Rainfresh helps send young Canadians to compete in global robotics competition

Rainfresh helps send young Canadians to compete in global robotics competition

This May, a group of brilliant young Canadian thinkers, known as Lego my Lego, travelled to California to compete in the annual FLL North American Open Robotics Competition. Lego my Lego was one of two teams representing Canada, and their performance was very impressive.

The team, composed of children aged 9 to 14, was awarded 2nd place for Mechanical Design; 11th in Robot Game; and finished in the top 16 for Project and Robot Design out of 78 teams.

FLL Robotics Competition

This year, the competition’s theme was “Nature’s Fury”. The children competed to create innovative solutions that would help communities prepare for, survive, and rebuild after a variety of natural disasters. Rainfresh’s technology played an integral role in the team’s safe water supply strategy.

Rainfresh was proud to sponsor Lego my Lego by donating gravity filters and money to help equip the team with the materials they needed to compete in California.

SM4U Gravity Filter 2Disaster relief and water treatment basics

Rainfresh’s gravity water filtration technology is a popular tool used in disaster relief initiatives across the globe. With a lightweight and easily portable design, these filters can supply safe drinking water from virtually any water source, including lakes, ponds, rivers, wells and streams – all without the use of pumps, chemicals or electricity.

Using a unique ceramic filtration technology that traps harmful bacteria, like E. coli, and protozoan cysts , Rainfresh gravity filters remove contaminants as small as 0.3 micron s.

Read more about this common disaster relief device used in hundreds of communities worldwide!



A cyst is a resting stage of a parasite that helps it tide over unfavourable environmental conditions. When the parasite reaches favourable conditions (such as the human intestine), the cyst wall breaks and the microbe causes illness. Commonly known cysts are Giardia Lamblia and Cryptosporidium. They are present in stagnant waters such as dug wells, lakes, ponds and other surface waters. Cysts cause illnesses such as Giardiasis (commonly called Beaver Fever), stomach cramps, fever, diarrhea, etc.

Cysts are resistant to chlorination, the most common disinfection method used by municipalities. As such, it is possible to have cyst contamination even in chlorinated (municipally treated) water supplies. Physical removal of cysts from water by filtration is the most effective way of preventing illnesses from cyst. Rainfresh Drinking Water system 1, 2 and 3 are tested and certified for reduction of cyst from water.

 

 

A micron , also called micrometer, is a unit of measurement.

1 micron = 1/1000 mm (1/25,000th of an inch) is denoted by the letter µ.

Average human hair is about 75 micron in diameter and coarse dirt is about 40 micron . In filter cartridges, a micron rating refers to the smallest particle size in micron s that the filter cartridge is capable of removing. For example, a 30 micron cartridge will remove particulates as small as 30 micron while a 5 micron filter cartridge will remove particulates as small as 5 micron . The lower the micron rating of the filter cartridge, the tighter the filter and the smaller the particle size it can remove.

For sediment filters, generally a “nominal” rating is used, meaning that a high percentage of particles of the rated size are removed. An “Absolute” rating means that >99.99% of the particles of the rated size are removed. Rainfresh ceramic cartridges have a 0.3 micron absolute rating, meaning that they remove > 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 micron .