Plastic Micro-factories in Agbogbloshie

Posted on by ivyasuo
Pellet made by extrusion process
Plastic pellets made by extrusion process

Plastic waste in Ghana has become a major social and ecological problem, due to the adverse effects of plastic pollution on both human health and the environment. Especially during periods of flooding, plastic waste chokes the drainage systems of most Ghanaian cities.  The need for initiatives to improve sanitation in our community is of great importance. Of the many local waste management companies, only few practice segregation and recycling of waste — and not yet at scale. In the area of plastics recycling, Blowplast recycling is one of the formal organizations which recycles water sachet and black bags in large volumes. What a lot of people do not realize is that plastics recycling in Agbogbloshie is a major activity within the informal sector recycling industry.

Because we are current developing a plastics micro-factory as part of the AMP toolset (one of first prototypes is a mini-kiln for moulding plastic tiles), we continue to work with Agbogbloshie plastics recyclers in order to better understand how the process works now and how it can be improved.

One of the more advanced industrial setups we have come across is located on Abosey Okai Road. Stages in the process flow include sorting, shredding and pelletizing. This micro-factory engages more then 20 youths in Agbogbloshie in full-time employment! The sorted plastics are ground using a milling machine (see picture below) which is connected to a water bath. Shredded plastics are then collected and dried. Finally, the shredded high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are pelletized using an extrusion machine. These pellets — made out of plastic waste from all over Accra — are then sold as feedstock to formal industries both in Ghana and globally that have the capability to produce plastics films.

The existing model of plastics micro-factories in Agbogbloshie deserves support and attention. In effect they perform a massive public service: cleaning up the city of Accra, by making profits from our plastic waste.

Grinding machine in Agbogbloshie
Grinding machine in Agbogbloshie

Prototyping a Laser Spectroscope

Posted on by ivyasuo

Materials are usually classified according to their physical and chemical properties. New technologies today are making the identification of materials increasingly simple, fast and reliable. Building on our earlier research in using spectroscopy and the physics of light to visually differentiate materials, we are now ready to ask: Can we make a laser-induced breakdown spectrometer, locally in Ghana?

Two physics teaching assistants from the University of Ghana signed on with AMP team to help us find out: Nutifafa Y. Doumon (who already participated in #ampqamp), with an MSc degree in Nanoscience from University of Groningen, in the Netherlands and Rodney Abugre, who recently graduated with an MPhil in Physics from University of Ghana.

Test experiment for material surface excitation with an incandescent light
Test experiment for material surface excitation with an incandescent light

We first reviewed existing technologies and later performed our own experiments. Materials were sourced from Agbogbloshie, since the device will be used to test scrap metal from that location.

The goal for our first three experiments was to investigate the laser excitation process of the material surfaces. Apparatus include: Laser light source, converging lens, sample holder and timer. In the laser excitation process we expect the electromagnetic energy of the laser light to be transformed into thermal energy inside the metal and this based on the amount of energy absorbed by the metal. In our experiment we tested this principle using red laser of power 1 mW & < 5 mW, and an incandescent light of power 100 W. From the test experiments, we conclude that due to low power output of the laser light available, we cannot obtain the desirable results from the experiment (See pre-lab here).

Test setup to study laser interaction with material's surface
Test setup to study laser interaction with material’s surface

The next step was to set up and calibrate the complete optical path with components such as, prism, diffraction grating,  laser source, lens, filters mirrors and a camera. In this optical system, our major need is to find a laser with high enough power output to help us obtain the correct spectrum through excitation process.

We will use this system to record the spectrum for the different materials, analyze them using MatLab software and compare results to literature.  In the latter stages, the Agbogbloshie community will be engaged in a workshop on spectroscopy.

The setup for laser alignment [top view]
The setup for laser alignment [top view]
The setup for laser alignment [view from laser source]
The setup for laser alignment [view from laser source]

Mini-Kiln first prototype

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

Making a mobile oven, or mini-kiln; for melting plastics originally but whatever you need to bake. Pick or make the right caster wheels for the sort of mobility mini-kiln usage requires.

metal casters

mini-kiln with flexible tube to LPG cylinder attached.

mini-kiln_assembly-MOTION

mini-kiln_parts

Plastics constitute a significant portion of the Agbogbloshie waste stream, moving through stages of collection, sorting (by type and colour), cleaning, shredding and even in some cases molding into pellets. (See Plastics blog post). With at least 7 micro-factories by our count, Agbogbloshie is a key part of the plastic recycling industry in Ghana, and integrally interconnected with both local and global production cycles. To date, the failure of Agbogbloshie’s industrial ecosystem to add value to plastic material recycled on-site is a lost opportunity for local manufacturing.

Building on our experiments with plastic during AMPQAMP and drawing on the knowledge and expertise of oven fabricators based on the ground in Agbogbloshie, we are now co-designing and prototyping a mini-kiln. This week, William Mensah completed fabrication of the first  prototype in Accra Timber Market,adjacent to Agbogbloshie. The mini-kiln fits the standard module of the AMP spacecraft and is one of the first tools from the AMP tool-set developed to plug into the community workshop.

mini-kiln in accra timber market, fiber insulation exposed before top sheet fixed in place.

The prototype, is composed essentially of a frame of angle bars,  inner and outer layers of sheet metal with a layer of what is locally called “fibre” (PUR foam insulation sourced from air-conditioner dismantling). We didn’t finish until evening, but couldn’t wait to test. Hence using shredded plastics from Agbogbloshie, we  made new recycled plastic tiles, heating the the plastics to their melting point, and allowing them to cool. We intend to carry out carry more of such low-high tech plastic experiments soon in our spacecraft. Stay tuned for more and be sure to share with us, your innovative ideas regarding plastic recycling.

DSC_0076

Plastic tiles made by using the mini-kiln
Plastic tiles made by using the mini-kiln (From the left: HDPE, PP and PET recycled plastics)

Notes:
+Need to add chimney, temperature gauge, and calibrated gas control.
+Cost compare with 2-module wide unit, cylindrical drum cast concrete or clay insulated.
+Link with rotational plastics moulding machine:feedback-enabled temperature controls.

Made in Agbogbloshie

Posted on by pervasiveyaz

Agbogbloshie is a challenging site. As a space, Agbogbloshie is sensory overload: soil and water darkened from pollution exude noxious vapours under the heat of the sun; toxic fumes emanate from burning sites; the clamour of slamming hammers and banging chisels fills the air… But that is only part of the Agbogbloshie story.

A closer look at the ecosystem of the giant self-organized open-air factory shows that Agbogbloshie is about more than destruction alone. A parallel set of activities support the livelihood of onsite workers: food and entertainment spaces — Agbogbloshie has both a cinema and foosball tables! Numerous mosques dot the landscape (we found a total of 14 mosques in the area surveyed) serving five times a day the faithful that are working nearby. Since believers must take ablution before praying, water circulates in plastic tea pots from water tanks, the few municipal water supplies and public toilets/showers that are sprinkled around the site. Workers also engage in making: making tools (such as chisels) to disassemble e-waste or other items into scrap that has a resalable value, making machines (such as a furnace blowing system using a bicycle wheel) to make these tools, and making items (aluminum pots and coal pots using metals harvested from refrigerators) to sell outside the boundaries of the site.

Agbo-maker-chisel
Furnace blower at a blacksmith workshop making chisels for e-waste disassembly

We love the hand-crafted bicycle tyre-powered blowers used to ventilate locally-fabricated furnaces for cottage industry smelters (seen in various places). They are a powerful example of the on-going knowledge transfer within Agbogbloshie and testament to the intertwined nature of making and technology development. Exactly what AMP seeks to further leverage in Agbogbloshie.

Here is the link to our Flickr album Made in Agbogbloshie. While (e-)waste processing is crude and hasty to maximize profit (informal e-waste workers earn a higher than average income compared to informal workers overall), we certainly see all the parts necessary to make the machine, the self-organized open-air factory, run smoothly. Making is just part of it.

AMP Spacecraft

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

For many designers across the globe, language (words) form the bedrock of design thinking: “Words are tools for architectural design; for the development of design intent or strategy, as well as construct the ideas that drive its creation” (Eckler, 2012) [1].

The Agbogbloshie makerspace, is essentially, a community “toolbox” for Agbogbloshie. It was conceived as a spacecraft. This choice of a word served both as a starting point and driver for the design. With AMP co-pi DK Osseo-Asare as the lead on the design team, the AMP spacecraft was designed with mobility in mind, as are other crafts like an air craft, or even space faring vehicles (spacecrafts). As a community kiosk with hand tools, the idea of crafting (making with ones hands) was pivotal in addition to the fact that, these tools enable the spacecraft to replicate itself. Hence it can be read as a place where space is crafted.

Beyond these, the influence of space travel is relevant to the Agbogbloshie makerspace. Here, the toxic electronic landscape which is unfavourable for human habitation is likened to an extra-terrestrial planetary body. Hence, the arrival of a spacecraft could imply the commencement of a process of terraforming–the hypothetical notion that, in order to be habitable and/or conducive for human habitation, atmospheres and ecology of other planets can be modified. From this point of view, the arrival of the AMP spacecraft in Agbogbloshie is the commencement of a process of spatial change or transformation, a notion which is itself deeply related to crafts (vehicles).

In summary, the spacecraft is:

  • Mobile and is like other crafts
  • A place for making (crafting)
  • A workshop for crafting space due to its self replicating ability
  • And a first step towards the spatial transformation of the Agbogbloshie landscape

In terms of the structure, the AMP spacecraft is modular and has a frame consisting of 12 octet trusses per module. (See video here). Each octet truss is made up of steel angle bars, flat plates and rods, which form a series of half octahedra all welded together into a singular structural unit. The intention is to fill in the structural frame with materials sourced from within the Agbogbloshie landscape such as old refrigerator doors, which will constitute composite “precast” insulated panels.

photo(2)
Spacecraft brainstorming session at Hub Accra during AMPQAMP

For the past three weeks week as part of AMPQAMP, the process of crafting the first module of the spacecraft continued starting in Hub Accra with theorizing and brainstorming about the spacecrafts systems and components, and ending in Kokrobite with the fabriacation of the first full scale octet truss, after several prototypes and mockups. It was a long tedious and yet highly exciting process where our desire for high level of precision and accuracy meant cutting and re-cutting, measuring and re-measuring, until we arrived at fairly satisfactory results.

welding image
Welding of octet truss at Kokrobite Institute.

Thanks to master welder Badu and his assistant, we had a fruitful learning experience. Their process was particularly interesting to us because, they used a grinder that was itself “e-waste” sourced from Agbogbloshie. As a space of convergence, the spacecraft which is a place for interaction and sharing (and will exist both as a tangible place, and a fully functional virtual platform) will soon land in Agbogbloshie. Stay tuned!!!

DSC_0080 - Copy
Octet truss welded during AMPQAMP

1. Eckler, F.J 2012, “Language of Space and Form: Generative Terms for Architecture”, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey, page 1.

***

See also:

WEEE basic understanding AMP Manuals

Posted on by Emmanuel K. Ofori-Sarpong

One of AMP’s core objectives is the compilation and design of a “waste” electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) manual. The main purpose of this is the provision of vital information for the AMP maker collective comprising of STEAM students/graduates (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) and Agbogbloshie e-waste workers.

For several months, we worked on the print version of the manual–a series of individual manuals for each electrical and electrical equipment studied–which has undergone several design iterations (see image below). We collected data from a number of articles and our own fieldwork (to learn the value in Ghana Cedis of each item brought to and dismantled in Agbogbloshie). We designed a manual for each piece of equipment studied so it fits a single folded sheet of paper. This makes it simpler and more user friendly. In the coming days, these manuals as they are so far, will be hosted online so makers and people knowledgeable about electrical and electronic equipment could contribute to them.

The manual is organized so as to give information on material composition, parts and components, hazardous materials, urban mining opportunities, tools for dis-assembly, steps for dis-assembly, safety gear, and opportunities and ideas for remaking.

Svet Lightyear visitPicture of the AMP Team showing the manual to Svet from the Lightyear Foundation.

This task is a staggering one because it should cater to the needs of people pertaining to different social categories, each with different understanding and knowledge. On the one hand are the STEAM professionals, educated and used to reading guides and who may even love manuals and on the other hand, the e-waste workers, predominantly uneducated and having a general disinclination towards anything remotely related to guidebooks or for that matter, books. This means they would both relate differently to a typical guidebook. Although this may sound stereotypical, it is a truth with which the AMP team is confronted.

powershift Students at the recently ended PowerShift conference viewing the latest version of the manuals
Students at the recently ended PowerShift conference viewing the latest version of the manuals

To navigate these murky waters, the team decided to go beyond the traditional printed manual in a foreign language and to in addition to this make to video manuals which can be housed on servers and broadcast inside the spacecraft. These will be targeted specifically at the e-waste workers, and put together by some of them, in collaboration with their STEAM counterparts and will be done in Dagbani ( the Lingua franca as it were in Agbogbloshie). In addition to this, makers and/or hackers around the country and the world will have access in open source fashion to all the manuals online, as part of the AMP digital platform.

Image showing the various iterations of the AMP manual and some sources of inspiration
Image showing the various iterations of the AMP manual and some sources of inspiration

In the coming years, AMP hopes to see this manual evolve into a highly informative periodical, providing vital knowledge for a local and international network of young passionate makers and hackers. A thrilling thought indeed!!!

Manual-fridge sample_Page_2Manual-fridge sample_Page_1

#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.