Over 100,000 people die every year from natural disasters. Their families have often lost everything they own, and they can't afford to give their loved ones the funeral they deserve.

Our casket provides an affordable, sustainable, and dignified solution for victims of natural disasters. It packs flat for expedited deployment and provides a platform for volunteers and professionals to collect and care for victims with safety and sanitation in mind.

The system arrives flat on a pallet, with plywood panels pre-adhered onto a waxed cardboard membrane. The plywood adds structure to the casket while the waxed cardboard lining creates a leathery soft interior and a leak resistant surface. The large flat backboard can be used to retrieve bodies and as a work surface for autopsies or emergency medical procedures.

Once the medical professionals are finished with the body, the backboard is closed inside the two other portions and is carried to the grave site where families may hold a funeral service. As an option, the top half of the casket can be temporarily removed so that family members can view the body during the service.

The cardboard is die cuts and scores the folding pattern straight into the cardboard, making it easy for volunteers to assemble on site with little to no instruction. As a hinge, the cardboard provides surprisingly strong structural support. On our first scale prototype, we had planned to use metal brackets to reinforce every joint, but found that only half of them were necessary.

It takes only 1.5 sheets of half inch 4'x8' plywood to make each casket. We use a miter bit to trace our profiles which makes edges softer and easier to handle, while also reducing the amount of steel we need to make our brackets. During the same CNC process, we cut holes and slots for handle attachment, as well as the holes for our brackets, which are embedded with t-nuts so that volunteers can assemble everything using only an allen wrench.

Polyester ropes are threaded through each piece of plywood before they are placed on the gluing jig. They are tied off in a modified quadruple fisherman's knot, which functions both as a splicing mechanism and as a handle for carrying the coffin after assembly. When all these pieces are in place, the non-waxed side of the cardboard is mounted onto the plywood using an industrial spray adhesive. For wet disasters, a spray-on wax or poly finish can be applied externally after the adhesive has fully cured. Our brackets are water-jet from 12-gauge steel, and are pre-attached to one side of the casket to greater simplify the assembly.

Using plywood and cardboard as a composite has proven to be a robust and easily deployable system. We are using extremely common materials in a way that they've never been used before, and throughout this process we have seen the potential to use the same system for quickly erecting other small structures such as refugee shelters, sheds, and other non-conditioned outdoor spaces

Design Team

Riley Keen - student

Kara Kenna - student

Just as there are organizations in place to help survivors of natural disasters, relief teams must also take into account the management of casualties. We talked to several morticians, medical professionals, and disaster relief organizations as well as looking at documentation on how previous disasters were handled to understand what problems they encounter. The United States has disaster mortuary operational response teams (DMORT) in several regions that are activated in response to large scale disasters. DMORTs are experts in victim identification and storage. Disaster portable morgue units (DPMU) supply DMORT with the necessary equipment and supplies for a complete morgue. Similar practices are in place around the world, but in rural areas, temporary morgues kits provided by other countries can be deployed in tents or nearby buildings.

Once a body is retrieved from wreckage it is taken to a holding area in a body bag to await identification, examination, and, finally, burial. Currently, caskets are not provided in temporary morgues, as they take up a large amount of space. Instead, plastic or cloth are used to wrap bodies.

Our 3 part system arrives flat on a pallet, with plywood slabs pre-adhered onto a waxed cardboard membrane. First, our backboard is used to retrieve the body and carry it into the morgue. After carrying a 200lb person in a body bag ourselves, we found that using a rigid surface like a backboard is less difficult and needs only 2 people instead of 4. The plywood backboard adds structure to the assembled casket, while the waxed cardboard lining creates a leathery soft interior and a leak resistant surface that can easily be wiped down after autopsies or emergency medical procedures.

While the body is being identified, the rest of the casket can be assembled using the illustrated instructions. The two brackets are pre-attached on one side to simplify the assembly further. The backboard is slid into the larger half of the casket, which hides any bodily injuries while the family views their loved one. Once ready for burial, the top enclosure is attached to the bottom using more steel brackets. There are 5 pairs of handles for easily lowering the body into the grave.

The size of the coffin is large enough to fit a 95th percentile American, but is tapered towards the feet to reduce the amount of unused space. During our ideation phase, we made paper, cardboard, and plywood scale models to confirm that a large person would fit. Making models also allowed us to play with form and folding techniques.

Waxed cardboard is die cut and scored along the folding pattern, making it easy for volunteers to assemble on site with little to no instruction. As a hinge, the cardboard provides a surprisingly robust supportive structure. On our first scale prototype, we had planned to use metal brackets to reinforce every joint, but found that only half of them were necessary.

It takes only one and a half sheets of half inch plywood to make a casket. Because our design requires only 2-dimensional cutting operations, our machining time is very low. We use a miter bit to trace our profiles which makes edges softer and easier to handle, while also reducing the amount of steel we need to make our brackets. During the same CNC process, we cut holes and slots for handle attachment, as well as the holes for our brackets, which are embedded with t-nuts so that volunteers can assemble everything using only an Allen wrench.

Polyester ropes are threaded through each piece of plywood before they are placed on the gluing jig; they are tied off in a modified quadruple fisherman's knot, which functions both as a splicing mechanism and as a handle for carrying the coffin after assembly. When all these pieces are in place, the non-waxed side of the cardboard is mounted onto the plywood using an industrial spray adhesive. For wet disasters, a spray-on wax or poly finish can be applied externally after the adhesive has fully cured. Our brackets are water-jet from 12-gauge steel, and perforated so that they can be bent precisely using only a pair of vice grips.

Using plywood and cardboard as a composite has proven to be a robust, affordable, and easily deployable system that could be used in non-disaster situations. We are using extremely common materials in a way that they've never been used before and throughout this process we have seen the potential to use the same system for quickly erecting other small structures such as refugee shelters, sheds, and other non-conditioned outdoor spaces.

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