by Abhinand Venugopal from https://www.rushlane.com
Soham Mohanty has created a device that can tell if the petrol being filled in your vehicle’s fuel tank is adulterated or not.
One could argue that Lexus sells some of the best-looking luxury vehicles in the global automotive market. The Japanese automaker, under the wings of Toyota, not only believes in good automotive aesthetics and design, but is also determined in finding out the right talent in this field.
As part of this, the brand’s Indian division recently concluded Lexus Design Award India (LDAI) 2020 and selected the creative design project by Soham Mohanty in the ‘Conceptual Category – Student’ stream, to be showcased at the prestigious Milan Design Week scheduled for April 2020.
Soham’s project, dubbed as Accufill, aims to bring absolute peace of mind to motorcycle riders in the world of rising fuel thefts at fraudulent petrol stations. Accufill is a piece of sensor-based equipment that employs ultrasonics to determine fuel density and quality, while also ensuring that the user gets the right amount of fuel for the price he/she pays. As we know, fuel isn’t cheap at all and prices are only seeing a climb.
In Soham Mohanty’s words, Accufill helps bring transparency between riders and the staff at various petrol stations. Basically, it is a user-friendly device to check petrol quality. By ensuring only the right content goes into the fuel tank, Accufill indirectly aids in improving engine life and reliability of related components such as the fuel-injection (FI) system.
To make a better understanding as to why a device such as Accufill is an important need, millions of litres of fuel are adultered each year; petrol with naphtha and diesel with kerosene. This information was shared by none other than the Indian Ministry of Transport.
According to SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), around 20 million two-wheelers (and counting) are sold in the country every year. For the same reason, if at least half of the new products are equipped with Accufill, there will be a significant drop in fuel-station-oriented frauds. To completely eradicate this in due course, all two-wheelers should come equipped with Accufill or a similar device, right from the factory or dealership. An advanced form of the device could be developed for four-wheelers and larger commercial vehicles as well.
Accufill is not the only design project/idea that will make its way to the Lexus Design Event at the venue of the Milan Design Week. Binayak Mondal’s ‘Able’ — an engineering solution that helps a person who cannot walk, easily transfer his/her body from bed to a wheelchair (in sitting position), without any external aid — also won LDAI 2020 in the Conceptual Work – Open Category stream.
The Lexus Design Award India 2020 panel awarded 12 design entries on social impact. A total of 885 entries were made from across the stretches of India.
