TCE on Scrapheap Challenge~
Martin Bremner, MD of
Trafalgar Cleaning Equipment Ltd, scrapped all other plans when a television company asked him to help build a cleaner out of junk. The businessman jumped at the chance to travel to Los Angeles to appear on
Scrapheap Challenge presented by Cathy Rogers and Robert Llewellyn, which was to be televised for
Channel 4 in September 2001.
Martin, 41, was chosen as the expert to help a team from car firm Jaguar, who took part in the challenge. He spent a week in America filming
Scrapheap Challenge, which asked two teams of three to build a machine using junk from a working scrapyard. Martin’s team, The Catalysts, faced opposition from three friends from Yorkshire who formed The Chaos Crew.
They were given ten hours to build a street cleaner before being awarded a day’s rest and then sweeping roads with their creation in Los Angeles. The objective was to build a large vacuum cleaner that could suck up the rubbish through the fan and blow it into the back of a vehicle. Martin said: "We used all kinds of stuff in our cleaner including bits of old pipe, parts from a vehicle and old ventilation systems".
"I had to explain to the team what kind of materials were needed and then they went out into the scrapheap to find something like it. The emphasis is very much on science and we needed to make a fan that was strong enough and would spin fast enough to create a large suction. We also had to make sure it would not explode when the rubbish passed through it. This was made from old steel plate and fixed directly onto an old lawnmower engine and then mounted in a reinforced ventilation fan housing.
Our transport and rubbish container was a modified Transit van. We also made use of old mesh and a blanket as a filter, an office chair as a rear seat, old ventilation hose and a crutch as a pick up tool and plenty of gaffa tape to seal it all up.
The Chaos Crew built a sweeper from a Land Rover."
Contestants watched as the cleaners set to work to collect as much rubbish as possible within 30 minutes.
Martin, who travelled to the United States to film the programme in April, said: "I had a lovely time doing the filming. I thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, although it was very hard work for all of us," and winning was a bonus.
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