A new bathroom scale from Tanita is powered with solar cells
and is made from a new biobased plastic.
Tanita introduced solar-powered scales in 1986, but the
plastic is all new. "The addition of ABS plastic using biodegradable resins as
the primary construction material is an added bonus for our green consumers,
further protecting our environment and landfills," says Heather Bundgaard,
director of marketing, Tanita Corp. of America.
The new material, which was developed in Japan by
Unitika, is said to have improved properties in areas such as moldability,
transparency and flame retardancy. Called Terramac,
the plastic has thermal properties, durability and impact resistivity
comparable to ABS resins, a crossover plastic between commodities and
engineering-grade.
The first product made with the resin is the housing for the
bathroom scale HS-302,
nicknamed ECO Living, The pitch is that the Terramac resin decreased carbon
dioxide emissions 20 percent compared with the previous housing made only with
a petroleum-based plastic.
Unitika developed the first commercially available
heat-resistant PLA sheet in 2002. Flame retardance and impact resistance were
improved by applying Unitika's nanotechnology, plant-based reinforcements, and inorganic
fillers. Various polymer alloys further improve properties of the new material.
Unitika says it will expand this new alloy to toys and
electronic products. Also coming are films, sheets, fibers, and non-wovens. The
company's sales target for the new material is ¥80 million ($875,000) by 2011.
One candidate as an alloying material is a new thermally
conductive nylon developed by Unitika Up until recently, compounds with
thermally conductive fillers were used to dissipate heat in miniature
electronic devices, but their processability is generally poor. "We often find difficulty in applying them
for small-size molding," says a Unitika spokesperson. "We have studied polymer
structure, the filler(s), and compounding conditions to clear the hurdle."
Unitika says the new nylon shows the same processability as
60 percent glass-reinforced nylon resin, while also exhibiting 50 W/mK thermal
conductivity.
The Unitika Group started in 1889, with the founding of
Amagasaki Spinners, the first company in Japan's textile industry. One of
its early plastic products was Emblem, a biaxially oriented nylon 6 film.
UK-based Plastic Logic and French company ISORG have created what the pair tout as a first in flexible printed electronics: a large area, conformable, organic image sensor printed on plastic.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
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