Clean Water for the World

B-9 Plastics Better Water Maker

This project is part of the Sustainable Water Systems family on the Senior Design Project Roadmap with the mission to provide a compelling solution to the problem of sufficient, accessible, economical and sustainable potable water supplies for the worlds population.

The goal of this project is to improve two UV systems that began at RIT and are already being used in Haiti, Guatemala and other countries.

Clean Water for the World, a non-profit organization, was started to improve the design of the UV system, fitting most of the components into a wooden box that doubles as a shipping container. Sarah Brownell has been using their system in 4 locations in Haiti for three years and suggests the following areas for improvement that would be tackled by the Multidisciplinary Design Team:

• Generally reducing manufacturing costs, possibly incorporating Design for Manufacture.
• Redesign of the shipping container and UV housing, using lighter/cheaper/more compact materials
• Design for reducing insect sabotage (cockroaches took down one of the UV units by eating off the wires insulation and causing a short)
• Improving the user interface and ease of completing cleaning and maintenance steps.
• Designing in incentives for the operator to keep the unit running. Clean Water for the World requires that the water be given away for free, which means the operator must volunteer to provide their community with water, do maintenance, and replace parts for free.
• Improving the power system and making it easy to install and connect the system.
• Redesign of the UV disinfection chamber to reduce costs.

B9 Plastics is a not for profit company and one of their most prominent projects is a UV treatment device called the Better Water Maker. The Better Water Maker is a batch UV system that treats about 5 gallons of water at a time using a hand crank to provide power to the UV light. However, users in Haiti report that the hand pump was difficult to use and led to variable power supply. The multidisciplinary senior design team will work to improve the manual power generation capability of the Better Water Maker.

For an updated project description, click on the following link for the Project Readiness Package.

Project Name

Clean Water UV Treatment

Project Number

P11412

Project Family

Sustainable Water Systems

Track

Energy & Sustainable Systems

Start Term

2010-2

End Term

2010-3

Faculty Guide

Sarah Brownell

Industry TA

Gerry Garavuso

Primary Customer

Clean Water for the World & B9 Plastics

Mission Statement

One Page Summary

Staffing Requirements

Stakeholders

Risk Assessment

Intellectual Property Considerations

Work Breakdown Structure

Project Plan

Team Values and Norms

Required Resources

Identify Customer Needs

Establish Target Specifications

Generate Product Concepts

Select Product Concept(s)

System Schematics

Test Product Concept(s)

Set Final Specifications

B9 Plastics: Better Water Maker

Flywheel Design Analysis

Feasibility Analysis of Better Water Maker:Flywheel

Drawings/Schematics for Better Water Maker

Electrical Bill of Materials for Better Water Maker

Mechanical Bill of Materials for Better Water Maker

Initial Test Plans for Better Water Maker

Final Test Plans with Test Results for Better Water Maker

Assembly Plan for Better Water Maker

Baseline Ergonomic Test Results

VO2 Study 1 Data Sheet (Original Crank)

VO2 Study 2 Data Sheet (Flywheel)

Clean Water for the World

Cost Analysis of Clean Water for the World enclosure

Drawings/Schematics for Clean Water for the World

Electrical Bill of Materials for Clean Water for the World

Mechanical Bill of Materials for Clean Water for the World

Initial Test Plans for Clean Water for the World

Final Test Plans with Test Results for Clean Water for the World

Assembly Plan for Clean Water for the World

Senior Design Project Documents

Updated Risk Assessment

Updated Project Plan for MSD II

Concept Design Review Documents (SD I)

Detailed Design Review Documents (SD I)

Technical Conference Publication (SD II)

Poster Publication (SD II)

Managerial Design Review Presentation (SD II)