Believe it or not, in the early 21st century, an electric washing machine is still a luxury product. It’s estimated that 60 percent of the world’s population washes clothes by hand – an arduous process that deprives people of spending time with family and contributing to society, not to mention one that brings a fair share of aches and pains.
The Washing Machine Project intends to make clothes cleaning easier and faster by distributing, free of charge, manually operated washers that check many sustainability boxes: They come in flat packaging, are easy to assemble, require no electricity, and are built to accept off-the-shelf replacement parts.
It’s a lofty aim that has attracted the volunteer assistance and investment of big names such as Whirlpool Corporation and the service solution company RS Group. Through these partnerships, the nonprofit has already impacted 30,000 lives and will impact a further 150,000 people over the next five years, helping families reclaim an estimated millions of hours of time.
“They don’t have access to electric washing machines,” said Jack Biltcliffe, the Washing Machine Project’s senior design engineer. “The amount of time and effort it takes them to do by hand, something that people with electric washing machines might take for granted.… It’s incredible to hear their stories. Thankfully, there is a movement to help.”
Changing How People Wash Clothes
The Washing Machine Project started in 2019 after an observation. Volunteering for Engineers Without Borders UK in India, Navjot Sawhney watched his neighbor, Divya, struggle with everyday chores, including hand washing clothes. She had pain in her hands and back. He promised to build her a washing machine and developed a prototype when he returned home to the U.K.
The Divya saves time and water. Sawhney created the Divya washing machine, naming it after that woman and becoming CEO of a company determined to make great change. As Jack describes it, the washing machine is like a barrel on its side with a turning mechanism, much like a salad spinner. Drop clothes in the barrel, add water, and turn the crank. Its 30-minute wash cycle requires only a few minutes of manual turning. In total, the Divya saves up to 75 percent of the time and uses half of the water for handwashing.
The Divya washing machine, also the world’s first flat packable washing machine, has the potential to be shipped fully assembled or put together at arrival with a wrench (or “spanner” as they say in the U.K.) and key set. Divya’s basic design reduces the need for repair, Jack said. But if repairs are needed, the machine’s simple design allows it to be fixed with off-the-shelf parts – a must because there are no service centers where it will be used. Also, the machine is primarily stainless steel, potentially giving it a long life and durability.
“At the end of its life, the material can be reused,” he said.
After interviewing more than 3,000 families in Cameroon, Jamaica, Lebanon, Nepal, and six other countries and researching clothes-washing tendencies in many other countries, the nonprofit believes it has a solution to make life easier. It has distributed Divya to families in Iraq, Lebanon, the U.S., Mexico, Uganda, Kenya, the Republic of Congo, and India, helping over 30,000 people – including Divya, herself, the inspiration for the product. Over the next five years, 10,000 more will be built.
From left, people using the manual washing machine in Uganda; Tamil Nadu, India; and Dallas, Texas. Onshape Simplifies the Iterations of CAD Design
With such high ambitions, the Washing Machine Project can’t afford to fall behind in the design of Divya. It will frequently undergo design iterations, large and small, based on user feedback. That meant when ramping up work, the company’s design team needed a cloud-based, collaborative, and efficient CAD system.
Just as the company was looking for such a product, Jack, a self-proclaimed “Onshape hobbyist,” joined the staff. Jack used Onshape for personal projects and believed it would best serve the team’s mode of work. His bosses agreed, and soon, the Washing Machine Project learned it qualified for the Onshape Startup Program. The program provides the company and other qualifying hardware startups access to Onshape Professional, a fully cloud-native CAD and PDM package with integrated simulation and rendering tools.
The Divya washing machine. “We’ve got much more control over version histories, which is critical because we’re constantly iterating the design of the washing machine,” Jack said. “We need to know what version of the machine is in what area, and Onshape gives us the in-built solution version history and version control. It's been just amazing.”
He also appreciates how Onshape serves as a source of truth for design documents. When his team transfers files to Google Docs, eventually, they’re looking at as many as 12 different versions, making clarity and accuracy important. With Onshape, “it’s been nice to have all documents self-contained, and we know we can just go there and find the latest one.”
Also, iterations are smooth because of the way Onshape creates new workspaces with branches.
“Things are constantly being updated, but we use the branch to do kind of bigger design changes in a test,” Jack said. “Those are done separately without impacting the main branch. But I’m able to eventually branch them back in once those design ideas have been proven out. That’s been just a really cool way of seeing a design develop.”
Manual washing machine prototypes developed by The Washing Machine Project. A Partnership that’s Paying Dividends
Working in the cloud helps Jack and his team stay on the same page, no matter where they are. Employees who travel the world to get feedback from families on washing practices eventually dream up solutions by making iterations to Divya. Whether they’re uploading feedback in the field or making a design change at the site of one of their partner manufacturers, the team can “just jump on any Wi-Fi connected machine and adapt or make a change in Onshape.”
Jack recalls one such time when he took the suggestions of families in Kampala, Uganda, and went onto the street to find a hotspot to access Onshape. More design changes were made at the airport.
“I just like that flexibility of having access to CAD wherever we are around the world.”
Jack also likes how Onshape’s Configurations have made life easier when his team works with the CAD software’s sheet metal modeling features. Because the Washing Machine Project is manufactured in different countries, the team has to convey the thickness of sheet metal in its designs. Some countries use a standard measurement of metric gauge thickness, whereas others use imperial gauge thickness. Designing around those standards could sometimes be “the great bane” of Jack’s life, but not any longer. Thanks to Onshape Configurations, Jack and the team can easily make design changes to metric or imperial SKUs.
Jack is glad he was able to flip his “hobby” work with Onshape into his job. The Washing Machine Company has been able to make big advancements with its new CAD partner.
“I pushed for Onshape, and it's been incredible to see that switch over,” he said. “To move our CAD and ecosystem onto Onshape has been fantastic.”
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