Consumer & Gadgets
Monos' new powered Kiyo UVC Water Bottle ensures people on the go have clean, purified drinking water. According to Monos, the UVC kills up to 99.9 percent of bacteria and other pathogens lurking inside the water. They also ...
Jan 13, 2021
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Energy & Green Tech
Geothermal energy is an energy source of increasing importance. In the pursuit of energy efficiency to achieve set climate goals, it is important to get to understand the technical challenges in detail. The plastic pipes ...
Nov 5, 2020
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Energy & Green Tech
Today's silicon solar panels are an industry standard, but these rigid, heavy blocks may be shunted aside by plastic rivals—lightweight, flexible solar panels that could be printed and stuck onto buildings or placed in ...
Oct 13, 2020
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Engineering
Three-dimensional (3-D) printing technology has evolved tremendously over the last decade to the point where it is now viable for mass production in industrial settings. Also known as 'additive manufacturing,' 3-D printing ...
Oct 5, 2020
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Robotics
Japanese grocery chain FamilyMart has teamed up with Tokyo startup Telexistence to test the idea of using a remotely controlled shelf stocking robot named the Model-T to restock grocery shelves. On its website, Telexistence ...
Business
Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle said Thursday it planned to slash CO2 emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and reduce its use of plastics as part of a new environmental strategy.
Sep 17, 2020
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Energy & Green Tech
What if you could solve two of Earth's biggest problems in one stroke? UC Riverside engineers have developed a way to recycle plastic waste, such as soda or water bottles, into a nanomaterial useful for energy storage.
Aug 12, 2020
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Machine learning & AI
Many computational properties are maximized when the dynamics of a network are at a 'critical point," a state where systems can quickly change their overall characteristics in fundamental ways, transitioning e.g. between ...
Jul 22, 2020
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Machine learning & AI
What if doctors had more time to spend addressing their patients' concerns? That's the thrust behind the push for integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into medicine. By using complex algorithms to detect patterns in large ...
Jun 26, 2020
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38
Engineering
The high-ceilinged workshop in Darmstadt is usually open to anyone—from hobbyists trying new machinery or techniques to high-tech startup workers tinkering with prototypes.
May 13, 2020
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A plastic material is any of a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic organic solids used in the manufacture of industrial products. Plastics are typically polymers of high molecular mass, and may contain other substances to improve performance and/or reduce production costs. Monomers of plastic are either natural or synthetic organic compounds.
The word plastic is derived from the Greek πλαστικός (plastikos) meaning capable of being shaped or molded, from πλαστός (plastos) meaning molded. It refers to their malleability, or plasticity during manufacture, that allows them to be cast, pressed, or extruded into a variety of shapes—such as films, fibers, plates, tubes, bottles, boxes, and much more.
The common word plastic should not be confused with the technical adjective plastic, which is applied to any material which undergoes a permanent change of shape (plastic deformation) when strained beyond a certain point. Aluminum which is stamped or forged, for instance, exhibits plasticity in this sense, but is not plastic in the common sense; in contrast, in their finished forms, some plastics will break before deforming and therefore are not plastic in the technical sense.
There are two types of plastics: thermoplastics and thermosetting polymers. Thermoplastics are the plastics that do not undergo chemical change in their composition when heated and can be moulded again and again; examples are polyethylene, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). Thermosets can melt and take shape once; after they have solidified, they stay solid.
The raw materials needed to make most plastics come from petroleum and natural gas.
This text uses material from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA
