Beware of the name game as the beat for bioplastics picks up. For engineering applications, plastics made from renewable resources such as corn or soybeans are usually used as part of a compound that contains reinforcements, oil-based plastics (for rigidity and heat resistance) and other chemical additives, which are usually not derived from plant sources. The percentage of bioplastics may be represented as a percentage of weight or volume. That is not accurate, says Dr. Ramani Narayan, a chemical engineering professor at Michigan State University. "The reason for using plastics from sustainable sources is to manage the carbon cycle," he told the annual conference of the Alliance of Plastics Processors in Memphis, TN. As a result, the correct reference is the percentage of carbon atoms with a radioactive signature (derived from renewable resources) as a percentage of total carbon atoms in the compound. As a result, glass reinforcements and other noncarbon additives are not included in the calculation.
Ford and Unifi, maker of Repreve, will gather and recycle 2 million plastic bottles at CES and other shows for conversion into the Repreve seat fabric used in the 2012 Focus EV.
Thanks to embedded electronics, medical devices are getting smaller and smarter than ever. Pacemakers and implantable defibrillators are now able to call physicians. MRIs, CT scanners, and ultrasound machines are gaining mobility. And the venerable Band-Aid may soon be able to detect illnesses ranging from fevers to heart arrhythmias. On February 21, join Design News senior editor Charles Murray for a wide-ranging discussion, "Embedded Angles for Medical Products," which will explore the latest developments in medical electronics. The discussion will examine advances in medical device technology and offer an inside look at the embedded electronics behind it.
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