UNC Chapell Hill, October 2014
Ceramic technician Burt Cohen will be presenting at the University of Chapel Hill conference on Water and Health.
The Ceramic Pot Filter side session is scheduled for Friday, Oct 17, 8:30am – 12:00pm. The purpose of the side session is to bring together those involved in ceramic pot filter manufacturing, marketing, dissemination and research in order to share successes and challenges over the past year and discuss future directions.
Filter Setter
We are currently forming a second prototype filter setter. The filter setter is used for stacking the filters together inside the kiln in a dense configuration. The setter not only nests the filters closely together, but should distribute the weight of the filters onto the support, rather than onto each other. A denser kiln stacking will allow more efficient use of space, reduce fuel costs, and improve the productivity of existing kilns. We hope that this setter will be able to be formed on the filter press.
Prototype mold Set
UK donor, Howells Llc. has produced an ovoid mold set of cast aluminum. This prototype set has a flat bottom but rounded sides, and incorporates several other small changes to the filter form. We hope that this prototype will improve strength and flow rate capabilities of the filter without requiring special drying and handling practices. Several rounds of experiments will be preformed before the mold set reaches the field-testing stage.
Prototype Press
Howells Llc. has also manufactured a prototype press which incorporates some potential advancements. Specifically, the press uses a flipping action for ejection, and is designed to be adaptable to manual, electric, or pneumatic hydraulic pistons for automation. It is hoped that this ejection method will lead to a method of ejection which will not require plastic bags, however, none of the experimental mold-release agents have yielded successful results so far.
Guinea Bissau
Although parts of West Africa have been heavily affected by the Ebola virus, our partners in Bissau are now in advanced stages of building the factory enclosure. We hope to begin batch tests and establish production in 2015. This project continues to benefit from area specific fund raising efforts including generous donations by the Canadian charity “Active Compassion” which helped pay for the first pound of colloidal silver. That’s enough silver for over 3300 filters.