Archive for the ‘plastic’ tag
Bomb-proof litter bins to help keep Britain streets clean - safely
Designed to withstand the force of a bomb blast, the Renew bin could provide a solution to security concerns, help increase recycling and keep computers up to date with breaking news, weather and delays on the tube.
During the five-year design and testing period, prototypes of the Renew bin, which costs £15,000 to produce and £3,000 to install, were blown up in the New Mexico desert.
The plastic surround is made from recycled materials and has an LCD screen on which news, weather and sports reports can be shown. Each unit is big enough to contain a typical household wheelie bin - making it easy for binmen to collect and empty.
Read more on: Civil, Design, LCD, plastic, prototypeAward-winning automotive coating system
An emission-free and environmentally sustainable automotive coating system has been developed by Australia’s CSIRO and Dulux Powder Coatings.
The Australian automotive industry uses about 10 million litres of liquid paint a year to coat the surfaces of new vehicles, including putting decorative finishes on plastic components, however, traditional wet paints have disadvantages. They do not have a high rate of spray transfer onto plastic parts – around 70 per cent is lost as waste, and contain solvents that release volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) to the atmosphere.
The goal of the project was to overcome a long-term sustainability issue for the automotive, plastics and furniture industries by replacing wet paint finishes on heat-sensitive substances, such as plastic components, with zero-waste powder coating technology.
Read more on: Automotive, coating, plastic, vehicleLight powered plastic motor
A plastic motor powered completely by light has been developed by the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
Unlike solar-powered motors that use photovoltaic cells to convert light to electric power (this also requires wires and batteries to deliver and store the power), this motor converts light directly into mechanical energy using a belt made of a special elastomer, with a molecular structure that expands or contracts when illuminated, depending on the wavelength of light.
Tomiki Ikeda, leader of the research team at Tokyo Institute of Technology, discovered a plastic compound containing azobenzene would contract when exposed to ultraviolet light, and resume its original shape when exposed to visible light.
Since this discovery in 2003, Ikeda and his team have been working on improving the shape-shifting properties of the material, and have been looking at ways to incorporate the material in a motor to convert light directly into motion.
Read more on: Design, light, material, motors, plasticA window of opportunity for solar energy
An innovative way of capturing energy from the sun could increase the amount of power generated by solar panels.
The concept devised by engineers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), centres on a ‘solar concentrator’. The solar concentrator evolved from a similar idea developed in the 70’s that involved impregnating dyes in plastic. The idea was abandoned because, among other things, not enough of the collected light could reach the edges of the concentrator. The MIT engineers decided to apply this technique to its solar concentrator.
The MIT solar concentrator comprises a mixture of two or more dyes in specific ratios, which is painted onto the surface of a pane of glass or plastic. The dyes work together to absorb light across a range of wavelengths, which is the re-emitted at a different wavelength and transported across the pane to waiting solar cells.
Read more on: Design, Electronics, Energy, glass, plastic, solar cells, solar panelsVirtually waterless washing
Researchers at the University of Leeds have developed a new way of cleaning clothes using less than two per cent of the water and energy of a conventional washing machine.
The ‘virtually waterless’ washing system is based on the use of plastic granules (or chips) which are tumbled with the clothes to remove stains. A range of tests, carried out according to industry protocols to prove the technology performs to the standards expected in the cleaning industry, show the process can remove virtually all types of everyday stains as effectively as existing processes, whilst leaving clothes as fresh as normal washing. In addition, the clothes emerge from the process almost dry, reducing the need for tumble-dryers.
Read more on: Design, Energy, plasticPrototype reproduces itself
Using an ‘additive fabrication’ technique, a lecturer from the University of Bath has created an open-source machine that ‘prints’ three dimensional objects.
RepRap, short for replicating rapid-prototyper, works a bit like a printer, but rather than squirting ink onto paper, it puts down thin layers of molten plastic which solidify. These layers are built up to make useful 3D objects. So far the machine has produced everyday plastic goods such as door handles, sandals and coat hooks, and has also succeeded in copying all its own 3D-printed parts. These parts have been printed and assembled by RepRap team member, Vik Olliver, in Auckland, New Zealand, into a new RepRap machine that can replicate the same set of parts for yet another RepRap machine and so on ad infinitum. While 3D printers have been available commercially for about 25 years, RepRap is the first that can essentially print itself.
Read more on: Design, plastic, prototyping, rapid-prototyper, Robotics