Consumer Electronics
Consumer Electronics www.pu-magazine.com 145x165_E_PUtitel_Layout 1 08.09.15 09:11 Seite 1 05/2015 OCTOBER/NOVEMBER With innovative technologies and the widest range of equipment for fascinating Polyurethane products all over the world, Hennecke has been laying the foundation for superior product quality and efficient use of raw materials in all areas of application for over 65 years. >> Metering machines >> Technical insulation lines >> HP-RTM >> Sandwich panel lines >> Moulded foam lines >> 360˚ Service >> Slabstock lines >> PUR-CSM lines >> 100% know-how for all your ideas! www.hennecke.com www.pu-magazin.de Engineering Passion 03/2015 Juli www.kraussmaffei.com Egal ob Linear-, Umlenk- oder Sondermischköpfe: Bei KraussMaffei profitieren Sie von jahrzehntelanger Erfahrung und kontinuierlicher Weiterentwicklung. Wählen Sie aus unserem breiten Produktangebot den Mischkopf, der Ihre Anforderungen perfekt erfüllt. Ihre Vorteile: – Außerordentliche Zuverlässigkeit und Langlebigkeit – Sehr hohe Schusszahlen und verfahrenstechnische Performance – Hohe Flexibilität in der Düsentechnik – Selbstreinigende, wartungsfreundliche Bauweise Composites Europe, Halle 7, Stand D08 As your reliable partner we are available when problems arise to provide immediate technical support and customer service. An uncompromising desire to meet your demands motivates each and every one of our team. Kettlitz-Chemie GmbH & Co. KG Industriestr. 6, 86643 Rennertshofen (Germany) Telefon +49 8434 9402-0, Fax +49 8434 9402-38 info@kettlitz.com, www.kettlitz.com Plasticizers Processing Aids, Activators Silanes, Desiccants Antitack Agents Heat Transfer Fluids organomodified siloxanes bio-based succinate polyester polyols in tpu lightweight tpu foam for footwear co 2 laser cutting The PTS group – Your materials specialist in hard/soft combinations, crosslinkable thermoplastics and high-performance compounds. PTS Plastic-Technologie-Service, Marketing und Vertriebs GmbH Hautschenmühle 3 91587 Adelshofen/Tauberzell Germany Fon +49-(0)9865-821 Fax +49-(0)9865-720 info@pts-marketing.de www.pts-marketing.de Volume 7, November 2015 The Fair Mouse A pioneer project in socially sustainable electronics Buying responsibly has become a big issue over the last few decades: fair trade coffee, fair trade clothes, even fair trade wedding rings are available in the Western markets. When it comes to electronics, however, things are different: production still goes hand-in-hand with human rights violations in mines and sweat-shop style factories. Time to make a change, time to build fair IT. And that is precisely the aim of the Fair Mouse project. Even such a simple product as a computer mouse consists of dozens of parts, many of which are composed of a number of smaller parts again, which in turn have necessarily also undergone a series of production steps. The aim of Nager IT (Bichl, Germany) is to produce all these parts under fair working conditions, with as ultimate goal to build a socially sustainable computer mouse. Well, the Fair Mouse is an optical computer, equipped with a power cable. The mouse comes with two, optionally three buttons and a wooden scroll wheel. It has been available since 2012, and since that time, some 5000 of these mouse devices have been sold. From the very beginning, Nager IT took care to implement supply chain transparency, and currently more than two-thirds of the production process occurs under fair conditions. The assembly operations are subcontracted by a social enterprise in Southern Germany employing disabled people, components are sourced from producers in Europe, Israel or Japan. Still, some parts are produced in China. Wherever possible, Nager IT maintains close contact, observing and trying to improve working conditions. First and foremost, the idea behind the Fair Mouse was to produce a product that met the criteria for social sustainability. However, the ecological aspects also play a major role. To produce the mouse, Nager IT uses PVC-free cables, scroll wheels carved from wood and bioplastic housings. The shell is based on PLA made from GMO free sugar cane from Thailand. The bioplastic material comes from Corbion. In order to create a compound that fulfils the requirements of the filigree housing structure, it is necessary, at least for the time being, to add talc and a small number of petroleum-based ingredients. The compound was developed by the IfBB (Institute for Bioplastics and Biocomposites, Hanover, Germany) and has a renewable resource content of . Corbion is working on solutions to replace the sugar cane by agricultural waste products. As it now stands, results from trials with bagasse, straw and wood chips seem to show that these offer the most promising solution. The housing is molded at Beoplast in Langenfeld, Germany, a plant with a net zero carbon footprint. www.nager-it.de/en Schwefelfunktionelle Silane Rubber and greenhouse effect PU MAGAZIN Fachmagazin für die Polymerindustrie Veränderungen des Elastomernetzwerks Funktionalisierung von Kunststoffen ACN-Anteil und mechanische Eigenschaften Thermoelastisches Kraftzuwachspotenzial Magazine for the Polymer Industry Sulphenamides and network structure Ultra-clear silicone Optimising tear resistance Compound development POLYURETHANES MAGAZINE INTERNATIONAL Pur(e) Fascination... Interview with M. Maas-Brunner, BASF Interview with S. 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Consumer Electronics Biodegradable displays for electronics New research paves the way Electronics have radically changed the way people live and communicate. The sheer number of gadgets owned has risen astronomically, with analysts at German market research firm GfK reporting that 1.2 billion smartphones alone were sold globally in 2014, and that in the first quarter of 2015, smartphone unit demand was up +7 % on the same period of last year. The benefits are manifest: gadgets have not only simplified our lives but also made them more comfortable and luxurious. But the disadvantages are there, too. Next to a huge and still-growing dependence on personal electronic devices, there is the problem of the waste they generate. Americans alone, on average, replace their mobile phones every 22 months, junking more than 150 million phones a year in the process. The question is, therefore: are users disposing of their older devices in a responsible way? Not really. The latest figures suggest that only around 13 % of electronic waste is disposed of and recycled properly. Waste from electronics, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is one of the fastest growing sources of waste in North America. Worldwide, an estimated 40 million tonnes of electronic waste is generated every year. Discarded and obsolete electronic devices contain lead, mercury, cadmium and other persistent and bioaccumulative toxics that, when improperly managed or disposed, pose threats to human health and the environment. Unsurprisingly, the EPA, therefore, strongly supports keeping used electronics out of landfills. But the options to do so are relatively limited. In October, however, researchers from the University of Missouri published the study Self-Assembled Peptide-Polyfluorene Nanocomposites for Biodegradable Organic Electronics as the inside cover article in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces. The researchers’ advancements could one day help reduce electronic waste in the world’s landfills. As the paper’s abstract points out, “Based on self-assembly and mimicking strategies occurring in nature, peptide nanomaterials play a unique role in a new generation of hybrid materials for the electronics of the 21 st century.” A peptide is a chemical compound containing two or more amino acids (amino acid polymers) that are coupled by a peptide bond. “Current mobile phones and electronics are not biodegradable and create significant waste when they’re disposed,” said Suchismita Guha, professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the MU College of Arts and Science. “This discovery creates the first biodegradable active layer in organic electronics, meaning – in principle – we can eventually achieve full biodegradability.” Guha, along with graduate student Soma Khanra, collaborated with a team from the Federal University of ABC (UFABC) in Brazil to develop organic structures that could be used to light handheld device screens. Using peptides, or proteins, researchers were able to demonstrate that these tiny structures, when combined with a blue light-emitting polymer, could successfully be used in displays. “These peptides can self-assemble into beautiful nanostructures or nanotubes, and, for us, the main goal has been to use these nanotubes as templates for other materials,” Guha said. “By combining organic semiconductors with nanomaterials, we were able to create the blue light needed for a display. However, in order to make a workable screen for your mobile phone or other displays, we’ll need to show similar success with red and green light-emitting polymers.” “So eventually the screen might be biodegradable, and at some point scientists hope to make the electronics out of printable ink, so instead of using circuit boards, you might use cellulose and printable inks to make the electronics,” Guha said. Then the entire device could be biodegradable. The scientists also discovered that by using peptide nanostructures they were able to use less of the polymer. Using less to create the same blue light means that the nanocomposites achieve almost 85 % biodegradability. “By using peptide nanostructures, which are 100 % biodegradable, to create the template for the active layer for the polymers, we are able to understand how electronics themselves can be more biodegradable,” Guha explained. “This research is the first step and the first demonstration of using such biology to improve electronics.” Guha’s research is partially funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation (Catalyzing New International Collaboration) and is being conducted in collaboration with colleagues from the Federal University of ABC in Brazil. Based on materials provided by University of Missouri. KL munews.missouri.edu A theoretical simulation of the distribution of the polymer on peptide nanotubes Photo courtesy Dr. Guha bioplastics MAGAZINE [06/15] Vol. 10 27
