All accessory components of Schaefer’s CF Collapsible Containers line of totes are made of the same material as the box. This eliminates the possibility of material cross-contamination that can arise from using metal rod hinges or nylon pivot pins. (Source: Schaefer Systems International)
The automotive industry has long been head of the curve on the afterlife of its products. Even after a vehicle has been passed from owner to owner, the system of handling scrap cars is well developed. That is until electrical vehicles. The value of a used EV -- even a hybrid -- may be compromised by the cost of a replacement battery. Car buyers could long depend on the resale value of their existing car as they evaluated the worth of a vehicle. This is not clear with EVs and hybrids. It will be interesting to see how this plays out over coming years.
Good point, Rob. With a standard ICE car, you know what to do when it gets old. You can replace the engine and transmission with a new or rebuilt one. You can put in a new gas tank. Upgrade the radio. Rework the suspension. You can add decades of life to a standard car. But what do you do with an old hybrid? We don't know, yet. But it ain't that easy or straightforward, I bet.
Good point, Rob. For some reason, the auto industry has yet to give much thought to the recyclability of lithium-ion EV batteries. The best guess I've heard is that we know it's about 80% recyclable. Beyond that, there's not much agreement on what to do with it.
I'm not sure that the automotive industry itself was ahead of the curve. Excluding the used car market which for the purposes of design for disassembly can be viewed as an extension of the primary life of the product (same product use, different owner), it was parties outside of the Big Three that saw the opportunity and value of the car corpses. That vision took the form of reselling the used components, sub-assemblies or scrap metal and made that re-use/recycle stream a reality. Having worked in product engineering for GM for 5 years, I know that product "afterlife" was rarely given any consideration even when it was cost-neutral to do so.
The auto industry has gotten better in recent years, but that improvement hasn't really originated within the automotive industry - it has mostly been driven by European governmental policy which emphasizes corporate responsibility for product afterlife.
If I had to pick one point in time that seemed to have catalyzed the current trend of design for disassembly, I'd probably pick the investigative reports and documentation of the dumping of PCs and electronic peripherals in Third World countries and the major environmental poisoning resulting from it. For some reason, those stories had legs in both the media and around the "water coolers".
What will be the very most interesting is to see how the aftermarket plays out in 5the EV battery area. I can easily see a possiblity that the battery packs will have an electronic serial number and manufacturers code and that the vehicle could be easily set up to not run without an OEM battery. That would assure a captive market for replacement battery packs, no matter how much they cost. So it would be quite prudent for a law preventing that sort of thing to be put in place prior to the problem becoming a big issue. Already we have computers and cell phones that won't function with other than OEM batteries, which happen to cost a lot more. How vwery convenient.
So purchasing a used EV will be an interesting excersize, possibly in frustration. That is my guess.
Government regulations, coupled with growing consumer sensitivity about data and identity theft, require that data storage organizations demonstrate proper protection and due diligence in protecting sensitive information stored inside datacenter enclosures.
When a crane doesn't have a monitoring system, crane owners schedule service every six months and simply scrap the parts they replace, even if a part has had little use and doesn't need replacing. This can cost thousands.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
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A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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