A SOMALI BUSINESS with UK- and German-based directors approached Parry Associates in May to discuss brickmaking machinery for its home country. After lengthy discussions and seeing a sample ‘HIGH AND DRY’ two-storey affordable house (see Parry News 42) at JPA’s Cradley Heath site, the directors asked for prices for a 4.8m x 4.8m version of this new design as well as a starter plant to produce semisheet roof tiles, along with hollow block moulds, water tank moulds, and moulds for producing paving slabs, screen blocks (windows) and coffer units forming a lighter form of floor.
precast coffer unit |
CONVENTIONAL SYSTEM:
The large area of shuttering used to support a floor of reinforced concrete while it sets consumes copious amounts of timber |
THE PARRY SYSTEM:
Coffered underside of upper floor installed without need of timber shuttering and reducing the quantity of concrete by half |
The Somali customers showed interest in another new design – a rubble crusher capable of breaking down granite, concrete and burnt brick. This innovation (described in Technical News) has been identified as potentially useful in Africa as well as south east Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
Following receipt of our indicative quotations for the first two plants an agreement was reached and a deposit made which enabled work to start on this equipment, the balance being due when the order is packed and ready for despatch. The goods will initially be transported to Germany for onward shipment to Somalia. There is a severe shortage of wood in the country, so the Parry raised floor technology, which eliminates the timber shuttering normally needed to support setting concrete, is very appropriate.
HIGH AND DRY construction also saves half the concrete needed to form the floor structure: an important further advantage
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DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS COLLABORATE TO BRING TILES TO SOUTH PACIFIC
Initial project on Vaté Island to expand later to other locations
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THE ISLANDS OF Vanuatu are far away from Britain but still have a role for Parry roofing technology. Situated at about the mid-point between Fiji, the Solomon Islands and New Caledonia, Vanuatu has ten larger populated islands and numerous smaller islets and atolls. It has been difficult for the Vanuatu government to create non-traditional livelihoods because of awkward geography and lack of natural resources. However, the production of building materials can be dispersed over multiple localities if the technology is based on small production units as typified by Parry technology.
Déjà vu in Vanuatu: 21 years earlier a small-scale demonstration of the roofing tile was set up for the system and its alternatives to be evaluated by CID Brussels. One of the workers is pictured holding up a sample tile. The project was not taken further at the time |
After lengthy investigation, the NGO Habitat for Humanity decided earlier this year to embark on a tile making project at Port Vila on Vaté Island. The initiative quickly gained the support of the British and then the New Zealand High Commissions, both of which provided finance to pay for roof tile production equipment. News then came through that the German Embassy was also prepared to finance a consignment, which may provide the opportunity to spread production to one of the other islands.
With three diplomatic missions giving support, JPA decided that the endeavour should be backed by provision of technical support. The company therefore sought funding to send technical associate Malcolm Alcock to Vanuatu at the start of November. His air fare has been met by Build IT International, a newly-formed NGO (see other story) committed to support the dissemination of intermediate technology building systems. |
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SEVEN MINI-HOUSES IN ONE BOX!
Consortium devises ‘instant’ accommodation for peacekeepers & NGOs |
Seven 5m x 3m housing units supplied as
‘flat pack’
kits in one standard container |
IN OCTOBER, the United Nations headquarters in New York issued a notice of its intention to procure up to 2,500 small prefabricated housing units for the UN peacekeeping personnel in a post-conflict situation in Africa. These were needed to be delivered by the end of January 2006.
Parry technology frequently comprises the ability to put existing designs to new uses, and this was no exception. Across the road from JPA’s Cradley Heath base lies the headquarters of Black Country Caravans – a company which has particular experience in the design and use of lightweight composite panels with integral doors, windows and service connections as will be required for the housing units for the peacekeeping troops.
The second part of the approach is building relationships with supply chain companies enabling rapid response to customer requirements. Within a few days, a three-way grouping of Parry Associates, Black Country Caravans and AJC Trailers – specialist vehicle bodywork builders – was at work looking at ways to respond to the UN’s call to tender.
The new collaborating partners see the prospect for supplying fitted out, air-conditioned accommodation units designed to be supplied in flat-pack format, with kits for seven units fitted into a single standard 20-foot container. The main challenge, however, does not lie in the design and manufacture (which can be achieved very rapidly) but in the logistics. Such is the time delay in consigning the containers by sea, unloading and clearing at the port and then delivering them over a thousand miles overland to the locality concerned that the timescale cannot on this occasion be met. However, the design and costing exercise has continued and will result in a prototype house being constructed and a specification issued to promote the concept for other applications
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NARROW-GAUGE MINERAL RAILWAYS PROMISE BIG FUEL SAVINGS
Clayton and Parry Associates assess Borneo application |
Forty fuel-hungry dumper trucks are used in the existing mining operation(Photo Steve Gretton)
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IN OCTOBER 2005 Parry Associates was approached by the technical consultants to an Australian mining enterprise which has opencast operations - mainly copper, salt and coal - in their home territory as well as in South East Asia. The situation being investigated was in Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of the island of Borneo, where a coal deposit is being worked intensively at times of rising world fuel oil costs.
Ironically, one of the problems with the operation was the multi-million dollar annual diesel fuel bill associated with dumper truck haulage along dirt roads. While some in the company favoured a massive conveyor system, the group felt that the alternative of a mineral railway should be looked at because of the potential for lower capital investment.
Accordingly, JPA got in touch with their technical associates Clayton Equipment, which is now owned by two previous employees of Rolls-Royce (the former parent company). Chief Executive Steve Gretton decided to visit the mining operation later in the month to assess whether – in place of 40 thirty-tonne trucks – the task could be performed with locomotive-hauled trains running on 18km of narrow gauge railway. As expected, the estimated fuel savings together with reduced costs of maintenance and truck drivers' wages showed a rapid payback on capital investment and a very much reduced environmental impact on the locality.
There are many such haulage operations throughout the world where a return to rail is looking increasingly attractive.
Farm and mineral railway technology
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INTERNATIONAL NEWS IN BRIEF |
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ACEH (Indonesia)
JPA’s Malaysian associate Tony Barry will be based in Aceh from November working with the United Nations Development Programme on post-tsunami reconstruction.
NIGERIA
Bola van der Kreuf Bankole, who currently lives in Holland and is the daughter of a long-established customer, has visited the JPA works and placed an order for a small plant with which she hopes to start a building materials business in Nigeria’s border region.
SUDAN
Billy Smyth of the Episcopal Church of Sudan has received his plant in Yei in Southern Sudan and should now have commissioned it and started production.
This is the first of four plants sent to the region and news is expected on the others as and when they reach the same stage. |
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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO
Randy Jeffers, an old customer based in Port of Spain, has confirmed his interest in purchasing two semisheet roof tile plants with moulds to make 1000 tiles a week.
UGANDA
Turn-Key Construction, based in Kampala, have taken possession of a consignment of riven slab moulds and a specially made kerb mould (the latter manufactured at the JPA works in Cradley Heath). They plan to make this a new part of their existing business.
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BUILD IT INTERNATIONAL NEEDS YOU! |
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BUILD IT INTERNATIONAL is now in business! This new charity, inspired by John Parry, has supported its first project in Vanuatu (see story). Technical assistance is being provided to the international organisation Habitat for Humanity to help set up two tile making workshops using Parry equipment. The aim is to improve the quality of local housing in this poor Pacific island group.
The launch of Build IT was noted in this newsletter earlier this year (see Parry News 42). The charity has since registered as a company limited by guarantee and is now registering with the Charity Commissioners. Founding trustees are Andrew Jowett, Sue Lucas, Peter Caldwell and Ross Cranston. The vision is to promote the use of ‘intermediate’ or appropriate technology to meet the everyday needs of the world’s ONE BILLION poor.
The initial focus is on building materials - low-cost housing and other community facilities using high quality, locally produced building materials. We also intend to look at supporting efforts to spread fuel efficient stoves and solar power – to reduce the use of firewood and charcoal. But there will be many more opportunities to get involved in other practical solutions that can improve the quality of life of the world’s poor. Sustainability is critical and we intend to help local entrepreneurs make a living and create employment through the initiatives we support. We will work through competent organisations with a presence on the ground such as Habitat. We have already approved a school building project in war-torn Liberia and now need to raise £9,000 to make this happen. We are also looking at possible projects in Sri Lanka.
If you are interested in practical solutions to poverty and want to find our more about our work or make a donation to help us get established, please send an email to Andrew Jowett at: info@builditinternational.org
Parry News will continue to cover the progress of Build IT as it moves from a great idea to practical action. But it’s great to take those first steps - with your support who knows what might happen?
Andrew Jowett
Chair
Build IT International
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TECHNICAL ASSOCIATES IN
KASHMIR & AFGHANISTAN |
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NICK EVANS, Parry Associates director and an independent structural engineer, is visiting Kashmir and Northern Pakistan. Nick has played a leading part in JPA’s recent major overseas assignments in Gambia, Malawi, Mozambique and Sierra Leone. As well as reconstruction advice, Nick will be able to provide the authorities with a greater understanding of why so many houses and classrooms came down causing such heavy loss of life during the recent earthquake.
Meanwhile, Robin Parker – JPA’s associate field director – is in Afghanistan as an ‘employment generation specialist’, looking at income diversification to enable the rural population to gain sustainable livelihoods. On arrival in Kabul, Robin discovered that the World Food Programme, which imported a set of Parry semisheet equipment last year, has completed its first school with a micro concrete roof. There is now ‘much interest in the venture from Afghanistan’s Ministries of Housing and Education.
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MANUALLY-POWERED ROCK AND RUBBLE CRUSHER BEGINS WORKSHOP TRIALS |
The new crusher under test |
ALTHOUGH JUST ONE small contribution of funding has so far come in to support the development of a rock and rubble crushing machine, with a little more pledged but not received, world events have made the case for creating such a machine even more compelling (see Parry News 42). Added to the total fund of grief and discomfort for the people of Sri Lanka, Aceh (Indonesia) and Tamil Nadu (India) are the thousands in north east Pakistan and Kashmir. The familiar sight again is of survivors standing amidst piles of rubble.
Comparison trial in progress |
JPA went ahead with the development anyway – and now has a machine that does the job, turning fist-sized lumps of rubble into sand and gravel for rebuilding. In the end, rather than start with the proverbial ‘blank sheet of paper’, JPA engineers and designers undertook a rapid adaptation of a machine developed 25 years earlier. This breaks hard lumps of clay down to dust for brickmaking.
Provisional results have been very promising. The reciprocating ‘hammer-head’ of the new machine, acting against a static ‘anvil’ face, nips the material with a powerful force generated by a pair of heavy swinging pendulums combining the inertia of over 200kg in weight with a leverage in excess of 20:1.
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In comparison trials undertaken by Gambian trainee technician Abou Manneh and monitored by Pakistan-born technical scrutiniser Rehana Khan, hard lumps of concrete were reduced to graded aggregate (gravel, sand and dust) three times faster than the same task carried out using a lump hammer.
Considerable interest in the new machine has emerged from countries in Africa and Asia. |
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LOW-TECH RAIL TO EASE THE COST OF FARM AND MINERAL TRANSPORT
Road profile wheels facilitate manoeuvring of rolling stock beyond end of line |
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FARMER-DESIGNER-RAILWAY specialist Colin Saxton of Redruth, Cornwall, has put forward a simplified rail concept to Parry Associates which is so neat and practical that it needs to be taken up.
Colin services his own farmland with a 2-foot (610mm) gauge railway that can get fodder to the muddiest corner of his most distant field. His battery-electric locomotives and trucks perform the same task as a Landrover for a fraction of the energy cost without churning up wet ground.
Many parts of the developing world have roads which only function during the dry season. During the rains they become mud wallows with vehicles only able to move at walking pace and often not at all. Unfortunately this is often the time when farm produce needs to be moved or when the products of extractive industries – salt, coal, iron or copper – start to pile up, unable to reach the market.
Colin’s ideas include methods of constructing rolling stock and track with everything easily manhandled and assembled in remote situations.
He also favours wheels with enlarged flanges which can be manoeuvred off-rail on any reasonably hard ground.
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His single bladed points have special wide space check rails to allow the flanges to pass. JPA have raised this prospect with their light locomotive collaborators, Clayton Equipment, who have agreed in principle to co-operate in the introduction of the simplified railway concept. |
The agenda will include the development of a new, economical locomotive with a hybrid traction package similar to that used in the PPM passenger vehicles.
Colin Saxton and JPA are in discussion over the establishment of a Farm & Mineral Railway Training Centre with residential accommodation, just north of Redruth. In addition to the farm facility, local expertise is available from present and former light rail operators in the Cornish mining and quarrying industry.
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