ME310B Volvo CE

Overview: Storing materials in piles on a construction site takes up too much space. When jobsite
space is an issue, this extra material is often trucked to a landfill instead of being reincorporated into
the a new building. During our Dark Horse Prototype, we developed a storage container that reduces
the amount of ground space needed to keep a volume of material onsite.

User: Juan is a deconstruction manager who oversees mainly residential projects. He often has piles of
wood, shingles and other waste that is already sorted, but needs to be loaded into a truck
BTH Prototype

The BTH team has focused on how to remove material from the modular container in a controlled way
An auger was added to move packed material out through a spigot in the bottom of the container
Clogging was found to be an issue, as clumped wet sand would not fall properly into the bottom of the
storage container
An auger may present more challenges if organic material, rocks and pieces of concrete are stored in the
system instead of sand
BTH will continue to investigate overcoming these issues by adding an agitator to discourage clumping, and
a vibrating plate to move material within the container

Stanford Prototype
The Stanford team worked to add functionality to the Dark Horse Prototype by adding a base with wheels and
a trap door to unload material. From speaking to a potential user, we found that it was important to provide a
way to unload the containers in a simple and quick way.

Steps for unloading

1. Hoist storage container above the lip of the dumpster using
lift
2. Push container over the opening of the dumpster to trip gate
latches
3. Pull empty container back to close door
Results
Latch successfully releases door after shaving down the sides of
the track
Wheel tracks obstruct opening, so groves were carved to allow
the door to swing all the way open
Latches cannot hold much weight
Caster wheels jam in the track when the empty container is
pulled back

Future Work
Refine quick release door design
Add features to enable small configurations of the containers
to be loaded onto a truck and transported from the site
Look at methods to lock containers together for storage and
truck transportation
BTH - Look at methods to prevent clumping above the auger.
Continue to speak to demolition contractors about their needs
on jobsites
Weekly visits to an active deconstruction site in Palo Alto to
get a first hand overview of the daily challenges faced in
deconstruction