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Plastic Experiments

Posted on by mistyclench99
Instruments and Equipment - Made in Agbogbloshie
Instruments and Equipment – Made in Agbogbloshie

As part of the AMPQAMP’s objective of building a spacecraft at Agbogbloshie for open source activities to take place, one of the activities was making tiles and panesl from recycled plastics to be used in the Spacecraft.

Plastics are everyday materials used domestically and industrially. Statistically speaking, about 72% of our household appliances have some plastic components, however it is not bio-degradable.

  • There are several types of plastics such as polyethylene theraphalate (PET), high density polyethylene (HDPE), polyvinyl chloride (PVC), low density polyethylene (LDPE), polypropylene (PP), polystyrene (PS).

The AMP team of scientists visited the Agbogbloshie to source plastics. Sam Sandow, an e-waste worker and member of AMP maker collective, Shaibu, a plastics recycler and other scrap dealers assisted with sourcing material. Their knowledge of the Agbogbloshie terrain helped the team navigate the space relatively faster, with successful acquisition of PP, HDPE, LDPE and PET from the plastics recyclers. Vendors weighed plastic material via digital scale.

  • Tinsmiths at Accra Timber Market and Agbogbloshie assembled custom aluminum molds per the teams specifications (20 x 20 cm). With expertise from producing breadpans, makers such as Mohammed then fashioned the molds by applying their working knowledge of pattern cutting, etc.
  • Team Poly-Science (Ivy, Michael, Maame and Rejoyce) experimented three methods of processing these plastics were considered namely: Melting, stewing and plastic impregnation.
  • Melting basically involves bringing the plastics to their respective melting temperature ranges; 250-260oC for PET, 160-170oC for PP, 130oC for HDPE, 110oC for LDPE and 240oC for PS.
  • Stewing however involve bring different plastics to temperatures close enough to their melting range temperature. Therefore causing the bond to loosen up enough just to enable free form molding
  • Plastics impregnation is a term used to describe the filling of air pores in porous materials with plastics, so as to improve their impermeability as well as strengthen them. To do this, one dissolves the plastics, PS in our case, in a solvent thinner or petrol. This form a colloidal solution for the incubation or impregnation. We used this method to produce water-proof paper and fabric.
Tiles made from 1. PET 2. PP 3. HDPE 4. PP 5. Incubated fabric 6. LDPE 7. PP 8. PP
Tiles made from 1. PET 2. PP 3. HDPE 4. PP 5. Inpregnated fabric 6. LDPE 7. PP 8. PP

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Makers’ Paradise and the Jerry!

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

Agbogbloshie e-waste dump as it is known, and portrayed by the media is more than just that. It is an e-resource repository; a source of valuable raw e-material and a makers’ paradise. On this e-turf, there are several players, whose operations  make it what it is.

Zack is a young e-waste worker. He usually operates in the Agbogbloshie refrigerator trade: buying, selling, dismantling and selling again. The AMP team encountered him over 7 months ago and signed him on as a part of the AMP maker collective.

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Zack dismantling a refrigerator during the AMP workshop in Agbogbogbloshie

“Emeka” is a Nigerian migrant to Ghana. He owns and operates a shop out of Agbogbloshie. The shop is well stocked and has a CCTV camera which helps him secure his “goods”. Though the team had been to this side of Agbogbloshie, this was the first time we were meeting him in person.

What do all these people have in common? Computers!!

As part of the AMPQAMP at the Kokrobite Institute, AMP hackers and/or STEAM students and graduates, collaborated with hackers from the Woelab (Togo’s very active makerspace!) to build a Jerry. A Jerry is a computer that is made with parts from old computers assembled in a jerrycan. This workshop was significant, mainly due to the transfer of knowledge which occurred during the assembly process. As part of this highly didactic process, a team comprising makers from both AMP and Woelab visited Agbogbloshie.

Inside Agbogbloshie, the team first encountered a computer shop. It was well stocked and able to provide a wide range of old computer parts owned and run by Emeka. During the interviews and interaction with the e-waste workers in Agbogbloshie, the AMP team discovered that, Nigerians formed a critical part of the ecosystem in Agbogbloshie.  A network that virtually spans the entire globe.

Subsequently, the team met with Zack, an e-waste worker, who is part of the AMP maker collective. Several weeks earlier, the AMP team had discovered much to our surprise that Zack whom we knew only as an expert in the commerce and dismantling of old fridges in Agbogbloshie and who had helped us with our workshop in fridge disassembly, was also a self taught computer repairer. He was comfortable enough to ask us which parts we needed, and proceeded to test them for us by connecting each in turn to his personal computer. The level of fruitful interaction had with him, points to the phenomenal possibilities that a fully operational maker collective (comprising STEAM professionals and e-waste workers) in Agbogbloshie would unleash.

Back at the Kokrobite institute, the Woelab team, led by Rhode Audrey and Martine Pandam together with the AMP team led by Daniel started to assemble the Jerry computer.  We first produced schematic sketches and then marked out and cut the JerryCan. We then  placed the components:  first the mother board, then the hard drives, then the cables, the power pack and finally the CD-ROM. In all, it was a very exciting experience. The excitement has spurred the AMP team on to explore further design possibilities. The team is advancing ideas such as the solar JerryTop: recovered laptop parts in a Jerrycan powered by recovered solar cells.

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All hands on deck during Jerry computer workshop.

These we believe can serve as a means of providing cheap computers in rural areas and in deprived urban contexts and can go a long way to improve computer literacy in Ghana and Africa as a whole. This is one of those projects where hackers like Zack in Agbogbloshie and STEAM professionals like Daniel from the creativity group in KNUST (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology) could collaborate. In the few moments where language was a barrier, both teams communicated via the language of computers and making, which are both universal. Thanks to Yasmine (AMP co-pi) and Rejoice ( psychology intern and maker), such moments were minimized, as they took turns to translate.

In the end, there was a handing over ceremony where the team from Togo handed over the Jerry’s to the AMP team, signifying a transfer of technology.

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Internal arrangement of components in Jerry Computer
Laptop dissection - Daniel with Woelab crew
Laptop dissection – Daniel with Woelab crew
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The transfer of the Jerrys from Woelab to AMP

#ampqamp14

Posted on by dkoa

#ampqamp14 ran June through August, 2014 at the Kokrobitey Institute, Hub Accra (now Impact Hub Accra) and the Agbogbloshie scrapyard, in collaboration with Togo’s Wɔɛlab. #ampqamp14 focused on M&D (Makers & Development, a practical hands-on approach to R&D) for the spacecraft, while #ampqamp15 focused on codesign of the AMP app.

#ampqamp @kokrobitey institute.team&-MOTION#ampqamp14 #woelabampqamp14 and woelab massive20140403_06293920140403_115111

Participants included:

Name Area of specialisation  Institution
Michael ACQUAH Physics University of Cape coast
Divine KWAME Communication design University of Cape coast
Maame Amma ANINKORA Physics University of Ghana
Rejoyce DOUMON Psychology University of Ghana
Louis BADOE Medicine University of Ghana
Nutifafa Yao DOUMON Teaching Assistant, Physics University of Ghana
Etornam AVOUGLA Graduate (Maths & Statistics) University of Ghana
Samuel AMOAKO-FRIMPONG Aerospace engineering Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Daniel Henneh ADU Electrical engineering Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Timothy AFFRAM Mechanical Engineering Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Leonce Olorode ATANLEY Electrical Engineering Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Martine PANDAM Maker WOELAB Togo
Kokou Dieudonnei AYEBUA Maker WOELAB Togo
Yannick MENSAH Maker WOELAB Togo
Rhodes O. AUDRE Maker WOELAB Togo
Kakatsi K.E. TEDO Maker WOELAB Togo
Lena KORSAH Designer Kokrobitey Institute
Natalie FORDWOR Programs Manager Kokrobitey Institute
Chamil MADHAWA Production Manager Kokrobitey Institute
Renee NEBLETT Art Education Kokrobitey Institute
Rafa FONT (Recyhub) Sustainable development Royal Holloway, University of London
Mawuena BANINI Architecture Central University College
Emmanuel Kusi OFORI-SARPONG Architecture Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Kuukuwa MANFUL Architecture Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Ivy ASUO Physics and Materials Science Kwame Nkrumah University of Science & Technology
Yasmine ABBAS Design & Architecture AMP co-founder
DK OSSEO-ASARE Design & Architecture AMP co-founder

Semi-octet truss first prototype

Posted on by dkoa
1 safety first
welding is dangerous; always work in a well-ventilated space, wear eye protection, and be careful!
welding the first semi-octet truss prototype at the Kokrobitey Institute makerspace
welding the first semi-octet truss prototype at the Kokrobitey Institute makerspace
octet truss KI first prototype
Emmanuel load-testing first octet truss prototype at Kokrobitey Institute makerspace, during #ampqamp14.

This was the first time we welded a complete full-length octet truss. Rudimentary structural tests after fabrication demonstrated good performance/strength but unacceptable dimensional tolerance (i.e. it was strong, but not precise).

Special thanks to Chamil, master maker at the Kokrobitey Institute makerspace, who suggested to develop a 2d truss jig (to hold 1in angle bar frame straight and square while welding) and square pyramid jig (to enable standardized production welding of square pyramids, as a component for full octet truss).

Chamil

More on spacecraft M&D from ampqamp14 here.

Hazards of an Untamed Inferno

Posted on by evolouision

[By Louis, the medical student on the AMP team]

Any time there is a threat of biological or chemical attack, the first you think about is personal safety. Aside finding environmentally-friendly and efficient solutions to managing mountain-high piles of used plastic products, the AMP also discovered how extremely poisonous it is to work in spaces like Agbogbloshie with plastics constantly set ablaze. It can increase the risk of heart disease, aggravate respiratory ailments such as asthma and emphysema, and cause rashes, nausea, or headaches, damages in the nervous system, kidney or liver. The most dangerous emissions can be caused by burning plastic substances like PVC. When such plastics are burned, a group of highly toxic chemicals called dioxins are emitted. This is a very typical practice in Agbogbloshie for copper wire recovery.

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Clouds of fumes from copper recovery
Dioxins settle on crops and in our waterways where they eventually end up in our food and  accumulate in our bodies. They accumulate in our body fat and thus mothers give it directly to their babies via the placenta.

Therefore, one of the AMP team’s research trajectories is in safety gear for the industrial environment of Agbogbloshie.

Gas masks–more generically known as respirators–protect workers against everything from dust to toxic gases in general. It is a tight-fitting plastic or rubber face mask with some sort of filter cartridge. In one main type, the supplied air provides pre-filtered air from a canister through a tube whiles in the other, the air breathed in and out of the mouth directly. Based on particle filtration, chemical absorption or adsorption and chemical reaction to neutralize a chemical, respirators are built to effectively filter a wide range of contaminants from burning emissions. Some filters are disposable whiles others can be replaced.

Additionally, we looked at the hazmat suit which is an overall garment (including boots, gloves, a hood) worn to protect people from hazardous materials or substances, including chemicals, biological agents, or radioactive materials. It is worn in a dozen or more layers; the first layer jumpsuit being re-usable. Some hazmat suits are loose to prevent spillage only, whiles others are air-tight to prevent gaseous contact.

Unfortunately, local dealers may not be able afford such equipment costing some hundreds of dollars. More importantly, many of them remain unaware of the dire effects of their daily activities. Not only these people who are burning plastics are exposed to these pollutants, but also their neighbours, children and families.

Hopefully, the creative geniuses at AMP can create some local and sustainable gas masks based on American and European standards. With our own teams and the workers at Agbogbloshie in mind, we hope to reduce the risks of individuals being exposed to unfiltered fumes. Our thinking caps are on tight!

For further reading, please visit the links below:

http://science.howstuffworks.com/gas-mask1.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Respirator

http://www.wecf.eu/cms/download/2004-2005/homeburning_plastics.pdf

http://www.sccfd.org/clothing_hazmat.html

#ampqamp14 – Weeek 1

Posted on by ivyasuo

First weeek =) of#ampqamp14 started at Hub Accra by a discussion of AMP’s objectives for the three coming weeeks: to co-design and build with AMP makers (comprising of STEAM students and graduates and eventually e-waste workers) a module of the spacecraft–AMP’s  makerspace–and share its progress with the community in Agbogbloshie.

Participants started discussing the design of the spacecraft, its frame and interior frame comprising of an octet truss system, prefab panels, soft and roof systems. We then developed a critical path for each system so to know what to do at each step of the way until we build the spacecraft. The brainstorming sessions were very intensive, with some of the participants sketching/drawing the various concepts related to the spacecraft.

 

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Participants designing the critical path
Participants designing the critical path

By the second day we enthusiastically produced fully developed critical paths,  identified and quantified in terms of duration and dependency of the various tasks

Critical path for AMPQAMP
Critical path for AMPQAMP

We also prepared for the first workshop ahead, the plastic workshop to be carried out at the Rex Cinema in collaboration with Brad Marley and Efya  from the POLY Bank GH organization. In preparation for the workshop, we conducted background research on the physical properties, melting methods and stewing methods. We sourced the plastic–shredded-PET (polyethylene therephatlate) old plastic bottles and stewed shredded-PP (polypropylene)–and a number of molds from Agbogbloshie. This was also a good occasion to share our process with the Agbogbloshie community. This is a picture of the tools we brought to the Rex Cinema to conduct our experiments.

Tools bought from Agbogbloshie for the experiment
Tools bought from Agbogbloshie for the experiment

The Rex is an open-air cinema, a wonderful space to experiment within. There, young Ghana makers were busy melting, stewing and molding different types of plastics and exploring the production of architectural parts, panels, brick or tiles, made of recycled plastic. Sam and Idrissou, Agbogbloshie community agents, helped with burning the charcoal.. They were far more skilled than us!

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Below are some of the observations from the experiment:

  • We observed that the PET melting process was very slow and began really late, also at temperatures slightly higher than 260◦c, which is the theoretical melting point value. PET began to char and thus underwent incomplete carbonation and changing color from a transparent blue color a marble brown colored plastic. PP however, started melting at a lower temperature and rather melted over a larger temperature range and also produced a smooth finish.

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    Marble brown colored tile made from PET
  • We may have over heated the PET plastics, which led to the formation of a brittle-porous tile.
  • Contributing factors to such brittleness of the plastic panel are associated to the cooling rate and media and this caused cracks.

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    Cracked tile made from PET
  • Also, the temperature of the charcoal flame could not be controlled and hence over heating ensued.
  • It was also observed that stewing of PET did not work. This is probably due to the fact that it has a high melting temperature and the oil doing not facilitate that phenomenon.
  • PP plastics however work well with stewing in oil. From the experiment, we formed a very strong mold which can be used for wall panels, table tops and many others.
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Brick made by stewing PP plastics

 

Find here the Lab report.

We were honored to host Prof. Kwadjo Osseo-Asare (AMP co-PI) and Dr. Victor Oteng-Atiemo (retired from MD of DOW chemical Ghana) who gave us advices on how to proceed and continue our experiments.

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Here is the link to Flickr photo set.

The Sound of Plastic

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

There is more than e-waste processing happening in the open-air recycling factory: plastic processing represents a significant portion of Agbogbloshie’s ecosystem and economy.

Woman in the plastics business
Woman in the plastics business

The plastic processing chain involves various actors (male and female — contrary to e-waste processing which does not employ female workers) and machines:

  • Collectors get plastic waste from all around the city and temporarily store them onsite. Dismantlers scrap plastic out of e-waste or other items.
  • Men and women sort out plastics based on empirical and heuristic approaches: they separate plastics according to their thickness, malleability (thermoplastics are malleable and can be recycled, while thermoset plastics are not), and by the sound plastics make when workers bang on them with a screwdriver!
  • In our interaction, workers in Agbogbloshie did not know about the resin identification code system. However, as observed many locally-made plastics lacked labels, as well as scrap pieces of plastic detached from primary parts in which the label is inset. Thus, if the processing is carried out in a hasty and crude manner, then having resin identification codes may not be overly helpful.

As we learned by watching the documentary film The Electronic Tragedy by Dannoritzer Cosima, in other parts of the globe where informal plastic processing also occurs, heuristic approaches include burning plastics with a lighter and smelling the burnt material – each type of plastic has a different burning temperature. This strategy is more dangerous for the workers’ health than local methods of differentiating between types based on the sound of plastic.

Plastics sorted by color
Plastics sorted by color
  • In Agbogbloshie, it is common knowledge that television cases (made of non-recyclable thermoset plastics) cannot be sold for recycling. And this is also the reason why the item is often used for storage or as a stool. The local workers separate plastics into three main categories (while there are seven identified categories of plastics. PET (bottles) and PVC (pipes) are in addition): “rubber” (e.g. polypropylene, PP), “gallon” (e.g. high density polyethylene, HDPE), and “plastic” (not recyclable). In all, they process Polypropylene PP, High Density Polyethylene HDPE, Low Density Polyethylene LDPE, Polyethylene Theraphalate PET, Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC), and other types such as PP-MD20, and PP-TD30.
  • Women remove labels and caps of PET containers (water bottles for example; water bottle c­­­aps are made of another type of plastic). Workers sort recyclable plastics by colors before (loud) shredding using locally fabricated shredding machines. They then sieve the shredded plastics before washing it. The plastic is now ready to be sold to industries – local and global!

Prices vary according to the type of plastic and depends on the market. For our plastic experiments, we purchased the Kg of shredded PET for 3 Cedis and the Kg of PP for 2 Cedis. The workers specialized in plastic processing were rather excited about the business opportunity afforded by our plastic experiments (bricks and tiles made with PP and PET) and we look forward to this knowledge transfer.

Find more pictures on Flickr.

M&D Final Review

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

The M&D final review took place at l’ESA on Friday June 13! Edouard Cabay, teaching the RE- studio at l’ESA, was our special guest on the jury. Teams of students presented four projects: a hydroponic micro-farm, a water distillery, a gas mask and a project to map Agbogbloshie using AMP flickr data.

The micro-farm to grow tomatoes and the water distillery used fridge remains (e-waste parts to be found on the dumpsite). Both teams considered as much as possible the context, hence the scale of the projects, DOWN-SCALED to AMP UP! These micro-architecture or “urban robots” as we, AMP founders, like to call them (Also in homage to Japanese architect Toyo Ito, whose first architectural firm was called as such), are seeds for change because they allow for appropriation and replication (anyone in Agbogbloshie should be able to).

The aWEARness gas mask would help raise awareness of health problems due to burning the wires and was to be co-designed with the community in Agbogbloshie. The latest prototype uses papier maché technique so the mask could fit every single e-waste worker and could be decorated [or augmented/AMP-ed up?!] using e-waste parts.

hydroponic teamPoster by Oscar AGUILA (right), Nicolas BENMUSSA (left) and Charles CLEMENT (middle)

distillery teamPoster by Gautier PIECHOTTA (right) and Ferdinand SIMON (left)

awearness team

awearness 2

awearness 1aWEARness mask prototypes by Sibylle PERRIER (middle), Edouard REGNIER (left) and Maryam SAAD (right)

Video of the MAP.US concept presented by Vlad DARABAN and Diana DURAND-RUEL

A smokeless future for Agbogbloshie

Posted on by ivyasuo

In line with the intention to make tools for the remaking of the Agbogbloshie electronic landscape, the AMP team, in collaboration with Rafa Font of Recyhub, met at the Kokrobite institute to assemble the Hal Watts’ E-source– a man- powered copper cable shredder. The two day session commenced in high spirits with each person, contributing to the assembly. Slowly but surely, all the parts came together and the basic functions tested. At the end, a few observations were made about its applicability to Agbogbloshie, and these were recorded as notes for the designers to consider.

Hal Watt first design
Hal Watts’ first design of E-source.

First developed as a bicycle with cable shredding capabilities, this new prototype, still maintains the idea of pedaling as a means to power the machine. It however deviates from the initial literality of a bicycle. The design was inspired by the problem of burning copper cables in Agbogbloshie, which Hal visited, to gain firsthand experience of the situation. The AMP and Recyhub teams were joined by students from the college of engineering KNUSTs creativity group. These are engineering students with an interest in e-waste processing.

The AMP team started by unpacking and positioning the frame, and then the tubes for water were appropriately placed. The next in line was the turning wheel, which we placed in the part of the frame allocated for it. We then proceeded to hang the chains on the cassettes and connected it to the main shredder blades which sits at the centre of the frame. This was followed by the pedals which we bolted in place. After testing to see that the pedal functions as it should, we proceeded to install the processing trough and then tested once again to ensure that it moved when pedaled. We then adjusted the seat until it was in the right position and then bolted it. Following this, we placed the receptacle for the cables over the blades, filled a barrel with water and then proceeded to fill it with cables and began testing the entire set up.

The second prototype of the E-source assembled in Kokrobite by AMP and Recyhub
The second prototype of the E-source assembled in Kokrobite by AMP and Recyhub

On the second day of the workshop, the function and assembly process were explained and tested further in collaboration with students from the Ashesi University, who were in Kokroite to engage in various forms of maker workshops. They found the experience thrilling and enthusiastically asked a lot of questions. Among the questions that came up were:

  • Is it possible to find a low energy way of mechanizing the system?
  • How easy or otherwise will it be for people in Agbogbloshie to assemble the machine themselves?
  • Will the volumes of cables shredded by the machine compare favorably with volumes currently processed in Agbogbloshie by means of burning?
Students from Ashesi University learning about the Esource.
Students from Ashesi University learning about the Esource.

In terms of future steps, the AMP team hopes that, further studies in collaboration with stakeholders such as Recyhub,  the creativity group and Hal & Watt (inventors of the e-source) will help to advance this initiative until such a time that, all e-waste workers in Agbogbloshie have a version installed and the burning of cables no longer occurs.

See more pictures on Flickr