The durable, easy-to-assemble beds made from recycled corrugated paper board are manufactured at the paper and packaging plant of interdisciplinary designer Rhea Shah’s family.
Indian Innovation: durable beds from recycled paper
Rhea Shah, an architecture graduate from Harvard University, found herself stuck in Vapi (Gujarat) en route to the Netherlands where she was heading for a doctoral programme after the growing Covid-19 crisis restricted her travel plans. Shah, daughter of the owner of paper and packaging company Aryan Paper Group, came up with a design to make beds out of corrugated boards using high strength paper. The flat-pack beds, that Aryan Paper claims can support a weight of over 200 kgs, are light weight, water resistant, easy to move, assemble and also easily disposable. They can be used as emergency hospital beds, in quarantine centres, at emergency shelters for unemployed migrant workers returning home, and even to accommodate workmen at manufacturing sites.
The beds could be easily disposed of in an eco-friendly manner when no longer needed
The growing Covid crisis in India has suddenly created an urgent need to add beds to sleep those who are quarantined or under treatment. As manufacturing sites crawl back to operations, there is also a demand to house the manpower on site.
Speaking to Business Standard, Sunil Shah, managing director (MD) of Aryan Paper, said he wanted to do this at a no-profit basis.
"We have priced the beds around Rs 900 and Rs 1,000 ($13.60/€11.45/£10.63) and then there would be a logistics cost, depending on which part of the country they need to be transported. Transportation, too, is economical as the components of these beds can be flat stacked easily in trucks. They can be assembled without any nails, glues or stitching at the site," Shah said.
These beds are coated with a waterproof solution to avoid damage due to spillage and allowing the beds to be disinfected. A design with an inclined head rest, too, has been created after physicians recommended that many patients with respiratory illness may have difficulty in lying down.
The Vapi plant has capacity to produce 2,000 beds per day. The government’s Covid Task Force has already got in touch with Aryan Paper to understand the innovation.
The company gave away the first 1,000 beds made at the Vapi plant to the Gujarat government and also the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM).
Shah is also gearing up to supply a consignment to the Indian Navy soon as it is setting up a makeshift Covid hospital. Enquiries are flowing in from other Navy commands as well, along with corporate hospitals and manufacturing plants.
Aryan Paper say that once the use was over, the beds can be easily disposed of in an eco-friendly manner.
Source: Business-Standard.com
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