THE last time her family see her, she turns on the doorstep and says "Bye, Mum, see you later." It is about 8.20am on a Thursday, six months ago tomorrow.
She crosses the street to the footpath and heads towards high school, a few minutes' walk.
Two doors down, a neighbour glances through his living room window and glimpses her: a 13-year-old girl in a blue and white uniform and blue rain jacket, carrying a dark backpack.
She moves from right to left across his vision - for about three seconds, he later calculates.
Then she vanishes.
Whoever sees her next, you'd think, is the only person who knows what happened to her, and why. The only one who knows if she is alive or dead.
Her family call her Bung, a short name standing in for the one on her passport, Siriyakorn Siriboon. She is a good girl: diligent, punctual, polite, never wags school.
People trust her, so when she doesn't turn up in her year 7 class that June morning, everyone assumes she has stayed home because of illness. It's the first week of winter, what teachers call "flu season", when kids wake up feeling awful and can hardly drag themselves out of bed.
If Bung were a troubled child, a repeat truant, teachers might suspect she is off on an escapade of her own. But she is none of those things, so no one worries until later.
At 3.30pm her mother, Vanidda Pattison, realises her daughter isn't home at the usual time. She calls her name from the kitchen, wonders why there's no answer.
About 4pm, the telephone rings. Bung's stepfather, Fred Pattison, answers. It's Dyamai, Bung's school friend. She asks to talk to Bung about what to wear to football practice next day.
It's the first Fred has heard that Bung wants to play football, as well as training for athletics and the school's rock eisteddfod.
"Why didn't you talk to her at school?" he asks, puzzled.
The girl hesitates. Bung wasn't at school, she says.
That's how the torment starts. First they go to the school, Boronia Heights Secondary College. The principal, Kate Harnetty, is still in her office, working late.
Harnetty has seen Fred Pattison at school functions and noticed he is calm and polite, and shows more interest in his stepdaughter's progress and behaviour - both good - than many fathers do.
She doesn't know his wife as well because Vanidda, only four years out of Thailand, isn't confident speaking English with strangers.
The Pattisons try not to panic. They look in the school library to make sure Bung isn't there. The principal checks the year 7 roll then finds a teacher who confirms Bung hasn't been in class.
That's when Kate Harnetty knows they have reason to worry. Bung doesn't "fit the mould" of kids who play truant or run away from home, as she later recalls. "She's just a sweet little girl. It was out of character."
She urges them to go straight to the police.
Minutes later, Fred Pattison walks into the police station in Dorset Rd. On the wall in the waiting area is a poster that says: When someone goes missing a day spent waiting is a day lost.
It's true enough but truth does not always equal reality in police work. The reality is that more than 35,000 people go missing in Australia every year, and more than half of them are under 18. The overwhelming majority turn up safely in hours, days or weeks.
But it's almost impossible to guess which tiny proportion of missing person reports could turn into something more sinister.
The policewoman who appears from behind the one-way mirror is polite and sympathetic but has no reason to think the report is different from the many that come to nothing.
In any case, the search has to start close to home, with friends and family that parents can reach quicker than the police can.
Fred has been up all day doing chores after night shift as a fitter in a Scoresby confectionery factory. Normally, he would take a nap and go to work. Instead, he calls his boss to say he won't be in.
In fact, it turns out he will not be back for a month.
Fred and Vanidda stay up all night. First, they visit Bung's friend Dyamai to get the names and telephone numbers of Bung's other friends. They call or visit each one.
Every blank they draw deepens their fear - and sends widening ripples of alarm. Late-night phone calls between other parents, school friends and teachers draw more people into the puzzle but no one knows the answer.
By 8am the Pattisons are back at the school, distraught, waiting to talk to the one classmate they missed overnight, but the girl knows nothing.
Kate Harnetty sees the overnight change in the couple: the hollow eyes and anguished faces. She urges them to go back to the police.
As soon as they leave, she calls the station to make sure they are taken seriously. With Fred Pattison's full-arm tattoo, cropped hair and tiny plait, she knows he looks "a bit like a merchant seaman" and fears he and Vanidda might be dismissed as trouble-prone time wasters.
As Pattison says later, he "hassles the police a bit" that morning. At that point it's still not unreasonable to suspect that Bung has run off with someone, and is now nervous about coming home.
Her parents are desperate to believe this, but too fearful to wait and do nothing. They make up simple posters: a snapshot of a smiling Bung in school uniform.
One of Fred's workmates helps put up the posters all over the district, first on power poles along the route Bung walked to school, then further away, in shops, bus stops and railway stations.
About 2pm, Knox Leader trainee reporter Erin Michael is buying a coffee in the Boronia Mall when she sees Fred Pattison taping up a poster. She introduces herself.
"He seemed quite vague and shocked," she would recall. "He came over to the office. He was pretty emotional." Half an hour later she puts the story online. That night, the Herald Sun picks it up. So as day two ends, the mystery is public - but deepening.
With every hour, the Pattisons grow more fearful. They put up posters all weekend.
By Monday, June 6, Knox detectives are on the case. A police spokesman concedes they have not "ruled out abduction". It's the first time the spectre of kidnapping is officially raised.
Inevitably, there are false leads and false hopes. On Tuesday, June 7, the trail is muddied when a schoolboy reports he saw Bung in Chandler Rd after school on the day she disappeared.
It turns out to be another Asian girl in school uniform. A security guard thinks he saw Bung at the railway station. He is wrong, too.
On Thursday, June 9, police set up an "information caravan" along the route Bung usually walked to school. People trickle in to talk. There is speculation but not much information. Nothing leads anywhere.
Detectives need a door to knock on, a car to trace. At the end of the first week they have neither. Twenty-five weeks later, they still haven't.
IT is just after 8.20am on a recent Thursday, much the same as the morning Bung walked out the door of the little house halfway along Elsie St. This is where suburbia meets the bush.
Cockatoos, magpies, crows and parrots squabble in the trees that fill the big post-war house blocks next to the Dandenongs. It's more Neighbours territory than the place for a horror story.
In the cream brick veneer at No.55, Vanidda Pattison is packing. Months of waiting for the news she dreads have taken a toll, though she tries to mask unspeakable fears with animated conversation, smiles and laughs.
She stays busy, but when she stops for a photographer to take a picture, the camera does not lie. Frozen in every frame, her eyes are full of pain.
Reliving the moment she realised Bung hadn't got to school that day, she holds her face in her hands. A policewoman, herself a mother, puts her arm around Vanidda as she talks of the last time she saw her girl.
When Fred got home from nightshift about 7.30am that Thursday, Vanidda was cooking chicken curry soup and rice for breakfast. "Bung had that breakfast," explains Vanidda. "Then she took some for lunch. The canteen is not nice for her."
They almost always refer to her in the present tense and cling to the belief she is alive, somewhere, somehow. It's a way to cope with a loss beyond words.
Vanidda is small, wiry from a lifetime's hard work and the simple diet she has followed most of her 42 years. She grew up in Ubon Ratchathani province in northeast Thailand. Her first marriage ended when her two girls were small, and her parents helped raise them while she worked. Now she is going home to see her mother and father.
She and Fred own a house in Thailand and were intending to move there after Bung finished school. Now everything is on hold.
Stacked on the couch are gifts for her family and the Buddhist temple in their home town. Early on the day Bung went missing, Vanidda and Fred had gone to the Bunnings store in Bayswater to buy roofing screws and sensor lights to donate to the temple. They believe in karma. Faith helps them get through each cruel day.
Vanidda met Fred in Melbourne when she was on holiday seven years ago. He spoke passable Thai, having spent a year there on long-service leave and studying the language at home.
His interest in Buddhism grew from his dedication to sado karate, which he took up at 15 and has practised ever since.
He admires the Thai work ethic and family values. Vanidda - he calls her "Nid" for short - "is a hard worker", he says. "It's a cultural thing. A good thing."
Together they have transformed the garden of the house they bought from an old couple four years ago. They also pounded the streets "letter boxing" retail catalogues together to earn extra money and keep fit.
Pattison understands self-reliance and hard work. He grew up in a battling family of nine around Queenscliff and Portarlington, then moved to Melbourne as an apprentice fitter at Carlton United Breweries, aged 17.
He still barracks for Geelong; Cats premiership posters are taped next to the front door but he's not had much appetite for footy since June 2.
It's the same with the fishing boat in the yard. He bought it last year but has never used it. He is holding down his job, thanks to an understanding employer, but the rest of his time is devoted to holding the family together, including Bung's big sister, Siriporn, now 20, a student at Swinburne.
Pattison is calm and self-possessed. He doesn't swear or bluster to mask his anguish, and he looks people in the eye. It's clear why investigators soon decided he had nothing to do with his step-daughter's disappearance.
He bears no grudges that detectives questioned them so closely. That is how it goes when someone vanishes. Family members and friends have to be cleared first. Then neighbours and workmates, outwards in widening circles. But if that doesn't work, then what? That's the question the Puma Taskforce faces.
'What we've got," says an exasperated Detective Superintendent Brett Guerin, "is a big bag of fresh air."
Police are rarely so frank in public. But the dozen investigators recruited for the taskforce in October know what their boss means. This could be the toughest assignment of their careers.
Not only do they have no leads, they are starting behind scratch because of a false one.
On June 29, almost four weeks after Bung disappeared, a Boronia primary pupil was late for school. Asked why, she lied that a grey-haired man wearing a surgical mask had tried to force her into a green Holden station wagon.
Trapped in the lie, the girl did not confess for more than a week. The nonexistent kidnapper and his green Holden had been widely publicised because the supposed "victim" was also an Asian girl
and the scene was near where Bung lived.
The hoax overshadowed a genuine abduction attempt a week earlier. On June 21, a middle-aged man with greying hair and decayed teeth had tried to drag a 16-year-old schoolgirl into a blue sedan in Bedford Rd, Ringwood East.
Investigators don't want to pin their hopes on the Ringwood incident but they can't ignore the fact it happened only 10 minutes from Elsie St, less than three weeks after Bung disappeared.
When the man with the bad teeth and blue car is found, he will have the taskforce's undivided attention. Meanwhile, no one wants to say they are most likely looking for a killer. Even though the homicide squad is running the taskforce, and no matter how likely abduction and murder might seem, investigators must keep an open mind.
Without leads, they have to consider all possibilities - even the faint one that Bung left voluntarily, which would mean no crime was committed. It's true some teenagers stage their disappearance but they almost always have reasons to leave home and not return. The investigators are sure none of those usual sordid reasons applies.
Bung was happy at home and school. Her behaviour was good, her attitude consistent and did not change in the days or weeks before she disappeared.
One by one, the taskforce has crossed off theories.
Bung had Facebook friends, just as several million others do. Police have combed the family's computers but found nothing to show she struck up contact with anyone outside her own group.
She left her mobile phone home the day she disappeared but investigators soon worked out that was not unusual.
She had wanted to go to school earlier than usual one day, but police found she had wanted to meet her friend Dyamai, not anyone suspicious.
They are left with a likely scenario that she was lured or forced into a car without being seen. If that did happen, no one wants to speculate on what happened next. But murder isn't an automatic assumption. There have been well publicised cases overseas of girls being abducted and imprisoned, some for years. A copycat crime can't be ruled out.
Neither can police rule out the possibility Bung was abducted by human traffickers to use or sell into what police call "sexual servitude". They checked eastern suburbs brothels after a tip-off that a young Asian girl had been seen in one, and would do the same again. Thai nationals have been involved in sexual slavery scandals in Australia and a Thai speaker might have been able to lure Bung into a car.
2011年11月29日星期二
Huawei Vision
If you are familiar with Huawei, you probably know it as the brand that makes the cheap phones. Until now, the Huawei phones we've reviewed at CNET Australia have been all cheaply built plastic handsets, some of which we loved, but only because they are so ridiculously affordable.
The Vision breaks this mould with a much more attractive and sturdy design than previous Huawei handsets. The company opts for a unibody aluminium chassis for most of the phone's body, with a tri-tone battery cover like recent HTCs. Only the bottom third of this cover is removable, giving access to the 1400mAh battery, SIM slot and microSD card slot, pre-loaded with 2GB of memory.
However, Huawei's most improved smartphone element is its display, with the 3.7-inch screen on the Vision far outpacing the screens on any in its budget Ideos range of phones. This screen is more like one you'd expect from HTC or Samsung, with a WVGA resolution, good colour and decent off-axis viewing angles. Most impressive is the curved glass over the LCD panel. This curve bulges slightly from left to right, following the line of your thumb as you swipe between home screens. Huawei says it takes 17 hours to curve each piece of glass, which is an amazing titbit, resulting in a somewhat smoother touchscreen experience.
Keeping a smartphone to a price under AU$300 is remarkable when you consider the build quality described above, and even more so when you add a number of software costs into the equation. To give the Vision a first-class user experience, Huawei has licensed a number of third-party apps to enhance the phone's look and feel. Most notable is the SPB 3D launcher; a slick-looking home screen replacement that sits on top of Android. With SPB 3D, you get seven customisable home screens, plus a bunch of great-looking widgets. It's not quite as polished as HTC's Sense UI, but it is very close, and it has a number of similar elements to Sense, including great-looking weather presentation.
The onscreen-typing experience is also improved by an app called TouchPal, which features excellent early word prediction and some other really nifty typing features. If TouchPal or SPB 3D don't work for you, both are easy to switch off, leaving you with Google's default Android Gingerbread experience.
Powering the 3D home screens is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM. This chipset also includes an Adreno 205 graphics processor, which is evident when we ran the Neocore 3D benchmark with the Vision and saw a result of 59 frames per second — a score on par with most of this year's biggest releases.
The Snapdragon chipset is the same option taken by manufacturers for last year's favourite phones, including the Desire HD and this year's Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. Again, you can see how this processor stacks up in a comparison of benchmark results.
If there is one area where the Huawei Vision is not like its more expensive competition, it's in the quality of its 5-megapixel camera. This shooter is passable for spur-of-the-moment photos, but its autofocus is quite slow, and its colour reproduction skews the palette of most images towards being bluer than they naturally are. It is a fair bit better than cameras we've seen from Huawei in the past, but it's a good step short of the competition this year.
The Vision breaks this mould with a much more attractive and sturdy design than previous Huawei handsets. The company opts for a unibody aluminium chassis for most of the phone's body, with a tri-tone battery cover like recent HTCs. Only the bottom third of this cover is removable, giving access to the 1400mAh battery, SIM slot and microSD card slot, pre-loaded with 2GB of memory.
However, Huawei's most improved smartphone element is its display, with the 3.7-inch screen on the Vision far outpacing the screens on any in its budget Ideos range of phones. This screen is more like one you'd expect from HTC or Samsung, with a WVGA resolution, good colour and decent off-axis viewing angles. Most impressive is the curved glass over the LCD panel. This curve bulges slightly from left to right, following the line of your thumb as you swipe between home screens. Huawei says it takes 17 hours to curve each piece of glass, which is an amazing titbit, resulting in a somewhat smoother touchscreen experience.
Keeping a smartphone to a price under AU$300 is remarkable when you consider the build quality described above, and even more so when you add a number of software costs into the equation. To give the Vision a first-class user experience, Huawei has licensed a number of third-party apps to enhance the phone's look and feel. Most notable is the SPB 3D launcher; a slick-looking home screen replacement that sits on top of Android. With SPB 3D, you get seven customisable home screens, plus a bunch of great-looking widgets. It's not quite as polished as HTC's Sense UI, but it is very close, and it has a number of similar elements to Sense, including great-looking weather presentation.
The onscreen-typing experience is also improved by an app called TouchPal, which features excellent early word prediction and some other really nifty typing features. If TouchPal or SPB 3D don't work for you, both are easy to switch off, leaving you with Google's default Android Gingerbread experience.
Powering the 3D home screens is a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and 512MB of RAM. This chipset also includes an Adreno 205 graphics processor, which is evident when we ran the Neocore 3D benchmark with the Vision and saw a result of 59 frames per second — a score on par with most of this year's biggest releases.
The Snapdragon chipset is the same option taken by manufacturers for last year's favourite phones, including the Desire HD and this year's Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. Again, you can see how this processor stacks up in a comparison of benchmark results.
If there is one area where the Huawei Vision is not like its more expensive competition, it's in the quality of its 5-megapixel camera. This shooter is passable for spur-of-the-moment photos, but its autofocus is quite slow, and its colour reproduction skews the palette of most images towards being bluer than they naturally are. It is a fair bit better than cameras we've seen from Huawei in the past, but it's a good step short of the competition this year.
2011年11月28日星期一
Now is the best time to plant, but be sure to pick the right type
If you're looking for a plant to provide privacy from neighbours, act as a focal point or add vertical interest, then snap up a tree - those planted now will establish quickly in moist soil, forming roots that will enable them to romp away in spring.
There are masses of trees on offer at garden centres and nurseries at this time of year. Many will be sold as container-grown specimens, but you'll also find bare-root trees. Generally cheaper to buy, these trees are two to three-year-old plants grown in a field and lifted for sale while dormant.
Yet choosing the perfect tree can be tricky. Many are one-season wonders that you'll soon tire of as they do little to earn their keep during the rest of the year.
But among those worth growing are crab apples - this large tribe of small trees, known botanically as malus, boast glorious scented blossom in spring and branches laden with showy fruit during autumn and winter.
Malus 'John Downie' has white flowers followed by orange fruit, while M. x zumi var. calocarpa 'Golden Hornet' is blessed with pink blossom and tiny yellow apples. M. tschonoskii has white flowers and chartreuse fruit, and its leaves turn yellow, orange, purple and bright red in autumn.
Ornamental cherries are probably the most exuberant of spring-flowering trees, but many fail to turn heads once the blossom starts to fade. Not Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra' - the clouds of pink flowers that form on bare branches are replaced by a cloak of purple foliage. Another winner is P. sargentii, a roundheaded tree with pink flowers, striking autumn colour and attractive bark.
There are many fantastic varieties of sorbus, which will reward you with flowers in spring, handsome foliage, jewel-like berries and fiery autumnal tints. Sorbus vilmorinii is desired for its white flowers, ferny foliage and pinkish berries, while S. 'Joseph Rock' has bright yellow berries and leaves that turn shades of orange, red and purple. My favourite is S. cashmiriana, a small tree with pink flowers, graceful foliage and pure white berries that remain on branches well into winter.
Other hard-working varieties include Pyrus calleryana 'Chantiguide cleer', a slender tree with white flowers and glowing autumn foliage, and Amelanchier lamarckii - apart from spring flowers and black fruit, its green leaves turn crimson later in the year.
Whichever sort of tree you choose, avoid planting too close to your home: some have roots that can disrupt foundations, damage drains or lead to subsidence. Willows, poplars, oaks and other vigorous species need planting up to 65ft from buildings, while a gap of 12ft to 23ft is fine for smaller specimens. A useful to planting distances can be found at www.subsidencebureau.com, but as a general rule, roots cover a distance that's equal to twoand-a-half times the mature height of the tree.
Planting a container-grown tree in the ground does not take long but it's essential to do it correctly or it may fail to establish. Start by preparing the site. Skim off any weeds with a hoe, then dig a round hole that's about twice the diameter of the container and the same depth.
Spike the sides and bottom of the hole with a garden fork to allow roots to penetrate easily. Stand the tree in a bucket of water for a few minutes to ensure roots are damp, then slide off the container and tease out roots from the side and bottom. Place the tree in the centre of the hole and backfill with the excavated soil, firming it down with your hands to remove air pockets.
Bare root trees need planting at the same depth as they were growing before being lifted from the ground - there should be an obvious 'tide mark' of soil on the trunk.
After planting, give the soil a good soaking, then spread a 3in layer of bark, leaf mould or garden compost over the surface to lock in moisture and prevent weeds growing. Keep mulch clear of the trunk as contact can cause bark to soften and rot.
Any trees over 3ft will need shoring up. Use round or square tree stakes hammered into the ground vertically for bare root tree and stakes at 45 degrees for containergrown trees. Secure to the tree with plastic buckle ties.
Slow-growing or compact trees can be planted in large pots. First, cover the drainage holes in the base with bits of broken terracotta pot, then add a layer of soil-based John Innes No3 compost. Mix in some slow-release fertiliser granules. Place the tree in the pot and top up with more compost. Leave a 2in gap between the surface of the compost and the lip of the container to allow space for watering.
Keep compost moist and feed each spring. To do this, carefully scrape away loose compost from the surface and replace with fresh compost and a handful of fertiliser granules. Most trees will be happy in the same pot for up to five years but will eventually start to sulk when the roots run out of space. Pep them up by transferring to a slightly larger container.
There are masses of trees on offer at garden centres and nurseries at this time of year. Many will be sold as container-grown specimens, but you'll also find bare-root trees. Generally cheaper to buy, these trees are two to three-year-old plants grown in a field and lifted for sale while dormant.
Yet choosing the perfect tree can be tricky. Many are one-season wonders that you'll soon tire of as they do little to earn their keep during the rest of the year.
But among those worth growing are crab apples - this large tribe of small trees, known botanically as malus, boast glorious scented blossom in spring and branches laden with showy fruit during autumn and winter.
Malus 'John Downie' has white flowers followed by orange fruit, while M. x zumi var. calocarpa 'Golden Hornet' is blessed with pink blossom and tiny yellow apples. M. tschonoskii has white flowers and chartreuse fruit, and its leaves turn yellow, orange, purple and bright red in autumn.
Ornamental cherries are probably the most exuberant of spring-flowering trees, but many fail to turn heads once the blossom starts to fade. Not Prunus cerasifera 'Nigra' - the clouds of pink flowers that form on bare branches are replaced by a cloak of purple foliage. Another winner is P. sargentii, a roundheaded tree with pink flowers, striking autumn colour and attractive bark.
There are many fantastic varieties of sorbus, which will reward you with flowers in spring, handsome foliage, jewel-like berries and fiery autumnal tints. Sorbus vilmorinii is desired for its white flowers, ferny foliage and pinkish berries, while S. 'Joseph Rock' has bright yellow berries and leaves that turn shades of orange, red and purple. My favourite is S. cashmiriana, a small tree with pink flowers, graceful foliage and pure white berries that remain on branches well into winter.
Other hard-working varieties include Pyrus calleryana 'Chantiguide cleer', a slender tree with white flowers and glowing autumn foliage, and Amelanchier lamarckii - apart from spring flowers and black fruit, its green leaves turn crimson later in the year.
Whichever sort of tree you choose, avoid planting too close to your home: some have roots that can disrupt foundations, damage drains or lead to subsidence. Willows, poplars, oaks and other vigorous species need planting up to 65ft from buildings, while a gap of 12ft to 23ft is fine for smaller specimens. A useful to planting distances can be found at www.subsidencebureau.com, but as a general rule, roots cover a distance that's equal to twoand-a-half times the mature height of the tree.
Planting a container-grown tree in the ground does not take long but it's essential to do it correctly or it may fail to establish. Start by preparing the site. Skim off any weeds with a hoe, then dig a round hole that's about twice the diameter of the container and the same depth.
Spike the sides and bottom of the hole with a garden fork to allow roots to penetrate easily. Stand the tree in a bucket of water for a few minutes to ensure roots are damp, then slide off the container and tease out roots from the side and bottom. Place the tree in the centre of the hole and backfill with the excavated soil, firming it down with your hands to remove air pockets.
Bare root trees need planting at the same depth as they were growing before being lifted from the ground - there should be an obvious 'tide mark' of soil on the trunk.
After planting, give the soil a good soaking, then spread a 3in layer of bark, leaf mould or garden compost over the surface to lock in moisture and prevent weeds growing. Keep mulch clear of the trunk as contact can cause bark to soften and rot.
Any trees over 3ft will need shoring up. Use round or square tree stakes hammered into the ground vertically for bare root tree and stakes at 45 degrees for containergrown trees. Secure to the tree with plastic buckle ties.
Slow-growing or compact trees can be planted in large pots. First, cover the drainage holes in the base with bits of broken terracotta pot, then add a layer of soil-based John Innes No3 compost. Mix in some slow-release fertiliser granules. Place the tree in the pot and top up with more compost. Leave a 2in gap between the surface of the compost and the lip of the container to allow space for watering.
Keep compost moist and feed each spring. To do this, carefully scrape away loose compost from the surface and replace with fresh compost and a handful of fertiliser granules. Most trees will be happy in the same pot for up to five years but will eventually start to sulk when the roots run out of space. Pep them up by transferring to a slightly larger container.
2011年11月27日星期日
DPI takes EVA foam moulding into new areas
Injection moulder DPI, based in Geldrop, the Netherlands, has started moulding EVA foam, the very light material used in Crocs shoes.
DPI claims to be the first company in western Europe to process EVA material, aside from contract moulders producing shoes in Italy, Romania, Bosnia and Hercegovina for Crocs.
In September, DPI exhibited at the Kunststoffen 2011 fair in Veldhoven, and it held a technical event at its Geldrop facility in June to demonstrate the process to customers.
At these events, DPI showed the children's EVA cycle seats it is moulding for Dutch company GMG. The Yepp seats are available in a variety of bright colours.
EVA is suitable for these seats because it is waterproof, shock-absorbing, has a high insulating capacity and is easy to clean. EVA is about 70-80% lighter than traditional plastic products, but is also tough, UV resistant, flame retardant and easy to colour.
DPI has invested in KS series machinery from KingSteel Machinery in Taiwan to produce the seats for GMG.
It says EVA can be moulded for many consumer products, such as footwear, toys, bicycle saddles, bags and belts. The company can also mould products in smaller runs of about 500 to 1,000 items.
The temperature of the EVA compound in the injection unit is only 90C, while the mould temperature is 170C. This is necessary because the EVA compound contains two additives - a foaming agent and a crosslinking agent - which only react if the temperature is sufficiently high. So once it enters the mould, the higher temperature causes foaming and crosslinking of the EVA material. When the mould opens after injection and cooling, the EVA bubbles grow and the product expands by 170%.
The cycle time is longer than when injection moulding other plastics, and to address this DPI uses a mould with eight cavities located side by side. Two independent barrels are attached to the injection unit and cavities are filled in a sequence, increasing productivity.
DPI claims to be the first company in western Europe to process EVA material, aside from contract moulders producing shoes in Italy, Romania, Bosnia and Hercegovina for Crocs.
In September, DPI exhibited at the Kunststoffen 2011 fair in Veldhoven, and it held a technical event at its Geldrop facility in June to demonstrate the process to customers.
At these events, DPI showed the children's EVA cycle seats it is moulding for Dutch company GMG. The Yepp seats are available in a variety of bright colours.
EVA is suitable for these seats because it is waterproof, shock-absorbing, has a high insulating capacity and is easy to clean. EVA is about 70-80% lighter than traditional plastic products, but is also tough, UV resistant, flame retardant and easy to colour.
DPI has invested in KS series machinery from KingSteel Machinery in Taiwan to produce the seats for GMG.
It says EVA can be moulded for many consumer products, such as footwear, toys, bicycle saddles, bags and belts. The company can also mould products in smaller runs of about 500 to 1,000 items.
The temperature of the EVA compound in the injection unit is only 90C, while the mould temperature is 170C. This is necessary because the EVA compound contains two additives - a foaming agent and a crosslinking agent - which only react if the temperature is sufficiently high. So once it enters the mould, the higher temperature causes foaming and crosslinking of the EVA material. When the mould opens after injection and cooling, the EVA bubbles grow and the product expands by 170%.
The cycle time is longer than when injection moulding other plastics, and to address this DPI uses a mould with eight cavities located side by side. Two independent barrels are attached to the injection unit and cavities are filled in a sequence, increasing productivity.
2011年11月24日星期四
BFmold used for gloss flush panels
The use of BFmold variotherm mould technology has enabled bathroom fittings company Sanit, based in Eisenberg, Germany, to produce high-gloss plastic toilet flush panels. The panels are marketed as a lower-cost alternative to panels made in glass and other materials.
Sanit's range of on-wall flush panels are sleek with flat buttons, indicating the trend for flush panels to become design items in bathrooms. Sanit looked to produce a high standard of surface quality and it is now using BFmold technology supplied by injection moulding machinery maker Wittmann Battenfeld to achieve high quality mouldings. The process is supported by a Wittmann Tempro plus C160 Vario temperature controller.
At the ISH trade fair in March, Sanit showed a gloss black flush panel, the first time the company has produced a black panel.
BFmold was developed by Kunststoff Institut Ldenscheid, Germany, and last year Wittmann Battenfeld acquired exclusive distribution rights to the technology. BFmold is suited to flat moulded parts in materials such as ABS and ABS/PC blends. The BFMold technology uses metal balls beneath the mould surface providing a high level of free space required to create efficient conformal temperature control channels.
At Fakuma last month, Wittmann Battenfeld showed the BFmold technology moulding a coffee machine panel on a HM 110/350 Servopower Insider machine, with robot take-out and optical inspection.
Sanit's range of on-wall flush panels are sleek with flat buttons, indicating the trend for flush panels to become design items in bathrooms. Sanit looked to produce a high standard of surface quality and it is now using BFmold technology supplied by injection moulding machinery maker Wittmann Battenfeld to achieve high quality mouldings. The process is supported by a Wittmann Tempro plus C160 Vario temperature controller.
At the ISH trade fair in March, Sanit showed a gloss black flush panel, the first time the company has produced a black panel.
BFmold was developed by Kunststoff Institut Ldenscheid, Germany, and last year Wittmann Battenfeld acquired exclusive distribution rights to the technology. BFmold is suited to flat moulded parts in materials such as ABS and ABS/PC blends. The BFMold technology uses metal balls beneath the mould surface providing a high level of free space required to create efficient conformal temperature control channels.
At Fakuma last month, Wittmann Battenfeld showed the BFmold technology moulding a coffee machine panel on a HM 110/350 Servopower Insider machine, with robot take-out and optical inspection.
2011年11月23日星期三
A treasure trove of pleasures
It took two hands to wrap around the width, and the tip almost reached my eye level.
“Oh, I know, it’s massive isn’t it?” said a blonde woman standing beside me.
“I just like to put it on display in case people ask what the biggest size we have is.”
The 12.5 inch, very realistic-looking dildo sits on the counter of Fredericton’s downtown sex store, Pleasures N’ Treasures, if you ever want to take a peek.
Theresa Theriault, manager of the shop, says although she gets a fair amount of people coming in to try larger sex toys, she highly recommends the smaller “bullets” and “egg” vibrators for beginners.
The area with smaller vibrators is much more friendly looking than the wall of bigger ones, shaped like complicated plastic torpedoes.
The bullets come in every colour, and most are pocket sized and discreet looking enough to be confused for a large battery, if it ever manages to escape your purse or book-bag.
Smaller models like these are popular for those just starting to experiment with sex toys, because you can use them for clitoral or anal stimulation as well as in a vagina, so they work for every couple or gender.
“Every 16 year-old should be getting one of these on her birthday,” Theriault says as she taps the package of a purple bullet. “They’re great stress-relievers.”
The prices are also reasonable, starting around $17 for the cheapest and going up to $40 if you want one with a lot of power.
Couple toys are also popular, especially the small purple “We-Vibe,” which sex-expert Sue Johanson is known for praising.
“I always say it’s a “We-Vibe” and then if he’s gone, it’s a “Me-Vibe,” Theriault laughed.
Besides dildos and vibrators, Pleasures N’ Treasures has a little bit of everything X-rated to spice up your next sexual experience, whether solo or with a partner.
There’s a popular fetish section with hand cuffs and whips, and lots of hand-held vaginas. Some are physical moulds of famous porn stars’ lady-bits, so if sex with one of those actresses is a dream of yours, here’s a realistic way of doing it.
There’s also a product called “Clone A Willy”, which is very popular among army wives, said Theriault.
Is your man is heading off to war for months on end? Are you in a long-distance relationship, perhaps? You might want the familiar shape and width of your man, which you can have if you make a mould of it and create your own home-made sex toy.
If sensual, romantic massages and lingerie are more your thing, you can find great oils and lubricant for under 20 bucks a bottle, and there’re a whole section of the main room for corsets, garters and stockings as well as leather outfits for guys.
And of course, there’s porn. Lots and lots of porn. The whole back room is filled with racks of erotic films, and it’s just one dollar a rental for two nights.
Most importantly, no matter how nervous and giggly you think you might be about dropping in, by the time you leave the store you’ll be feeling happy and comfortable, thanks to the friendly people working there.
Theriault says she makes it a priority for her and her staff to approach everyone who walks in, and make them feel at ease by joking around or offering advice. “I really just love helping people,” Theriault said, “It’s just about easing the stresses of everyday life, because we can just get too uptight sometimes.”
“Oh, I know, it’s massive isn’t it?” said a blonde woman standing beside me.
“I just like to put it on display in case people ask what the biggest size we have is.”
The 12.5 inch, very realistic-looking dildo sits on the counter of Fredericton’s downtown sex store, Pleasures N’ Treasures, if you ever want to take a peek.
Theresa Theriault, manager of the shop, says although she gets a fair amount of people coming in to try larger sex toys, she highly recommends the smaller “bullets” and “egg” vibrators for beginners.
The area with smaller vibrators is much more friendly looking than the wall of bigger ones, shaped like complicated plastic torpedoes.
The bullets come in every colour, and most are pocket sized and discreet looking enough to be confused for a large battery, if it ever manages to escape your purse or book-bag.
Smaller models like these are popular for those just starting to experiment with sex toys, because you can use them for clitoral or anal stimulation as well as in a vagina, so they work for every couple or gender.
“Every 16 year-old should be getting one of these on her birthday,” Theriault says as she taps the package of a purple bullet. “They’re great stress-relievers.”
The prices are also reasonable, starting around $17 for the cheapest and going up to $40 if you want one with a lot of power.
Couple toys are also popular, especially the small purple “We-Vibe,” which sex-expert Sue Johanson is known for praising.
“I always say it’s a “We-Vibe” and then if he’s gone, it’s a “Me-Vibe,” Theriault laughed.
Besides dildos and vibrators, Pleasures N’ Treasures has a little bit of everything X-rated to spice up your next sexual experience, whether solo or with a partner.
There’s a popular fetish section with hand cuffs and whips, and lots of hand-held vaginas. Some are physical moulds of famous porn stars’ lady-bits, so if sex with one of those actresses is a dream of yours, here’s a realistic way of doing it.
There’s also a product called “Clone A Willy”, which is very popular among army wives, said Theriault.
Is your man is heading off to war for months on end? Are you in a long-distance relationship, perhaps? You might want the familiar shape and width of your man, which you can have if you make a mould of it and create your own home-made sex toy.
If sensual, romantic massages and lingerie are more your thing, you can find great oils and lubricant for under 20 bucks a bottle, and there’re a whole section of the main room for corsets, garters and stockings as well as leather outfits for guys.
And of course, there’s porn. Lots and lots of porn. The whole back room is filled with racks of erotic films, and it’s just one dollar a rental for two nights.
Most importantly, no matter how nervous and giggly you think you might be about dropping in, by the time you leave the store you’ll be feeling happy and comfortable, thanks to the friendly people working there.
Theriault says she makes it a priority for her and her staff to approach everyone who walks in, and make them feel at ease by joking around or offering advice. “I really just love helping people,” Theriault said, “It’s just about easing the stresses of everyday life, because we can just get too uptight sometimes.”
2011年11月22日星期二
DPI takes EVA foam moulding into new areas
Injection moulder DPI, based in Geldrop, the Netherlands, has started moulding EVA foam, the very light material used in Crocs shoes.
DPI claims to be the first company in western Europe to process EVA material, aside from contract moulders producing shoes in Italy, Romania, Bosnia and Hercegovina for Crocs.
In September, DPI exhibited at the Kunststoffen 2011 fair in Veldhoven, and it held a technical event at its Geldrop facility in June to demonstrate the process to customers.
At these events, DPI showed the children's EVA cycle seats it is moulding for Dutch company GMG. The Yepp seats are available in a variety of bright colours.
EVA is suitable for these seats because it is waterproof, shock-absorbing, has a high insulating capacity and is easy to clean. EVA is about 70-80% lighter than traditional plastic products, but is also tough, UV resistant, flame retardant and easy to colour.
DPI has invested in KS series machinery from KingSteel Machinery in Taiwan to produce the seats for GMG.
It says EVA can be moulded for many consumer products, such as footwear, toys, bicycle saddles, bags and belts. The company can also mould products in smaller runs of about 500 to 1,000 items.
The temperature of the EVA compound in the injection unit is only 90C, while the mould temperature is 170C. This is necessary because the EVA compound contains two additives - a foaming agent and a crosslinking agent - which only react if the temperature is sufficiently high. So once it enters the mould, the higher temperature causes foaming and crosslinking of the EVA material. When the mould opens after injection and cooling, the EVA bubbles grow and the product expands by 170%.
The cycle time is longer than when injection moulding other plastics, and to address this DPI uses a mould with eight cavities located side by side. Two independent barrels are attached to the injection unit and cavities are filled in a sequence, increasing productivity.
DPI claims to be the first company in western Europe to process EVA material, aside from contract moulders producing shoes in Italy, Romania, Bosnia and Hercegovina for Crocs.
In September, DPI exhibited at the Kunststoffen 2011 fair in Veldhoven, and it held a technical event at its Geldrop facility in June to demonstrate the process to customers.
At these events, DPI showed the children's EVA cycle seats it is moulding for Dutch company GMG. The Yepp seats are available in a variety of bright colours.
EVA is suitable for these seats because it is waterproof, shock-absorbing, has a high insulating capacity and is easy to clean. EVA is about 70-80% lighter than traditional plastic products, but is also tough, UV resistant, flame retardant and easy to colour.
DPI has invested in KS series machinery from KingSteel Machinery in Taiwan to produce the seats for GMG.
It says EVA can be moulded for many consumer products, such as footwear, toys, bicycle saddles, bags and belts. The company can also mould products in smaller runs of about 500 to 1,000 items.
The temperature of the EVA compound in the injection unit is only 90C, while the mould temperature is 170C. This is necessary because the EVA compound contains two additives - a foaming agent and a crosslinking agent - which only react if the temperature is sufficiently high. So once it enters the mould, the higher temperature causes foaming and crosslinking of the EVA material. When the mould opens after injection and cooling, the EVA bubbles grow and the product expands by 170%.
The cycle time is longer than when injection moulding other plastics, and to address this DPI uses a mould with eight cavities located side by side. Two independent barrels are attached to the injection unit and cavities are filled in a sequence, increasing productivity.
2011年11月21日星期一
BMW orders KraussMaffei machines
KraussMaffei says that BMW will use these machines to support series production and develop turnkey process solutions.They will be used to produce and finish components made of thermoplastics and reactive resins for the interior and exterior, as well as for load-bearing structures.
Parts for the vehicle body will be produced on nine high pressure resin-transfer moulding (RTM) machines at the BMW plants in Landshut and Leipzig, Germany.
According to KraussMaffei, these machines have high filling pressures for maximum fibre wetting and self-cleaning mixing heads. They ensure a highly automated production process with great potential for shortening the cycle time. Post-mould finishing of the components is carried out based on trimming systems and the material supply system is also part of the order.
At Landshut, carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) components are being made for the BMW i3 electric vehicle scheduled for launch in 2013.
As part of the order, the BMW plant in Wackersdorf will acquire another large MX 4000-24500 injection moulding machine to produce stable mould carriers for the instrument panel in the 1 and 3 Series using the 'injection moulding structural foam' process. In this process components are produced with a compact outer skin and a foam structure inside. Two integrated industrial robots from KraussMaffei perform the necessary assembly and follow-up steps.
At the BMW plant in Leipzig two 4000 tonne MX 4000-17200/12000/750 WL double swivel-plate machines will produce components with an outer skin and a thermoplastic substructure. In this case the outer skin and substructure will each first be separately injection moulded, joined together as the two swivel plates rotate and tightly connected with a third plastic component.
Parts for the vehicle body will be produced on nine high pressure resin-transfer moulding (RTM) machines at the BMW plants in Landshut and Leipzig, Germany.
According to KraussMaffei, these machines have high filling pressures for maximum fibre wetting and self-cleaning mixing heads. They ensure a highly automated production process with great potential for shortening the cycle time. Post-mould finishing of the components is carried out based on trimming systems and the material supply system is also part of the order.
At Landshut, carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) components are being made for the BMW i3 electric vehicle scheduled for launch in 2013.
As part of the order, the BMW plant in Wackersdorf will acquire another large MX 4000-24500 injection moulding machine to produce stable mould carriers for the instrument panel in the 1 and 3 Series using the 'injection moulding structural foam' process. In this process components are produced with a compact outer skin and a foam structure inside. Two integrated industrial robots from KraussMaffei perform the necessary assembly and follow-up steps.
At the BMW plant in Leipzig two 4000 tonne MX 4000-17200/12000/750 WL double swivel-plate machines will produce components with an outer skin and a thermoplastic substructure. In this case the outer skin and substructure will each first be separately injection moulded, joined together as the two swivel plates rotate and tightly connected with a third plastic component.
2011年11月20日星期日
Pmold Industrial Limited
Pmolds company established in 1998 in Shenzhen of Guangdong, China.We specialize in different kinds of high-quality plastic mold and related injection molding services, always provide the most cost effective way of design & manufacturing to meet customer’s individual requirements. Pmolds is an excellent plastic mould supplier in the line, we clearly understand what lead time, quality and price mean to our customers.
Our company focus on manufacturing plastic mould, plastic injection and assembly. Our aim at producing moulds with precision, complexity, various size and longer service life. Pmolds engineers are experienced in working with technical requirements of American & Germany customers. Our customers have the benefits of speaking directly to our Project Manager in English fluently.
Pmolds has established a complete follow-up service system to ensure quality service to our customers. We hope to be accepted & satisfied by customers through our continuously mature marketing network and improved after service.
Building precision plastic injection molds for our global customers continues to be PMold's core business. Employing over 100 skillful engineers and workers, PMold delivers over 400 top quality molds a year to many of the world's best companies. The ability to produce mold at the highest international standard, strong engineering and design capability, fluent English communication skill, aggressive lead times, competitive pricing and business integrity continues to be the success factor of PMold.
Our company focus on manufacturing plastic mould, plastic injection and assembly. Our aim at producing moulds with precision, complexity, various size and longer service life. Pmolds engineers are experienced in working with technical requirements of American & Germany customers. Our customers have the benefits of speaking directly to our Project Manager in English fluently.
Pmolds has established a complete follow-up service system to ensure quality service to our customers. We hope to be accepted & satisfied by customers through our continuously mature marketing network and improved after service.
Building precision plastic injection molds for our global customers continues to be PMold's core business. Employing over 100 skillful engineers and workers, PMold delivers over 400 top quality molds a year to many of the world's best companies. The ability to produce mold at the highest international standard, strong engineering and design capability, fluent English communication skill, aggressive lead times, competitive pricing and business integrity continues to be the success factor of PMold.
2011年11月17日星期四
French scientists invent tough plastic
French researchers have designed a polymer that can be heated and reshaped, and yet remains as strong as well-known industrial plastics.
The new polymer is unusual as it can be repeatedly processed at high temperatures; 'it can even be ground up and recycled into a new shape while retaining the mechanical properties of the original material,' according to the study, which was released on Thursday in the US journal Science.
Complex shapes can be easily made without resort to a mould, and, since the material will not melt, precision heat tools are not necessary and a hot air blower is sufficient, said the study.
Once further developed, the material could find uses in aircraft and car parts, construction, electronics and sports equipment.
Until now, synthetic polymers have been divided into two classes: thermoplastics that can be melted and remoulded, and thermosets that are processed into liquid, chemically infused and moulded into a permanent shape.
The latter are the strongest and most stable, particularly at high temperatures, and are often used in aircraft. But they cannot be broken down again and reshaped.
The material created by Damien Montarnal and colleagues at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris is as strong as a thermoset but can be repeatedly manipulated into different forms.
'It can even be ground up and recycled into a new shape while retaining the mechanical properties of the original material,' said the study.
The material has not yet reached mass production, but researchers said the process for making it could be 'readily scaled up for applications and generalised to other chemistries.'
The new polymer is unusual as it can be repeatedly processed at high temperatures; 'it can even be ground up and recycled into a new shape while retaining the mechanical properties of the original material,' according to the study, which was released on Thursday in the US journal Science.
Complex shapes can be easily made without resort to a mould, and, since the material will not melt, precision heat tools are not necessary and a hot air blower is sufficient, said the study.
Once further developed, the material could find uses in aircraft and car parts, construction, electronics and sports equipment.
Until now, synthetic polymers have been divided into two classes: thermoplastics that can be melted and remoulded, and thermosets that are processed into liquid, chemically infused and moulded into a permanent shape.
The latter are the strongest and most stable, particularly at high temperatures, and are often used in aircraft. But they cannot be broken down again and reshaped.
The material created by Damien Montarnal and colleagues at the Ecole Superieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles in Paris is as strong as a thermoset but can be repeatedly manipulated into different forms.
'It can even be ground up and recycled into a new shape while retaining the mechanical properties of the original material,' said the study.
The material has not yet reached mass production, but researchers said the process for making it could be 'readily scaled up for applications and generalised to other chemistries.'
2011年11月16日星期三
Poland’s Boryszew bids for supplier to Rolls Royce and Bentley
Acquisitive Polish industrial group Boryszew continues to grow its automotive components business, staking a claim to the production assets of another insolvent German parts supplier, Ymos.
Boryszew has made a binding offer to purchase the German and Polish plants of Idar-Oberstein-based Ymos. It is a leading manufacturer of plastic, galvanised and chrome-plated car door system components for handles, hinge and locking systems.
Ymos also makes other metal and plastic auto parts. Its main customers include VW, Audi, Daimler, Bentley and Rolls Royce. The firm recorded 2010 revenues of around 80m but went into bankruptcy in August 2011.
Boryszew is one of three bidders for the Ymos assets which it believes will contribute to its continued rise to become a significant global auto components manufacturer, the Polish group said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Boryszew scooped up Theysohn Kunststoff, a key German parts supplier to VW, and its mould making partner from Austrian precision component group HTI High Tech Industries.
In August, the Sochaczew-based group agreed to pay 6.7m to purchase assets of insolvent German plastics auto parts moulder Altmrker Kunststoff-Technik (AKT), including a Czech plant.
In 2010, Boryszew had bought the insolvent Italian automotive tubing producer Maflow International Group.
Boryszew is considering constructing two automotive part production plants in Russia via two of the businesses it recently acquired, Maflow and AKT. In the first nine months of this year, the Polish group posted a net profit of 24.5m, up from 13.8m for the period in 2010, on sales of 710m, a 41% gain over last year.
Boryszew has made a binding offer to purchase the German and Polish plants of Idar-Oberstein-based Ymos. It is a leading manufacturer of plastic, galvanised and chrome-plated car door system components for handles, hinge and locking systems.
Ymos also makes other metal and plastic auto parts. Its main customers include VW, Audi, Daimler, Bentley and Rolls Royce. The firm recorded 2010 revenues of around 80m but went into bankruptcy in August 2011.
Boryszew is one of three bidders for the Ymos assets which it believes will contribute to its continued rise to become a significant global auto components manufacturer, the Polish group said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Boryszew scooped up Theysohn Kunststoff, a key German parts supplier to VW, and its mould making partner from Austrian precision component group HTI High Tech Industries.
In August, the Sochaczew-based group agreed to pay 6.7m to purchase assets of insolvent German plastics auto parts moulder Altmrker Kunststoff-Technik (AKT), including a Czech plant.
In 2010, Boryszew had bought the insolvent Italian automotive tubing producer Maflow International Group.
Boryszew is considering constructing two automotive part production plants in Russia via two of the businesses it recently acquired, Maflow and AKT. In the first nine months of this year, the Polish group posted a net profit of 24.5m, up from 13.8m for the period in 2010, on sales of 710m, a 41% gain over last year.
2011年11月15日星期二
Poland’s Boryszew bids for auto supplier Ymos
Acquisitive Polish industrial group Boryszew continues to grow its automotive components business, staking a claim to the production assets of another insolvent German parts supplier Ymos.
Boryszew has made a binding offer to purchase the German and Polish plants of Idar-Oberstein-based Ymos. It is a leading manufacturer of plastic, galvanised and chrome-plated car door system components for handles, hinge and locking systems.
Ymos also makes other metal and plastic auto parts. Its main customers include VW, Audi, Daimler, Bentley and Rolls Royce. The firm recorded 2010 revenues of around 80m but went into bankruptcy in August 2011.
Boryszew is one of three bidders for the YMOS assets which it believes will contribute to its continued rise to become a significant global auto components manufacturer, the Polish group said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Boryszew scooped up Theysohn Kunststoff, a key German parts supplier to VW, and its mould making partner from Austrian precision component group HTI High Tech Industries.
In August, the Sochaczew-based group agreed to pay 6.7m to purchase assets of insolvent German plastics auto parts moulder Altmrker Kunststoff-Technik (AKT), including a Czech plant.
In 2010, Boryszew had bought the insolvent Italian automotive tubing producer Maflow International Group.
Boryszew is considering constructing two automotive part production plants in Russia via two of the businesses it recently acquired, Maflow and AKT. In the first nine months of this year, the Polish group posted a net profit of 24.5m, up from 13.8m for the period in 2010, on sales of 710m, a 41% gain over last year.
Boryszew has made a binding offer to purchase the German and Polish plants of Idar-Oberstein-based Ymos. It is a leading manufacturer of plastic, galvanised and chrome-plated car door system components for handles, hinge and locking systems.
Ymos also makes other metal and plastic auto parts. Its main customers include VW, Audi, Daimler, Bentley and Rolls Royce. The firm recorded 2010 revenues of around 80m but went into bankruptcy in August 2011.
Boryszew is one of three bidders for the YMOS assets which it believes will contribute to its continued rise to become a significant global auto components manufacturer, the Polish group said in a statement.
Earlier this year, Boryszew scooped up Theysohn Kunststoff, a key German parts supplier to VW, and its mould making partner from Austrian precision component group HTI High Tech Industries.
In August, the Sochaczew-based group agreed to pay 6.7m to purchase assets of insolvent German plastics auto parts moulder Altmrker Kunststoff-Technik (AKT), including a Czech plant.
In 2010, Boryszew had bought the insolvent Italian automotive tubing producer Maflow International Group.
Boryszew is considering constructing two automotive part production plants in Russia via two of the businesses it recently acquired, Maflow and AKT. In the first nine months of this year, the Polish group posted a net profit of 24.5m, up from 13.8m for the period in 2010, on sales of 710m, a 41% gain over last year.
2011年11月14日星期一
Beet The Best challenges growers
Round one of our virtual sugar beet growing competition proved challenging this year with only a handful of teams scoring maximum points, with subsoiling, primary cultivations and aphid carry over risks catching out many competitors.
But entrants who did not score heavily should not despair, as the competition allows you the opportunity to earn back yield through answers to open questions in rounds two and three.
While key messages on nematodes and rhizomania had been taken on board, there was still some confusion on certain aspects of soil cultivation and seed-bed preparation, said Mark Stevens, virologist at Broom's Barn and Beet the Best judge.
Growers were asked about the optimum conditions for carrying out subsoil cultivations before a sugar beet crop. Some people selected conditions that were too wet for subsoiling, in particular, when the soil moisture content was between the upper and lower plastic limit, he said.
"Subsoiling when it's too wet can result in soil smearing," explained Steve Wilcockson, of Newcastle University, and fellow judge.
"The water doesn't drain through and you don't get the heave to shatter the profile around the subsoiler legs."
Nearly all entrants identified that on heavy soils the optimum time for ploughing before sugar beet is mid-October to mid-November.
By ploughing heavy land at this stage, the soil was at its driest and capable of carrying machinery with less risk of compaction, said Mr Wilcockson.
"It also gives you the longest possible opportunity to benefit from winter weathering and the frost mould breaking the soil down."
Those growers who ploughed early on the heavier soil types this season were reaping the benefits this harvest, noted Mr Stevens.
"They ploughed before the frosts came in, which produced a perfect frost mould that worked into a very fine tilth, and great seed-beds to sow in early to mid March and they are now seeing the rewards."
Identifying the most effective way to reduce the risk of aphid carryover to sugar beet crops caught out several people.
The biggest risk of aphid virus carryover is cleaner loader spoil, close to forthcoming sugar beet fields, said Mr Stevens.
"Sugar beet that was grown the season before may have been affected in a cleaner loader or a clamp, which aphids winter on and then pass that virus on."
Many entrants were also unable to identify leatherjackets as the seedling pests most likely to appear in a beet crop following a grass ley.
However, most correctly identified that Tachigaren (hymexazol) and thiram is the correct seed treatment combination used to control blackleg (Aphanomyces) and early seedling diseases (damping off).
Also, the optimum drilling depth for rapid germination and establishment of beet is between 25mm and 30mm.
"If sugar beet is drilled too shallow, there's a greater risk of damage from pests, especially mice, and insufficient moisture for germination if seed-beds are drying rapidly," noted Paul Bee, of British Sugar.
The optimum nitrogen dose and application timing on a medium soil with no organic manures following a legume is 30kg N/ha applied immediately after drilling, followed by 70kg N/ha at full emergence.
"Some people were caught out here by the need for less nitrogen when following a legume," added Mr Bee.
Finally, most correctly picked AYPR as the strain of rhizomania, identified in Suffolk since 2007, as being able to overcome the Rz1 resistance trait (Holly gene) in commercially available varieties.
But entrants who did not score heavily should not despair, as the competition allows you the opportunity to earn back yield through answers to open questions in rounds two and three.
While key messages on nematodes and rhizomania had been taken on board, there was still some confusion on certain aspects of soil cultivation and seed-bed preparation, said Mark Stevens, virologist at Broom's Barn and Beet the Best judge.
Growers were asked about the optimum conditions for carrying out subsoil cultivations before a sugar beet crop. Some people selected conditions that were too wet for subsoiling, in particular, when the soil moisture content was between the upper and lower plastic limit, he said.
"Subsoiling when it's too wet can result in soil smearing," explained Steve Wilcockson, of Newcastle University, and fellow judge.
"The water doesn't drain through and you don't get the heave to shatter the profile around the subsoiler legs."
Nearly all entrants identified that on heavy soils the optimum time for ploughing before sugar beet is mid-October to mid-November.
By ploughing heavy land at this stage, the soil was at its driest and capable of carrying machinery with less risk of compaction, said Mr Wilcockson.
"It also gives you the longest possible opportunity to benefit from winter weathering and the frost mould breaking the soil down."
Those growers who ploughed early on the heavier soil types this season were reaping the benefits this harvest, noted Mr Stevens.
"They ploughed before the frosts came in, which produced a perfect frost mould that worked into a very fine tilth, and great seed-beds to sow in early to mid March and they are now seeing the rewards."
Identifying the most effective way to reduce the risk of aphid carryover to sugar beet crops caught out several people.
The biggest risk of aphid virus carryover is cleaner loader spoil, close to forthcoming sugar beet fields, said Mr Stevens.
"Sugar beet that was grown the season before may have been affected in a cleaner loader or a clamp, which aphids winter on and then pass that virus on."
Many entrants were also unable to identify leatherjackets as the seedling pests most likely to appear in a beet crop following a grass ley.
However, most correctly identified that Tachigaren (hymexazol) and thiram is the correct seed treatment combination used to control blackleg (Aphanomyces) and early seedling diseases (damping off).
Also, the optimum drilling depth for rapid germination and establishment of beet is between 25mm and 30mm.
"If sugar beet is drilled too shallow, there's a greater risk of damage from pests, especially mice, and insufficient moisture for germination if seed-beds are drying rapidly," noted Paul Bee, of British Sugar.
The optimum nitrogen dose and application timing on a medium soil with no organic manures following a legume is 30kg N/ha applied immediately after drilling, followed by 70kg N/ha at full emergence.
"Some people were caught out here by the need for less nitrogen when following a legume," added Mr Bee.
Finally, most correctly picked AYPR as the strain of rhizomania, identified in Suffolk since 2007, as being able to overcome the Rz1 resistance trait (Holly gene) in commercially available varieties.
2011年11月13日星期日
Nolato expands medical moulding in Hungary
Strong healthcare market growth has prompted Swedish injection moulder Nolato to expand manufacturing capacity at its medical products division plant at Mosonmagyaróvár in north western Hungary.
In addition, the company’s industrial division is launching a new small manufacturing plant in the Prahova district of southern Romania to mould products for the hygiene sector.
The start-up of the unit was carried out at Nolato’s Hungarian factory and the company is transferring the operation to the Romanian site to increase capacity so that it will be closer to the customer, Nolato reported.
Torekov, Sweden-based Nolato is investing €7m to broaden the product range at the Hungarian facility. The project involves the conversion of its existing warehouse to clean room moulding space to make products such as disposable plastic components for dialysis machines.
The polymer systems developer and manufacturer is constructing a new 3,700 m2 automated warehouse facility at the plant. Production in the new moulding area is set to start by early 2013 and the project will lead to the overall addition of 50 employees to the 400-strong plant workforce, Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Nolato director Norbert Meleg as announcing.
Nolato, which has received EU grant aid to the tune of €1.4m for the scheme, is focusing on the production of plastic parts for high tech medical equipment.
The Swedish injection moulder reported “good growth” for its medical and industrial products divisions for the first nine months of 2011, but its telecoms offshoot Nolato Telecom continued to see “weak volumes”.
Nolato Medical increased its sales against the same period last year by 9% to more than €159m. Its operating income for the period was just over €19m. “Volumes remained good during the quarter and in line with market growth,” commented Nolato president and CEO Hans Porat.
Last year, the Swedish group, which has a total workforce of some 7,500, recorded annual sales worth almost €371m. It has other production plants in China, India, the US and Sweden.
In addition, the company’s industrial division is launching a new small manufacturing plant in the Prahova district of southern Romania to mould products for the hygiene sector.
The start-up of the unit was carried out at Nolato’s Hungarian factory and the company is transferring the operation to the Romanian site to increase capacity so that it will be closer to the customer, Nolato reported.
Torekov, Sweden-based Nolato is investing €7m to broaden the product range at the Hungarian facility. The project involves the conversion of its existing warehouse to clean room moulding space to make products such as disposable plastic components for dialysis machines.
The polymer systems developer and manufacturer is constructing a new 3,700 m2 automated warehouse facility at the plant. Production in the new moulding area is set to start by early 2013 and the project will lead to the overall addition of 50 employees to the 400-strong plant workforce, Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Nolato director Norbert Meleg as announcing.
Nolato, which has received EU grant aid to the tune of €1.4m for the scheme, is focusing on the production of plastic parts for high tech medical equipment.
The Swedish injection moulder reported “good growth” for its medical and industrial products divisions for the first nine months of 2011, but its telecoms offshoot Nolato Telecom continued to see “weak volumes”.
Nolato Medical increased its sales against the same period last year by 9% to more than €159m. Its operating income for the period was just over €19m. “Volumes remained good during the quarter and in line with market growth,” commented Nolato president and CEO Hans Porat.
Last year, the Swedish group, which has a total workforce of some 7,500, recorded annual sales worth almost €371m. It has other production plants in China, India, the US and Sweden.
2011年11月10日星期四
Nolato expands medical moulding in Hungary
Strong healthcare market growth has prompted Swedish injection moulder Nolato to expand manufacturing capacity at its medical products division plant at Mosonmagyaróvár in north western Hungary.
In addition, the company’s industrial division is launching a new small manufacturing plant in the Prahova district of southern Romania to mould products for the hygiene sector.
The start-up of the unit was carried out at Nolato’s Hungarian factory and the company is transferring the operation to the Romanian site to increase capacity so that it will be closer to the customer, Nolato reported.
Torekov, Sweden-based Nolato is investing €7m to broaden the product range at the Hungarian facility. The project involves the conversion of its existing warehouse to clean room moulding space to make products such as disposable plastic components for dialysis machines.
The polymer systems developer and manufacturer is constructing a new 3,700 m2 automated warehouse facility at the plant. Production in the new moulding area is set to start by early 2013 and the project will lead to the overall addition of 50 employees to the 400-strong plant workforce, Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Nolato director Norbert Meleg as announcing.
Nolato, which has received EU grant aid to the tune of €1.4m for the scheme, is focusing on the production of plastic parts for high tech medical equipment.
The Swedish injection moulder reported “good growth” for its medical and industrial products divisions for the first nine months of 2011, but its telecoms offshoot Nolato Telecom continued to see “weak volumes”.
Nolato Medical increased its sales against the same period last year by 9% to more than €159m. Its operating income for the period was just over €19m. “Volumes remained good during the quarter and in line with market growth,” commented Nolato president and CEO Hans Porat.
Last year, the Swedish group, which has a total workforce of some 7,500, recorded annual sales worth almost €371m. It has other production plants in China, India, the US and Sweden.
In addition, the company’s industrial division is launching a new small manufacturing plant in the Prahova district of southern Romania to mould products for the hygiene sector.
The start-up of the unit was carried out at Nolato’s Hungarian factory and the company is transferring the operation to the Romanian site to increase capacity so that it will be closer to the customer, Nolato reported.
Torekov, Sweden-based Nolato is investing €7m to broaden the product range at the Hungarian facility. The project involves the conversion of its existing warehouse to clean room moulding space to make products such as disposable plastic components for dialysis machines.
The polymer systems developer and manufacturer is constructing a new 3,700 m2 automated warehouse facility at the plant. Production in the new moulding area is set to start by early 2013 and the project will lead to the overall addition of 50 employees to the 400-strong plant workforce, Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Nolato director Norbert Meleg as announcing.
Nolato, which has received EU grant aid to the tune of €1.4m for the scheme, is focusing on the production of plastic parts for high tech medical equipment.
The Swedish injection moulder reported “good growth” for its medical and industrial products divisions for the first nine months of 2011, but its telecoms offshoot Nolato Telecom continued to see “weak volumes”.
Nolato Medical increased its sales against the same period last year by 9% to more than €159m. Its operating income for the period was just over €19m. “Volumes remained good during the quarter and in line with market growth,” commented Nolato president and CEO Hans Porat.
Last year, the Swedish group, which has a total workforce of some 7,500, recorded annual sales worth almost €371m. It has other production plants in China, India, the US and Sweden.
2011年11月9日星期三
3D dental scanner wins VISION Award 2011
A prototype scanner for ‘digital dentistry’, a fast-growing new field enabled by innovative optical technologies, has won the VISION Award 2011, a prize that recognizes new developments in the field of applied image processing.
Manfred Gruber, head of the Austrian Institute of Technology’s “safe and autonomous systems” business unit, accepted the award and the prize of €5000 at the annual VISION trade fair taking place in Stuttgart, Germany, this week.
The scanner, developed at AIT and being commercialized by the Klagenfurt-based start-up company a.tron3D, is based on a continuous blue LED source and a pair of tiny cameras more typically used in mobile handsets, and generates a three-dimensional image of a full set of teeth in just a few minutes.
Although it isn’t the first such optical scanner for such applications, it is, according to AIT and a.tron3D, the smallest and lightest. Resembling a toothbrush and directly compatible with conventional dental tools, it is around half the size of similar tools already commercialized by the likes of 3M and US-based Cadent (now part of Align Technology).
The tools are all used to produce dental impressions without the need for the uncomfortable and time-consuming standard method, which requires a patient to bite on silicone material before a mould of the impression is made.
The AIT-developed real-time 3D scanner relies on a miniaturized light projection system and advanced algorithms to produce the digital impression quickly, while blue light is used as it gives a better spectral response than longer wavelengths: AIT says that the technique would not be effective with red wavelengths, for example.
a.tron3D was founded in 2010 by dental laboratory owner Horst Koinig, who first came across AIT’s development of 3D scanning technology at the same VISION trade show around five years ago. The company’s “bluescan-1” product is currently at the advanced prototype stage, and set for commercialization and a manufacturing ramp next year. The company is also working on 3D face scanner using the same AIT technology, which could aid plastic surgeons with procedures such as facial reconstructive surgery.
As well as being smaller and cheaper than its competitors, the miniaturized dental scanner ports directly to a standard USB connection and the 3D models produced can be sent to any dental laboratory in the world for the subsequent mould and impression production.
Digital dentistry is expected to become a significant market in the next few years, providing a new opportunity for suppliers of various optical components required in different types of optical scanner systems. For example Israel-based Ophir Optronics, now a part of Newport Corporation, has a division (Optimet) that has developed a dental scanner based on a laser-based conoscopic holography system.
Manfred Gruber, head of the Austrian Institute of Technology’s “safe and autonomous systems” business unit, accepted the award and the prize of €5000 at the annual VISION trade fair taking place in Stuttgart, Germany, this week.
The scanner, developed at AIT and being commercialized by the Klagenfurt-based start-up company a.tron3D, is based on a continuous blue LED source and a pair of tiny cameras more typically used in mobile handsets, and generates a three-dimensional image of a full set of teeth in just a few minutes.
Although it isn’t the first such optical scanner for such applications, it is, according to AIT and a.tron3D, the smallest and lightest. Resembling a toothbrush and directly compatible with conventional dental tools, it is around half the size of similar tools already commercialized by the likes of 3M and US-based Cadent (now part of Align Technology).
The tools are all used to produce dental impressions without the need for the uncomfortable and time-consuming standard method, which requires a patient to bite on silicone material before a mould of the impression is made.
The AIT-developed real-time 3D scanner relies on a miniaturized light projection system and advanced algorithms to produce the digital impression quickly, while blue light is used as it gives a better spectral response than longer wavelengths: AIT says that the technique would not be effective with red wavelengths, for example.
a.tron3D was founded in 2010 by dental laboratory owner Horst Koinig, who first came across AIT’s development of 3D scanning technology at the same VISION trade show around five years ago. The company’s “bluescan-1” product is currently at the advanced prototype stage, and set for commercialization and a manufacturing ramp next year. The company is also working on 3D face scanner using the same AIT technology, which could aid plastic surgeons with procedures such as facial reconstructive surgery.
As well as being smaller and cheaper than its competitors, the miniaturized dental scanner ports directly to a standard USB connection and the 3D models produced can be sent to any dental laboratory in the world for the subsequent mould and impression production.
Digital dentistry is expected to become a significant market in the next few years, providing a new opportunity for suppliers of various optical components required in different types of optical scanner systems. For example Israel-based Ophir Optronics, now a part of Newport Corporation, has a division (Optimet) that has developed a dental scanner based on a laser-based conoscopic holography system.
2011年11月8日星期二
Getting to grips with the right tyres for winter weather
The challenge of driving safely in winter conditions tests more than our driving skills – our tyres take the greatest strain. MICHAEL McALEER went to Rally School Ireland to see BMW test the theory behind the science of winter driving
WE’RE BOTH in identical cars, side by side doing 120 km/h heading up the motorway on a typically wet winter’s day. The only difference is my tyres have worn to 3mm of tread, and yours to 1.6mm. We both jump hard on the brakes at the same time. When I come to a stop, what speed are you still doing? 80km/h. Don’t take your tyres for granted.
In reality most of us did until last winter. In the midst of the last great snowfall, debate raged during the “big freeze” between stranded motorists who blamed their cars, and others dismissed those stuck in snow as being below-par drivers. The truth lies somewhere in between.
BMW, however, are being pro-active. Many of its drivers bore the brunt of the mocking from other motorists – and its dealers the ire of customers.
So it has teamed up with Rally School Ireland in Monaghan to offer a half-day course in winter driving tips. The course is open to all motorists who don’t want to repeat last winter’s mistakes and have a better chance in the slippery stuff.
The school is best known for offering exhilarating rally day experiences, with a fleet of top-level race cars. For the winter school, however, there’s a pair of BMW 316 diesels and a duo of 520d BMWs. One of each model is shod on regular summer tyres, the other on winter ones.
First some qualifiers: no matter how good you are, you’re not going to get a car on low-tread tyres up a snow-clad bank unless you carry it up yourself. Also, a set of winter tyres will not turn your Toyota Yaris into a Land Cruiser. But for the sort of conditions motorists encounter in the estates and side roads of Ireland they will probably give you enough grip to carry on slowly without ending up in either the ditch or the side of someone else’s car.
Regular – or summer – tyres are created from a rubber and silica compound that hardens at lower temperatures. Below 7 degrees centigrade the tyre’s compound hardens so the rubber doesn’t mould into the road: what you have is effectively a solid rubber slick.
David Smyth, owner of the rally school, says that considering the average annual temperatures here we should be fitting winter tyres from October to March.
The benefits of winter tyres don’t end at a balmy 7 degrees however. “There are still big benefits, even at 10 degrees. I personally would suggest, that for people who don’t do big mileage and who don’t drive the car hard with heavy braking, there’s a good case for having winter tyres on all year.”
Admittedly this doesn’t fit with the advice of tyre manufacturers, but Smyth is adamant that in the testing the Rally School has done on tyre grip over the years, the benefits of winter tyres on wet roads are clearly evident.
To prove his point we take to the track. It’s 11 degrees outside but the water-sprayer has been out to wet the track. A small hill road clad in special slippery plastic mimics the snow-covered off-ramp many were stuck on last winter. On the regular tyres we slip and slide, fighting for grip in the same way that many motorists struggled up slip roads during the “big freeze”. Plenty of sound and fury, but going nowhere. On winter tyres, we still slip a little and the electronic traction systems work hard, but we get up the hill.
From here it’s onto a long straight at 60km/h, hitting the wet plastic as we would a sudden icy stretch. Then we slam on the brakes. On regular tyres we slide at least four car lengths more than on winter treads. According to Smyth, at temperatures below 7 degrees there’s a 20 per cent improvement in braking distances in the wet and 10 per cent in the dry.
“If you fit winter tyres you will be able to travel like people in the rest of Europe do in far worse circumstances,” he says. “For me it’s just common sense. All the systems that save you, from stability control to ABS, they all depend on your contact with the road. Winter tyres give you the grip to allow the systems to do their job.”
On most modern cars, with dynamic control systems, the only signal you get is a flashing yellow light on the dashboard. Onboard safety controls such as dynamic stability control and traction control save lives every day, often unbeknownst to the motorist behind the wheel.
“The problem is that people take these systems for granted, or simply don’t know what they do,” says Smyth. That can make motorists complacent. On snow such complacency can be deadly.
During the course you get the chance to test all the various systems fitted to modern cars in a safe environment, learn what it’s like without them, and their limitations. The only thing you’re going to dent is your ego. It’s better to learn how to cope with understeer and oversteer in this environment than on the public road. As I slip and slide my way around the track, a mantra that kept me out of the ditch last Christmas comes to mind: “feet of a ballet dancer, hands of a surgeon.”
In reality I have the feet of a clog dancer and the hands of a meat-cleaving butcher, but at least I know my failings now and what I need to aim for: delicate, gentle movements in steering and throttle are key, along with decent contact to the road.
WE’RE BOTH in identical cars, side by side doing 120 km/h heading up the motorway on a typically wet winter’s day. The only difference is my tyres have worn to 3mm of tread, and yours to 1.6mm. We both jump hard on the brakes at the same time. When I come to a stop, what speed are you still doing? 80km/h. Don’t take your tyres for granted.
In reality most of us did until last winter. In the midst of the last great snowfall, debate raged during the “big freeze” between stranded motorists who blamed their cars, and others dismissed those stuck in snow as being below-par drivers. The truth lies somewhere in between.
BMW, however, are being pro-active. Many of its drivers bore the brunt of the mocking from other motorists – and its dealers the ire of customers.
So it has teamed up with Rally School Ireland in Monaghan to offer a half-day course in winter driving tips. The course is open to all motorists who don’t want to repeat last winter’s mistakes and have a better chance in the slippery stuff.
The school is best known for offering exhilarating rally day experiences, with a fleet of top-level race cars. For the winter school, however, there’s a pair of BMW 316 diesels and a duo of 520d BMWs. One of each model is shod on regular summer tyres, the other on winter ones.
First some qualifiers: no matter how good you are, you’re not going to get a car on low-tread tyres up a snow-clad bank unless you carry it up yourself. Also, a set of winter tyres will not turn your Toyota Yaris into a Land Cruiser. But for the sort of conditions motorists encounter in the estates and side roads of Ireland they will probably give you enough grip to carry on slowly without ending up in either the ditch or the side of someone else’s car.
Regular – or summer – tyres are created from a rubber and silica compound that hardens at lower temperatures. Below 7 degrees centigrade the tyre’s compound hardens so the rubber doesn’t mould into the road: what you have is effectively a solid rubber slick.
David Smyth, owner of the rally school, says that considering the average annual temperatures here we should be fitting winter tyres from October to March.
The benefits of winter tyres don’t end at a balmy 7 degrees however. “There are still big benefits, even at 10 degrees. I personally would suggest, that for people who don’t do big mileage and who don’t drive the car hard with heavy braking, there’s a good case for having winter tyres on all year.”
Admittedly this doesn’t fit with the advice of tyre manufacturers, but Smyth is adamant that in the testing the Rally School has done on tyre grip over the years, the benefits of winter tyres on wet roads are clearly evident.
To prove his point we take to the track. It’s 11 degrees outside but the water-sprayer has been out to wet the track. A small hill road clad in special slippery plastic mimics the snow-covered off-ramp many were stuck on last winter. On the regular tyres we slip and slide, fighting for grip in the same way that many motorists struggled up slip roads during the “big freeze”. Plenty of sound and fury, but going nowhere. On winter tyres, we still slip a little and the electronic traction systems work hard, but we get up the hill.
From here it’s onto a long straight at 60km/h, hitting the wet plastic as we would a sudden icy stretch. Then we slam on the brakes. On regular tyres we slide at least four car lengths more than on winter treads. According to Smyth, at temperatures below 7 degrees there’s a 20 per cent improvement in braking distances in the wet and 10 per cent in the dry.
“If you fit winter tyres you will be able to travel like people in the rest of Europe do in far worse circumstances,” he says. “For me it’s just common sense. All the systems that save you, from stability control to ABS, they all depend on your contact with the road. Winter tyres give you the grip to allow the systems to do their job.”
On most modern cars, with dynamic control systems, the only signal you get is a flashing yellow light on the dashboard. Onboard safety controls such as dynamic stability control and traction control save lives every day, often unbeknownst to the motorist behind the wheel.
“The problem is that people take these systems for granted, or simply don’t know what they do,” says Smyth. That can make motorists complacent. On snow such complacency can be deadly.
During the course you get the chance to test all the various systems fitted to modern cars in a safe environment, learn what it’s like without them, and their limitations. The only thing you’re going to dent is your ego. It’s better to learn how to cope with understeer and oversteer in this environment than on the public road. As I slip and slide my way around the track, a mantra that kept me out of the ditch last Christmas comes to mind: “feet of a ballet dancer, hands of a surgeon.”
In reality I have the feet of a clog dancer and the hands of a meat-cleaving butcher, but at least I know my failings now and what I need to aim for: delicate, gentle movements in steering and throttle are key, along with decent contact to the road.
2011年11月7日星期一
Nolato expands medical moulding in Hungary
Strong healthcare market growth has prompted Swedish injection moulder Nolato to expand manufacturing capacity at its medical products division plant at Mosonmagyaróvár in north western Hungary.
In addition, the company’s industrial division is launching a new small manufacturing plant in the Prahova district of southern Romania to mould products for the hygiene sector.
The start-up of the unit was carried out at Nolato’s Hungarian factory and the company is transferring the operation to the Romanian site to increase capacity so that it will be closer to the customer, Nolato reported.
Torekov, Sweden-based Nolato is investing €7m to broaden the product range at the Hungarian facility. The project involves the conversion of its existing warehouse to clean room moulding space to make products such as disposable plastic components for dialysis machines.
The polymer systems developer and manufacturer is constructing a new 3,700 m2 automated warehouse facility at the plant. Production in the new moulding area is set to start by early 2013 and the project will lead to the overall addition of 50 employees to the 400-strong plant workforce, Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Nolato director Norbert Meleg as announcing.
Nolato, which has received EU grant aid to the tune of €1.4m for the scheme, is focusing on the production of plastic parts for high tech medical equipment.
The Swedish injection moulder reported “good growth” for its medical and industrial products divisions for the first nine months of 2011, but its telecoms offshoot Nolato Telecom continued to see “weak volumes”.
Nolato Medical increased its sales against the same period last year by 9% to more than €159m. Its operating income for the period was just over €19m. “Volumes remained good during the quarter and in line with market growth,” commented Nolato president and CEO Hans Porat.
Last year, the Swedish group, which has a total workforce of some 7,500, recorded annual sales worth almost €371m. It has other production plants in China, India, the US and Sweden.
In addition, the company’s industrial division is launching a new small manufacturing plant in the Prahova district of southern Romania to mould products for the hygiene sector.
The start-up of the unit was carried out at Nolato’s Hungarian factory and the company is transferring the operation to the Romanian site to increase capacity so that it will be closer to the customer, Nolato reported.
Torekov, Sweden-based Nolato is investing €7m to broaden the product range at the Hungarian facility. The project involves the conversion of its existing warehouse to clean room moulding space to make products such as disposable plastic components for dialysis machines.
The polymer systems developer and manufacturer is constructing a new 3,700 m2 automated warehouse facility at the plant. Production in the new moulding area is set to start by early 2013 and the project will lead to the overall addition of 50 employees to the 400-strong plant workforce, Hungary’s MTI news agency quoted Nolato director Norbert Meleg as announcing.
Nolato, which has received EU grant aid to the tune of €1.4m for the scheme, is focusing on the production of plastic parts for high tech medical equipment.
The Swedish injection moulder reported “good growth” for its medical and industrial products divisions for the first nine months of 2011, but its telecoms offshoot Nolato Telecom continued to see “weak volumes”.
Nolato Medical increased its sales against the same period last year by 9% to more than €159m. Its operating income for the period was just over €19m. “Volumes remained good during the quarter and in line with market growth,” commented Nolato president and CEO Hans Porat.
Last year, the Swedish group, which has a total workforce of some 7,500, recorded annual sales worth almost €371m. It has other production plants in China, India, the US and Sweden.
2011年11月6日星期日
Hampton Park resident is flooded with apprehension
THE past nine months have come close to breaking Trevor Goyal. At one stage, the Hampton Park resident felt so ill he didn't know if he would wake up in the morning.
"I couldn't breathe. I was lying in bed and I didn't know if I would ever get up again. I had infections in my ears and throat. I couldn't eat. I had diarrhoea. I lost a lot of weight."
Like many other members of a Casey flood support group, Mr Goyal believes his sudden deterioration in health is a direct result of the floods that swamped Hampton Park early this year.
On February 5, at the height of the floods, he had sewage bubbling out of his shower and through his Robjant Street house.
Afterwards, he did his best to clean up.
"I had heard how so many people got sick after the New Orleans floods so I tried to hose everything down.
"I was using a bucket and disinfectant to try to stop the mould growing."
A study of New Orleans after the 2005 floods found that mould grew in almost half the houses that survived the floods.
The health impacts appeared many months afterwards, ranging from upper respiratory infections and asthma to irritable bowel and behavioural changes.
Mr Goyal suffered two serious chest infections, the first in March and the second a few weeks later.
By May, three months after the floods, he was still waiting for his insurance company to assess his claim.
"I knew if I waited any longer I would die. I finally rang Allianz - I was just bawling my eyes out - I spoke to a woman and said, 'Can you do something for me?'
"She said 'Yes, we're going to issue you with a cheque'. I got the cheque and I've been cleaning up ever since."
When Mr Goyal removed plasterboard and skirting boards he could see mould growing up the walls and he's still tackling that with fans and disinfectant.
He has no floor coverings and little furniture. He has also amassed a lot of bills while he has been ill and doesn't know how he will pay them.
But his health is improving gradually. He can eat more and is beginning to put back some weight.
Joining the flood support group has also helped.
"Instead of concentrating on what I haven't got, I've been trying to concentrate on what I have got.
" I get up in the morning and I try to think my health's good.
"But there's a long way to go, not just for me but for a lot of people."
"I couldn't breathe. I was lying in bed and I didn't know if I would ever get up again. I had infections in my ears and throat. I couldn't eat. I had diarrhoea. I lost a lot of weight."
Like many other members of a Casey flood support group, Mr Goyal believes his sudden deterioration in health is a direct result of the floods that swamped Hampton Park early this year.
On February 5, at the height of the floods, he had sewage bubbling out of his shower and through his Robjant Street house.
Afterwards, he did his best to clean up.
"I had heard how so many people got sick after the New Orleans floods so I tried to hose everything down.
"I was using a bucket and disinfectant to try to stop the mould growing."
A study of New Orleans after the 2005 floods found that mould grew in almost half the houses that survived the floods.
The health impacts appeared many months afterwards, ranging from upper respiratory infections and asthma to irritable bowel and behavioural changes.
Mr Goyal suffered two serious chest infections, the first in March and the second a few weeks later.
By May, three months after the floods, he was still waiting for his insurance company to assess his claim.
"I knew if I waited any longer I would die. I finally rang Allianz - I was just bawling my eyes out - I spoke to a woman and said, 'Can you do something for me?'
"She said 'Yes, we're going to issue you with a cheque'. I got the cheque and I've been cleaning up ever since."
When Mr Goyal removed plasterboard and skirting boards he could see mould growing up the walls and he's still tackling that with fans and disinfectant.
He has no floor coverings and little furniture. He has also amassed a lot of bills while he has been ill and doesn't know how he will pay them.
But his health is improving gradually. He can eat more and is beginning to put back some weight.
Joining the flood support group has also helped.
"Instead of concentrating on what I haven't got, I've been trying to concentrate on what I have got.
" I get up in the morning and I try to think my health's good.
"But there's a long way to go, not just for me but for a lot of people."
2011年11月3日星期四
We will fight the battle to logical conclusion
Cast in the mould of late fiery lawyer Chief Gani Fawehinmi SAN, lately, Mr. Bamidele Aturu has been carving a niche for himself as not only a legal practitioner, but also a social crusader cum rights activist.
In this interview, he spoke on controversial fuel subsidy removal, on-going attempt to reform the judiciary, anti-corruption agencies and Baba Suwe whom the court has ordered the NDLEA to release tommorow if he fails to excreates the suspected hard drug that he alledgely ingested. Excerpts:
WHAT is your assessment of the state of the nation?
The ruling elite in Nigeria clearly lack the attributes that can lift the people of this country out of poverty and misery. everywhere you turn you are confronted with corruption, waste, inefficiency, planlessness, nepotism and gross incompetence of the worst variety.
Our people lack access to basic infrastructures and facilities that are taken for granted even in certified backward societies. No portable water, no electricity, no motorable or even passable roads, education has collapsed, workers are paid miserable wages, unemployment is out of control, there is general insecurity, there is rot in the judiciary, health services have since collapsed, there is total governance paralysis.
The Federal government has expressed its intention to remove fuel subsidy come January next year. How do you react to this?
It is simply unacceptable. It is evil, malicious, wicked, insensitive, unresponsive, irresponsible, unconscionable, intolerable and bad. I mean very very bad. The decision of the Federal Government to ‘de-subsidize’ the prices of petroleum products next year shows clearly that each time government is broke the only thing its officials can think of is how to inflict further pain on the people by increasing the prices of petroleum products.
There is nothing like subsidies on petroleum products. As far back as about 2005 a top government functionary had informed the whole world that subsidies had been completely removed. The decision shows that the government is insensitive and does not care about the material conditions of the people. The people must resist the planned increase of petroleum products (price). Our firm will participate in every programme by organized labour and civil society to prevent the actualization of the wicked decision. The decision is intolerable and unacceptable. It will be resisted.
President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to provide social safety net to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal on the masses. How do you react to this?
Why should government create problems or hardship in the first place and now seek to cushion the effect of the hardship, that is warped logic. It is like breeding mosquitoes in your house and then purchase the best anti malaria drugs. It is also like inflicting injury deliberately and offering the best treatment available. We don’t need the injury, we don’t need the treatment. Nigerians don’t need palliatives, we don’t need any cushioning of hardships. There is no sensible justification for the removal of the fraudulent subsidies period.
You said last week that war against corruption is not on course. What inform their position?
Only an insane fellow or an imbecile would not see that there is corruption in every facet of life in Nigeria. There is corruption at all levels in Nigeria. Wven government officials cannot deny this obvious fact.
Is that why you called for the sack of the heads of the Police, ICPC, EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau ?
How then do you think the anti-graft war should be fought effectively?
First replace the leadership of the bodies. Amend our laws and place the onus on the accused in corruption cases to justify their wealth. Also there should be no interlocutory appeals in corruption cases. We should also amend the constitution to prescribe time limits for determining such cases
The Chief Justice of Nigeria CJN Justice Dahiru Musdapher, has set up a 28 -man panel to make recommendations toward reforming Judiciary. What are your expectations from the panel?
The panel cannot achieve its objective in the short period given to it. So I really don’t expect much from it. The time is too short.
How do you react to the inclusion of immediate past CJN Justice Katsina- Alu in the panel?
He has no place in that committee. The myth that the Nigerian judiciary is the last hope of the common man has exploded. The judiciary, we need to repeat for the umpteenth time, is but one of the superstructures of the Nigerian State. It cannot but reflect the ethos and mores of the ruling class.
To the extent that the dominant elite in Nigeria are corrupt, backward, visionless, wicked and selfish, it is futile to expect the judiciary to be different. Of course, this does not imply that we do not have some exceptions here and there, but the general characterization of the Nigerian judiciary today is that it is as corrupt and visionless as the political class.
The solution to the decay in the judiciary can only be found if we sanitise our polity. The 28-member Committee recently set up to sanitise the judiciary would ordinarily have been welcome, but for the inclusion of the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria. His inclusion is insensitive and controversial, to say the very least, as it gives an impression that he is the victor in the dispute between him and the suspended President of the Court of Appeal. He should be removed from the Committee if Nigerians are expected to take its work seriously.
The decision of the Federal Government to ‘de-subsidize’ the prices of petroleum products next year shows clearly that each time government is broke the only thing its officials can think of is how to inflict further pain on the people by increasing the prices of petroleum products. There is nothing like subsidies on petroleum products.
As far back as about 2005 a top government functionary had informed the whole world that subsidies had been completely removed. The decision shows that the government is insensitive and does not care about the material conditions of the people. The people must resist the planned increase of petroleum products. Our firm will participate in every programme by organized labour and civil society to prevent the actualization of the wicked decision. The decision is intolerable and unacceptable. It will be resisted.
As the lawyer to the detained comedian Mr. Babatunde Omidina a k a Baba Suwe over alleged hard drug ingestion , what is your reaction to NDLEA’’s reason for still holding on to him? You said the Federal High Court order which the NDLEA obtained to extend his detention was obtained through misrepresentation of fact: so what do you intend to do about this?
We have already filed the necessary application to discharge the order made by Justice Okeke. The NDLEA did not inform the court that the man had excreted eight times without any illegal substance in the excreted matter. they concealed the fact that the man had been in unlawful detention for over a week before filing the application. they concealed the fact that the man has been having his three meals daily. they concealed the fact that the man is diabetic.
Do you still intend to enforce Baba Suwe’s fundamental right and claim aggravated and exemplary damages on his behalf?
Oh yes. We are already in court. The case is before Justice Idowu of Lagos High Court. we will fight the battle to a logical conclusion.
NDLEA has said it would apologies to him if he fails to excrete the alleged hard drug he ingested will such apology be accepted if nothing is found at the end of the day?
They would do more than apologies. Heads must roll in the organisation. They better start to look for other jobs. It is as simple as that.
In this interview, he spoke on controversial fuel subsidy removal, on-going attempt to reform the judiciary, anti-corruption agencies and Baba Suwe whom the court has ordered the NDLEA to release tommorow if he fails to excreates the suspected hard drug that he alledgely ingested. Excerpts:
WHAT is your assessment of the state of the nation?
The ruling elite in Nigeria clearly lack the attributes that can lift the people of this country out of poverty and misery. everywhere you turn you are confronted with corruption, waste, inefficiency, planlessness, nepotism and gross incompetence of the worst variety.
Our people lack access to basic infrastructures and facilities that are taken for granted even in certified backward societies. No portable water, no electricity, no motorable or even passable roads, education has collapsed, workers are paid miserable wages, unemployment is out of control, there is general insecurity, there is rot in the judiciary, health services have since collapsed, there is total governance paralysis.
The Federal government has expressed its intention to remove fuel subsidy come January next year. How do you react to this?
It is simply unacceptable. It is evil, malicious, wicked, insensitive, unresponsive, irresponsible, unconscionable, intolerable and bad. I mean very very bad. The decision of the Federal Government to ‘de-subsidize’ the prices of petroleum products next year shows clearly that each time government is broke the only thing its officials can think of is how to inflict further pain on the people by increasing the prices of petroleum products.
There is nothing like subsidies on petroleum products. As far back as about 2005 a top government functionary had informed the whole world that subsidies had been completely removed. The decision shows that the government is insensitive and does not care about the material conditions of the people. The people must resist the planned increase of petroleum products (price). Our firm will participate in every programme by organized labour and civil society to prevent the actualization of the wicked decision. The decision is intolerable and unacceptable. It will be resisted.
President Goodluck Jonathan has promised to provide social safety net to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal on the masses. How do you react to this?
Why should government create problems or hardship in the first place and now seek to cushion the effect of the hardship, that is warped logic. It is like breeding mosquitoes in your house and then purchase the best anti malaria drugs. It is also like inflicting injury deliberately and offering the best treatment available. We don’t need the injury, we don’t need the treatment. Nigerians don’t need palliatives, we don’t need any cushioning of hardships. There is no sensible justification for the removal of the fraudulent subsidies period.
You said last week that war against corruption is not on course. What inform their position?
Only an insane fellow or an imbecile would not see that there is corruption in every facet of life in Nigeria. There is corruption at all levels in Nigeria. Wven government officials cannot deny this obvious fact.
Is that why you called for the sack of the heads of the Police, ICPC, EFCC and the Code of Conduct Bureau ?
How then do you think the anti-graft war should be fought effectively?
First replace the leadership of the bodies. Amend our laws and place the onus on the accused in corruption cases to justify their wealth. Also there should be no interlocutory appeals in corruption cases. We should also amend the constitution to prescribe time limits for determining such cases
The Chief Justice of Nigeria CJN Justice Dahiru Musdapher, has set up a 28 -man panel to make recommendations toward reforming Judiciary. What are your expectations from the panel?
The panel cannot achieve its objective in the short period given to it. So I really don’t expect much from it. The time is too short.
How do you react to the inclusion of immediate past CJN Justice Katsina- Alu in the panel?
He has no place in that committee. The myth that the Nigerian judiciary is the last hope of the common man has exploded. The judiciary, we need to repeat for the umpteenth time, is but one of the superstructures of the Nigerian State. It cannot but reflect the ethos and mores of the ruling class.
To the extent that the dominant elite in Nigeria are corrupt, backward, visionless, wicked and selfish, it is futile to expect the judiciary to be different. Of course, this does not imply that we do not have some exceptions here and there, but the general characterization of the Nigerian judiciary today is that it is as corrupt and visionless as the political class.
The solution to the decay in the judiciary can only be found if we sanitise our polity. The 28-member Committee recently set up to sanitise the judiciary would ordinarily have been welcome, but for the inclusion of the immediate past Chief Justice of Nigeria. His inclusion is insensitive and controversial, to say the very least, as it gives an impression that he is the victor in the dispute between him and the suspended President of the Court of Appeal. He should be removed from the Committee if Nigerians are expected to take its work seriously.
The decision of the Federal Government to ‘de-subsidize’ the prices of petroleum products next year shows clearly that each time government is broke the only thing its officials can think of is how to inflict further pain on the people by increasing the prices of petroleum products. There is nothing like subsidies on petroleum products.
As far back as about 2005 a top government functionary had informed the whole world that subsidies had been completely removed. The decision shows that the government is insensitive and does not care about the material conditions of the people. The people must resist the planned increase of petroleum products. Our firm will participate in every programme by organized labour and civil society to prevent the actualization of the wicked decision. The decision is intolerable and unacceptable. It will be resisted.
As the lawyer to the detained comedian Mr. Babatunde Omidina a k a Baba Suwe over alleged hard drug ingestion , what is your reaction to NDLEA’’s reason for still holding on to him? You said the Federal High Court order which the NDLEA obtained to extend his detention was obtained through misrepresentation of fact: so what do you intend to do about this?
We have already filed the necessary application to discharge the order made by Justice Okeke. The NDLEA did not inform the court that the man had excreted eight times without any illegal substance in the excreted matter. they concealed the fact that the man had been in unlawful detention for over a week before filing the application. they concealed the fact that the man has been having his three meals daily. they concealed the fact that the man is diabetic.
Do you still intend to enforce Baba Suwe’s fundamental right and claim aggravated and exemplary damages on his behalf?
Oh yes. We are already in court. The case is before Justice Idowu of Lagos High Court. we will fight the battle to a logical conclusion.
NDLEA has said it would apologies to him if he fails to excrete the alleged hard drug he ingested will such apology be accepted if nothing is found at the end of the day?
They would do more than apologies. Heads must roll in the organisation. They better start to look for other jobs. It is as simple as that.
2011年11月2日星期三
Mystery goo may be 'manna from heaven'
In the autumn of 2009, blobs of a jelly-like substance appeared in various parts of Scotland. People reported finding piles or single blobs of the mucus on the ground, on posts, even on a tractor. BBC Radio Scotland sent samples to experts at the Royal Botanic Gardens in Edinburgh and the Macaulay Institute in Aberdeen, which researches soils and other environmental factors, but the tests were inconclusive.
In fact, the mystery jelly has been known about for centuries. As one account described in 1910, "Among the Welsh peasants there is a belief that when a meteor falls to the earth it becomes reduced to a mass of jelly. This they name pwdre ser."
The name is pronounced "poodra sair" and means star-rot. Reports of it crop up in all sorts of literature, including Sir Walter Scott's novel Talisman. "'Seek a fallen star,' said the hermit, 'and thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearance of splendour.'" It sometimes appears after showers of rain, and theories of exactly what the nature of the mystery goo is range from manna from heaven, the remnants of a meteor shower, regurgitated frogspawn, some other animal or bird vomit, a fungus or slime mould, and even extraterrestrial life showering down from space. This may have inspired the Steve McQueen 1958 science fiction movie, The Blob, in which a giant gooey ball terrorised a town.
In fact, the mystery jelly has been known about for centuries. As one account described in 1910, "Among the Welsh peasants there is a belief that when a meteor falls to the earth it becomes reduced to a mass of jelly. This they name pwdre ser."
The name is pronounced "poodra sair" and means star-rot. Reports of it crop up in all sorts of literature, including Sir Walter Scott's novel Talisman. "'Seek a fallen star,' said the hermit, 'and thou shalt only light on some foul jelly, which, in shooting through the horizon, has assumed for a moment an appearance of splendour.'" It sometimes appears after showers of rain, and theories of exactly what the nature of the mystery goo is range from manna from heaven, the remnants of a meteor shower, regurgitated frogspawn, some other animal or bird vomit, a fungus or slime mould, and even extraterrestrial life showering down from space. This may have inspired the Steve McQueen 1958 science fiction movie, The Blob, in which a giant gooey ball terrorised a town.
2011年11月1日星期二
EMPA Researchers Develop Manufacturing Process for NanoCellulose Powder
EMPA researchers have developed a manufacturing process for nanocellulose powder, the raw material for creating polymer composites which can be used, for example, in lightweight structures for the car industry or as membrane and filter material for biomedicinal applications.
According to EMPA, cellulose is a biopolymer consisting of long chains of glucose with unique structural properties whose supply is practically inexhaustible. It is found in the cell walls of plants where it serves to provide a supporting framework – a sort of skeleton. They say cellulose is extremely strong in tension and can be chemically modified in many ways, thereby changing its characteristics. It is also biodegradable. In the search for novel polymer materials with certain desirable characteristics material scientists have developed such substances as high performance composites in which nanofibres of cellulose are embedded. In the form of lightweight structural material, these composites have similar mechanical properties to steel, while as nanoporous 'bio'-foam they provide an alternative to conventional insulating materials.
EMPA explain that classical cellulose chemistry on the industrial scale is primarily used in the wood pulp, paper and fibre industry. Commercial research is currently focused on isolating and characterising cellulose in the form of nanofibres. They say material scientists hope to be able to use nanocellulose to create new lightweight materials boasting high mechanical strength.
EMPA say that cellulose nanofibres can be used as stable, extremely reactive raw materials for technical applications while boasting the additional advantages of being biologically produced and biodegradable. Such applications include reinforcing (bio-)polymers to create very promising, environmentally safe, lightweight construction material for the car industry, as well as membrane or filter materials for applications in packaging and biomedicine.
They say that nanocellulose isolated from wood pulp is initially in the form of a water-based suspension. If the material dries out the cellulose fibres stick together forming rough clumps and it loses its outstanding mechanical properties. For this reason the EMPA researchers sought to develop a process which allowed them to dry nanocellulose without it clumping and becoming rough. To achieve this, the cellulose was treated using a technique which is easily implemented on a large scale and is also completely harmless, even being suitable for applications in the food industry. The method prevents the cellulose fibrils from forming clumps and sticking together
Results found that after being re-dispersed in water the dried nanocellulose powder boasts the same outstanding properties as undried, unmodified cellulose. This makes the new product an attractive alternative to conventional cellulose suspensions for the synthesis of bio-nanocomposite materials. Suspensions currently in use consists of over 90% water which causes the transport costs to explode and increases the danger of degradation by bacteria or fungi. In addition aquatic cellulose suspensions are laborious to work with since usually in the course of chemical processing solvents must be exchanged.
The work on developing the new manufacturing process and identifying applications for nanocellulose in various biopolymers was recently recognised with the award of the EMPA Research Prize 2011. In a collaborative project with the Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, EMPA researcher and PhD student Christian Eyholzer and his co-workers used the novel nanocellulose powder to reinforce adhesives, hydrogels and biodegradable synthetics.
Fraunhofer IWM Researchers Set Out to Develop Green EV Charging Stations
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Halle, Germany, want to improve the green credentials of EV charging points, which usually feature a steel- or aluminum-clad housing by developing an alternative in wood-plastic composites (WPC).
In collaboration with their industrial partner, Bosecker Verteilerbau Sachsen, Fraunhofer are developing an alternative solution based on eco-friendly materials. Their idea is to replace the steel cladding that protects cables, power outlets and electronic switchgear with honeycomb panels made of a wood-plastic composite (WPC). They say that, at present, the main application for this type of reconstituted wood product is weather-resistant decking for patios.
WPC is a natural fibre composite made up of 70 parts of cellulosic wood fibre derived from sustainable resources to 30 parts of thermoplastic polypropylene. Fraunhofer explain that its advantages, apart from the high proportion of sustainable raw materials, are that it is 100% recyclable and contains no tropical timber. Wood-plastic composites can be repeatedly recycled into new products and have a neutral carbon footprint. As Sven Wüstenhagen, one of the IWM researchers in Halle, explains "Trees extract huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, and sequester carbon in their ligneous Fibres. It is therefore probable that the use of WPC in this new application will result in lower CO2 emissions compared with the use of steel."
Another advantage of the composite material, according to Wüstenhagen, is that its production is more energy-efficient than that of steel or other metal cladding materials. WPC is produced using an extrusion process that involves melting a mixture of wood fibres and thermoplastic resin under high pressure and at high temperature and feeding the resulting viscous product into a continuous mould. Fraunhofer say that with modern processing technologies, the fibres can be added to the mixture in their natural state, without first being transformed into granulate, thus eliminating an energy-intensive intermediate stage and preserving the quality of the fibres. Because wood has a high thermal sensitivity, it has to be processed at temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius.
The housings are manufactured in the form of modular components that can be clipped together as required to create a wide variety of different designs, thus allowing them to blend in with the surrounding architecture. Their modular structure also enables the composite panels to be removed easily during repairs. Industrial design expert Wüstenhagen is already thinking about other possible new applications for the WPC components "They could be used, for instance, to construct street furniture such as park benches or bus shelters. That's one of our next objectives. Another of our ideas is to integrate functional elements such as cable holders and cable management systems in the components for EV charging stations. This is a viable proposition because WPC can be formed into almost any shape, unlike the metal sheeting used in currently available housings."
The WPC cladding must be shatterproof and sufficiently elastic to withstand impact without damage, and it must be capable of resisting wide variations in temperature, high levels of humidity and prolonged UV exposure. The researchers are therefore testing samples of the material in a climate chamber to assess its resistance to extreme temperature conditions and determine which additives or types of coating provide the best weather protection. The Fraunhofer researchers have almost completed their first prototype of the new WPC housing and are about to start outdoor testing. Sven Wüstenhagen and his team are confident that it won't be long before the first "all-green" EV charging stations appear on our streets.
According to EMPA, cellulose is a biopolymer consisting of long chains of glucose with unique structural properties whose supply is practically inexhaustible. It is found in the cell walls of plants where it serves to provide a supporting framework – a sort of skeleton. They say cellulose is extremely strong in tension and can be chemically modified in many ways, thereby changing its characteristics. It is also biodegradable. In the search for novel polymer materials with certain desirable characteristics material scientists have developed such substances as high performance composites in which nanofibres of cellulose are embedded. In the form of lightweight structural material, these composites have similar mechanical properties to steel, while as nanoporous 'bio'-foam they provide an alternative to conventional insulating materials.
EMPA explain that classical cellulose chemistry on the industrial scale is primarily used in the wood pulp, paper and fibre industry. Commercial research is currently focused on isolating and characterising cellulose in the form of nanofibres. They say material scientists hope to be able to use nanocellulose to create new lightweight materials boasting high mechanical strength.
EMPA say that cellulose nanofibres can be used as stable, extremely reactive raw materials for technical applications while boasting the additional advantages of being biologically produced and biodegradable. Such applications include reinforcing (bio-)polymers to create very promising, environmentally safe, lightweight construction material for the car industry, as well as membrane or filter materials for applications in packaging and biomedicine.
They say that nanocellulose isolated from wood pulp is initially in the form of a water-based suspension. If the material dries out the cellulose fibres stick together forming rough clumps and it loses its outstanding mechanical properties. For this reason the EMPA researchers sought to develop a process which allowed them to dry nanocellulose without it clumping and becoming rough. To achieve this, the cellulose was treated using a technique which is easily implemented on a large scale and is also completely harmless, even being suitable for applications in the food industry. The method prevents the cellulose fibrils from forming clumps and sticking together
Results found that after being re-dispersed in water the dried nanocellulose powder boasts the same outstanding properties as undried, unmodified cellulose. This makes the new product an attractive alternative to conventional cellulose suspensions for the synthesis of bio-nanocomposite materials. Suspensions currently in use consists of over 90% water which causes the transport costs to explode and increases the danger of degradation by bacteria or fungi. In addition aquatic cellulose suspensions are laborious to work with since usually in the course of chemical processing solvents must be exchanged.
The work on developing the new manufacturing process and identifying applications for nanocellulose in various biopolymers was recently recognised with the award of the EMPA Research Prize 2011. In a collaborative project with the Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, EMPA researcher and PhD student Christian Eyholzer and his co-workers used the novel nanocellulose powder to reinforce adhesives, hydrogels and biodegradable synthetics.
Fraunhofer IWM Researchers Set Out to Develop Green EV Charging Stations
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Halle, Germany, want to improve the green credentials of EV charging points, which usually feature a steel- or aluminum-clad housing by developing an alternative in wood-plastic composites (WPC).
In collaboration with their industrial partner, Bosecker Verteilerbau Sachsen, Fraunhofer are developing an alternative solution based on eco-friendly materials. Their idea is to replace the steel cladding that protects cables, power outlets and electronic switchgear with honeycomb panels made of a wood-plastic composite (WPC). They say that, at present, the main application for this type of reconstituted wood product is weather-resistant decking for patios.
WPC is a natural fibre composite made up of 70 parts of cellulosic wood fibre derived from sustainable resources to 30 parts of thermoplastic polypropylene. Fraunhofer explain that its advantages, apart from the high proportion of sustainable raw materials, are that it is 100% recyclable and contains no tropical timber. Wood-plastic composites can be repeatedly recycled into new products and have a neutral carbon footprint. As Sven Wüstenhagen, one of the IWM researchers in Halle, explains "Trees extract huge quantities of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they grow, and sequester carbon in their ligneous Fibres. It is therefore probable that the use of WPC in this new application will result in lower CO2 emissions compared with the use of steel."
Another advantage of the composite material, according to Wüstenhagen, is that its production is more energy-efficient than that of steel or other metal cladding materials. WPC is produced using an extrusion process that involves melting a mixture of wood fibres and thermoplastic resin under high pressure and at high temperature and feeding the resulting viscous product into a continuous mould. Fraunhofer say that with modern processing technologies, the fibres can be added to the mixture in their natural state, without first being transformed into granulate, thus eliminating an energy-intensive intermediate stage and preserving the quality of the fibres. Because wood has a high thermal sensitivity, it has to be processed at temperatures below 200 degrees Celsius.
The housings are manufactured in the form of modular components that can be clipped together as required to create a wide variety of different designs, thus allowing them to blend in with the surrounding architecture. Their modular structure also enables the composite panels to be removed easily during repairs. Industrial design expert Wüstenhagen is already thinking about other possible new applications for the WPC components "They could be used, for instance, to construct street furniture such as park benches or bus shelters. That's one of our next objectives. Another of our ideas is to integrate functional elements such as cable holders and cable management systems in the components for EV charging stations. This is a viable proposition because WPC can be formed into almost any shape, unlike the metal sheeting used in currently available housings."
The WPC cladding must be shatterproof and sufficiently elastic to withstand impact without damage, and it must be capable of resisting wide variations in temperature, high levels of humidity and prolonged UV exposure. The researchers are therefore testing samples of the material in a climate chamber to assess its resistance to extreme temperature conditions and determine which additives or types of coating provide the best weather protection. The Fraunhofer researchers have almost completed their first prototype of the new WPC housing and are about to start outdoor testing. Sven Wüstenhagen and his team are confident that it won't be long before the first "all-green" EV charging stations appear on our streets.
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