urban mining – urban tooling

Nickeltree Sap Tap
– A Tool for Harvesting Metal –

by Anna Freudenberg


Emissions from various anthropogenic sources are likely to increase the heavy metal pollution in soils and make them infertile. For the growing world population, the renaturation of land by means of special phytomining hyperaccumulative plants could therefore become more and more important. The former endemic nickeltree Pycnandra acuminata could be grown in a way that it could also be cultivated in milder European climates. It can be used to regain the valuable nickel from the tree sap and simultaneously detoxify the soil.

The Pycnandra acuminata tree is considered the most productive hyperaccumulator of heavy metal in the plant kingdom. An adult tree concentrates in different tissues, the bark, the leaves and in latex sap a total nickel content of about 37 kg.

Another Project called Mono
– A three-dimensional Circuit –

by Anniek Timmermann

It’s no secret that the way we are currently dealing with electronic waste is problematic. There’s room for improvement not only in how we dispose of e-waste and recover valuable material from it, but especially in how we design products in the first place. This project is supposed to demonstrate an alternate way of designing and using electronics. Instead of being soldered inseparably onto a circuit board, here conductor, insulator, resistor and light bulb are designed for a quick and simple disassembly. This allows for the components to be separated into mono-materials.
The structure of this basic, exemplary circuit allows electronic components and building components to become one. How could other electronic components be designed for disassembly? Which other possibilities lay within the exteriorization of electronics from the body housing of devices? And what are possible ways of integrating this extended building structure into our surroundings? With my project I would like to trigger these and other questions.

Klinkenschloss
– Unlocking your Front Door Made Easy –

by Emma Brix

Unlocking the door - that may sound like a simple task. All of us do it several times a day without even thinking about it. But with increasing age, everyday tasks can turn into real problems. We then lack the necessary fine motor skills to thread the key into the lock and the strength to turn it around. This is why a new locking system was developed. Lock and door handle are combined and complement each other. A recess around the lock makes it easier to thread the key in. The keyhole is turned horizontally, since it seems to be easier to insert keys this way. Instead of turning the key, pressing the handle down releases the lock. This makes the opening process much less energy consuming. The door can be locked securely by lifting the door handle upwards.

Cut Hair
– On Your Own –

by Johanna Abendroth

When imagining the future of hairdressing, it is plausible to think that due to decreasing numbers of
young talent, either only very high-cost-services or low-cost-service will be available. People seeking a haircut would therefore need to empower themselves in order to keep their hair individually styled.

The classical tools that every hair-dresser uses on their clients are scissors, comb and razor. This project proposes a modified version of these tools in a way that the client can use them on their own hair. The movement of the hand is directly transferred to the function of each tool which is kept in place by a ring attachment.

The comb serves as an aid for sectioning the hair and guiding the scissors. When not in use, the comb can rest on the thumb. When cutting hair, it is easier to rely on the natural perception and tactile feedback of the hands. Therefore the scissors are placed in between the index finger and the middle finger. After the cut, or to touch up untidy neck hair, the razor can be used. The exchangeable blade is placed parallely to the length of the index finger.

These tools allow cutting hair in a way that one can rely on the sense of touch rather than the sense of sight. This makes the client less dependent on a sometimes confusing mirror image.

The material used for manufacturing the tools consist of old hairdressing scissors made from stainless steel. The scissors are forged, hardened, then sharpened. The comb is punched and polished whereas the razor is punched and milled.

Ropetition
– Repeat the Life Cycle of Unusable Clothes –

by Leonhard Burmester

My concept for three textile processing tools deals with the question “What do we do with our textiles if passing them on (selling or donating) is not an option?” Since the recycling of fabrics is still difficult, I wanted to extend the lifetime of supposedly worthless fabric remnants, which in fact have been produced costing large amounts of energy and water. For this procedure, the roller knife is used to cut the fabrics into long strips. The hand sewing machine sews short strips together and finally, the battery drill attachment spins the individual strips into a strong rope. In order to be used as long as possible, the tools can be dismantled and repaired easily.

Roller knife: The roller knife can be extended by adapters so that several standard blades can be used at the same time.

Hand sewing machine: A mechanism of the hand sewing machine moves the needle and the hook, which grabs the upper thread simultaneously. The hook knots the upper thread around the bobbin thread, creating a secure bond.

Rope gear: A planetary gear, consisting of four gears, turns the strips into a rope

DNA Safe
– A way to protect even the smallest of us –

by Milan Behrens

My work deals with the question of protecting earth’s biodiversity and preserving it for future generations. It was particularly important to me that the design is participatory. Whether young or old, everyone should be able to contribute. That’s why I kept my toolset as simple as possible. The production is easy and cheap. At the same time, something that was originally meant to take life is transformed into something that is able to protect and preserve life. The whole concept is conceived as an open source library. A field of application that I found very appealing are kindergardens and elementary schools, which caught my attention while working on the project. I myself often spent time in the woods during my early childhood.
To connect this directly to the possibility that children, for example, could collect insects for the library, seems to me to be not only sensible in a way of preserving the insects but also in a way of sensitizing the children early on to something that has meanwhile become very urgent: the extinction of species. This is also a good opportunity to encourage a sense of responsibility at an early stage, as it is primarily us humans who bear for our environment.

Toxic Algae
– From Fishing to Farming – 

by Nikolaus Hößle

The port of Gioia Tauro is the hub of the international illegal garbage business. In the Mediterranean, industrial fishing will come to an end by 2030. The reason lies in the replacement of traditional fishing by aquaculture and the overfishing of the sea. Algae are already being used in sewage treatment plants to purify water, as their high lipid content enables certain algae to accumulate heavy metals and other toxins. My Toxic Algae project deals with the purification of the Mediterranean Sea through the cultivation of algae. In order to bring the topic to life, I have come up with a fictitious tool manufacturer who produces algae farming tools from old fishing boats and tools.

The tools of the fictitious company “algaeferrum” are manufactured industrially for the most part by drop forging and metal spinning. A textile factory specialising in protecting clothing against toxic substances produces coated clothing for algae fishermen. The metal for the tools is extracted by algaeferrum in cooperation with several ship cemeteries and recycling centres, where stainless steel, aluminium and lead are stored by the abandoned fishing industry and can be purchased cheaply.

Copper Collector
– Cut along PVC Cables –

by Sandro Wiegand


The Copper Collector is a simple hand tool with which you can cut PVC cables in large quantities and separate the copper or aluminium from the plastic in a clean way.
The idea refers to the current situation in Africa, where people burn large heaps of cables with the most primitive means to get to the valuable copper. This results in toxic pollutants for humans and nature. The tool should solve this problem.
It consists of two individual parts and a replaceable cutting edge. Both parts are made of casted steel and are ergonomically shaped so that they can be used for a long time to work with.
Due to the special shape of the tool it is possible to recycle different sizes of cables and to extract the raw material copper and aluminium from them.
Shut down machines such as the coal excavators near Leipzig contain a lot of steel which could be reused to cast or forge new tools. If we disassemble those non-used machines, raw material could be collected.

Fytò
– Clean up the Past –

by Tatjana Simbürger

The groundwater was enormously polluted by heavy metals. Industry made an essential contribution to water pollution. Sewage has polluted our soils. A biological water treatment process has been developed. Here, one uses the filtering effect of the water hyacinth. Heavy metals are deposited in the roots of the free-floating plant, which are delivered to collecting stations and then burned to recover the valuable metals. Through genetic modification, the leaves of the hyacinth contain the exact amount of minerals required by the human body during the day. The stems of the plant are used to make utensils. The knife for harvesting the plants and the beater for compacting the braided tissues are made from old agricultural machines. The tools are drop-forged.

The Blue Gold
– Saltwater Filter –

by Viola Nauck

Two thirds of the earth’s surface is covered with water. 97% of it is salt water.
Nowadays, billions of people have no access to drinking water sources. Due to increasing population numbers and in order to avoid threatening conflicts like water wars, drinking water must be provided. Taking that into account, it is essential to find new ways to make the abundant salt water drinkable.

At the University of Manchester research looking into graphene oxide filtration is being carried out. It is intended to save costs as well as consume less energy than conventional filtration systems.
The only one atom thick carbon filters become a nanometer thick sieve with holes that let the water through, but not the salt.
Using this technology, the salt can be filtered out by the upper of the two filters. It is collected on top of the sieve and can be obtained for use by drying.
In combination with the lower filter, which consists of an activated carbon layer and a hollow fiber filter layer, residual viruses, bacteria and impurities are filtered out.

The salty sea water runs in the water pipes, which have been replaced by a system of aluminum magnesium alloy to withstand the salt.
After filtering the water, the upper of the two filters can be placed on the side. The salt that has collected on top of the filter can be obtained by evaporating the rest of the water.

Norm
– Adapt Your Features –

by Wayra Aguilar

Norm is a series of small tools to help you get closer to your ideal face. With three applications, you can shape your nose, cheeks and lips yourself and decide how strong the change should be. The instruments can all be used by yourself and without medical supervision.

Standardized Faces
Striving for individuality slowly gives way to the desire of a common norm. By 2050, beauty standards will become even more relevant and define how we take part in our society. The trend is strongly moving in the direction of unification due to various factors such as the mixture of different ethnic groups increasing, face filters on social media platforms, or globalization in general, to name a few. People strive for optimization in all areas and by standardizing the systems, exchange and improvement is even better possible in our globalized world. Adaptation to a general norm began much earlier in other areas such as different industries or currency. But also the own body and face are becoming more and more optimized. Since the tools are not used by a physician but by anybody, each person can decide for themself how far to align to the norm.

The three tools are made of stainless steel, making them easy to clean and sterilize before and after use. With the help of an app and video tutorials, the correct handling is taught. If the tools are no longer in use, they can be returned to the manufacturer for proper recycling.


n1 straight is a blade adapted to the nose which you simply drive over the bridge of your nose to achieve a straight nose

n2 define makes the cheeks and jawbones appear accentuated on the outside by pulling on two piercings on the inside of your cheeks

n3 full can help you to emphasize your lips. The tool is placed on your mouth and the air is inhaled, the resulting vaccuum causes the lips to swell

drop forge process at Gebr. Hartkopf

cutlery dies and cold forged fork at Carl Mertens

cooled drop forgings before die-cutting

metal slag deposits at Remondis

Sand Casting