CONTAINER DEVELOPMENT
This booklet shows the development of the production processor as well as explaining each component.
Prototyping a climate controlled unit to then house multiple species.
This is a container housing 3 large fruit beetle grubs which has automatic control of temperature and humidity.
This is a model of the tray system automation set up with mealworm.
Coding the automation using Arduino software.
Me sorting the mealworms from my homemade farm.
Mealworms in the frass given to me by Alastair at Firebrick Brewery.
The beetles in my mealworm farm over a mesh for the eggs to drop through.
Sketches I did for a conveyor belt system in the processor.
This is a model of the conveyor belt I made to see how the mealworms would move around on it.
The mealworms moved across and dropped to the lower part nicely.
I then started modelling the container and explore how to display the processor to people outside.
This is some fake grass that I made using insect frass and spirulina powder.
I started making a scale model of the shipping container and internals.
This was interesting to see how the space would work inside the container.
The space to move is small due to the tasks require being short and allows multiple containers to be managed at once.
Finishing off the internals of the model.
I then experimented with expansion of the shipping containers to make modular complexes.
After that I implemented some of the brand colours/identities to get a better feel for it.
The Processor
The Container
The Drop Off and Processor
The Beetle Box
THE COMPONENTS These are the components of the container processor that will be individually broken down on the following pages for more detailed explanation
The Belt System
The Base
The Dispenser
Solar Panels on Roof
Brewers Grain & Coffee Grounds
Mealworm & Food Dispenser
Belt Cycle of 3 Months to Grow Mealworm
Final Product of Mealworm
Solar Energy Stored in Base Batteries
Beetles to Brewery for BUG Beer Beetles Box for Produing Eggs
Drop off and Processor - Vibration Separation
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The Base
Skeleton Technologies battery. Image taken from company website.
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The base/batteries of the shipping container. Render done on Fusion.
The base uses 8 SkelMod 170V module battery from Skeleton Technologies. The base has fireproof casing on top of the already existing fireproofing measures in the container.
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The Belt System Made from a thin industrial grade rubber for durability. 2.6m
8.5m
Heated insulation pads with LED strips for lighting
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The cogs allowing the belts to travel in alternate directions.
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Fusion render I did of the belt system.
Left: Fusion render of belt system cut in half.
The belt system is comprised of 16 belts (8.5m x 2m). They moved on a 24/7 cycle at 0.06metres per hour. The “land� covered is 272 square metres fit into the container. The belts are stacked vertically to allow maximum space to be used.
This is a close up of the two way belt system. The belts alternate in direction to provide continuous flow.
Left and above: Render done on Fusion
This is a close up of heated insulation pads and LED strips for the lighting.
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The Beetle Box
The beetle box is comprised of individual trays which form boxes. They are injection moulded ABS and have in-built mesh for eggs to fall through. They are two opposing colours to allow for simple visual understanding of their differentiation
Left and above: Render done on Fusion
Ventilation units with temperature control modules providing airflow to the environment.
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The Dispenser
Line drawing of corkskrew mechanism which travels from bottom to top.
The image above shows the opening where to corkscrew feeds the young larvae to the belt system.
Left: Line drawing taken from CAD model. Above: Render done on Fusion.
The top belt extends across at a slight angle to the horizontal in order to evenly distribute the larvae and their environment.
Above and right: Renders done by me on Fusion.
DISPENSING OF MEALWORMS
DISPENSING OF FOOD
X and Y axis angled belt to deliver food evenly across all 16 belts.
Corkscrew bringing food up to the belts.
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The Drop Off And Processor
Once the mealworms are coming to the final belt, at the end of the process they are lowered in to a long box with belt floor. When it reaches a certain weight, the belt is activated and dispensed in to the box.
All images: Renders done on Fusion.
Once dispensed in to the box, the small door closes and proceeds raise to the top of the container to drop in to the vibration separator
Once the have been delivered to the top, the vibration plates activate and separate the product into mealworm and frass. Frass is the broken down mineral the mealworms create from biodegradation. Once mealworms have passed over vibration plate, they are dispensed onto the final belt which above it has a very light vacumm that separates the live mealworms from their shed skins.
After these separation stages the mealworms are then dispensed into the final storage.
All images: Renders done on Fusion
The mealworms are collected manually. There are two modules that can be attached, one is a freeze module which means the processor can be left active and unattended for a longer period of time and still produce product. The other module is live, fresh storage. This is more for inner city, fresh production.
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The Exterior Beetle box ventilation. Environment control / stabilisation
40ft, High Cube, shipping container with thick insulation. Power share sockets allowing containers to share energy stores.
This is the access and security which includes a facial recognition interface with feedback to the control monitor. This allows documentation, logging and updating of the system when it is interacted with.
All images: Renders done by me on Fusion.
To the right is the power share sockets allowing saved energy to be transferred between units.
Fusion render of CAD model I made showing the solar panels on the roof.
Exploded view of Spirit Energy solar panel. Image taken from company website.
SOLAR PANELS Using Spirit Energy solar panels, they are able to produce 200 watts per square metre which means that the container is able to produce 5856 watts per container roof.
Fusion render showing exterior branding.
Fusion render showing close up of yellow window.
BRAND IMPLEMENTATION The window is symbolic of the brand’s transparency and desire to bring people closer to the roots of their food. The branding is simple in smaller print for aesthetic purposes and allows the attention to be focussed on the window as the window is more important in conveying the process and idea.
EXTERIOR COLOUR
Image left: Fusion render close up of container exterior.
The black was chosen to highlight the yellow in the brand. Yellow is often viewed as a positive and engaging colour. The key focal point is then on the yellow window as mentioned earlier
Illustrator drawing I did to show the connectivity between containers.
POWER SHARE The more batteries there are spread out, the more efficient the energy storage is. Increasing this spread of batteries means that you can share and allocate power to different areas/exterior equipment. On top of this, the containers will be able to survive off grid.
USER INTERFACE The user interface, displayed on the next couple of pages, allows for the network of connection to exist along with providing a central monitoring station. This interface will collect data from around the world and consolidate it in one place. The system does not require a highly skilled individual to operate thus opening the employment possibility to a wider market. • Learnt from microbrewery its about timing and organisation of batches, every second not producing is money lost. • The better the service infrastructure, more control with delivering a product • 24/7 controlled production can help really maximise yield.
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NETWORK The network allows for the multiple industries to stay connected and share data and power between them.
MAINTENANCE • The system will alert the user of any malfunctions and what needs to be fixed. • Live feedback and monitoring make it easy to make jobs lists for staff. • If technical maintenance is required units internals roll out on sliders allowing for technical support.
Fusion render duplicated to create a container stack.
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BY GEORGE GOODWILL