Problem Statement

Shortage of toilets is a series of health and social problems in India. The reality in the country is that the production of toilets is tedious and time-consuming, as it takes four workers and 19 hours to complete one unit. The toilets delivered are of inferior quality. Therefore there is an urgent need to be able to construct good quality toilets, without compromising their functionality.

Objective

• To develop the conceptual design of a 3D printed toilet suitable for India.
• To produce an actual functional prototype of the 3D printed toilet.
• To conduct a preliminary performance evaluation of the 3D printed toilet that is deployed onsite in India.

Outcomes/Benefits

• The team developed a low-cost solution for producing toilets in large quantity.
• The 3D printed toilets were installed in India.
• The study contributes to improving the design and production efficiency of toilet units.
• The study creates new knowledge on 3DP performance through completing a comparative study between conventional methods, prefabrication methods and 3DP methods.

Printed toilets that were on display in the Department of the Built Environment, College of Design and Engineering, National University of Singapore.