The COVID pandemic slowed production for many companies and people, but for one man at the University of Virginia it was a eureka moment.
“I started my PhD during the peak of COVID supply chain issues," he recalls. "It was either wait three months to get the parts I need or find them.”
And in rooting through old machines, he found treasure.
“I found that I was throwing away so much cool stuff in these electronics. I started collecting ones that were headed to landfills from friends, taking them apart, and built these initial wind turbine kits.”
The metal and motors could be used to assemble windmills three feet tall, with eight-inch blades. Kits to make them sold online for up to 80 bucks, but Landsman and his colleagues could make them for a dollar twenty-five.
And they could recycle the plastic into raw material for a 3-D printer to create additional parts.
“We have to clean it, and then grind it, dry it and then we melt it. It comes out like a string-like material, and that goes into the 3-D printer.”
He won a $30,000 grant for the program and is distributing kits to local schools where students can make turbines from materials destined for the dump while learning important lessons in engineering and design. For more information, e-mail him: junklabtech@gmail.com
