That all plastics are not recyclable really irks me — things like those clear plastic tubs that spinach comes in. I put them in the recycling bin and the guy in the recycling truck tosses it in the trash along with those little plastics bottles holding hotel shampoo. They don't have the recycling number on the bottom so just a little more petrochemical trash gets wasted. Our recycling folks and some stores take back 1s, 2s, 3s and some 4s, but 5s, 6s and 7s get tossed.
Of course, plastics is an alphabet soup of acronyms - PETE, HPDE, V, LPDE,PP, PS and 7 is "other." I am big believer in recycling and feel strongly all plastics containers should be not be made unless there are made from recylable material. I'm sure the bottle and resin makers would scream bloody murder at the prospect of a federal recycling mandate. For instance, New Hampshire - the Live Free of Die state - considers a bottle deposit an imposition of its inalienable rights. In Massachusetts, we've had it for decades. But it's not the nineties anymore.
Maybe our plastics editor and expert Doug Smock who authors the Engineering Plastics blog can explain why not all plastic is recycleable.
New disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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