Crayella Umbrella
The Crayella's crayon-colored life story unfolds as it passes through its cradle-to-cradle design plan. Its polypropylene ball-and-socket frame requires no tools for assembly and only a gentle nudge from a small screwdriver for disassembly. Individuals can create micro-businesses that repair Crayellas quickly on the street, like offering a shoe-shine, and collect and repair discarded Crayellas for resale.
Cradle-to-Cradle through Color and Business
Color stories develop in Crayella frames as they are repaired, and in new Crayellas that are created from upcycled broken frame components. For example, a micro-business owner mends a broken orange frame with a yellow component collected from an abandoned Crayella (Image 2). The yellow part in the orange frame visibly shows support of cradle-to-cradle thinking and Crayella micro-businesses. The business owner then bundles the broken orange part with other broken parts and returns them to the factory in exchange for a new Crayella to sell. The manufacturer melts the broken orange part together with other broken orange, yellow, and white parts for remolding, "upcycling" them to produce new melon-colored frames. The detailed logistics of this process will grow naturally out of the free "raw materials" provided on the street, community support of the micro-businesses, and the incentive-based upcycling program.
Designed for Ease of Assembly and Repair
The Crayella has an assembly time of only seven minutes and contains half the components of a regular umbrella. Its ball-and-socket, snap-fit, and press-fit joints replace the labor-intensive gluing, riveting, and sewing processes of a typical umbrella assembly (Image 3). The entire Crayella is fabricated from molded recycled polypropylene plastic, except for the recycled aluminum rod inside its main shaft. This rod, which provides extra structural support, is mechanically fitted and easily removable for upcycling. The frame is stronger and more resilient than metal-framed umbrellas (and less prone to wayward lightning strikes). Compliant bending of the inner frame forks provides a gentle spring-actuated opening, eliminating the need for a central metal spring (Image 4).
Canopy and Handle Design Details
In one orientation, the Crayella's oval canopy shields a backpack and its owner from the rain while remaining narrow enough to navigate through crowds. A ninety-degree rotation of the Crayella allows for coverage of two people side-by-side (Image 5). Production of the polypropylene canopy creates no waste fabric scraps and requires no chemical waterproofing processes. The canopy attaches to the frame's spoke ends via press-fit caps that pierce and pinch the canopy securely in place, but also allow for the replacement of a torn canopy with any reused stretchy waterproof membrane or a replacement polypropylene canopy (Image 6). The Crayella's ribbed handle prevents clamminess in humid weather, and its oval shape mirrors the shape of the canopy, allowing the user to orient the canopy without looking up.
Cradle to Cradle concept design: Erin MacDonald
Umbrella Frame design and rapid prototype of frame (Image 7): Erin MacDonald, Tony Koenigsknecht, Marc Uphues, NJemile Vinson
Renderings: Erin MacDonald with many thanks to Jan-Henrik Andersen
Software: Rhinoceros, Flamingo, CorelDRAW, CorelPHOTOPAINT
Materials: Recycled polypropylene, recycled aluminum
20060901-6742-1717