Fabrication

Fabrication

The Fabrication team develops fabrication methods that are useful at AguaClara construction sites, while being feasible and economical. We research the requirements for our tasks, select appropriate design criteria, and come to recommendations for plant parts and construction techniques. We integrate our ideas into the overall plant and help future plants be built more easily and at less cost, with several beneficial features.

The Fabrication Team was created in the Spring 2011 semester to solve some of the problems of constructing plant parts on-site in Honduras. One goal of AguaClara is to empower Hondurans to be able to build the plant, and the Fabrication team works to make that easier. We work on better methods for drilling, cutting, and fitting parts, as well as improving designs to make fabrication simpler. We also work on several entrance tank problems, such as deigning a trash rack for large debris and an overflow weir so that water can bypass the plant without turning off the transmission line. We also look into connections between PVC pipes for the inlet manifold. Our approach to these tasks has been to brainstorm and come up with many possible solutions, then evaluate which ideas are feasible for the Hondurans. Then we build prototypes to test our solutions and make recommendations for future plants.