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Kathy Marks, Asia-Pacific Correspondent for the U.K. journal The Independent along with Daniel Howden report that "A 'plastic soup' of waste floating in the Pacific Ocean is growing at an alarming rate and now covers an area twice the size of the continental United States, scientists have said.The vast expanse of debris – in effect the world's largest rubbish dump – is held in place by swirling underwater currents. This drifting 'soup' stretches from about 500 nautical miles off the Californian coast, across the northern Pacific, past Hawaii and almost as far as Japan."
Read the full story
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SABIC Innovative Plastics (formerly GE Plastics, Pittsfield Mass.) will host a free Sustainable design of durable products e-seminar Tuesday, February 12th (12pm est / 9am pdt). The seminar will provide an overview of market dynamics and trends behind the rising awareness & demand for considering a product's life cycle impacts beyond performance and cost. The featured speaker, Robert McKay Sustainable Polymers Project Manager for SABIC, will briefly discuss tools such as LCA, EPEAT, and LEED and introduce SABIC's up-cycled Valox iQ and Xenoy iQ PBT resins made from recycled PET along with concepts in natural fiber reinforement and biobased materials.
Click here to register
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The Earth's geographic poles are fairly stable, wobbling back and forth across the landscape only a few meters every year or so, reports Sid Perkins in a recent Science News Online article. The north and south magnetic poles are far more mobile. They move independently of one another. The north magnetic pole is moving northwest toward Siberia by about 50 km each year and now sits in the Arctic Ocean just north of Canada.
To read more about how the planet's wandering magnetic poles help reveal history of Earth and humans click here
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Earthrace, a futuristic-looking bio-diesel powered boat with a net zero carbon footprint, will attempt to break the round the world speed record running at a constant 20 knots rather than a super-fast top speed. The so called wave-piercing hull features a fine bow with minimal reserve buoyancy in the forward portions of the hull to minimize vertical motions. When a wave is encountered, the hull pierces through the water rather than riding over the top. The result is a dramatically smoother ride than traditional deep-V designs, minimizing stress on the vessel as well as the crew.
To read more click here or Check out the Reuters video and Stuart McDill's interview with Earthrace's Pete Bethune.
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From the audible innovation magazine of BASF Corp. is an MP3 podcast titled: Cooler surfaces with special pigments. One of many MP3 files in BASF's Chemisty of Innovations series. It describes color pigments that absorb infrared radiation, but lets the color spectrum reflect back. This lets even the deepest black surfaces cut solar heat buildup due to incident sunlight in half. To listen to the podcast click here. Other podcasts in the series include:
Fuel Cell - the next generation of power
World's longest railway tunnel thanks to construction chemicals
OLEDs -- Organic light emitting diodes are the light of the future
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Engineering plastics continue to evolve. So it wouldn't be unreasonable to assume that designers new to the field of engineering or those looking to convert a metal part to plastic probably need some help answering a few questions about What can plastics do.
DuPont recently added a series of articles including Choosing the right plastic for the job to its library of on-line documentation. The articles are not restricted to consideration of DuPont’s range of engineering plastics; they provide information
about engineering plastics in general. They are free of charge and accessible to everyone, not just DuPont customers.
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Corning Inc. solved an historic technical challenge for
telecommunications carriers installing fiber-to-the-home networks. Corning's breakthrough is based on a nanoStructures optical fiber design
that lets the cabled fiber bend around tight corners with virtually
no signal loss. According to Peter F. Volanakis, president and chief operating officer at Corning, "We
have developed an optical fiber cable that is as rugged as copper cable but with
all of the bandwidth benefits of fiber. By making fundamental changes in the way
light travels in the fiber, we were able to create a new optical fiber that is
over 100 times more bendable than standard fibers." Corning's newest fiber
technology achieves this while maintaining compatibility with industry
performance standards, existing manufacturing processes and installation. To read more, check out the Forbes' article: Bend it like Corning
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This post is a continuation of my Materials Engineering library post archived here.
If you have any Handbooks, Design Guides, or other tutorial literature about materials and the processes used to form and shape them please add them to my list or pop me a note jhoffman@penton.com and I'll gladly add them for you.
Here's a list of two new Books:![]()
Effect of Temperature and other Factors on Plastics and Elastomers, 2nd Edition
Edited by Laurence W. McKeen
DuPont Teflon Finishes Group (former), Delaware, U.S.A.
The reference data book covers more than 70 plastics types and the chemistry of each type is summarized. Sections covering polymer chemistry, property measurement, ASTM and ISO testing procedure, as well as polymer selection, provide a basis for understanding the data and how to use it. The inclusion of more than 1000 graphs and tables also allows for easy comparison of a wide variety of plastics products.
The second edition is an extensive upgrade from the original 1991 edition. Additional plastics families have been added, obsolete products have been removed and replaced, approximately two thirds of the graphs are new, and the tables have been completely revised and contain extensive additional data.
ISBN: 978-0-8155-1568-5
Price: $325
Go to William Andrew Publishing for more information.
Handbook of Thermoplastic Elastomers
Published by William Andrew Applied Science Publishers and authored by Jiri George Drobny this handbook is a practical reference that compiles the current working knowledge of chemistry, processing, physical and mechanical properties, as well as applications of thermoplastic elastomers. Chapters cover topics such as Additives, Processing Methods, Styrenic Block Copolymers, Thermoplastic Elastomers Prepared by Dynamic Vulcanization, Polyolefin-Based Thermoplastic Elastomers, Thermoplastic Elastomers Based on Halogen-Containing Polyolefins, Thermoplastic Polyurethane Elastomers, Thermoplastic Elastomers Based on Polyamides, Thermoplastic Polyether Ester Elastomers, Ionomeric Thermoplastic Elastomers, Other Thermoplastic Elastomers, and Thermoplastic Elastomers Based On Recycled Rubber and Plastics.
A significant part of the book is dedicated to processing methods, applications, and material data sheets. Chapters on processing methods and applications are enhanced with ample illustrations. Each chapter includes a comprehensive list of references for a more in-depth study. Other features are a list of current suppliers, ISO nomenclature, an extensive bibliography, a list of recent patents and a glossary of terms. The work is concluded by a chapter on newest developments and trends.
ISBN: 978-0-8155-1549-4
Price: $295.00
Go to William Andrew Publishing for more information.
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The Mineralogical Society of America has a rockin Web site for students. There you can learn about mineral groups, their properties, and crystal structures. If you have a rocky question, there's an "Ask a minerologist" tab who'll give you the anwer and don't forget to checkout the games tab too. Visit them here.
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A recent paper titled High-performance plastics for sensors and actuators under the hood by Laurent Zielezinski, DuPont Engineering Polymers, Germany, is now online. The author gives some insights on cost-effective solutions for the encapsulation and mounting of sensors and actuators in the engine compartment. Visit
http://plastics.dupont.com/plastics/pdflit/americas/design/dupont_vdi_article.pdf to read more.
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This new blog is a continuation of a blog archived here. It is dedicated to the field of Materials Engineering. My goal is to provide links to technical articles and news that will help introduce new materials and processes. For example, a recent article titled Toughness Index for Alloy Comparisons written by Paul M. Novotny of Carpenter Technology, (www.cartech.com) discusses a new overall “Toughness Index” that combines three measures of toughness into a single parameter that can graphically compare alloys. An overall Toughness Index, says, Novotny, can provide important insights during the materials selection process
Click here to read more.
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