A French-Senegalese collaboration that continues in Cape Verde

Over the weeks spent in Dakar, Plastic Odyssey teams have met and made many connections within the recycling ecosystem. And in particular in Pikine, on the outskirts of Dakar, where the technical team worked on the production of a plastic extrusion in collaboration with a family workshop. The father, Mr. Koffi, manages his workshop with an iron fist; welding, lathes, steel cuts on all sides. The son, Abel, is a student in electromechanics. An entrepreneur at heart and persevering in his work, Abel was asked by Plastic Odyssey to machine new molds, necessary for the shaping of finished products. Now, these molds are used to produce recycled plastic paddles on the on-board workshop.

The technical team wanted to perpetuate this collaboration by hosting Abel on the ship during the Cape Verde stopover. The skills of the young Senegalese allow us to set promising objectives for this new stopover.

Improve the milling machine of the on-board workshop

Abel’s mission was to work on the improvement of a milling machine; a machine that could make molds. The milling machine on board Plastic Odyssey was originally manual, it was then modified during the escale to Lebanon with the addition of engines to make complex molds. The new challenge is now to be able to program the manufacture of the molds via 3D design software and to machine these molds directly on the ship. The project is to upgrade a manual milling machine to a more sophisticated technology, thus facilitating access to technologies that are currently very expensive. This machine will be used to develop Plastic Odyssey’s catalog of new finished plastic products and micro-factories, Local Factories.

Two R&D projects are identified per stopover for the technical team, to hold this marathon of innovation it is essential to collaborate and enrich its skills by the meetings and unique experiences of this expedition.

Abel’s energy and technical knowledge have enabled us to make great progress on the programming and calibration of the milling machine. In a few weeks, the onboard workshop will be able to produce its own molds.