Pumeca Pump

What it does

Pumeca Pump comes from Portable Mechanical Centrifugal Pump. It was designed with the purpose to transfer water from water supply to paddy lot within 54 meters long. Suitable for small paddy's farmers because of the price is cheap and portable size.

Your inspiration

Paddy-field farming became the dominant form of growing rice especially for some Asia country. There are more than 133,000 people in Malaysia work as paddy's farmer and 89.1 % plant paddy in area less than 2 hectare. During my trip to Kedah known as a 'rice bowl' state located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia, I have seen many paddy farmers were facing problems in supplying water to their paddy lot. Normally, they rely on rain and water reservoir (when full) as the source of water irrigation. However, during drought season the water supply is low and to make things worse, the canals and ditches were poorly maintained and thus they cannot manage to get water supply to their planting area. Most of the paddy farmers does not have conventional water pump since it is expensive to own and heavy and not portable enough to be handled by a single person. This irrigation problem has inspired us to find a solution for these paddy farmers since due to irrigation problem; they are unable to cultivate their paddy fields, which is the main source of their income.

How it works

Simple water pump that runs on rotation of rear wheel of a motorcycle.This device will be attach to the rear of a motorcycle. As the rear wheel rotate, a roller from the device which is intact with the wheel will also rotate thus supplying a mechanical energy that will runs the pump. Pump will gain power to suck water from the reservoir and channel it to the paddy field.

Design process

The first opportunity that we had to realize the idea is during the Integrated Design Project (IDP) Class. IDP class provides a good platform to learn the engineering design process through experiential learning with the guidance from our supervisor. It started with defining the real problem that we intend to solve and identify our specific customer segment. Some of our team members grew up within the paddy field area. Thus we can relate to the water irrigation problem faced by small paddy farmer in Malaysia. After a deep discussion with family members, friends and our supervisor, we came out with several ideas on how to solve the irrigation problem. After few brainstorming session, we decided to design a water pump that can be operated using a power source accessible to most of the small paddy farmers, which is a motorcycle, their daily means of transportation. The water pump must come with a low price tag, portable and does not need technical skills to be operated. The design idea was translated into a simple design sketch and we identified the main components required. Detailed analyses were carried out using CAD software and engineering knowledge, to come out with the technical specification for each component. This technical analysis is crucial to validate our idea. After we are satisfied with the analysis and validation process, we build the first prototype of Pumeca Pump for testing purpose. It took us about 13 weeks to complete the design process and build the prototype.

How it is different

Cheap,Portable and lightweight from its small size , easy to assemble and disassemble. Low maintenance as maintaining your daily motorcycle and you are good to go because the power comes from rear tires of motorcycle. Almost capable of supplying water at flow rate nearly as much as the conventional water pumps.Design to be suited to wide variety of motorcycle (moped). Also can be used for other type of usage that is in demand for high flow rate of water.

Future plans

The next agenda for this prototype is to test its efficiency in paddy lot. The further research and improvement will be conducted as to increase the sustainability of the Pumeca Pump. In some country, paddy plantations is one of their main economy industries. We hope with this pump will help to increase the productivity of paddy plantation by supporting economy of small paddy's farmer.

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