1. The document describes the design and development of the Watercone, a simple solar desalination device created by designer Stephan Augustin to provide clean drinking water. 2. After seeing the global water crisis, Augustin designed a two-piece solar still that could be manufactured cheaply at scale to desalinate seawater. 3. Through many prototypes and tests with manufacturers, Augustin developed a method of vacuum forming the cone from a single piece of polycarbonate that could efficiently produce clean water through condensation.

1. 設計英文 椎型儲水器 U9718010吳欣儒

2. This simple product provides anyone an independent, inexpensive, and mobile solar means to create potable water by condensation in, what is quite simply, a solar still. 一個簡單好用富於創新的設計， 滿足發展中國家最基本的需求 — 飲用水

3. After making several trips around the world and becoming aware of the global water problem, Stephan Augustin, a designer at BMW AG, felt a social responsibility to create a simple, highly utilitarian, solar-powered seawater desalination apparatus that could be manufactured cheaply. "For ecological, economical, geographical, and/or political reasons, 50 percent (2.5 billion) of the world's population has no access to clean, potable water and sanitation," says Augustin, who set his mind to doing whatever he could to minimize this problem. Utilitarian 功利主義 desalination apparatus 脫鹽裝置 minimize 減到最低 has no access to 可…的管道

4. His primary challenge lay in how to go about producing such a product while keeping it inexpensive enough to produce through mass production. He knew it could comprise no more than two pieces and that there was no predecessor to follow; there was no comparable product on the market. Dedicating himself to the job, Augustin started work on the project in 1998 by experimenting with solar desalination. All of his work on this project was done in the evenings, weekends, and holidays in addition to his regular job at BMW. mass production 大量生產 comprise 包含 predecessor 範例

5. He began by experimenting with evaporation and condensation using a simple upside-down pyramid, a common device in desert survival. The problem here was that one-third of the condensation formed at the outer wall and ran into the sand. Moreover, the lightweight, plastic foil device wasn't wind resistant. In February 2001, Augustin had a breakthrough idea in terms of the shape of the Watercone. A simple wooden tool was used to test the idea of a cone outfitted with a screw-cap spout at the tip and an inward circular collecting trough at the base. This cone was made out of two pieces that were glued together. While promising, the piece burst and dirt collected at its inner edge, which wasn't satisfactory. evaporation/condensation 蒸發/凝結 breakthrough 突破 upside-down 顛倒 in terms of…的限制 Lightweight 輕型 outfitted 裝備 wind resistant 防風 satisfactory 另人滿意

6. In the fall of that year, Augustincontacted a company in Germany which was willing to develop the idea. "We began to think about several production methods that could be much cheaper than vacuum forming, which needs lots of manpower," he says. "We looked at different types of blow molding, especially for PET bottles, which already have a screw-cap spout at the tip, but all the manufacturers rejected [our proposal] because of geometrical and physical reasons. Then, we had the genius idea for a vacuum tool that allowed us to make the cone out of one piece." contacted 接觸 vacuum forming 真空成型 manpower 人力 blow molding 吹模

7. In spring 2002, construction began on a prototype vacuum tool. Later that summer, the first working products came out of this tool "after lots of failures because the material was stretched so much at the outer trough areas that it came out as a thin foil," Augustin says. “After about 100 tests, we found the right temperature and airspeed to get a perfect result." Winter 2002 brought a license agreement with that same company to produce and distribute the product, and in spring 2003, Bayer AG, Leverkusen became the supplier and partner for the polycarbonate, Makrolon, which was the primary material. construction結構 license 許可 prototype模型 distribute 分配 material 原料 supplier供應商 result 成果 polycarbonate 聚碳酸酯

8. “As we had no PR and headcount budget, the company we were working with and I were using international awards and press reports about this product resourcefully and abundantly to increase public awareness about the global water situation and our innovative product to get manufacturing and distribution started-and it worked!" says Augustin. "There is a big potential for innovations that fulfill humanitarian, ecological, and economical aspects in one product ... and I hope concern for humanity is the next new trend." PR 公關 innovations 革新 headcount budget 預算人員 fulfill 實現 resourcefully 機制地 aspect 觀點 abundantly 大量地