3form is developing a new materials platform called 100 Percent, which is comprised of recycled household HDPE containers. HDPE (high-density polyethylene) is a remarkably useful material and something each of us comes in contact with everyday. Bottles made from HDPE have good stiffness and barrier properties and are ideal for packaging products having a short shelf-life such as milk. HDPE's good chemical resistance allows it to be used in containers holding household detergents or industrial chemicals. Unlike PETG which is used to make ecoresin, HDPE is an opaque material.
3form is transforming this utilitarian packaging material into engineered panels, and production and engineering personnel are working to attain optimal surface characteristics and panel dimensions for partitions, work surfaces, furniture, lab/research environments, educational environments, and outdoor surfaces. [via 3form; suggested by Lilian Asperin-Clyman, San Francisco.]
London-based XCO2 has developed an elegant vertical-axis wind turbine which is virtually silent and vibration free, and therefore ideally suited to both urban sites and exposed locations.The simple and robust design (patent pending) has just one moving part, maximizing reliability and minimizing maintenance requirements.
Unlike other renewable energy sources, quietrevolution is also available in a unique model capable of creating a striking visual display that is part illuminated billboard, part artwork, part renewable energy device.
Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) embedded in each of its three S-shaped blades fire in sequence as the blades rotate, painting a video screen that appears to hang in the air. This full color and motion image is clearly visible day and night. [via XCO2; suggested by Jim Kinney, Columbus, OH.]
Carpet-Burns Ltd. manufactures Heat Treated Carpet, which is a 100% recycled material created from carpet manufacturers' faulty or end-of-line carpet waste. HTC may be molded into any 3d form, is waterproof, durable and hard wearing, low maintenance, and non-porous with a very high resistance to staining. HTC is suitable for interior and exterior applications and available in various thicknesses.
No glues, resins or stabilizers are used in the production of the material. Possible applications include kitchens, bathrooms, bars, restaurants, flat-packed furniture, flooring (screed and tile), staircases, shop fittings, public seating, architectural features, paneling, tiles, and molded consumables. [via Carpet-Burns Ltd., suggested by Kelly Atkins, Derby, UK.]
Remember Light-Transmitting Concrete? Áron Losonczi, the Hungarian inventor of the fiber-optic embedded blocks, has developed a light fixture called LitraCube which utilizes four interlocking panels of the material.
As promised when the material was first developed, a wall made of “LitraCon” allegedly has the strength of traditional concrete but thanks to an embedded array of glass fibers can display a view of the outside world, such as the silhouette of a tree, for example.
“Thousands of optical glass fibers form a matrix and run parallel to each other between the two main surfaces of every block,” explained its inventor Áron Losonczi. “Shadows on the lighter side will appear with sharp outlines on the darker one. Even the colours remain the same. This special effect creates the general impression that the thickness and weight of a concrete wall will disappear.”
For just 595 Euros for LitraCube, you can claim you have built your own "structure" out of LiTraCon.
One of the most intriguing recent developments in the display industry has been the discovery and development of polymer light emitting diodes (PLEDs). It all started in the Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University in 1989, when it was found that 'organic' LEDs could be made using conjugated polymers.
In particular, polyphenylene vinylene (PPV) was found to emit yellow-green light when sandwiched between a pair of electrodes. The initial device efficiencies were very low, but the researchers quickly realized the commercial potential of this discovery, especially for the manufacture of displays which emit their own light. These would offer significant advantages over the main display technology used today (liquid crystal display or LCD), in which a separate light source has to be filtered in several stages to produce an image.
PLEDs have a number of intrinsic advantages over liquid crystal devices. PLED is an emissive technology: it emits light as a function of its electrical operation. A PLED display consists of polymer material manufactured on a substrate of glass or plastic, and does not require additional elements such as backlights, filters and polarizers. PLED technology is very energy efficient and lends itself to the creation of ultra-thin lighting displays that will operate at lower voltages. The resulting benefits include brighter, clearer displays with viewing angles approaching 180 degrees; simpler construction resulting in cheaper, more robust display modules, and fast response times allowing full color video pictures even at low temperature. [via Cambridge Display Technology Ltd.]
According to Preform Manufacturing, Decato is the most environmentally sensitive interior partition product available on the market. Over 80% of the product is from recycled, bio-based, or sustainable materials, and is virtually 100% recyclable. Core materials are totally non-toxic. Furniture component parts are available from Environmentally Friendly Industries, featuring 100% recycled content core materials and finished with biodegradable low VOC finishes.
Moreover, the panels are available in any height or width, and the system is designed to accommodate almost any other manufacturer's components, including cantilever brackets, worksurfaces, shelves, upper cabinets, and paper organization systems. The system is engineered such that panels can be added or de-mounted in two minutes or less without electrical or communication interruptions.
With regard to materials, Decato achieves a high tech appearance with a variety of panel materials and textures. The system makes a broad statement with its generous use of aluminum. Panel types include Acoustic, Non-Acoustic, Plexiglas, Graphic Plexiglas, Perforated Metal or Wood, and Ribbed Aluminum. Doors include Sliding Glass, Conventional Glass or Solid Core Doors - all with locksets. Privacy elements do not have to be panels - they can be Canvas Sails, or Silk Screened Images. [via the preform website; suggested by Leslie Synnestvedt, Seattle.]
The textile brick designed by Erwan e Ronan Bouroullec for Kvadrat is the latest step in their process of deconstructing space. That process is now eroding the delimitation of space by such restraints as walls, doors and passageways – all hitherto regarded as closed and permanently fixed entities – which can instead be transformed into free configurations. The soft brick is in fact self-organized in a continuous surface. This determines its growth in space according to the context.
The brick’s basic module has no clearly perceptible form as such. Rather, its design springs from the scope for connection offered by its actual geometry. Once aggregated into a settled combination, the basic module tends to lose its separate identity and merge into a continuous flow. Each unit is a “fabric sandwich” containing a soft and highly deadening layer of cellular foam. In this way, areas enclosed by the flexible textile brick surfaces acquire a special sound quality that tends to create a muffled, protected, inward and warm sensation of that space. [via Kvadrat; suggested by Craig Brimley, New York.]
Blizzard Composite GmbH manufactures high-tech plastic composites for the architectural field as well as the trucking industry. Their core expanding machinery heats up and vertically expands solid thermoplastic sheets, which are then processed into sandwich panels by lamination equipment. Due to the unique geometry of the PepCore, the panels are of low weight and provide an excellent combination of high stiffness and compressive strength. [via Blizzard Composite; suggested by Kai-Uwe Bergmann, Copenhagen.]
Founded in 1993, Chromatic Technologies, Inc. is a privately held corporation that creates offset, flexographic, and screen inks which change color with heat and cold (thermochromic) or sunlight and darkness (photochromic). CTI was the first to develop a thermochromic offset ink and holds several U.S. and Canadian patents for this technology. CTI also makes a Glow-in-the-Dark ink.
Thermochromic Inks come in three standard temperatures: 15C (Low temp), 31C (Body temp) and 45C (High temp). The 'Low Temperature' ink is used for applications in the refrigeration temperature range, like beverage labels. 'Body Temperature' ink is designed to show color at normal room temperature and to change when rubbed with the finger or by breathing on it. It is used on documents and security packaging. The 'High Temperature' formulation changes color just below the pain threshold temperature for skin, and is used on safety labels and hot beverage labels.
Photochromic Inks are invisible unless UV light, e.g. sunlight, hits them. Once UV light hits the ink, it blooms into color. This special brand of ink is great for everything from high-security documents and products to interactive advertising and direct mail pieces. With photochromics, no special techniques are needed to hide an image; the image is colorless until it is taken outside into sunlight or placed under UV lighting.
Glow-in-the-Dark (GID) inks are not a new concept. CTI has taken traditional GID inks to the next level by inventing Flexographic and Offset inks. There are thousands of safety applications for these inks, and even more promotional ideas. By using high speed printing methods, this very popular special effect can be added at a very low incremental cost. [via the CTI website; suggested by Andrew McCune.]
