Growing Shelf

Justin Frey jdf5421@psu.edu

Jaden Brajkovich jbb5623@psu.edu

Kobe Baglio kbb5365@psu.edu

Hyun Lee hxl5395@psu.edu

E-design 100 section 005

Susan Beyerle

September 26 2016

Mission Statement: Our mission is to create a vertical irrigation system to quickly and easily

provide water and equal sunlight to crops in the most cost effective manner appealing to mostly

small business farmers in sub-Saharan Africa.

Context and customer need development: The team’s central way of collecting information

was through the use of the internet. Each member researched the topic that they were assigned.

The region of the world that the team chose was Burkina Faso. It is a hot dry segment of Africa

with little rain and very dry climate. The team learned that the materials mostly used in Burkina

Faso are wood and clay, and that clay would be a great replacement for wood as a building

material. (1) The team Learned Burkina Faso mainly produces cotton, peanuts, shea nuts,

sesame, sorghum, millet, corn, rice, and livestock. (2) They import around 11,610 barrels of

refined petroleum a day but use a little over 12,000 barrels a day. (3) Burkina Faso has

extremely dry weather during the winter, and wet weather during the summer. Climate is overall

tropical. The race is mostly Mossi at 52.5%. The government is structured as a presidential

republic with a multi-party system. Access to education is also very limited, with most the

population only getting 8 years. Most can read or write, but most children work instead of

attending school. Burkina Faso is not urbanized, with the rate of urbanization being 5.87%. Most

of the energy supply is unreliable, with most of it being generated by fossil fuels. Health care is

limited, with most of the technology in hospitals being outdated. HIV/AIDS affects most of the

population along with malaria, hepatitis A, and yellow fever. A person will typically lead to the

age of 55.

Economically Burkina Faso cannot do well because of civic unrest. The US dollar is worth

around 470 francs, and a citizen of Burkina Faso will make around 2 to 3 dollars a day. Banking

is severely underdeveloped and delivers low level access to its most basic of financial cost.(4)

The small supply cooperative is the farmers whom the team worked with to create a

design. They were the main concept the project was based around, since it was their needs the

team was trying to meet. They were chosen because the team wanted to help a small group of

individuals. The cooperative is made up of a group of farmers that all run their own farm, but

group all produce together in order to make a profit. They need the device because the

cooperative leader wants to increase profit. The device will allow more crops to be grown as well

as more crops to grow at one time. With increased produce the cooperative will be able to bring

in more of a profit. The design also fits this group because it is easy to learn how to use, which

was one of their basic requirements. The main need the customer wanted was a cheap durable

product to increase profits. Next requirement was for the design to be simple so that the rest of

the group could easily learn how to use it. An irrigation system is needed within the design as

well in order to help with the growth of produce,

Concept generation and selection matrix

Target spec

1. The cost of the product needs to be low<$50

2. Water < less than 1 gallon a rack

3. Sunlight must be spread equally over every rack so that all crops grow at an equal rate

4. Durability: the product must last over 5 years

5. The training time must be under 5 min

6. Time to assemble needs to be under 10 min

Early Sketch

Concept scoring matrix

Design 1

Design 2

Design 3

Design 4

Design 5

Design 6

Target Spec /criteria Whgtt A B A B A B A B A B A B

Cost (<$200.00) 4 3 12 2 8 3 12 3 12 4 16 5 20Water (< less than a gallon a rack) 4 5 20 3 12 3 12 4 16 3 12 4 16

Efficiency (2X as fast) 5 5 25 3 15 4 20 4 20 2 10 4 20

Durability (>5 years) 3 2 6 5 15 5 15 2 6 5 15 5 15

Training time (<5 min) 2 5 10 4 8 2 4 1 2 5 10 5 10

Time to build (<10 min) 1 1 1 4 4 3 3 1 1 5 3 3 5

Total of Column B XXX 74 XXX 62 XXX 66 XXX 57 XXX 66 XXX 86

The team selected the proposed design simply by looking at

earlier design sketches from every member, and selecting six

that the group believed as a whole would be a successful

design. They better met customer needs due to their ability to fit

into the target specs. The team chose designs from the early sketches that they believed would

score high points in the scoring matrix. The team then assigned point measures to each design in

the scoring matrix and tallied up all the points to see which scored the highest.

Design review and concept refinement summary:

Feedback that we received from this design is that we should add shelves to the

sides of the structure in order to maximize the area on the structure. We were also told

that adding a shelf to the top would also better the design. Some good aspects of the

design is that the shelves are installed at an angle so that sunlight can reach all of the

shelves without the shelf above it blocking out some of the light. Every shelf is also

easily accessible whenever it comes to water crops on the shelves. Some bad aspects are

its size. It is a massive structure and the center of the structure is just wasted space. One

idea suggested to us was to find a way so that water could be recycled back to the center

of the design. This design crushed our other design because the other design, the spiral,

was much too complicated for the basic need it needed to fulfill. It had a spiral built to

hold plants and water but was extremely fragile and didn’t hold much weight so the

design was trashed. The final prototype was made from all the advice given to us by the

groups, and the teams made concepts of the design.

Final prototype and testing:

The final prototype was created using cardboard and hot glue as the only

materials. Shelves were added to the side as recommended by other groups, and the

sides were built in at an angle.

The Result Table

Testing Results

The design cost slightly over 30$

Pass/fail

The shelves become equally darker so water can be spread equally over the surface area

fail

The light is spread equally over the shelves but the sides do receive a little less lightpass

The design became slightly dented…but it heldpass

They understood the design in under 5 minPass

it took around 30 min to buildPass

fail

TestCalculated out costPour water on the shelves and observe color change of cardboardShine a light over the shelves and observe the area the light hitsDrop it and see if it will lastTeach to someone who doesn’t know the design, time how long it takesTime how long it takes to build the prototype

Customer NeedCost needs to be less than 20$ a shelfAll racks need to be able to receive equal amounts of water easilySunlight should be able to spread over all of the shelvesThe design should last over 5 yearsThe training time for the design should be under 5 minTime to assemble should be under 10 min, it needs to be easily assembled

Final design model:

The design is bulky, but has been designed in such a way that it can be placed anywhere

within a green house, and can face anyway desired in a green house. Also the side shelves have

been placed far enough apart so that they can receive the amount of light they need to grow

crops. The design can be easily torn apart and moved to a different part of the greenhouse if

needed. The materials in the design is made from local timber, and the cost will come out to

around thirty five dollars per growing shelf. The parts will last a long time if taken care of,

definitely over 10 years. The only repairs that will need to be done is to replace broken shelves.

A replacement shelf will cost around 1.75$ per shelf, and 5 dollars to replace a side of three

shelves.

Cost Table

cost2015

amount

122

Materials ShelfSide triangles

How to:

The shelves will be fastened individually before they are fastened to the pyramidal structure. The four sides we be fastened together at the same time. The finished structure will be big, so in order to be moved within a greenhouse it will need to be disassembled. When dissembling to move within greenhouse the same procedures stand but in a reverse order. Once the design is installed in the proper place in the green house, troughs, cans, or anything that can hold a plant can be placed on the shelf. Once plants are placed on the shelves they can be water, and since the shelves are spaced apart all of the plants will receive equal amounts of sunlight. Since crops on in a removable container on the shelf they can be removed from the shelf at any time if necessary.

Redesign ideas/ thoughts and conclusion:

We accommodated are customer’s needs, but need a little more work to completely satisfy all stakeholders. A recycling water system would definitely help other stakeholders, as wells as getting the overall size of the structure down. The dream prototype would have these effects implemented into it. Changes the team would make to the overall project is create a broader range of things to improve on, such as instead of selecting an irrigation system in a greenhouse select another aspect of the greenhouse or improve, like air conditioning systems or how sunlight is filtered into the greenhouse. In the end the team enjoyed the project and all learned something valuable from the progressing of this design project.

Works Cited

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Burkina_Faso

2. http://www.archdaily.com/country/burkina-faso

3. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html

4. http://www.heritage.org/index/country/burkinafaso