Date of Award

6-2011

Document Type

Open Access

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Ronald Bucinell

Language

French

Keywords

Kenya, poverty, recycled tires, shoes

Abstract

The goal of this project was to develop an inexpensive manual cutting machine to cut sandals out of recycled tires and industrial belt allowing poor Kenya villages to produce their own sandals that are durable enough to survive the rough terrain. In Kenya 56 percent of the population live in poverty, surviving on less than a dollar a day. Walking is the main mode of transportation and the majority of Kenyans can only afford second hand shoes that wear out easily on the unpaved roads. In developing this machine the goal was to make the machine affordable for a company in Kenya to make and sell to local villages who can in turn use this machine to make a profit selling affordable shoes. In the design of this machine special attention was paid to the materials and tools available to manufacture in these poor areas along with the cost of manufacturing. The final design for this press utilized a double toggle linkage to increase a manually applied load. The linkage was modeled after a stone crusher linkage and a mechanical advantage analysis of 3.75 was calculated at the moment the cutting blade contacted the rubber. A simple hollow cube frame was used to support the linkage and a stress simulation analysis was complete which proved a wooden frame would not break under the loading. A prototype was made with basic tools and materials by hand and a sample of tire was successful cut.

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