Craig Manufacturing staff recently put their engineering heads together to help solve a power problem for a hospital serving Haiti refugees. The small island of LaGonave is located close to Haiti. Hundreds of the survivors from the earthquake that devastated Hati on Jan. 12, 2010 were brought to the hospital there. Unfortunately, the underground cables that are currently supplying power to the hospital quickly deteriorate from harsh soil conditions and salt water. The existing power lines have been unable to meet the growing power requirements of this hospital.
For the hospital to expand and meet the needs of all of the Haitian people plus their own population, a reliable way to transport power had to be found. Wooden poles are very expensive and are not common in this part of the world. Dean Stephenson, a Hartland native and former Craig employee, who has 20 years experience with Wesleyan mission trips in the area was tasked with fixing this problem. He contacted Mark Waugh, currently an Engineer at Craig, to help and together they came up with an innovative solution. By creating a steel form, power poles could be made from concrete. The mold is a modular unit so it can be disassembled for transport and reassembled on site for use.

The entire product went from conception to finished product in six working days; Just enough time to make delivery to the ship bound for LaGonave. Hopefully power will flow to this hospital for many years to come on the new power poles. Craig would like to thank all of the employees that donated their time to make the project a success and wishes Dean and his team the best of luck on their trip to install these poles. |