The Crocodile's Bucket & Chain Water Pump

We are The Crocodiles and this is our ‘bucket & chain’ style water pump. We are a group of Product Design Engineering students and were given the brief to construct a water pump which lifts 5 litres of water up a height of 600mm, in under 5 minutes, using the 24v motor provided. The winning team would be the one which completed this task in the most efficient way possible – voltage and amplitude were measured, as well as the total time taken. We decided that simplicity was the key and started work on a Bucket & Chain system.

Step 1 Concept & Planning

After discussion, research and idea generation we came up with a concept for how we could make a bucket and chain pump that would fit the tank provided (pictured below). Our idea consisted of a simple wooden frame, two belts and five water containers – equidistantly spaced along the belt for maximum stability. One of the main features of our design was an adjustable arm that allowed the system to collect water at various gradient increments, meaning that it could be adapted to suit the water level of the tank. Here is a rendered image of our concept (made in SolidWorks):

Comments

[Gamer4Fire]

Why not use an Archimedes screw? Fewer moving parts, much simpler mechanism and much larger volume of liquid moved.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes'screw

[Tachyon]

That's all fine to suggest, the Archemedes screw is an excellent device, but how would you suggest they build such a thing with simple materials in a short time with simple tools?

The screw is a great device, but is not as simple to build as you might believe. I think the author's KISS approach was great.

[Gamer4Fire]

They built the screw in the time of Archimedes. I'd say that it can be built with simple materials and tools in a short time. The Chinese have made a similar devices using bamboo as the material and simple tools.

[tulekah]

re-inventing the persian wheel, how amusing. when i was a kid these were in use all over north-west india. an endless bucket chain turned by a camel, bullock, or buffalo. most were galvanized sheet metal but i saw a few that were still using clay pots.

[cwix09]

What brand of laser cutter did you use?

[confu]

I wonder if the materials you could use were restricted?!

In my opinion it would have been way more efficient to get some garden hose and simply build some kind of rotary pump... In particular since you obviously had the opportunity to use a lasercutter.

Like this:

http://www.technolab.org/img/products/hako/Hako226.jpg

But nice work, nevertheless.

[kleinjahr]

Nice little chain pump there. Concept is around 1000 years old(Chinese). Other possibilities are an Archimedes screw, an air lift or a noria. Or even Ctesiphon's force pump.

[oldboffin]

Although it is simple, I believe this could be the basis for harnessing energy from sea waves.
A series of bucket chains run from the sea up a cliff to a reservoir at the top and a turbine generates electricity in the usual hydroelectric way.
The sprocket at the bottom of each chain has a ratchet, and an arm connected to a large float.
The displacement of the float is slightly greater than the total weight of the water in all the full buckets going up.
The weight of the chain and buckets going up is balanced by those coming down, its just the water we have to lift.
If the waves are small, the chain moves slowly, but still pumps.
The turbines are switched off when the reservoir water reaches a lower set level on wind free days.
A spin-off is the seaside resort / seafood fish farm with no sharks at the top !
The reservoir could be a dam wall across the mouth of a dry arid valley, ( with no wetlands or vegetation to disrupt ) at the top of a cliff.

[JuCo]

this might be off topic, but your comment made me think of these things...

http://dinosweblog.wordpress.com/2008/03/26/energy-from-the-sea-the-pelamis-project/

[keebmn82]

Thanks for posting.

[Green Silver]

Big it up, and use buckets as the cups, and you've got a great pond water feature!

[giovesoft]

This is more simple http://www.imss.fi.it/presale/15a.jpg :-)

[throbscottle]

Such a shame about the little gear box - I'd love to know if the design would have won if it wasn't for that!

[2ManyProjects]

Sounds like a perfect application for a spiral pump, only friction from a single bearing.

[doctor croc]

Thanks guys!

[knife141]

Nice job! It had all the ingredients for success: simplicity of design and great execution. Again, good work!

[falcotheimpaler]

and a concise write-up!

[Dream Dragon]

Nice work.