IBM produces an annual environmental scorecard where it publicly reports its progress against goals on recycling, carbon footprint, supplier diversity, and a host of other socially responsible issues. The public reporting is unusual, and commendable. IBM is making nice gains, for example, in use of recycled plastics, but seems to have hit a plateau. The percentage of recycled materials purchased for use in its products was 3.8 percent in 2004 and peaked at 11.7 percent in 2006. The percentage last year was 10.3.In 2007, IBM developed a server system package made from 100 percent recycled-content materials. The package included nestable high-density polyethylene cushions made in part from recycled milk jugs, a 100 percent recycled content poly bag for dust protection and an outer carton made from 100 percent recycled fiber.
The report shows that fewer IBM facilities are meeting their annual recycling goals. The percentage started at 59 percent in 2004, rose to 63 percent in 2006, and then dropped to 41 percent last year. The company’s efforts to re-use materials at the end of their life are also flagging. The percentage was 14.5 in 2004 and had dropped to 7.1 percent last year. Many other metrics, however, show solid improvement, including energy conservation; renewable energy procured, and water conservation in microelectronics manufacturing. Click here for a copy of the full report.
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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