Design a Product That Can Stimulate a Developing Nation's Economy: Grain Mill

摘要

The purpose of this project was to design a product that would improve the standard of living, as well as stimulate the economy of a developing nation. Increasing food production was determined to be one of the greatest needs in emerging economies. Initial market research of indigenous grinding methods and diets of several developing nations pointed to a need for grain mills in Central and South America. In order to design a grain mill to meet this need, grain mill machines currently available in industrialized nations were first analyzed in order to determine the technical aspects that would be needed to construct an appropriate grain mill. The initial grain mill designed as well as prototyped weighs 40 pounds and can be assembled without any tools. The grain mill is able to efficiently grind corn into fine flour using a two-step grinding process. Using the two-step process, 1.5 pounds of grain can be milled in an hour. In addition, the grain mill can be easily disassembled for cleaning and transportation when necessary. Through analysis of the potential market's income as well as looking at the production process, the price per grain mill is expected to be $50, a cost that is within the budget of many families and communities in the Americas.