Africa Pilot

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Narrative

The pilot demonstrates that a large team of unskilled workers can build a small, practical utility tractor (MicroTractor) in ONE DAY. A team of 50 people led by 4 OSE staff cuts and drills metal, welds, and assembles the tractor from start to finish. 25 people work on the tractor, while 25 more people work on the Power Cube engine unit in parallel. The tractor is ready to drive at the end of Day 1. On the second day, the same team builds the spader implement for preparing soil - and the gasifier infrastructure. The gasifier includes the gasifier proper (an attachment for the Power Cube), and a stationary biomass processor involving a hammermill, pelletizer, and charcoal maker. The spader is run on the second day, and the MicroTrac Power Cube is used to power the hydraulic Hammermill and Pelletizer to produce charcoal pellets, followed by their conversion to charcoal in a charcoal making-oven.

The overall package demonstrates the feasibility of advanced production from open source plans - and that such production can be taught readily to farmers and makers who are not engineers and who do not have fabrication skills before they build the tractor.

The tractor, spader, gasifier, and fuel production infrastructure are designed for DIY production. This means that the design is as simple as possible and requires the lowest number of fabrication steps. The design also allows for use of common, off-the-shelf parts - as much as possible.

In the background, a large 3D printer will be printing the rubber tracks or wheels - as well as other minor components such as handles and seat.

If successful, the next phase of the project involves designing an open source, 3000 square foot, off-grid microfactory capable of producing such tractors using 100% open source equipment. This addresses the issue that any technology development project in an area without industrial supply chains must substitute for these somehow, otherwise supply chain issues make the economic model unsustainable. As such, the microfactory provides its own power via PV and charcoal. The microfactory is further located on 40 acres of land that provide 100% of the fuel, food, and water to sustain the microfacory and a small village of workers. The 40 acres would be managed regeneratively so that soil health improves while generating all biomass fuel - in a regenerative way.

Basic Components

  • Microtrac traction machine with PTO and rotary spader
  • Solar 3D Printer, 1 meter, for printed rubber tracks or wheels. Powered by solar panels.
  • Day 1 is build of machine with 50 people and simple stock steel and off-the-shelf components
  • 6 welders, 6 oxyfuel cutters, one hole puncher are used as the main tools. These are opensourced in the next phase after the Pilot - the Open Source Microfactory
  • Gasoline Engine Power Cube powers 2 generators for the 6 welders.
  • 300W PV panel runs the printer with non-heated bed for printing rubber

Scope

  • Microtrac with 16 hp or 32hp Power Cube
  • Rotary spader attachment, with hydraulic direct drive
  • Has Hydraulic Power Take-off (PTO) for running implements
  • No loader arms - just basic traction machine
  • Requirement of 3D printed rubber tracks or wheels.
  • Gasifier attachment
  • Runs on regular gas or charcoal pellets
  • Charcoal Pellets are produced locally: Hammermill, pelletizer, and burner
  • Hammermill, pelletizer are run via MicroTrac power cube as additional imiplements from the PTO, demonstrating a power system with a Universal Power Unit for low cost

Sequence

  • Hire 4 full time engineering staff
  • Deploy incentive challenge on HeroX based on admissible OSE part libraries and OSE design language
  • Pilot pre-build - USA integration at Kansas City or Texas base to test all components

Budget

Materials

  • 6 welders - $6k
  • 6 oxyfuel cutters - $3k
  • Tractor materials - $3k (or $6k for high end engine)
  • Spader materials - $2k
  • 3D printer materials - $2k
  • 2 Generators, 10kW - $6k
  • Hammermill - $1k
  • Pelletizer - $1k
  • Charcoal maker - $2k
  • Thermoplastic Urethane (Rubber) pellets - $1000 bulk
  • 20% cost over-run -

Prototyping Materials

  • Tractor - $6k
  • Spader - $4k
  • 3D Printer - $2k
  • Hammermill - $2k
  • Pelletizer - $2k
  • Charcoal maker - $4k

Staff

  • Project integrator - $40k
  • 4 full time engineering staff, 4 months - $125k
  • Development staff - $8k

Shipping, Travel

  • Container+Shipping - $10k
  • Travel - $2k each for 5 people - $10k
  • Accommodations, 5 people - $2500

Staff

  • 1 full time engineer @$50/hr- 4 months to update MicroTrac CAD with Power Cube, and prototype deployment
  • 1 full time engineer @$50/hr- 4 months to design, prototype, test the spader
  • 1 full time engineer @$50/hr- 1 month on Hammermill, 1 month on Pelletizer, and 1 month on gasifier implement for the Power Cube, and 1 month on charcoal maker
  • 1 full time fabricator @$50/hr- builds MicroTrac, spader
  • 1 full time project integrator @$100/hr -
  • 1 full time documenter - 4 months @$50/hr
  • 1.5 month full time on build instructionals for the Microtrac, Power Cube
  • 0.5 month each - Spader, Hammermill, Pelletizer
  • 0.5 month month - Charcoal maker, gasifier add-on

Intermediate

  • Wood gasifier for power
  • Pelletization infrastructure for generating fuel

Advanced

  • Oxyhydrogen torch - generator + CNC table
  • Generates all material turnkey, just slight grinding is required
  • Solar PV operation with ONE battery for 10kW of cut power on 1/2" steel - PV system cost of $10k as a low cost option

Strategy

  • Collaborators from Africa are required to install OSE Linux and take 2 hour Crash Course of FreeCAD and OSE Development.
  • Low entry barriers for Public Design
  • Leverage Public Design program for libraries/schools
  • Copy machine for common local production approach as opposed to elite design of FabLabs

Collaborators

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