News

It does exactly what is says on the tin

(25 September 2006)

A team of engineering students from Durham University have won a prestigious national award for re-designing the humble tin can to help victims of natural disasters. Their all-in-one tin not only contains food but also provides a pan, spoon and stove with fuel and matches.

The team won an RSA (Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce) Design Directions Award, sponsored by The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers. The £3000 prize money was split between all six team members Jon Lee, Mark Atkinson, Chris Crabtree, Elliott Hampson, Chris Webb and Chris Taylor to be used to assist them in the development of their education and future careers. Chris Taylor, who is keen to start a career working in renewable energy, plans to spend his prize on a trip to Europe to research people’s attitudes to this type of energy. Explaining how the team set about the project, Chris said: “We were aiming to make the tin can more useful when distributed as aid after a natural disaster. We wanted it to be able to store more than just food, without becoming too difficult or costly to manufacture. “After speaking to people who work in aid distribution, we identified the five basic needs people have after a natural disaster. These were food, water, shelter, fuel and health. We tried to solve as many of these problems in one design. With the exception of the shelter, our tin directly provides these needs.” The design is similar to a standard can but is split into two sections internally. The top section holds food while the bottom section acts as a stove. Solid fuel tablets and matches are stored in the stove section and are accessed by three air holes, which are opened with ring pulls. After heating the food there is sufficient fuel remaining to boil 4.5 litres of water which provides enough purified water for at least two people for a day. A handle is attached to the side to allow for safe operating, and doubles up as a useful tin opener. Built into the top of the can is the spoon-like utensil which allows the contents to be stirred and removed. Chris added: “By being able to put food, a stove and utensils into one unit it is more cost effective, because aid agencies don’t need to distribute items such as cooking equipment and food separately.” The manufacturing cost for one tin, excluding the food is £1.30. Chris continued: “In addition, the design also encourages self-sufficiency, providing a psychological boost to the communities in need, and does not require disaster victims to have access to other resources provided by the aid agencies.” Commenting on his thoughts on winning the award, Chris said: “We are all very happy and proud to have won. In total, 20 groups entered the ‘Designing for Emergencies’ category of the Design Directions awards and we were one of the four that were short-listed. “The project was initially set as our third year coursework for our Masters degree, but it also coincided with the RSA’s competition. “We decided to enter because we could see that something worthwhile could come out of it at the end. After all our hard work, roughly four months to prepare and design the tin can, we were really pleased with the standard of our coursework, but to have the honour of winning this national award was an added bonus.” The panel of judges at the RSA recommended the team show their design to aid agencies. The six are now looking towards patenting and registering their tin can and hope that one day it may be used to help people in the aftermath of a natural disaster.