Applied Technology Review : News

The recycling and reuse of plastics to manufacture new goods prevent plastic waste out of the atmosphere and have sustainability benefits. Today, scientists and innovators are working to solve even more significant problems, such as eliminating waste and emissions. One of the most promising ways to achieve this is to extend the use of advanced recycling technology. So, what exactly does that mean, and how does it work to boost sustainability? The recycling method is called conventional, or mechanical, recycling; it involves gathering, rinsing, heating, and reforming plastics into tiny pellets used to produce new items. Traditional recycling works best with things that one puts into the home recycling bins, such as plastic bottles of water and milk jugs. It is the most common method of municipal recycling. In recent years, advances in plastic packaging (like soup pouches, tuna, deli meats, and trail mixtures) have helped keep people's food fresher longer. This new and updated packaging reduces food spoilage and waste, improves shelf life, and makes shipping goods more effective because they are smaller and take up less space. However, conventional recycling does not work on certain forms of plastic packaging. Thus, creative firms have developed sophisticated recycling methods that make it possible to recycle these hard-to-recycle plastics. These emerging technologies break down plastics into their original components so that they can be used to produce new products. This aspect helps society to recycle and replace higher volumes of more varieties of plastics. The recycling and reuse of plastics to manufacture new goods prevent plastic waste out of the atmosphere and have sustainability benefits. One organization commissioned a pyrolysis study, an advanced recycling technique that breaks down plastics using heat. The study showed that this form of advanced recycling resulted in half of the greenhouse gas emissions as waste-to-energy, another tool for treating plastic waste. Advanced recycling is also a cost-effective method of collecting and reusing plastics, helping to keep them out of the landfill and creating a range of new materials, including plastics of the same consistency as virgin plastics. This is a win for all. Moving forward, current investments to extend and scale advanced recycling technology will boost sustainability efforts and play a key role in building a more circular plastics economy. Over the last three years, the private sector has announced more than 5 billion dollars in spending on both modernized mechanical and advanced recycling technology. By continuing to develop the conventional recycling system and expanding advanced recycling around the world, businesses are building a more sustainable environment and getting closer to achieving the industry's target of reusing, recycling, or restoring 100 percent of used plastic packaging in the U.S. by 2040. ...Read more

Cleanrooms are required to protect human health and industrial product assembly, with the primary goal of preventing the release of whatever particle is being handled within them. A Clean Room or cleanroom is a laboratory setting in which airborne particles are kept at very low concentrations. This space has been segregated, actively cleansed, and is free of a variety of particles and biological material, such as dust, airborne organisms, and vaporized particles. These rooms are required to protect human health and industrial product assembly, with the primary goal of preventing the release of whatever particle is being handled within them. Since multiple characteristics are regulated, they are highly specialized environments. A Clean Room or cleanroom is a laboratory setting in which airborne particles are kept at very low concentrations. This space has been segregated, actively cleansed, and is free of a variety of particles and biological material, such as dust, airborne organisms, and vaporized particles. These rooms are required to protect human health and industrial product assembly, with the primary goal of preventing the release of whatever particle is being handled within them. Since multiple characteristics are regulated, they are highly specialized environments. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a global federation of national standard bodies that was formed to provide standards for similar technologies in various countries. To assess the air quality and cleanliness of cleanrooms, standards and grading have been devised. The number of particles less than 0.5mm in one cubic foot of air is measured in Federal Standard 209 (A through D) of the United States, and this count is used to classify the cleanroom. The preliminary norm for the classification of clean zones and cleanrooms was Federal Standard 209E; however, in 1999, a new global standard replaced it (ISO 14644-1). To assure the quality of the product being produced or the effectiveness of the procedure being conducted in the cleanroom, satisfactory cleanroom air quality is required. Some type of airborne sampling is required to evaluate whether the cleanroom meets the worldwide standard. Owing to the contributions of dynamic particulate levels, variability in sampling technique, and discrepancies or inconsistencies between the calibration and maintenance of sensors, there is frequent inconsistency in readings of airborne particles in cleanrooms. ISO categorization, on the other hand, provides a comprehensive framework for addressing discrepancies across different instruments.   ...Read more

Industry 4.0, or the fourth industrial revolution, is not, as many perceive, an initiative to secure the survival of Western manufacturing units in the face of low-wage competition from China and developing countries. It is, instead, a move towards next-generation production methods that will lead to further globalization, especially for small and medium-sized companies.  The term “Industry 4.0” was coined in Germany in 2011, but it reflects a general development in manufacturing. The consulting company McKinsey defines it as the next phase in digitization, driven by a sharp rise in data volumes, computational power and connectivity, the emergence of analytics and business-intelligence capabilities, new forms of human-machine interaction and improvements in transferring digital instructions to the physical world, such as advanced robotics and 3D printing . The potential for increased productivity is considered huge. Critics say that Industry 4.0 is not just a means to return production to the West, as machines take over with M2M (machine-to-machine) communication and the IoT (Internet of Things) , but that it will inevitably lead to factories devoid of humans and to increased unemployment. Experts at professional services company PWC say Industry 4.0 will create digital networks and ecosystems that in many cases will span the globe but will still retain distinct regional footprints, and both developed and developing markets stand to gain dramatically. Still, a major obstacle is standardization. Enabling companies to create production ecosystems based on global capabilities has the potential to boost business for smaller companies and companies outside the big cities and industrial regions. ...Read more