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Mangrove Water
Mechanical design and prototyping for handpump mounted inline chlorination: CAD, validation, and iteration with the field team.
Background
Over 2.1 billion people lack safe drinking water, with Sub-Saharan Africa’s 200 million handpump users facing contamination risks from pathogens like E. coli and Giardia. Existing in-line chlorination (ILC) like Mangrove Water’s TuriTap works for piped systems but fails on varied handpump geometries due to installation challenges, flow restriction, and backflow. At Mangrove, I lead mechanical design and prototyping: CAD and FEA validation, rapid mounting prototypes, and coordination with the field team.
Technical architecture
The system has two components: a frontal offset mounting unit (PET/ASA for UV durability) secured with worm clamps, U-bolts, and gaskets across spout sizes; and a lofted adapter aligning the handpump outlet to the TuriTap inlet for low head loss (~3 kPa pressure drop). Design iterated through 10+ prototypes (PLA/PETG), scored on nine criteria including load-bearing, overflow reduction (80% target via flow sims), tamper resistance, and modularity. FEA validated rigidity and torque; bench tests measured overflow delay (>18 s), pull-out force, and five-minute installs with basic tools.