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"We became aware of this problem," Frederick Kruger says, "when we were engaged by BP to develop this stove." 

He and his design partner Calantzis now own the design, themselves and are working on manufacture and distribution of the Arivi Paraffin Stove." But when the guys from BP came around," Kruger says, "they were the first customers we've ever had who Googled us," he laughs.

"And the other thing is that we knew nothing about the stoves when we started this. We were not experienced in any sort of appliance or any sort of combustible device. We know a little bit more now."

And yet, Anastasios Calantzis agrees with Kruger that prior to being asked to work on the problem of cookers turning over in poor neighborhoods of South Africa, he wasn't engaged in the subject with any first-hand knowledge. "In fact, after school, I did several things before I got into industrial design," Calantzis says. "I've always had an inclination toward invention. I did an aptitude test and one of the options was industrial design and when I did some research on this particular field, I decided this is what I want to do."

"Every two weeks in winter in South Africa" such an incident may be reported, so many people are hurt or killed. "And what's more, many of these stoves produce this indoor air pollution."

"Another thing about that," Calantzis says, "is that a lot of people will use the stove to heat their home, leaving it on as they go to sleep. The carbon monoxide poisons them -- and they never wake up.

"The main thing we brought into the Arivi stove," he says, "is that as soon you tilt the stove even less than 45 digress, a shut off mechanism immediately snuffs the flame. If knocked over, it will immediately go out. 

"The other key thing," he says, "is that with all these stoves, the heat inside gets really hot, almost 650 degrees. So if that thing turns over and touches almost anything, a fire still can start -- lighting curtains or putting fire to anything else. So our stove has a double-insulating wall that helps efficiency but also prevents that heat from causing a fire."

"Basically in any circumstance where the stove isn't standing rock-still," Kruger says, "the shut-off mechanism kicks in."

"Now, it's one thing if the stove is being knocked over," Calantzis says, "but we also wanted to look at a case in which something knocks over a candle, the shack catches on fire, and the stove is in the shack. What then? There's a new regulation that says the tanks are not allowed to leak any paraffin. But you can imagine if there's a sealed tank of paraffin in that stove, it's like a bomb. So that's why we designed the fuel cap out of plastic. So during a fire, that plastic cap melts and pops off, allowing all the gas to escape before the tank explodes."

"We went down to the local fire station," Kruger recalls, to test the explosion-prevention response of the stove. "Made a big fire, put them on top of it. That was a lot of fun."

Now, the designers are in talks with two manufacturers, Kruger says, "and we should be in production around the first of the year. Our intention is to eventually have the stove produced right here in South Africa. Currently we're talking to a Chinese, and to a South African manufacturer. We will manufacture first wherever we can get our prices right for our customers. Over time, we'd want to come home with it to manufacture it here in South Africa.

“To distribute this, we want to be sure we get this into the townships of South Africa by hiring the guy with one little truck, rather than engaging the multi-nationals to get it off the ground. We want to work with entrepreneur types. And you know, when we speak to the 'little guys,' they understand the product and selling it. We speak to the big distributors and it's all about 'not enough profit margin' and so on."

And if the sales of the stove on a local basis can help the economy, the Arivi's operation should be good for a low-income family's strained resources, too, costing some 33 percent less in fuel expenses at the same time it drastically reduces the dangers of fire and respiratory ailments, particularly among children.

Upbeat and clearly engaged in seeing their design to market, Calantzis and Kruger are perfectly happy to have originally been Googled when they were asked to work on the project. Their typical work is more likely to focus on consumer electronics for the US market than stove safety in the region.  "We didn't even believe them at first when they said they were BP," Kruger says, chuckling.

Designed by:
Readymade; Anastasios Calantzis, Frederick Kruger; (South Africa).

Produced by:
Arivi.

www.readymade.co.za

Written by Porter Anderson