Cellulose is the hot new feedstock for bioplastics.. The latest announcement comes from Mazda Motor Corp. which today launched a project with Hiroshima University to develop a plastic made from plant waste or wood, Mazda, Toyota and other Japanese auto OEMs had previously pioneered application of bioplastics made from corn. The new thrust away from corn is driven by growing shortfalls, and rising prices, for corn because of booming demand from ethanol. The goal of the project is to develop a polypropylene that has sufficient heat resistance, strength and durability to be used in vehicle bumpers and instrument panels.
A new process for laser-welding large-scale, steel-aluminum foam sandwich structures for lightweighting ships, which eliminates intermetallic phase, has been demonstrated.
A major advance in repairing composite structures combining robots and lasers bodes well for commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350XWB, which contain composites in large proportions of their structures.
Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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