During a Kite Boarding holiday on the pacific atoll, Aitutaki (near Rarotonga), I read the book “The Ecology of Commerce” by Paul Hawkens. The sadness it evoked in me for how we have devastated the planet and it’s ecosystems soon transformed into a deep passion to do something about it. I spent a few months searching the Internet, reading, networking and imagining how wonderful life here would be if we worked with nature instead of against it. I dreamed of ways in which we could create a restorative or circular economy and learned about concepts such as Cradle to Cradle Design and Bio-mimicry. See: Re-thinking Progress: The Circular Economy
I have spent a large chunk of my working life in precision engineering environments – building particle accelerators at Buckley Systems. The experience gave me a deep understanding of how to make complex parts and equipment. I have also had insights in to a large range of engineering companies across New Zealand while working for a machine tool agency. This highlighted the widely varying manufacturing standards and the problems that clients have in finding the right supplier for their needs. A business course at Auckland University ignited an endeavor to facilitate and maximize manufacturing efficiency. The big question became, how do I make a difference for manufacturing in New Zealand?
I recently met Joshua Vial at the Intersect Trust AGM weekend in Wellington. Demonstrating the power of purposeful networking, Joshua invited me to meet the Enspiral crew at their retreat to help enable my dream of working with purpose. We established that my beliefs and values are aligned with the Enspiral way and that my engineering background, networks and understanding of business together with the experience of being self employed offered an opportunity to start a new branch of Enspiral, Enspiral Engineering.
Enspiral Engineering is being modeled off of the Enspiral business model – where software designers and engineers are successfully working for more than profit, we will be making it work for mechanical engineering. We are a growing collective of talented engineers from various disciplines, and will actively work to change the world by concentrating on projects that are environmentally or socially beneficial.
An example of a project that I managed, at the end of 2010, was a Giant Sprinkler for Cadbury Dairy Milk Chocolate and their campaign: Share The Joy. The teams at DDB and Mango came up with the idea of taking a garden sprinkler and super sizing it for people to play under. It was to tour around popular beaches for the public to enjoy over summer. The concept was presented to me including an artists impression and a picture of a garden sprinkler, along with the usual legal requirements of such a build.
I worked closely with the team at DDB and Mango to produce a 3D CAD model that they were happy with. We had a very tight build time of around three weeks leading up to Christmas. And the build included fifteen days of fiber-glassing and painting.
Due to the fresh water restrictions in summer, we decided to use salt water from the ocean and the whole system had to be safe for the public.
This provided a range of considerations including:
- How do we get a constant and dependable water flow?
- How do we avoid blocking the beach with pipes running everywhere?
- How do we pump water from surf beaches with surges and tides coming and going?
- How do we run this without mains power?
- How do we make it safe for the public?
- What materials must be used to cope with salt water to avoid corrosion?
The system that we came up with, which solved all of these considerations, was this:
Early in the morning the team would set the sprinkler up, race down to the water with a 500L/min petrol powered pump and hoses that connected to a 3000L bladder tank situated near the sprinkler. They would fill the tank, then pack up the hoses and pump so that the beach was clear. The tank would supply the sprinkler with a constant flow, and minimised beach disruption.
The rotary action was powered by 12 volt truck batteries contained within the sprinkler base powering a small electric motor and gearbox. A petrol powered generator drove the water pump between the tank and the sprinkler. All components were safe for use with salt water: 316 stainless steel, fiber glass, plastic and brass.
Loads of people enjoyed playing under the sprinkler in the summer sun. Giant Sprinkler
The project was a great success and demonstrated the importance of collaboration, great networks and manufacturing know-how to pull off such a project with high time constraints.
At Enspiral Engineering, we are ready to take on projects that involve mechanical design, project management, manufacturing management and commercialisation.
I believe New Zealand manufacturing has enormous potential both locally and internationally. I’m inspired to be working collaboratively on great projects with talented people.
Contact me – Jonathon Avery | 021 220 2200 | jonathon.avery@enspiral.com
What a fabulous fun creation! We could imagine this in all sorts of places – especially here at Tauhara at the summer Chrissiefest! Well done guys,
Thank you so much on behalf of our planet Jon and team,
Catherine