Free Moving Elevator

Elevators have been around for hundreds of years moving cargo up and down. Safety elevators were introduced in 1852 by Elisha Otis which made it safer for people to use elevators. Since then the Elevator design has not changed too much until the recent magnetic technology demonstrated by thyssenkrupp Elevators called "Multi".
Multi is a new elevator technology with cabins driven by electromagnetic motors on a magnetic rail. They are not lifted by attached ropes and thus have no limit on how high they can go. Also they need not only go in vertical direction, Multi elevators can travel in horizontal direction and thus they have more freedom . Several multi elevators can travel on the same rail and thus they contribute to a more versatile transport infrastructure.
Multi has inspired me to think about other ways that an elevator can have the freedom of displacement. It took me few days to come up with another simple design using magnetic force but also friction force. I started searching the internet for similar ideas, patents of such elevators; i found nothing but one toy.  The toy had exactly that system, so i bought one and played a bit with it. You can see it in the video below.

This toy can climb sheet of metal because it is equipped with two small magnets in the bottom, these magnets do not touch the supporting surface as the wheels keeps them few Millimeters away. This creates a force that pulls the toy towards the wall but does not allow it to stick to it. When the wheels have torque applied the toy rolls on the wall as if it was rolling on the ground. The magnets in this case generate an artificial "gravity" so that the wheels create pressure on the wall and thus can have traction force. The magnets are placed between the wheels as you can see below, they are small relative to the toy size and they are a small portion of the total weight, still they allow the toy to climb up a wall.

The same principle can be applied on a larger scale. Large passive magnets or active electromagnetic coils can have a pull force of 1000Kg or more when put few millimeters from a metal wall and thus they can create enough pressure force for a vehicle wheel on a rough wall. So, i got to imagine different elevator designs that run up on walls with total freedom to go in any direction , drive on regular ground and climb up again another building. These elevators can be equiped with additional safety measures for passengers , like safety lock rails. They can be used in designed shaft but also on the outer shell of buildings. Yet again small robotic crawlers can be used with this mechanism to ravel on the building shell and deliver mail to offices. The Ultimate application of this concept would be to have different building sections connected by bridges on the side of which the magnetic elevator can crawl up or sideway thus changing the building design in a fluid manner.

Below are some cad drawings i made of such concepts and some short animations  I hope this article enriched your imagination of a possible future.

The magnet to the right side exerts a pull force towards a metal beam embedded in the building and this this generate a reaction force through a high friction (track) belt that can carry the vehicle upwards vertically.

The concept is simple to build and test. The rubber belt track can be driven by several electric motors with a battery pack carried on board and a possible wireless charging station at every stop or a contact charge when the elevator reaches every door. This system is covered with a protection cover in the animation below to improve the esthetic and protect the mechanism for the weather when it is moving on the outer side of a building.

And finally , this is how several elevators can function on the façade of several buildings allowing the expansion of architecture freedom and creativity.

Full Color Mechanical Display

You might be familiar with flip-disk display (The top yellow bus number in the picture) as you probably have seen it in many places, though you might not be familiar with the technology name, how it works and what it is made of.

Source: Wikimedia

Flip disk display consists of flat plates with a different color on every side. The disk is flipped using a magnetic actuator so that the color switches. The display cells are placed in a grid and used to write information or make simple drawings. As shown below the same display cell switches from white color to black color by flipping the center disk.

Source: wikiwand.com

The result of such an assembly of simple systems combined with a proper control system can be a bicolor active display system. The best example is demonstrated in the video below.

Now that you are familiar with the technology, I think the limitations are noticable and one major limitation is color variety. The regular system design only allows a bycolor display.The suggested design described in this article allows a grey scale dispay mode or even an CMYK display + Greyscale that makes possible the display of a full color photo.There is a catch though, the picture display is better when the mechanical pixels are smaller just like any pixel based system. So lets go in details of how four colors pixel can be made and then move to the greyscale additional layer.

If we replace a disk that has two faces withe a cube that has four (or a cylinder divided into four sections) and add two coils behind the cube with a ninty degree angle seperating them, then by switching polarity of the coils the cylinder (or cube) can be rotated in four different steps and positioned with a different side facing a viewer; thus, we create a simple mechanical pixel with four colours. The colors chosen will be Cyan, Magenta,Yellow and White, as CMYK are the colors for print based image not light based (RGB).
White replaces Black in this pixel as the Black (K) will be genrated by the extra Greyscale layer.

The greyscale layer consists of a black shell that rotates around the pixel and hides it partially or fully. The more the masking layer hides the darker the color will appear for a person looking at it from a distance. Our eye cannot resolve geometry and color when the pixel is smaller and then the colors mix together and the geometry fuses, that is how all light pixel displays work.

This greyscale masking layer is also controlled by the same coils controlling the cube. With every full rotation of the cube the masking layer hides 1% to 10% of the pixel. So it can be designed to have at least 10 to 100 shades of grey. The masking layer is connected to the cylinder rotation by simple planetary gear system or a screw type gear with gear reduction of 1/10 or 1/100.

The final result is a pixel that can display four colours and adjust the grey shade in each. It is a mechanical pixel with full shades of CMY and controlled by two coils. An assembly of such pixels has the potential to display a full color picture. The refresh rate of such display would depend on the final construction. If a system with 30 Hz refresh rate can be achieved then the result is a mechanical video display.

Would you like to change the color of your room with one click ? or you would like to add a painting to the wall with one other click ?

3D Printer New Extruder Technology (VWE)

Variable Width Extruder VWE

This is an article about VWE a new extruder technology concept that aims to increase build speed , quality and strength in a 3D printer. VWE stands for variable width extruder, it practically is a change in the method a plastic film is deposited on the print bed and layers are stacked.

All standard FFD (Fused Filament Deposition) printers use a nozzle with a circular opening that deposits constant width in all directions. The machine is programmed to deposit along certain paths to create the final geometry. In places where thick walls are needed the nozzle travels several times usually in a slightly overlapping "Snail like path".

VWE is a nozzle with rectangular slit (Shown in the video below) . The slit has variable width that changes depending on the wall thickness being printed. This allows the printer to build the part walls (Sides , reinforcing ribs , any geometry wider than the standard nozzle width ) with one pass.

However, printing variable width depending on location and orientation requires that the nozzle reorients to keep the nozzle perpendicular to the movement direction. Thus a VWE nozzle requires tow additional actuators , one to control the nozzle width and an additional servo motor at base to orient the nozzle on axes Z.

Further a VWE extruder would require a new algorithm to generate path and nozzle width adjustment and orientation adjustment. This complicates a bit the calculations to generate the path, which is not a burden for todays computer.

A change of deposition rate would need an balance of feed rate which can also be adjusted and controlled by programming.

A VWE equipped printer can deposit walls in on path and make 100% fill parts with one path if the total part width is less that the maximum nozzle opening width .

Layers deposited by VWE are more homogenous , consistent and are deposited at same time in a wall, thus with less temperature variation and better bonding between layers.

I have not developed a working prototype of VWE, but if anyone is interested in developing such nozzle I would be glad to cooperate on it. If someone develops VWE nozzle independently , I would only request to reference me as original creator of the concept.

A Solid Lighter than Air

Maybe when you hear lighter than air, the first thing that comes to mind would be a Zeppelin or an Aerogel. Well, a Zeppelin is lighter than air when the gas inside has a lower density and is trapped in a flexible membrane. The Zeppelin is not a solid.

Aerogel is one example of a porous solid that goes to the limits of density by being cellular with minimum solid material. It is 99% air and thus is it still heavier than air.

A solid that is lighter than air, by my definition is a non fluid material that has a density lower that air density on earth's surface which is about 1200 grams per meter cube.

So how is this solid achievable ?

I guess you have heard of Graphene, the lately famous super strong material, that got Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov a noble prize in Physics in 2010. I will use this strong material to describe a solid lighter than air that can be first made in laboratory and maybe in the future produced in large scale for projects of aviation, space or construction.

Graphene is described as "atomic-scale hexagonal lattice made of carbon atoms" shown in the picture below. A one atom layer material.

Wikipedia

When you look a round you, remember that every meter cube of air has about 1200 grams of O2 , CO2, N2 and other gas molecules floating it. So, let us take one meter cube of air, push all atoms in it to the surface of that cube and connect them to form a wall. We end up with a solid cube with a vacuum within it. This cube has 1200g of material making its surface shell and a vacuum inside, so it has the same density of Air (Even same atoms).

We could do the same thought exercise but replace this time the Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen and Nitrogen atoms with  only Carbon. Then, we connect the Carbon atoms to form a Graphene solid cube of carbon with a vacuum "trapped" inside. Graphene is measured to be one of the strongest materials discovered so far, the common story to describe the strength of it, is that if you place a pen on a sheet of Graphene and make an elephant stand on the pen, it will not pierce the sheet.

A meter cube volume for a real Experiment is definitely not a practical starting volume for a laboratory. The real experiment could be done to produce a 1 cm diameter sphere of graphene in Vacuum. This sphere would trap vacuum, resist collapsing and when placed in Air Environment, it would be lighter than air.

I went through the trouble of doing calculations for the smallest sphere with a shell that would be lighter than air considering the volume is takes, in other words that smallest sphere that can be lighter than air. The result is :

1.90121 µm radius or 3.80242 µm diameter.

If you are into physics and math... continue reading.

Below are my approximate calculations, please correct me if you spot a mistake.

Assuming that carbon atoms form perfect flat Hexagone geometry, the area of an hexagon with L as edge length is :

Distance between carbon atoms in a Hexagone assembly is 0.142 nm.
Area of a sphere is 4πR^2.
Dividing those two values with a selected starting radius of 1 meter, we could identify how many hexagons would cover the surface of that sphere.

When assembled, every hexagon shares a side with another hexagon next to it, so the number of Carbon atoms involved in the construction of this sphere would be two atoms per hexagon times the number of hexagons.

Knowing the mass of one carbon atom (1.992 x 10^-23 g) it is then possible to calculate the mass of a sphere.
Knowing the volume, we finally have the Density.

VoXup for 3D print !

Our goal was to design and print a part that could be expanded to a larger size. VoXup allows the designer to print a small part based on voxels and scale it up!

In a 2D world shapes and geometries are formed with units of pixels. In the 3D CAD world, the unit is a voxel, which is a cube. This way, when working with computer images and simulations, it is common to represent geometries with a series of cubes, i.e. voxels.

The VoXup is the skeleton of a cube. It has 8 legs which can extend increasing the size of the cube. An object made of VoXup’s retains geometry, but changes in scale. The closest real world item that can be resized is a hand-held telescope.

A VoXup unit volume, like a voxel, can be stretched in all directions so that the final cube is two or several times larger than the original. VoXup is a concept that can become reality with product design and manufacturing, and we like to imagine that one day anyone can buy a chair 10 cm high, print it and scale it up to 1 meter.

This Concept and Design is a cooperation with Mechanical Engineer Diego Bezerra.

Apartment X ... a different space !

We know that in the World of design concepts there are infinite options and infinite ideas, but when we want to turn these ideas into reality it is sometimes difficult. Architecture design is a form of art that sometimes separates from reality and just pushes a regular sized apartment to a million dollar construction project.

This concept focuses on volumes of an Apartment and reshapes the volume to obtain more space where needed and more accessibility.

Rooms with higher ceiling feel more spacious and it is important to have a higher ceiling in the rooms where most time is spent.

Bedrooms, bathrooms and even kitchen are places where we usually spend a short time. In bedroom we mostly lay on the bed to sleep or read. In bathrooms we take a quick shower and leave or lay in the tub. And finally, in the kitchen we stand to make a quick salad (or Ham sandwich for the Carnivores), or run to the fridge to grab a beer. All these rooms are places we spend less time, and thus having a lower ceiling would not influence our mood in the house but will grant us more space for the rooms where it matters.

Using this idea of space, Apartment X is designed to have double the height for main rooms and the lowest acceptable height for other rooms. For the sake of example the high rooms can be 5.5 meters and the low rooms can be 2.5 meters. This concept is shown in the picture below.



Two apartments joined together, form a perfect match to one floor height of 5.5 meters. This X fusion allows the apartment to have a larger area. Not just more comfortable space in the living room, more space for the entire apartment and also every apartment has an outside view on all four sides of the building. The video below is a simple demonstration of the "2X fusion 4000" (just so the title sounds fancy ! )

Below are some 3D designs of an Apartment X, a floor plan of two apartments, and an X building.
I would like to read your comments on this concept as an Architect or a person who might consider living in such an apartment.

ISO view of two Apartment X.

ISO Apartment X Layout

Floor Plan showing main access and each apartments' inner stairs.

ISO view of an X Building

Side view of the living space.

Finally I would like to thank my sister Rana Rouhana for her contribution on the development of this concept and her nice work modeling. Its good to have a talented Architect in the family.

Reducing Traffic to Beirut

 Every person who drives at least once a week from North of Lebanon passing through Jounieh and to the Capital Beirut is tired from traffic. The above picture is an example of how messy things could get.
The traffic problem is getting worse and worse every year due to the increase of population and the Lebanese habit of one person per car. It is also getting worse due to the lack of quality in public transportation; Lack of bus stops and lack of proper bus lanes.

This article is a short simple suggestion for a bus lane that could reduce the traffic considerably. The solution is to make the right side of the highway a bus lane at least from Jounieh to Dbayeh and then continuing this bus lane from Dbayeh to Bourj Hamoud on the Searoad. People would park in Jounieh next to Fouad Chehab Stadium and take a bus to Bourj Hamoud.
.

Source: http://nationwideradiojm.com

 The line would be at least 15.5 km as shown in the picture below and the cost would be simply coloring the road to notify drivers. On the Searoad the same can be done but also separators can be added to force drivers to commit to the car lane and avoid the bus lane.

The buses can transport people to  Bourj Hamoud and stop at the Bourj Hamoud Dump BJD (used to be) which can be turned into a huge parking space for commuters and taxis. From BJD people would take taxi cars from a newly established BJD taxi station.

The cost of this idea would simply be a logistic cost to reorganize the road and inform the drivers. Additional cost would be adding check points for the police to ensure that drivers are committing to the system and avoiding the bus lane. A car on the bus lane would be fined.
Additional cost could be turning BJD into a large parking spot for busses , taxis and commuters. The BJD location is simply a suggestion, other large spaces are available near Bourj Hammoud and can be turned into parking areas. It is even possible to build a parking of several levels to accommodate thousands of cars. These cars are you usually on the road and contribute to the traffic.

So, if we have buses on a non stop lane, the buses would travel fast , transport more people . The buses would make more profit and more people would use the buses. So for buses it is a win !

There will be less cars on the road so less traffic. For cars it is a win !!

Taxis would transport more people inside Beirut from BJD taxi station. So for taxis it is a win !!

The government will have reduced traffic , thus more productivity and less wasted time . Citizens will make more profit from their jobs , because they will have more time to do their jobs. With more profits government will gain more money from taxes. For government it is a win !!