Attached is a rendition of the tractor from the CAD files. Design is complete - prototype and pattern making is well underway - soon I'll post some photographs.

Cheers

We have many projects under development - some are now taking shape on the ground. This section invites discussion from anyone who wants to get involved at any level. Opinions and thoughts are welcome and needed from those who know the countries. The Foundation has the engineers who know how to design and develop needed products and the companies to make them - we know how to dig ore out of the ground and smelt and refine it - we know how to build tractors and washing machines or whatever is needed. The objective though is to support the people of these countries in establishing their own industry - to do that we have to provide what is needed where and what can be done. This board is where we find out those needs and where we find the people to help us help them - so the more discussion the better.

No stupid or inappropriate stuff though - if you want to make hand operated oil presses or a treadle operated irrigation pumps this is not the place to be. Those things are available from hundreds of aid organizations who think they help.

We believe in companies that make tractors that can easily till 40 hectares - companies that make powered pumps that provide reliable irrigation where and on the scale it is needed. We don’t believe a few percent improvement on the return to a cotton grower means much – a company making the machinery that enables a co-operative of cotton growers to add more value steps does though – that is an increase of several hundred percent gained by the growers selling a high quality product made from their cotton.

Discuss your idea or share your knowledge here

This thread is all about the establishment of a manufacturing plant in The Gambia making stepping motors and brushless DC motors.

The Gambia has almost no "technological infrastructure" and few raw materials. They do however have a vision which sees them as developing technology and manufacturing as a way forward. They also have people willing to try such ventures and others willing to finance that effort. So support them we will.

One such budding entrepreneur - Salifu Jallow - has just returned to The Gambia with his business plan under his arm after several months of training in Sweden. His confidence is perhaps faltering a little occasionally as the reality of what he is attempting sets in - but he is pressing on.

Now he is registering his company and finishing raising the needed capital. The next step for us is to acquire the machinery he needs - set up his factory in Sweden before containerizing it and shipping it to the Gambia. We will also find him an "angel" to support and advise him. Not a "business angel" in the accepted sense - instead a retired and experienced manufacturing engineer who would like to spend some time in The Gambia. Every company needs the quiet guy in the background that knows how things should be done and knows how to solve problems - this more than most.

He has the willing support of his countries University and government so the opportunity is there for a development of the knowledge needed to run such a venture - and to start more in the future. We will also try and persuade one of his customers - the one needing the little brushless motors for a domestic appliance - to consider an assembly plant in the area.

We will follow his progress and his problems on this thread.

Frank



 

This board discusses industrial developments - initiatives that lead to manufacturing companies where African peoples can use their own primary resources to manufacture needed product "in country". The Foundation believes in the "simplistic" approach. If African farmers need tractors they should make their own. Simply put - if a tractor is manufactured in their own two dollar a day economic zone - then the farmer who earns two dollars a day can afford to buy one and have it serviced by mechanics also costing the same. Irrigation pumps fit in there very well too.

Similarly with electricity in rural areas - the west was "electrified" by locally made small generating plants in towns all over the country - the result was affordable power and the large central generating plants came later as the customer base grew. Distributed generation has also the advantage of being more easily made "environmentally friendly" as it is inherently more suited to burn locally collected biomass fuels - not the coal or oil presently powering a large percentage of western generating plants. The more efficient larger plants can come later when the population can afford the power from them - carbon neutral and low cost are important - the rest is not - at least for a start.

The list of potential industrial developments is enormous - we will start specific topics covering those we are involved in already and add more as they come up later. One thing very clear is the difficulties involved in many of these initiatives are in many ways unique - the more discussion and input we get and share to help overcome those difficulties - the better.

Frank

As covered in the news section below - the forum is reactivated and open to anyone wishing to join - a clean start.

Cheers

This forum has been "un" administrated for a year or two now with activity limited to the unwanted attention of spammers. All have been now deleted - probably including a few genuine membership applications - but those with interest will come back if the forum becomes the interesting place it should be.

The new format includes several boards hidden from those not a member of that particular board - some are investment groups developed to support and benefit from the IFA projects - others are engineering groups allowing discussion and contact between those in different parts of the world providing knowledge support to the Foundations initiatives. A further board  discusses initiatives in specific countries in Africa.

All approved members have access to the General discussion board from where permissions can be granted to join any board of interest.

I look forward to a healthy and rewarding environment developing.

Frank Williams

IFA Project Engineer.