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 Multidisciplinary Senior DesignProject Readiness PackageProject Title:Nicaragua Bottle Upcycling Business DevelopmentProject Number:(assigned by MSD)P18434Primary Customer:(provide name, phone number, and email)Enlace Project, , ; Kellan Morgan, kellanpmorgan@, 585-752-0227; Henrique; Bonnie Yannie, 4 Walls, Nicaragua, bonnieyannie@Sponsor(s):(provide name, phone number, email, and amount of support)RIT MSD $500Preferred Start Term:Fall 2017Faculty Champion:(provide name and email)Sarah Brownell, Rob StevensOther Support:Prof. John Kaemmerlan, Dr. Susan Farnand (Imaging Science)Project Guide:(assigned by MSD)Sarah Brownell7/8/17Prepared ByDateReceived ByDateProject Information* Overview:Various stakeholders in the town of El Sauce, Nicaragua are interested in promoting solid waste separating and recycling to clean up the town, reduce mosquito breeding sites, and to stimulate the local economy through both recycling revenues and increased tourism. ?Two organizations with connections to Rochester have worked in the community for many years and will help facilitate this project: ? 4 Walls builds houses for families with inadequate shelter and the Enlace Project has helped support local small business and cooperative development. ?Based on information collected during a study abroad trip in March 2017, the goal of this project is to develop the business model, supply chain, facilities layout model and quality control procedures for collecting, sorting and processing plastic bottles for sale to recycled plastics exporters or for use in a future product that is being developed by another MSD team, P18433. This project will likely involve the opportunity for student travel to Nicaragua during fall or spring break. Fluent Spanish is a plus on this project! Last year’s MSD Team P17433 conducted research on the bottle recycling systems in place in the town of El Sauce during a spring break study abroad trip (extensive notes available) and sketched out the relationships of the stakeholders in a Mess Map (Figure 1). 33020681990Figure 1: Stakeholder Mess Map for Bottle Upcycling in El SauceThey met with Gravita, a bottle processing company in Managua, that is currently collecting bottles from collectors at the dump in El Sauce for 4 Cordoba per kg. Gravitas representatives expressed interest in paying a higher price (10% higher plus lower transportation fees) for bottles with additional processing, but stressed the importance of ensuring quality and purity of the plastic. They explained that if their customers in China discover contamination--especially from materials used in bottle lables like PVC--in the chips, they will not pay and the order will be lost. Small amounts of PVC can ruin an entire load of PET. Further communication with Gravitas may help clarify other quality issues to consider. Business cards for English speaking company representatives are available.Last year’s team P17433 was tasked with designing a product to be made from shredded bottles. They developed an initial concept for a building block (figure 2). The block is intended to be used as a non-structural component in house construction for room dividers, decoration above doors, and to fill in the “culata” – the empty triangular space between the walls of a house and the peak of the roof. The block form is designed to increase ventilation and make a home feel cooler through a venturi effet. Based on interviews in El Sauce with residents of homes constructed by 4 Walls, in addition to the aesthetic value of decorative blocks, the homeowners were interested in using the blocks to provide added security, ie. to keep people from breaking into the home through the culata. They also liked the idea of using the blocks to allow light and airflow into the home while keeping out rain and pests.Figure 2: Building Block ConceptTeam P17433 also designed and built one of the tools required in the system to create the block, a shredder to turn the bottles into chips (figure 3). Figure 3: The bottle shredderYour team is tasked with designing a system to bring the raw material of recycled bottles through all of the front end stages of collection and processing up to the point the bottles enter shredder. Your job is first to understand the cultural, technololgical and environmental context of the project. An applied anthropology or sociology student is being sought to help with this research and Enlace Project has an intern on the ground in El Sauce that can assist the team. A visit to El Sauce to understand the context is possible during the fall break. Then your team must design a collection, storage, sorting, cleaning, and quality control system to prepare bottles for shredding that will fit well with the existing infrastructure, governmental plans, and community vision for recycling in El Sauce. In addition, if a business student can be sourced for your team, Enlace would also like to draft a staged business plan for implementing the project. One idea is that initially a small business will sell chips to Gravitas and later produce their own recycled construction products. The profitability of simply selling processed plastic chips to Gravita for 4.4-4.6 Cordoba per kg is uncertain. Another MSD team running concurrently with your team, P18433 will be developing the final stages of the manufacturing process from shredding to final construction product. In summary, this MSD team is tasked with the following:Understanding how bottle upcycling will fit in the town of El SauceUnderstanding the logistics of collecting bottles in the context of upcoming changes to waste management in the townDeveloping a system to process the collected bottles including sorting, cleaning and storingDeveloping the tools required to process the bottlesDeveloping methods to ensure the quality of the final chips (no PVC and minimal other contamination, consistent size, cleanliness)Consider the business case for selling chips and/or molded construction products and develop a business plan if feasible, otherwise propose alternative products.Resources:MSD Team P17433’s website is available here: A Design Project Leadership course team explored the idea of upcycling plastic bottles during spring 2016. Their work can be found here: “Precious Plastic,” Article on sorting plastics: Enlace Project, , Walls, * Preliminary Customer Requirements (CR):Preferences local jobs especially for poorer residentsCollects plastics efficiently and fairly(?)Removes non plastic materialsTransports plastics for processingStores incoming bottlesSeparates plastic typesSeparates colorsAggregates valuble plastics like HDPE and PETMaintains quality of separated plastics during processing and storageLabels plastic types clearlyRemoves all PVC and other undesired materialsCleans plastic of dirt and oil consistentlyPrepares plastics for shreddingConsistent final chip sizeLays out the flow of operations in the manufacturing plant (including shredding, forming and final product storage, etc.)Maximizes labor efficiencyScaled for operation as a home or small businessUses human or grid power (120V AC)Safe: protect user from to sharps, hot surfaces, falls, falling items, entrapment, entanglement and pinch points, etc…Ergonomic operationMinimizes mosquito breeding (standing water)Process > 1 kg of bottles per hour* Preliminary Engineering Requirements (ER):Engineering RequirementAt least 25 % increased profit on current recycle value (0.06/lb) for new product.Overall processing rate of > 1 kg bottles/hrFootprint of processing plant < 10,000 ft sq (negotiable, minimize)Meets all specified Human Factor Specs and Ergonomic considerations (OSHA)Number of pinch points, exposed sharps, and exposed hot surfaces, etc = 0Percent of materials that are Corrosion/Rust Resistant or easily replaced > 95% by weight and costMax weight for component or sub assembly: 50lbEach sub assembly must be no larger than 2'x2'x2' (portable by one person)Input power 120V AC or power that can be applied by a humanNumber of poor residents employedNumber of unhappy stakeholder groupsContamination in sorted chips (< x % or ppm)Number of people indicating labeling system is clearCleanliness (standard of measure?)Percent of prepped plastic that fits in shredder hopper = 95%Number of workers < 6 (negotiable, minimize)Chip size (check with Gravita) ?”Standing water collected during storage (500 mL/m3 ?)* Constraints:Run as a small businessLow start up costsProject budget of $500 * Project Deliverables:Minimum requirements:All design documents (e.g., concepts, analysis, detailed drawings/schematics, BOM, test results)Shop floor layoutNumber of employeesworking prototypetechnical paperposterAll teams finishing during the spring term are expected to participate in ImagineRITAdditional required deliverables:3 minute video? Budget Information:$500 MSD budget* Intellectual Property:NAProject Resources? Required Resources (besides student staffing):Describe the resources necessary for successful project completion. When the resource is secured, the responsible person should initial and date to acknowledge that they have agreed to provide this support. We assume that all teams with ME/ISE students will have access to the ME Machine Shop and all teams with EE students will have access to the EE Senior Design Lab, so it is not necessary to list these. Limit this list to specialized expertise, space, equipment, and materials.Faculty list individuals and their area of expertise (people who can provide specialized knowledge unique to your project, e.g., faculty you will need to consult for more than a basic technical question during office hours)Initial/dateJohn Kaemerlan, ISE faculty, Susan Farnand, Imaging Science facultyEnvironment (e.g., a specific lab with specialized equipment/facilities, space for very large or oily/greasy projects, space for projects that generate airborne debris or hazardous gases, specific electrical requirements such as 3-phase power)Initial/dateEquipment (specific computing, test, measurement, or construction equipment that the team will need to borrow, e.g., CMM, SEM, )Initial/dateMaterials (materials that will be consumed during the course of the project, e.g., test samples from customer, specialized raw material for construction, chemicals that must be purchased and stored)Initial/dateMany plastic bottles, bottle shredsOtherInitial/date? Anticipated Staffing By Discipline:Indicate the requested staffing for each discipline, along with a brief explanation of the associated activities. “Other” includes students from any department on campus besides those explicitly listed. For example, we have done projects with students from Industrial Design, Business, Software Engineering, Civil Engineering Technology, and Information Technology. If you have recruited students to work on this project (including student-initiated projects), include their names here.Dept.# Req.Expected ActivitiesBMECEEEISE2-3Safety, ergonomics, quality control, facilities planning, materials science, materials processing and handling, engineering economy, logisticsME1-23D CAD, machining, stress analysis, tool design, statistics?Other2Applied Anthropology (stakeholder analysis, power dynamics, appropriate development, community participation), Business (supply chain, business plan, marketing) ................
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