Materials

The products will be made from PVC plastic. The material was an obvious choice as it is already used for making guttering and has all the properties that the product requires. PVC can last around 100 years (Pvcfittingsonline.com, 2020) which suits the long timescale of the product well. It has the strength and resistance to the elements required as demonstrated by guttering found on most buildings. Having acquired some guttering myself I also found it has the required pliability in order to flex the material so that the bars on the connector and end pieces can be attached underneath the clips found on guttering, which is how the product is secured. Finally, it is cheap to buy and manufacture (Omnexus, n.d.) which is important for such a large scale project that will likely require hundreds if not thousands of the product to succeed.

PVC can also be used to make a mesh with small holes which suit the requirements for the bottom of the guttering inserts.

Finally the screws and wing nuts will be stainless steel, due to its strength and resistance to corrosion (AZom.com, n.d.). However, these will be purchased in bulk instead of manufactured.

Manufacturing

PVC can be melted and molded into any shape, therefore the product will be manufactured using molding. It will require some plasticides to be added to the material in order to give it some degree of flexibility for the gutter mounting system to function as intended. Although the lamppost plant pot is quite large, and especially wide at 600mm, it can be molded in two halves and joined in the middle in order to not require large, complex and expensive molds. The different elements of the guttering insert purposely have relatively simple shapes and have been broken down into multiple pieces to make them easier and cheaper to manufacture. As it is one of the most widely used plastics in the world (Ackerman & Massey, 2006) it will be relatively simple to find large scale suppliers and manufacturers. PVC is the ideal material for this product due to its low cost, ease of manufacture, strength, lifespan and resistance to corrosion and the elements.