A group of engineers from the Higher Technical School of Engineering and Industrial Design (ETSIDI) from the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) has redesigned the classic sewer grates to avoid preventing obstructions and, ultimately, avoid the possible flooding that they may generate.
His creation, named WAG, has been presented in the award James Dyson 2024an international competition aimed at engineering and design students. And although it was not the winner, its creation has generated great interest.
As explained in their proposal, the WAG sewer grate is designed to replace the original bars in any location“first in the points of greatest concentration of obstructions and then extend it to the rest of the town.”
YouTube video
The main novelty that this new fence provides is its design. Being based on a large spring, its bars, unlike the classic ones, allow a certain flexibility, acting as a kind of dock. Whether due to manual movement or the vibrations generated by the passage of urban traffic, the oscillations of the spring cause, in theory, the waste that could clog it to finally fall into the sewer.
“Our redesign would work autonomously, taking advantage of the vibration in the road of cars. This vibration is transmitted through vertical rods, thus carrying out an unblocking of all levels of the sewer”, explain its creators.
One of the great advantages of this solution is that the WAG grate could adapt to any size and gap. And although its appearance could be dissonant with the aesthetics of the public road, its creators consider including distinctive elements, such as the inscription of the coat of arms of the town in which it is located in the center of the fence.
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