RiceFort addresses some critical environmental and social issues, including deforestation, air pollution as a result of the burning of agriculture-generated trash, and job opportunities that would allow marginalized group participation. RiceFort promotes, in collaboration with farmers and environmentally-friendly entrepreneurship, a circular economy that contributes to the decrease in carbon dioxide emissions and enables other sources of earnings for farmers.
From sustainability on a world level to engaging in community power, re-conceptualizing landfills, and inspiring business, RiceFort truly covers a myriad of grounds.
Throughout this project, we successfully progressed from initial material trials to producing functional prototypes that demonstrate the versatility and practicality of our rice-husk fibreboard. This innovative material, which uses only a natural binder without PU or hardwax oil, has proven to be a viable option for furniture applications.
We developed and tested multiple prototypes to evaluate the performance of the rice-husk fibreboard under various conditions. These included: a low stool with plastic legs to validate fastener holding strength, a cat tree/scratcher to test shelf rigidity and integration with other materials, a rolling workshop stool to assess performance under dynamic loads, a wine pedestal to evaluate stability and display quality, and a ringbraced bar stool to study load distribution on welded frames.
Progress Toward Achievement:
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The project has achieved 40% completion in designing practical furniture for College.
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Under testing we will do the chair with higher legs and also larger boards (the board will be produced after the new machine arrives).
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The remaining 60% will focus on refining prototype (creating design on the chair surface), producing a chairs with larger boards. (We will purchase a new machine to produce larger boards, the machine will be arrived by Mid-October)
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As The New Machine will be arrived by Mid-October, from mid-October to Mid November, our progress will be focusing on building and refining our chair using our larger fiberboard.
Third-Party Testing and Patent Application:
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The prototype has been sent to a third-party testing facility to validate its performance further.
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As the government patent file number is pending, we could not disclose our process of making the above a low stool with plastic legs currently, more process of producing the chair will be shared in C!ab featuring our project details, after the patent has been made and we have succesfully produce a chair using our new machine.
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