NCIIA-Myanmar

Treadle pumps - 3 videos from Myanmar

IDE-Myanmar treadle suction pump at a farm.  (That's Debbie talking in the background.)

From Treadle pump videos - Myanmar

Close-up by treadles

From Treadle pump videos - Myanmar

Close-up by outlet spout (that's David Klaus talking about the rocker mechanism.)

From Treadle pump videos - Myanmar

Tinkering with Tibetan Monks: Video and Link

Tinkering with monks: cardboard automata from Learning Studio on Vimeo.

See http://apps.exploratorium.edu/blogs/ls/2009/02/19/tinkering-with-monks-cardboard-automata-video/ for more information.  And many thanks to Stanford PD alum, Justin Willow, for the pointer.

Stanford students head to Myanmar over Spring Break

Two teams of Design for Extreme Affordability students are heading to Myanmar this week to work on their projects with IDE-Myanmar. While there, they will be visiting the field, meeting with IDE staff, checking out the manufacturing and generally absorbing it all.

(This picture from Anurupa Rao, a Extreme alum who has continued to work with IDE-Myanmar on the water basket design, her team's Extreme project.)

Aggregate rework numbers

Thanks to David and Win Ma's compilation of the quality control data from Ko Sint's checker team, we are able to get a sense of IDE's overall rework rates.  ("There are no rejects!" according to Ko Zaw).  Here we can see the number of reworks per pump for the pump head and pump frame models manufacturing.  Both the sets of models have rework rates of ~65%, which isn't too bad if you consider that IDE's subcontractors were making these without fixtures - and that these pumps are relatively complex.  From these charts, you can also see that there tends to be a lot more problems per pump with the pump frame as almost 20% of pumps have three or more reworks.


Ideally, we would like to get IDE's rework rate to below 40% which is more in line with what we would seeing in less industrialized welding workshops.

Our next step for analysis is to look at rework changes over time to start evaluating the the impact of our jig and fixture introductions made possible with our NCIIA grant. 

Vickie's manufacturing pictures from IDE-Myanmar

Vickie Chiang was in Yangon in mid-December to work on process mapping.  She took some excellent pictures of jigs and fixtures being prototyped that were started with this project.

Vickie visits Whirlwind, San Francisco

To learn more about mild steel production, Vickie visited Whirlwind Wheelchair International.  Whirlwind designs wheelchairs for production and use in developing countries to empower people with disabilities through independent mobility and sustainable economic development.  Below are her photos:

Bernie's photos from Yangon and beyond

Bernie Roth visited IDE-Myanmar in mid-December 2008. 

While in Yangon, Bernie led several sessions with local people on creativity and problem solving. He worked with the entire IDE main office staff on issues around personal responsibility. Especially the difference between trying to do something and actually doing it. He also dealt with the dysfunctional aspects of reason (better known as excuses), the importance of being clear about one's intentions and the impediments to problem solving that come from not correctly defining the problem.

The next day, Bernie led a morning long session with several hundred young professional training to be  future leaders. This highly interactive session covered roughly the same ground as the one with the IDE staff.

He also led shorter interactive sessions with an international team from Asian countries, that were about to leave for internships as IDE village field workers, and with IDE's pump and water srorage design team. 

In addition he led a didactic discussion with a physics class of seniors at the International High School on concepts and technology associated with robotic machines.

Above is a collection of some of his photos.

Happy fixtures make for happy pumps (and happier users)

So basic guidelines for ensuring a long happy and productive life for your welding fixtures (of the mild steel variety):

1. Do not paint fixtures.  Painting them changes their tolerances and critical dimensions.  If you need to mark or label a fixture, it should be marked where there is no contact with the parts.
2. Treat gently.  Your fixture doesn't want to be stacked or have something stacked on it!  While we always hope to design robust fixtures, stoppers and other components of fixtures can be easily misaligned.
3. Do not hammer parts in the fixture.  You can hammer or pry parts out of a fixture (so the force is directed at removal).  Hammering parts in a fixture can also case component misalignment.
4. Keep your fixtures in a dry area.  They rust!
5. Keep your fixtures clean.  With typical workshop dirt and stray chipped off slag, accumulation in the corner of a fixture may be enough to throw off a critical dimension.  A periodic brush with a handbroom of the fixture and workarea is usually enough.
6. Fixtures do wear, so if the components in the fixture start to feel looser than usual - the fixture should be checked either with the mother fixture (if possible) or my measuring/checking the critical dimensions/relationships.

Jig & Fixture Design - November 2008

Ko Zaw, Ko Sint, Krista and Bryan worked with Ko That (one of IDE's subcontractors) to look at fixture design for joining the 4" suction pump head to the frame.  IDE had been using a fixture (shown left) that assisted in placing some of the components, but the welder often needed to hold the part in place with his hand when tacking (so wasn't able to hold his welding mask).

We realized while we were working through the critical dimensions, that we would really need two fixtures to replace the one.  The first fixture would allow for the assembly of the frame components: the trapezoidal sides and the bottom struts.  The second would center the pump head in the frame sub-assembly and place a support bar.  The prototypes for the two new fixtures are shown below. 

In terms of fixture design, we talked about material variability (e.g. how we couldn't depend on a wall thickness being consistent), how items should be fixed for tacking so as not to distort - and more importantly to allow the welder to hold his mask, if a fixture is too complicated - we are probably trying to do too much, and that little separate parts, such as clamps, are not ideal because they get lost and/or damaged with regular workshop wear and tear. 

For fixing items, Krista's favourite is making a thumb screw from a bolt and flat bar and turning (or filing/grinding, thanks to Bryan) off the middle threads.  The threads closest to the bold head are needed for tightening the bolt, the end threads to keep the bolt in the fixture when taking the part out, and the missing threads in the middle let the welder tighten and retract the bolt quickly.  By welding a nut to a flat bar or anle iron, the new thumb screw can be angled for fixing parts.

Topics for November 2008 visit

Krista and Bryan will be in Yangon for the first couple of weeks of November.  On the agenda (from Ko Zaw, Ko Sint, and David):

• Review new jigs and fixtures
• Discuss priorities for new jig and fixture development
• Check in with new quality control system
• Field visit to talk to local IDE support team and farmers
• Discuss pocket pond production
• Talk to manufacturers about production methods, social organization, etc.