A demonstration of the truck-mounted street vaccum cleaner by Designers’ Consortium at National Institute of Technology-Tiruchi.
Developed by Designers’ Consortium of NIT-T
A 13-member team of National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, which designed a truck-mounted street vacuum cleaner conducted a demonstration before handing over the machine to Tiruchi Corporation on Thursday.
The machine consists of a turbine machine, which creates a vacuum, and an eight-inch pipe connecting the turbine to a plate, which will cover the bin holding the waste.
From the plate, another five-inch pipe protrudes out and onto the main suction point. The length of the five-inch pipe is twp metres and due to its malleable nature, can be moved around within its length.
Speaking about the process, Muni Kumar, technical head, Designers’ Consortium, the product designing club which made the cleaner, said: “This cleaner can be mounted on any truck and used for removal of garbage from the streets. We promised a cost-efficient and power-efficient solution to Corporation officials when we took up the challenge and have delivered as the cost of the entire set up including trial-and-error cost us ₹90,000. If mass-produced, it would be around ₹50,000,” said Mr. Kumar.
The product was conceptualised and funded by the batch of 1983, led by Richard Sekar, Sagayaraj Benedict and T. Suresh, who guided and trained the 16-member team.
The project had its start in ‘Immacula Trichy Hackathon’ organised by the student’s welfare office and Alumni Relations office of NIT-Tiruchi during September 2018 after the alumni, during a clean-up drive had noticed it was difficult to clean up roads in Tiruchi.
Speaking about the work, Mini Shaji Thomas, Director, NITT, said that the team travelled to Chennai to understand the vacuum cleaner purchased by Greater Chennai Corporation.
“The machine cost ₹60 lakh. The students were able to use the concept of vacuum and make a more affordable product which we handed over to N. Ravichandran, City Corporation Commissioner a week earlier,” she said.
Pat for team
E. Parasuraman, Sanitary Inspector, Tiruchi Corporation, was present at the demonstration and expressed his appreciation.
“After the machine was handed over to us, we have tested the product and found that it would be very useful for cleaning, especially in crowded areas like Central bus stand. We will soon deploy it and look forward to making the city cleaner using it,” he said.