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Coca-Cola’s American Canyon facility to introduce five natural gas hydrogen fuel cells on Earth Day

Coca-Cola celebrates Earth Day with a ceremonial “green ribbon-cutting” to unveil the installation of five natural gas hydrogen fuel-cell servers at its beverage production facility in American Canyon, Calif. The Coca-Cola Company is a foundation partner with Bloom Energy, a California-based firm that is pioneering fuel cells that can generate electricity from a variety of energy sources, including natural gas. The company has also deployed stationary fuel cells that provide electricity at facilities in Elmsford, N.Y., East Hartford, Conn., and Dinuba, Calif. Additionally, Coca-Cola converted its forklift fleet to hydrogen power at its production and distribution center in San Leandro, California.

Brazil: Investments in steel sector seen at $11.2 B in next four years

(Business News Americas) Investments in Brazil’s steel sector should reach 21bn reais (US $11.2 billion) in 2012-15 or about 4% of the 597bn reais earmarked for the entire industrial sector in the period, according to a study on investment prospects carried out by national development bank BNDES. The figure is 34% lower than what was invested in the sector in 2007-10, according to the study. The steel industry is facing a period of great uncertainty, with significant excess capacity in the world and little prospect of increased demand in the short term. As a result, steelmakers have postponed planned investments. In addition, China’s pace of growth has slowed down and the rising costs of major raw materials used in the sector have greatly reduced steelmakers’ profit margins. To reduce production costs and ease pressure on margins sector companies have been increasing vertical integration and diversifying their activities, BNDES said.

3M offers uniquely versatile adhesive

3M ESPE’s Scotchbond Universal Adhesive offers a unique versatility designed to simplify the overall dental bonding procedure. With Scotchbond Universal adhesive, dentists can experience a single-bottle solution for a variety of application methods, delivering high and consistent bond strength compared with other leading adhesives. Combining total-etch and self-etch properties, Scotchbond Universal adhesive can be used on all surfaces, including enamel, dentine, glass ceramic, zirconia, alumina, metals and composites - without additional primer.

Rubicon Technology speaks about the migration to large diameter sapphire wafers

Executives from Rubicon Technology Inc., a leading provider of sapphire substrates and products to the LED, RFIC, semiconductor, and optical industries, spoke about the “Move to Larger Diameter Sapphire Substrates” at the Strategies in Light 2012 in Santa Clara, Calif., In order to support mass adoption of solid state lighting, a shift to larger diameter sapphire substrate size must occur. Manufacturing efficiencies and cost reductions inherent in the large diameter platform set the stage for scaling up of the entire LED supply chain to meet the growing demand for LED chips. The representation reviewed why a large diameter wafer is essential to driving down costs and increasing yields to support aggressive cost targets of SSL, and addressed trends that are on the horizon.

RAK Ceramics marks Earth Day by pledge to plant 2000 trees within its Ras Al Khaimah facility

Commemorating Earth Day 2012, RAK Ceramics, the world’s ceramic tiles & bathware manufacturing company, organized a tree planting ceremony at its manufacturing facility on April 22nd 2012 as part of its commitment to spread awareness on environmental sustainability and pledging to support a greener planet. During the ceremony, Abdallah Massaad (deputy CEO, RAK Ceramics) planted the first sapling to commemorate Earth Day 2012, which was further followed by RAK Ceramics employees by planting 500 trees. Additional 1,500 trees will be planted during the course of the year. Since 2010, RAK Ceramics has planted 5,000 trees across its manufacturing vicinity and the company commits to plant more than 7,000 trees by the end of year 2012.

Market Tracking - Glass in Interior Construction in Europe Top 5 2011

A market report released October 2011 provides an overview of the development of the total market and the individual segments. Includes market forecasts for all product segments and regions for the upcoming three years, based on our econometric models. It considers awareness of market position and development during the last two years, in comparison with major competitors and with respect to total market, regional markets, product groups and segments.

Algerian ceramic producer adopts BMR technology

BMR, a world leader in end-of-line technologies for ceramic tile production based in Scandiano, Italy, has supplied a second polishing line to the Algerian company C.Gres of Oran. The line, which features the innovative oscillating roller calibrator, joins the Algerian company’s existing equipment supplied by BMR, consisting of a squaring machine, a polishing line and a squaring line, as well as a dry score-and-snap system with a small size rectification machine. The new line marks a major step forward in terms of technology and quality for C.Gres, currently Algeria’s only porcelain tile producer, which in the space of 3 years has completely renovated its plants and adopted all-Italian BMR technology.

Microcertec to attend the SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING exhibition in Nuremberg

Microcertec says it will attend the SMT/HYBRID/PACKAGING exhibition in Nüremberg, Germany, dedicated to electronic components, equipment and process.Microcertec will have on display its ceramic components for the microelectronics industry — electrical insulators, alumina and AlN substrates, heat sinks and solderable and bondable submounts. The 3D interconnect devices will also be highlighted that allows customers to integrate sensors and chips in a ceramic package with electrical functions. Also, the company will exhibit a range of new products and capabilities: customized ceramic-to-metal and glass-to-metal brazed assemblies like hermetic feedthroughs and connectors, microelectronic packages and viewports with optical filters.

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Kyocera remains San Diego’s most-awarded company for environmental programs, honored with 12th consecutive city recycling award; to hold eWaste recycling program in honor of Earth Day 2012

Kyocera Communications Inc., a San Diego-based provider of wireless phones in the Americas and a wholly owned subsidiary of Kyocera International Inc., has received the Director’s Recycling Award for environmental programs by the City of San Diego’s Environmental Services Department. It is the twelfth consecutive year the City has awarded Kyocera Communications for its recycling efforts. Kyocera, which operates multiple divisions in San Diego, now has earned 19 such awards from the City - more than any other business in San Diego, according to the ESD. Kyocera also was recently honored by the state of California with the Waste Reduction Award, recognizing its recycling and environmentally-friendly business practices. In honor of Earth Day, Kyocera Communications will be holding an eWaste collection drive. The drive is part of Kyocera’s city-wide eWaste Recycling Program benefitting Cell Phones for Soldiers. Kyocera Corp. was founded 53 years ago with a philosophy of “harmonious coexistence” and a commitment to social responsibility and environmental protection. In 2011 Kyocera Communications recycled more than 26,730 pounds of paper, plastic, electronic and other waste materials otherwise destined for landfills.

Morgan Thermal Ceramics offers Plascast and Plasgun refractory monolithics for iron and steel applications

Morgan Thermal Ceramics announces the availability of its plastic refractory monolithics in both cast and gun grades. The Plascast and Plasgun materials are ideal for use in lining walls and roofs in iron and steel applications including reheat furnaces, offering an alternative to difficult to place plastic ram material that must be installed with a high pressure pneumatic hammer gun. The unique cement-free binder system in the Plascast and Plasgun products combines the advantages of a plastic refractory’s thermal-shock resistance with the ease and speed of placement benefits of a conventional castable. The clay-bonded Plascast materials are supplied dry. Once mixed with water they can be installed by casting or pumping into place like a conventional castable. Compared with refractory plastics, the Plascast materials significantly reduce installation time, yet provide a high quality material with superior hot strength, thermal shock resistance and reduced drying shrinkage. The end result is a furnace lining with uniform consistency and rapid strength development throughout the working temperature range.

Ceramics drives Aggressive Grinding expanding in Latrobe; hiring 50 over two years

(Keystone Edge) In the 1967 film The Graduate, the future was summed up in one word: “plastics.” Today, for an expanding Latrobe firm, the one word is “ceramics.” Aggressive Grinding Services, which specializes in precision grinding of super-hard materials, is making a commitment to ceramics in the form of a new, dedicated facility, part of a 14,000-plus-square-foot expansion. With new, state-of-the-art equipment and an anticipated 50 added jobs over the next two years, the company anticipates significant growth in ceramics, says Jeffrey Craig, the chief operating officer. Aggressive grinds carbide, ceramics and other such materials into complex geometries to tolerances within the millionths of an inch for industries including oil and gas, aerospace, mining, construction, nuclear energy, transportation and manufacturing. With tungsten carbide prices up dramatically, ceramics is emerging as a cleaner, cheaper alternative for some of these sectors. Ceramics is also gaining favor over titanium in artificial joints, so the facility opens lucrative, new prospective markets for Aggressive such as medical devices.

Chernobyl shield tested by Stoke-on-Trent ceramics firm; the original casing is deteriorating increasing the risk of nuclear leaks

(BBC) A metal shield designed to stop radiation leaking from the Chernobyl nuclear reactor is being tested by a company based in Stoke-on-Trent. Ceram has been testing the strength of the steel dome-shaped cover at its plant in Penkhull. It will replace the concrete casing which was put over the plant in Ukraine after the 1986 accident. Research teams are dropping 25kg blocks of ice on it and simulating extreme weather conditions. The company said the existing casing was deteriorating, increasing the risk of radioactive material leaking into the environment. It said the new shield would confine the site for the next 100 years. Ceram chief executive Tony Kinsella says, “What we’re trying to do here is to make sure that the outer structure can withstand the huge pressure of something like a force 3 tornado. [We need] to make sure it won’t part, that none of the panels will come off and start to expose radioactive material inside.”

Builder of rare-earth plant in Malaysia counters complaints

(New York Times) The Australian company building a rare-earth refinery in Malaysia sought to counter critics who are concerned that the plant could pose radioactive hazards, laying out detailed responses on Thursday that it said refuted the many “false allegations” made about the plant. The company, Lynas, said the first phase of its project would be ready to open in two weeks. But it is unclear when the plant will begin operations, as the Malaysian government has withheld the company’s temporary operating license while it hears appeals from people opposed to the facility. The plant, which has been plagued by delays and protests by residents worried about possible health and environmental risks, is designed to help break China’s stranglehold on the production of rare earths. Another project is under construction in the California desert near Death Valley.

OLEDs, with rapid growth of smartphones, will create $11B market in 2017

With rapid innovation and significant cost-cutting, organic light-emitting diodes represent the technology best-placed to carve off a share of the $100-billion liquid-crystal display market, according to a Lux Research report. OLED technology, which increasingly is used in smartphones, will reach a market size of nearly $11 billion in 2017, up from $1.9 billion in 2011, as it achieves cost parity with LCDs for small-area displays. However, OLEDs will require further innovation in order to successfully target larger-screen displays such as televisions. “Smartphones and OLEDs are a match made in heaven, but higher cost barriers exist for larger-area OLED applications,” says Jonathan Melnick, Lux Research Analyst and lead author of the report titled, “Cutting Up the LCD Pie: Calculating the Billion-Dollar Slices from Display Innovation. Based on our component materials and manufacturing cost analysis, OLEDs will decrease from their current $3,000/m2 for small-area displays to be cost competitive with LCDs by 2016.”

AGC announces laying of cornerstone at first glass manufacturing facility in Brazil

AGC, a world-leading manufacturer of glass, chemicals and high-tech materials, recently conducted a cornerstone-laying ceremony in Guaratinguetá, São Paulo State, Brazil, to commemorate the start of construction on its first manufacturing facility in the country. The facility in Guaratinguetá, which is scheduled to begin operations starting in 2013, will manufacture architectural and automotive glass. By 2016, the facility is expected to have a workforce of approximately 500 people most of who will be hired locally. By then, the production capacity is expected to reach 220,000 tons of construction glass per year. The facility is also expected to produce automotive glass for 500,000 vehicles per year also by 2016. At the ceremony, AGC president & CEO Kazuhiko Ishimura touched on three main points, which were 1) the importance of Brazil to the AGC Group, 2) the group’s endeavors for sustainability, and 3) AGC’s contribution to Brazilian society through its products.

Alfa Aesar digital literature now online

Alfa Aesar, a Johnson Matthey Company, has launched digital versions of all catalogs and brochures. The digital versions are electronic replicas of our popular print catalogs and brochures, featuring page-by-page technology with an easy to navigate table of contents and search function. The new format is a sustainable and environmentally friendly alternative for users who no longer wish to receive our printed literature. The interactive catalogs and brochures can be printed, emailed or saved as a PDF, enabling users to easily find and share the information they need. They have also been designed using HTML5 technology and are optimized for display on both desktop browsers as well as tablet PC’s and iPads.

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For those of us living in the snow-prone regions of the US, potholes are a fact of life (and a source of great happiness for tire retailers). City and county road crews do their best to try to stay on top of the problem by methodically tamping in some temporary cold-patch. They always miss a few spots, and inevitably there are a couple of nasty mini-sinkholes that suddenly appear that create havoc on two-lane roads at nighttime or over weekends, when the ranks of the road repair warriors are at their slimmest.

But, the best temporary solution to potholes may be as close as that old box of cornstarch you have in your kitchen. Via a story at Science Now, we learned about a savvy set of Case Western Reserve University students who have developed an ingenious solution that involves dropping reusable rugged pillows filled with oobleck (or some shear-thickening material akin to it — the students are seeking a patent and keeping the exact composition a secret) into potholes.

From the Science Now story:

The students say a little experimentation was required to get just the right formulation. “By working with different size particles, you can get different viscosities from it,” says [codesigner Curtis] Obert. What they came up with is a powdered mixture that is stored in specially designed waterproof bags, which are made of a strong fiber like Kevlar lined with silicone. To produce a ready-made pothole patch, city workers would simply add water and seal the bag.

As the students point out, these bags could also be carried in the trunks of police cruisers and other government workers cars.

According to the story, the students have already tested the pothole stuffers on Cleveland streets. Although this winter has been particularly mild, more thorough testing is clearly needed, but they found their designs would hold up to heavy traffic for a week or more.

The team’s pothole stuffer won a $9,000 first place prize in a CWRU engineering contest sponsored by Saint-Gobain.

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ÉireComposites’ new large-blade tooling uses alternating layers of ceramic cement and carbon fiber/PEEK, with embedded heating elements. Credit: ÉireComposites.

Check ‘em out:

Direct influence of residual stress on the bending stiffness of cantilever beams

Researchers perform both theoretical analyses and finite element simulations to demonstrate for the first time that without changing the material tangent stiffness, residual stress within the beam can directly influence the bending stiffness of the beam. The direct influence arises from geometry nonlinearity and Poisson’s ratio effect. For a cantilever beam with adsorbed macromolecules on its surfaces, we find that longer macromolecular chains with lower normal stiffness and larger intermolecular forces would make the effect of the residual stress even more pronounced. The present work provides guidelines for improving the sensitivity of cantilever-based sensors.

Major Cold War cleanup milestone reached at the Savannah River Site

The DOE announced it has reached a major milestone in its efforts to clean up the Cold War legacy at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina, laying the groundwork for closing two underground storage tanks that previously held radioactive liquid waste from nuclear weapons production at SRS. The determination signed by DOE Secretary Steven Chu paves the way for SRS to begin closing the massive tanks that make up the F Tank Farm. The site will start this year by closing two tanks that pose the greatest risk to the environment: Tanks 18 and 19. These tank closures will be the first DOE tanks closed nationwide since 2007, the first closed at SRS in 15 years, and some of the largest underground storage tanks closed by the DOE to date.

Move over aerogel, engineers say they have the new ’World’s Lightest Material’ (a metal!)

(Discover) Faced with a DOD charge to manipulate well-known materials in new ways, Alan Jacobsen, a research scientist at HRL Laboratories in California, constructed delicate lattices of polymer fibers 
less than a millimeter thick. He then coated the lattices with nickel and dissolved the polymer, leaving behind the spindly metal mesh. Surprisingly, minimizing weight does not mean sacrificing strength and resilience. “I was playing with it, marveling at the weight, and I squished it between my fingers,” materials scientist Tobias Schaedler says. “It bounced right back to its original size.” The lattice can recover after being compressed to half its volume. The mesh’s low weight and high durability, Jacobsen says, make it promising for use in airplane wings and automobile shock absorbers. A brick-size piece of the new mesh would weigh less than a paper clip.

Rare earth association set for launch

(China Post) China’s long-awaited rare earth industry association is due to be established early this month and will cover the majority of companies in the industry chain, in the latest move to consolidate the ill-regulated sector. The association, which will have more than 100 members, will be formally launched in Beijing on April 8, according to people with direct knowledge of the situation, who declined to be named. Several rare earth exploring and processing companies confirmed they have received notification to attend the launch ceremony in April, without elaborating. There has been widespread market speculation for years that the government would set up an official organization to strengthen ties among the industry’s players. The major functions of the organization will include providing production guidelines, market research and channels of communication between companies and the government, the [National Business Daily reported], adding that the association will play a role in influencing rare earth import and export quotas.

Thermoplastic Wind Blades: To be or not?

(Composites World) ÉireComposites (Galway, Ireland) has successfully produced a 12.6m/85-ft long blade using a reactive thermoplastic, cyclic butylene terephthalate and unique processing technology. …While the Dutch see great promise in APA-6, ÉireComposites found it difficult to process and eventually chose CBT instead. What made this possible was the further development of ÉireComposites’ patented MECH tooling system to enable processing at 200°C to 400°C (392°F to 752°F) without the issues of thermal expansion and with sufficiently fast heat-up and cool-down rates. The new tooling is formed from alternating layers of ceramic cement and carbon fiber-reinforced polyetheretherketone, with electrical heater elements embedded close to the tool surface within a ceramic layer. Because the ceramic becomes rigid at 60°C/140°F, tooling can be built on inexpensive patterns, removed from the pattern after this initial lower temperature cure and then processed to full temperature (200°C to 400°C) via a freestanding postcure. But, CBT availability is an issue. Therefore, ÉireComposites began looking for other materials. Indeed, alongside its TPC blades, ÉireComposites now offers a unique thermoset alternative, using its ceramic carbon fiber/PEEK composite tooling to enable one-piece wind blade production using powdered epoxy technology. [A company official] claims that this thermoset alternative can cut overall blade production cycle time by 65 percent, based on actual processes in use today, and is not limited in terms of part size. The first commercial application is a 12.6m/41.3-ft blade for ACSA Eólica’s (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain) A27, a 225-kW turbine.

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• Allied Glass Containers has announced that it is about to receive a significant boost due to a planned investment project, which will see over £3 million invested in the company’s glass coloring capability at its Knottingley, U.K. plant in the first six months of 2012.

• ANH Refractories Europe has secured a new deal to supply products to the Middle East petrochemical market. The deal has been signed through ANH’s long-term licensed partner BFIM (Binzagr Factory for Insulation Materials), based in Saudi Arabia.

• Luxembourg based packaging group Ardagh has announced that it is to go ahead with plans to build a low-cost glass manufacturing plant in the Republic of Ireland, after advances to the owners of the Quinn group’s glass operations were rebuffed. Ardagh also announced that it has acquired US-based Leone Industries from the Leone family. The acquisition of Leone Industries will increase the size of Ardagh’s glass division by approximately 10 percent.

• Saint-Gobain and the NSG Corporation signed an agreement on March 29 concerning the acquisition by Pilkington/NSG of Saint-Gobain’s total stake in Flovetro SpA (announced in early February). The two groups have shared of this company, which operates one flat glass manufacturing float line in San Salvo (Italy), since 1976.

• Also on March 29, Cookson Group PLC, a leading materials science company announced it completed the acquisition of Metallurgica Beteiligungsesellschaft mbH, Metallurgica Gesellschaft fur Huttenwerkstechnik mbH & Co. KG, and Metallurgica North America, LP (”Metallurgica”). Metallugica, headquartered in Germany, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of fluxes, and will be integrated into Cookson’s engineered ceramics division.

• Rio Tinto has entered into exclusive talks with the US-based private-investment firm HIG Capital regarding its offer for Rio’s European specialty alumina business. The talks are in line with Rio’s strategy to restructure its aluminum business by selling non-core assets and pursuing savings. The specialty alumina business employs 730 people and is the largest integrated supplier of non-metallurgical grade of alumina, with four production sites: Gardanne, La Bathie and Beyrede, all in southern France, and Teutschenthal in Germany.

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