Ceramics and glass business news of the week

Edited By Peter Wray • January 27, 2012 • No Comments

Here’s what we are hearing:

Kyocera’s 315-watt, 80-cell solar module launches in the US

Kyocera Solar Inc. has announced the launch of its highest-output solar module, the 80-cell KD 315. The new module is ideal for large-scale installations like solar-covered parking, and is now available for US customers. Designed for high output, safety and ease of installation, the UL-certified KD 315 modules feature a UV stabilized, aesthetically pleasing black anodized frame; easily accessible ground points; proven junction box technology with 12 AWG PV wire to work with transformerless inverters and quality locking plug-in connectors for quick connections.

Morgan Thermal Ceramics showcases insulation and fire protection materials at AHR Expo 2012

MTC announces that it will be showcasing its FireMaster FastDoor and FastWrap material for HVAC and grease ducts, along with its Superwool Plus material for boilers, water heaters and boiler flues, at the AHR Expo 2012. MTC will also be showcasing its FireMaster FastDoor and FastWrap XL material for HVAC and grease ducts. FireMaster FastWrap XL is a flexible blanket composed of high temperature fibers classified for applications to 2,192°F (1,200°C) and is supplied fully encapsulated in durable glass fiber reinforced foil facing for easy handling and installation. It is a component in various UL firestop designs for fire resistance rated floors, ceilings and walls.

PPG glass helps health office earn first LEED Platinum certification in Tennessee

The Upper Cumberland Regional Health Facility in Cookeville has become the first building in Tennessee to earn LEED-NC (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design-New Construction) certification at the platinum level, in part because of its use of Solarban 70XL and Solarban 60 solar control, low-emissivity (low-e) glasses by PPG Industries. Brian Templeton, a principal with Upland Design Group, the architect of record for the facility, said Solarban 70XL glass was specified for the structure’s large, translucent, daylighting panels, while Solarban 60 was selected as the vision glass for the entryway, work spaces and other surface-level applications.

The week in solar stocks: Impossible Germany

In the past week, “Germany to Kill Solar!” headlines hit the wires. This was, notably, one week after the “Germany Saves Solar!” headlines led solar stocks higher. To recap: German demand in the fourth quarter of 2011 wildly surpassed expectations, with a demand frenzy ahead of 2012 annual subsidy cuts and cheaper-than-ever solar panel prices leading to what would be a few years’ worth of installations for much of the world in a few months in Germany. That in turn led to bullish calls from Wall Street that the left-for-dead solar sector was back, and in Wall Street parlance, the shares oversold. And that’s not all.

Mantec Group Limited consolidates three specialist technical ceramics companies into one business

In January 2012, the businesses of Ceramic Gas Products Ltd. and Taylor Tunnicliff Ltd. were consolidated into Fairey Filtration Systems Ltd. Fairey Filtration Systems Ltd. was subsequently renamed Mantec Technical Ceramics Ltd. The three specialist technical ceramics companies have for many years had shared the same facilities and management. The strategic changes will help to maintain competitiveness and create a stronger business to help secure a profitable future.

Transforming old into new: The relaunch of the Fritsch homepage

During the times of the Web 2.0 era, today is yesterday and a constant optimization of an internet presence is a must. Besides “visible” constant updates and optimizations, Fritsch has worked simultaneously on the relaunch of our homepage. Now it is comprehensively designed and revised, and this in multiple regards: The tried and proven was upgraded and new features implemented. User friendliness was a must, so now there is a noticeably improved navigation on the entry page that assists visitors and new customers to quickly obtain the desired information or to specifically contact us. New and interesting topic areas with important information for Fritsch customers were also created, such as information centered on the topic of particle sizing and mechanochemistry.


Categories: Business, Construction, Energy & environment, Glass science, Industry headlines, International, Policy, Uncategorized
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Minerals consumption: Tale of two countries

Edited By Peter Wray • January 26, 2012 • No Comments

Not totally surprising, but I hadn’t seen these number aggregated like this before.

From today’s hearings in Washington by the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission on the topic of “China’s Global Quest for Resources and Implications for the United States” (emphasis added).

(Testimony (pdf) by W. David Menzie, chief of the Global Minerals Analysis Section, USGS) If one compares China’s per capita mineral consumption in 2010 with that of the United States in 2000, (the last year of domestic consumption data preceding the recent economic downturn) one can form some idea of how far China has increased its consumption. For a few mineral commodities (cement, steel, tin, and zinc), China’s 2010 consumption already equals or exceeds that of the United States in 2000. With the exception of tin, these minerals find a significant proportion of their use in the construction sector.

For many other commodities (aluminum, copper, lead, salt, soda ash), China’s 2010 consumption is less than half of that of the United States in 2000. It would be reasonable to suggest that China’s consumption of these minerals is likely to continue increasing for some time to come. These minerals find their uses in a variety of manufactured products (aluminum, copper, and lead) and in industrial chemicals (salt), and glass manufacture (soda ash). The resulting production and consumption is likely to support continued high prices for many mineral commodities, and continued investment in and competition for mineral projects and companies. The increased mineral consumption is also likely to be accompanied by a significant increase in environmental impacts from mining, processing, and consuming the minerals, particularly in the vicinity of these activities.

Menzie also said:

For the United States a particularly worrying trend is the declining domestic consumption of a number of processed metals (aluminum, copper, lead, finished steel, tin, and zinc), both in terms of absolute consumption and in terms of per capita consumption. The declines in per capita consumption follow decades in which the per capita consumption of many metals was stable. These declines may reflect a decline in U.S. manufacturing of goods that use these metals.

I am not sure I fully agree with the speculation in his last sentence. The drop in per capita consumption, in part, is also likely due to the fact that in the US, household income is now less than in 2000 or 1990.

 


Categories: Construction, Environment, International, Policy
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Nanomaterials safety research: National Academies sound alarm and urges cohesive plan

Edited By Peter Wray • January 26, 2012 • No Comments

 

Framework for new report by a committee of the National Research Council for the National Academies. Credit: NRC.

Nano environmental health and safety is clearly an important topic and one that is frequently referenced at materials conferences I have attended. But despite all the balloon juice, it seems to me that work over the last few years on research, documentation and development of databases on the safety and health of various nanomaterials hasn’t gone very far.

Good people at NIST, NIH and other institutions have been working for at least five year on trying to get some momentum going, and I do get that the nano EHS work is complicated (and that there yet seems to be even a common language among various researchers and between the research and industry communities) and expensive, but unfortunately, it feels like there is little substantial progress being made.

I think the National Academies agrees:

The committee that wrote the [a new report from the National Research Council] found that over the last seven years there has been considerable effort internationally to identify research needs for the development and safe use of nanotechnology, including those of the National Nanotechnology Initiative, which coordinates US federal investments in nanoscale research and development. However, there has not been sufficient linkage between research and research findings and the creation of strategies to prevent and manage any risks. For instance, little progress has been made on the effects of ingested nanomaterials on human health and other potential health and environmental effects of complex nanomaterials that are expected to enter the market over the next decade. Therefore, there is the need for a research strategy that is independent of any one stakeholder group, has human and environmental health as its primary focus, builds on past efforts, and is flexible in anticipating and adjusting to emerging challenges, the committee said.

The committee recommends four research categories “which should be addressed within five years:”

  • Identify and quantify the nanomaterials being released and the populations and environments being exposed;
  • Understand processes that affect both potential hazards and exposure;
  • Examine nanomaterial interactions in complex systems ranging from subcellular to ecosystems; and
  • Support an adaptive research and knowledge infrastructure for accelerating progress and providing rapid feedback to advance research.

Will Washington fund such efforts? It’s hard to know given the political environment, and the NRC warns, “[A]ny reduction in the current funding level of approximately $120 million per year over the next five years for health and environmental risk research by federal agencies would be a setback to nanomaterials risk research.”

NRC also says other public, private and global resources will be needed in the areas of “informatics, nanomaterial characterization, benchmarking nanomaterials, characterization of sources and development of networks for supporting collaborative research.”

I haven’t had a chance to read the 200+ page report, but the summary seems to contain a fairly thorough strategy, with one exception: It’s not very helpful in suggesting how to implement the strategy, which always has seemed to me to be the weakness in these discussions. Someone logically has to be given the power and resources to wrangle all of the stakeholders.

What about the NNI? Can it spearhead the effort? The committee astutely puts the kybosh on that notion, at least with the current configuration of NNI agencies:

The committee said that the current structure of the NNI — which has only coordinating functions across federal agencies and no top-down budgetary or management authority to direct nanotechnology-related environmental, health, and safety research — hinders its accountability for effective implementation. In addition, there is concern that dual and potentially conflicting roles of the NNI, such as developing and promoting nanotechnology while identifying and mitigating risks that arise from its use, impede application and evaluation of health and environmental risk research. To carry out the research strategy effectively, a clear separation of management and budgetary authority and accountability between promoting nanotechnology and assessing potential environmental and safety risks is essential.

Its not clear to me if the NRC/NAS has an alternative to the NNI leadership in mind, or just a restructuring of NNI, but the committee says whatever group is in charge will require “sufficient management and budgetary authority to direct development and implementation of a federal EHS strategy across NNI agencies and to ensure integration of federally supported EHS research with research undertaken by the private sector, the academic community and international organizations.” In other words, the dual NNI responsibilities of simultaneously promoting nanomaterials and assessing their EHS effects generates lots of conflicts and therefore accountability for the two should be clearly separated.

Addendum from Eileen: The Danish have taken a first stab at addressing exactly this issue, according to a press release published today. The Danish Environmental Protection Agency, the Technical University of Denmark and the National Research Centre for the Working Environment collaborated on developing a database concept for cataloging and evaluating the risks associated with nanomaterials. The Executive Summary of the report (pdf) explains:

Through this project, DTU Environment and the National Research Centre for the Working Environment have initiated the development of a screening tool, NanoRiskCat (NRC), that is able to identify, categorize and rank expo- sures and effects of nanomaterials used in consumer products based on data available in the peer-reviewed scientific literature and other regulatory relevant sources of information and data. The primary focus was on nanomaterials relevant for professional end-users and consumers as, as well as nanomaterials released into the environment.

They used nanosized TiO2 (used in sunscreens) and C60 (used in lubricants) as demonstration materials for the database.

To make it easy to evaluate risks quickly, a color coded five-dot system was developed, where the first three dots “refer to potential exposure of professional end-users, consumers and the environment,” and the last two dots “refer to the hazard potential for humans and the environment.”

The color code scheme is the universally recognized red, yellow and green, corresponding to high, medium and low risks. In cases where the risk is unknown, the dot is grey.


Categories: Business, Environment, Materials & Innovations, Nanomaterials, Policy
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UIUC group: Can unleashed spores heal concrete cracks?

Edited By Peter Wray • January 25, 2012 • No Comments

A bacteria-induced mineral deposit. Credit: Paramita Mondal.

Concrete is tough, but whether its a sidewalk, driveway, roadway or a structural part of a building, the material is subjected to many temperature, chemical and mechanical stresses. Over time, these stresses induce microscopic cracks and fissures that can grow in length and depth. By the time they are visible, these cracks are a signal of impending material failure and possibly irreversible damage. But researchers are developing tantalizing solutions that can stop — nearly as soon as it starts — concrete crack formation and initiate a “healing” mechanism in the material.

Some researchers, such as Victor Liu, have proposed self-healing approaches for concrete that rely, for example, on excess or encapsulated unhydrated cement materials in the concrete mix that springs into action when a crack is exposed to moisture and carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

One concern about many of the self-healing approaches is that there may be limits to the number of self-healing cycles in a particular location within the concrete.

But, a group from the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, has a novel idea about how to create a renewable form of self-healing concrete based on exploiting the biomineralization characteristics of some bacteria.

The CEE researchers, which include ACerS members Paramita Mondal, Leslie Struble and Bin Zhang, along with Ashna Chopra and Wen-Tso Liu, are investigating the possible use of the common Bacillus pasteurii (also named Sporosarcina pasteurii) to add a self-healing component to concrete.

In a news release from the school, Mondal explains, “The work we are doing puts bacteria in concrete, to mimic the way limestone forms in nature. In nature, bacteria that form calcium carbonate are known to influence the rock formation process of carbonate rocks and sediments such as limestone. The list of bacteria capable of forming calcium carbonate is extensive, but the challenge was finding one that would be active in concrete’s environment of high alkalinity and low oxygen.” She says the B. pasteurii met their requirements.

In the CEE laboratory, the group did some initial testing of the concept. ”We provided the bacteria, the food and the right environment. We could see that it was depositing the minerals, which are the basic building block of limestone,” says Mondal.

“Then we made a cement specimen and applied the bacteria with food. We saw the same kind of deposition. We did a chemical analysis of it, and it is the same calcium carbonate that’s forming,” she continues.

At larger scale, the group’s renewable self-healing concept is that once the bacteria are spread into concrete during mixing, they will form spores and go dormant in the highly alkaline condition inside the concrete. Then, if a crack is initiated, the pH drop combined with moisture and gases from the atmosphere will stir the bacteria back to life.

As they awaken, it is hoped that the microorganisms deposit calcium carbonate and fill the crack. Finally, once the crack is sealed, the microorganisms again go dormant until another crack forms.

The chemistry of what should happen is fairly well understood, but the challenge for this team is to test and characterize the “healed” concrete and determine if it will still perform as needed. Filling pores and microcracks via the bacterial process does not necessarily mean that the strength of the concrete has been restored. “That is the specific goal of our project,” Mondal says. “We are testing the specimen to see whether the crack is going through the filling material, through the original material, or through the interface. That will tell us which part is the weakest. … Conceptually, all of this should work, but there is lots more research to be done. It’s an innovative concept—definitely outside the box.”


Categories: Biomaterials, Cement, Construction
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New ceramic–aluminum composite brake rotor developed for mass market

Edited By Peter Wray • January 24, 2012 • No Comments

Nikhil Gupta, associate professor in the Polytechnic Institute of New York University Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department, is developing a new generation of ceramic brakes to be used in mass-market automobiles. Today’s ceramic brakes are found mostly on race cars, exotic sports cars and motorcycles. Credit: NYU-Poly.

Ceramic-containing brake pads and rotors first began to appear as high-tech solutions for F1 and other auto and motorcycle racing applications and more recently have been appearing in commercial markets as high performance braking systems in the premium sedan and truck markets. While this technology is slowly making its way into mass-market vehicles, R&D work continues on perfecting such braking systems, and the latest news is that a team of researchers from Polytechnic Institute of New York University and Michigan-based REL Inc. say they have created a next-generation aluminum-ceramic composite brake rotor that may cut rotor weight 60 percent (compared to cast iron rotors). The team also says the new rotor’s functionally graded design could triple the lifespan of traditional rotors.

Looking at a market worth billions of dollars, REL Inc. applied for and received a $150,000 Phase I SBIR grant from the NSF to develop the initial product design, material and manufacturing process. REL had already established itself as a manufacturer of mixed matrix components for the auto and aerospace industry. The company recruited the expertise of NYU-Poly’s Nikhil Gupta, an associate professor at the school. Gupta leads the school’s Composite Materials and Mechanics Lab.

While strong, the heavy cast iron rotors apparently are a uniform material, which, according to Gupta and REL, contributes to warpage and wear because of nonuniform temperatures and pressure strains across the surface of the rotor. Instead, they say the optimal brake rotor needs to be designed with three functional regions, where each region is matched to a material with distinct strain and thermal properties.

To accomplish this region-based design, the team begins with a high-temperature aluminum alloy and reinforces it with functionally graded ceramic particles and fibers that impart unique characteristics to each section of the rotor.

Gupta explains in a news release, ”The hybrid material allows us to provide reinforcement where additional strength is needed, increase high-temperature performance, and minimize stress at the interfaces between the zones. Together, this should boost rotor life significantly, reducing warranty and replacement costs, and the weight savings will improve the vehicle’s fuel efficiency.”

Gupta and REL claim their one-piece design will be easier to manufacture than current ceramic and ceramic-composite braking systems and be able to penetrate into the $10 billion market. Their pitch to automakers is that their new rotors will last longer and slash approximately 30 pounds from a mid-size sedan.

“As auto companies strive to meet increasingly high efficiency and low emissions targets, there’s a tremendous business opportunity in creating novel lightweight components which reduce overall vehicle weight and increase vehicle performance,” says Adam Loukus, vice president of REL.

Gupta has also conducted research into the creation of polymer-based functionally graded components made by dispersing according to their wall thickness hollow glass microballons in a polymeric matrix.


Categories: Business, Manufacturing, Transportation
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