make a difference, and are excited to contribute to the positive energy this place has!

100% yield!?!

During late March, Erv from CTI (in the black hat) visited our little workshop.




During the visit, we broke out in to a brainstorming session (sidewalk chalk and the garage floor) and threw around some ideas for reducing the number of "brokens" (cracked grain). Erv flew back to CTI headquarters and got right to work building some of the ideas. Apparently, one of the ideas produced a 100% yield (no brokens) which is a pretty big deal! If this is the case, and we can successfully implement this on a device, the thresher would allow villages to produce 70% more grain from the same amount of land! Not bad for 4 guys freezing in a garage!