Main knowledge bank page |
Recent additions |
Recent changes |
What links here |
Categories |
Category cloud
How-to guides |
Organisation profiles |
Project profiles |
| |
edit this page Redesign of liquified petroleum gas stove for the blind
Conception de foyers au GPL pour les aveugles
L'objectif de ce projet est de concevoir un foyer adapté aux besoins de cette catégorie afin de diminuer les risques.
Dans cet article l'auteur considère les différents cas possibles tels que une seule personne au sein de la famille frappée de cécité, un ou plusieurs membres etc. Il a été fait appel à une organisation à Bombay s'occupant de la formation ménagère des femmes aveugles. Cette formation inclut l'utilisation de cuisinières à gaz. Plusieurs modifications ont été ainsi introduites telles que un seul brûleur de plus grande dimension, emplacement du foyer sur une surface relativement grande, facilités d'utilisation du bouton d'allumage etc. Ce foyer sera écoulé, à un prix relativement bas, par le biais d'institutions pour aveugles. |
India does not have a history of designing and developing products specifically for the blind. Some equipment for mobility, braille for reading and other special products can be found, but household products and other commodities from abroad are not easily available because of high import duty and a lack of awareness of what is available.
This project was set up - to study the needs of blind people from various social backgrounds, and to identify the problems they face in daily life
- to develop some products for ease of use and safety.
Initially, many schools for the blind, organizations, and families with blind members were visited, in order to understand how they organized their lives. Twenty-two blind people and eight sighted colleagues were interviewed about their perceptions of the difficulties caused by being blind. It became apparent that cooking apparatus in the home was a particular problem; the LPG stove is known to cause many fatal accidents.
The aim was to redesign the LPG stove, to make it easy and safe to use, eliminating hazards. The probable users were identified as: - Blind families with both husband and wife blind
- Blind individuals
- Families with one or two blind members
- Blind trainees learning skills at schools and with organizations, etc.
The Industrial Home for Blind Women, in Bombay, runs training courses in home management, including the use of the LPG stove. Trainees and teachers were interviewed for their feedback. Two trainees, Laura and Bharti, were selected as the main subjects and they assisted by using the stove at various stages in design. The following steps were taken: - Videos were made of the two subjects cooking
- The types of meals cooked were classified
- Lists were drawn up of ideas which would simplify the cooking process
- Different concepts and ideas were tested.
 Figure 1: The final product |
The following risks were recognized: - There are chances of both major and minor burns at each and every step
- Cooking pots can topple, leading to a major accidents
- Clothing can catch fire at any stage of the cooking process
- The cooker can go wrong without it becoming apparent to the blind person
- Cuts and grazes to the hands whilst cleaning the cooker are frequent.
[top] [end]Problems to be solved Methods for making it easier to do the following were considered: - Lighting the stove
- Setting the cooking pot firmly on the stove
- Ensuring that the various parts of the cooker could be easily recognized
- Cleaning.
The final design, shown in Figure 1, comprised the following elements: - A single burner, which was larger than the standard burner, was considered to be safest.
- The stove top has layers or steps with different edge curvatures to tell the user the position of her/his hand relative to the burner. The stove is located on a large work surface. The burner is encircled by a drip tray which is located on the top of a rectangular step. This step is on the left side of the work surface, whilst to the right hand side are three depressions for keeping spoons, bowls etc.
- The spring-loaded control knob is a normal mechanical knob (Figure 2), but with three operational positions, low, medium, and high. An outer wall protects it from spillage. The moulded pointer gives a good sense of the direction in which it is pointing, and the control positions are indicated by dots embossed on the stove top, which get larger as the heat increases.
- Two handles are welded on to the standard cooking pot perpendicular to each other (Figure 3). This gives the user a good idea of where the centre of the cooking pot is located. This ensures accurate pouring of ingredients into the cooking pot.
- Three locking legs (Figure 4) are also spot-welded to the cooking pot, and these not only lock into the locking stops on the drip-tray, but also allow the pot to be set down when it is taken off the stove. If a pot is to be stirred vigorously, it is put on the stove and then rotated to lock it into position. For other vessels, the locking stops on the drip tray act as pan supports.
- The cooker is fitted with an auto-ignition and flame-failure device. A cut-out device automatically stops the gas flow in the event of excessive.
- To make cleaning safer, all metal edges were bent in to keep them away from the hands. Legs on the bottom of the cooker allow for cleaning under it without needing to move it. The drip-tray has a depression where spillages will accumulate and can be cleaned out after food preparation. The drip-tray is fixed to the body of the stove to prevent it moving around.
This particular stove will be sold through Blind Institutions and other organizations at a cost of around Rs1500 (Rs35=$1US). However, for those not able to afford this particular stove, the design concepts discussed can also be used to provide a safer working environment for blind people.
 Figure 2: Detail of control knob |
 Figure 3: Detail of position of handles on cooking pot - top view |
 Figure 4: Detail of locking legs on cooking pot |
[top] [end]Contents: Boiling Point 40: Household energy and health  . |
Household energy, smoke and health - Smoke from biomass and its effects on infants - Health risk caused by domestic smoke - Emissions from high altitude stoves - a case study in Nepal - Biomass smoke and ill-health in India - preliminary results from a national survey - Global network for the health effects of environmental air pollution - Fuels, stoves and indoor air pollution in Jaracuaro, Mexico - Redesign of liquified petroleum gas stove for the blind - How many of these improvements are in your stoves programme - Participatory Technology Development in stove manufacture - a case study - Renewable energy sources in Nigeria- Efficient household energy use in Uttara Kannada District, Karnataka - Research into cooking and heating applications of down-draught stoves - Comparing forestry wood species for the charcoal supply of Antananarivo city, Madagascar
edit this page |
|
|
|
