Waste = Food

Waste Equals Food is an enlightening documentary that follows the efforts of chemist Michael Braungart, and architect William McDonough as the two combine efforts in the advancement of Green Technology.

This documentary follows companies like Ford Motor Company and Nike, as they are coming to be one of the leading contributors of waste in todays world.  Ford Motor Company has had tremendous issues concerning hazardous waste, where Nikes' shoes over time have become a stockpile of old shoes.

As we progress, we learn about the various ways that Braungart and McDonough have implemented green technology, or at least "green thinking" in the worlds of mass production.  For instance, one of Fords manufacturing facilities had been redesigned, making the entire plant area green and sustainable. There was also a great deal of focus on the employees of the plant, encouraging higher morale of its workers.  Nike's fundamentals had been examined, and new ideas for green materials and recycling strategies have enabled the company itself to be more sustainable.

Although these areas of the marketplace are gaining acknowledgment for their interests in becoming a green company, the philosophy as a whole is not on the scale it needs to be.  Although implementing green technologies into a pre-existing company can be tremendously expensive, the overall expected  benefits significantly outweigh the costs.

Ford Motor Company's Green Roof

Electronic Wasteland

In our Materials and Processes class we were able to watch the 60 Minutes special featuring the Electronic Wasteland, a place in the Far East where the 'recycling' of electronic materials is highly prominent.  

The focus of this special was to follow a seemingly acceptable American based recycling center that recycles the materials inside of television screens, computer monitors, and other electronics.  Although the focus of the company is to recycle properly, the company is responsible for the exportation of carcinogenic materials such as cathode ray tubes (CRT), high in mercury.  

Shipping these hazardous materials is technically illegal, due to the materials being transported; however, some of these materials are able to slip through the walls of the United States to the Far East.  In China, these so called 'recycling areas' are primarily run by gangs that control certain neighborhoods or boroughs.  

Due to the low amounts of natural materials in China, the citizens of these neighborhoods are paid through the gangs to dismantle electronics to harvest the valuable materials from parts inside of computers, cellphones, televisions, and other electronic devices. 

If carried out properly, the extraction of these materials are less likely to cause problems in humans, as well as the environment. However, there are few regulations protecting its citizens from the ways these materials can be harvested. For instance, the people who disassemble these objects vary in age.  They sit at home around an open furnace melting away the connections that hold certain pieces to motherboards.  Once heated, the units are pried off, smashed and hopefully they have not destroyed the valuable components.  

Another issue with the electronic wasteland is the amount that is 'recycled'.  With todays' age of technology, there are new things being put on the market daily, rendering prior technology useless.  Piles of electronic waste sit in fields and decompose, contaminating water supplies of areas surrounding them. The particular region involved with these electronic fields have to have water shipped in so the inhabitants can survive.  

The worst part is that the Chinese Government conceals the matter at hand by misleading the 60 Minutes reporters to believe that the recycling efforts are to the best of their abilities.  These are lies.  

GRIP Equipment

Justin Atwater Taylor is the founder of GRIP Equipment. This company is the brainchild of Taylor's thesis project while at the University of Kansas, where he developed an over-the-shoulder bag for holding disc golf discs. Developed for use with the modern day sport of Disc Golf, GRIP is breaking new ground into the primarily undeveloped sport, and making the brand known.

The GRIP brand is bolstered by the support of various professionals in the Disc Golf world, and there are specialty bags endorsed by these professionals. The bags are made of high quality materials that are able to withstand the environments, even including a rain cover, similar to the way traditional golfers protect their clubs.

Most bags are produced on a large scale from the far east, where manufacturing costs are lower. The specialty bags are produced in limited runs, primarily based on the number of pre-orders. Most bags are in the range of $200-$300.  Although the buy-in is high, the rigorous construction of these products are worth the investment.

With extensive ergonomic testing from the strap form to placement of pockets inside the bag, these bags are built for overall user comfort and for the love of Disc Golf.

Manifesto of Design

A Personal Manifesto of Design

Design creates the future:  Along with the natural rhythm of society, design has the powerful ability to shape the world as we see it.  The fact that we study and practice design provides us with a highly competitive advantage.

Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly. (The 5^th rule of the Dalai Llama):  Following rules can only get you so far.  When it comes to design, there are no rules; so why not push things to the point of being ludicrous?  There is always time for adjustment, so start big.

Promote your ideas:  Even if your cause is small, there must be someone out there who feels the same way.  If you can connect with a group of people regardless of size, the belief may catch on over time.

Dissect objects:  Taking things apart gives you an idea of what construction methods are commonly used.  This can also promote ones thinking of what could be improved.  Repetitively reconstructing objects allows you to understand the limitations of potential ideas, as well as stimulating the growth of new ones.

                                                                                                           

Build things: Making something useful is a self fulfilling task that can be completed by anyone. 

                                                                                                                   

Travel:  I think travelling is essential for anyone, designer or not.  Being immersed in a new place enables you to learn the ins and outs of an unfamiliar culture, and expands your global understanding.  You would be surprised at how different things are, even in a place like England.

Don’t clean as frequently as you should:  Let papers pile up, but not trash.  Having papers or drawings lying around gives you the ability to revisit ideas more frequently than if they were in a folder in some storage cabinet.

Don’t be perfectionists: Why try to be perfect in a world that is not?

Network: Connecting with the people around you serves as a lifetime pipeline of information.  Especially in college, with the variety of style and life aspirations, it is an absolute necessity to make friends to learn from.

Record Progress:  Keep a library of sketches.  It is fun to see the progress when you compare them to what you do today.  I’ve found myself learning from old sketches as well.

Home Contained

Debbie Glassberg had the idea for home contained while in Guangzhou, China in 2007.  She noticed that down the road from her father's factory, that another company was manufacturing large steel shipping crates. It was then where she had the idea.

Back in Kansas City, Debbie had teamed up with Steve McDowell, Laura Lesniewski, and Josh Hemberger to bring together these five containers into a space that is defined by three categories.

Container space: offering unique livable spaces in and of themselves.
Contained space: the space created between more than one container, allowing flexibility in an overall plan.
Uncontained Space: which is the space beyond the structure, integrally connected to an overall nurturing environment.

The interior of the living space presented is way more spacious and invited than I had originally predicted.  At first while imagining a home built solely of corrugated steel, I did not know what to think. I had imagined the residence to seem cramped and intrusive, yet after further exploration, the house is beautiful. One thing I had not imagined was the spaciousness of the home. When one thinks of a shipping container, I will assume that many will not find the existing space too inviting.

Once inside, it is obvious that the planning and layout of the space makes this structure a home.  Only a few walls have the corrugated aesthetic, reminding of you where you really are.  Other than a few reminders of it's origins, the house shines through as a beautiful dwelling, structurally safe and strong.

Huhtamaki Packaging

Most days in the art&design lab are stress filled, so there is the necessity for coffee.  Little did I know, Huhtamaki is responsible for allowing me to drink my coffee or tea each morning.  Huhtamaki's facility is based in De Soto Kansas, where they work with molded fibers, foodservice products, consumer goods, and rigid plastics.  

To produce a majority of their plastic products, Huhtamaki prides itself on high volume injection molding.  Something that that impressed me is their use of recycled materials.  For instance, the molded fiber products Huhtamaki rolls out are composed of 100% recycled materials like newspapers and paperboard. Primarily used for the packaging of food, these materials are excellent for absorbing shock, allowing longer shelf life and overall product dexterity.  

Huhtamaki does a great job of promoting other companies through their labeling. Improving shelf presence is a overall goal of this company, and their packaging supports this goal tremendously.  They primarily use lithographic printing on their products.  The reduction of certain materials used in this process has earned them the USA EPA Award of 2003.  

How It's Made: Swiss Luggage

In our materials class, we had the assignment of identifying various manufacturing techniques of various objects within an everyday store like Target. Out of a hat, I pulled the category 'luggage'.

At Target, there are roughly 7-10 prominent manufacturers of luggage: Skyline (Skechers), Heys, Embark, Sierre, Grip, Swiss Luggage.  For this particular assignment, I chose to examine Swiss Luggage for its high quality fabrication methods, and for its outstanding warranty protection.

The chosen luggage was the 20" carry-on pilot case.  The attention catcher for me were die-cast fixtures, like the rivets, zippers, and the handrail.  Whenever I am going to make a purchase, I see it as an investment; therefore, I am always looking for the highest quality regardless of price. Like my father tells me all the time, "if you take care of it, it takes care of you".

Other features of this luggage set includes molded rubber fittings, poly-eurothane wheels, rubberized bumpers, leather patchwork, elastic harnesses, and a built in toiletry bag.  The warranty was what ultimately sealed the deal.  Swiss's 10 year warranty blew most others out of the water.  Similar luggage sets had an average of 5-7 year warranty.  For the extra $30, you get an extended three years of protection, and a high quality, well made Swiss bag.

The Various Ways of Prototyping

Stereolithography (SLA): The SLA process was coined in 1986 by Charles W. Hall.  SLA is the method of layering curable materials in a successive form to create an object. Photopolymer resin sits in a tub as a ultraviolet laser.  The laser builds up layer after layer of this resin until the desired form is completely traced. The drawback of SLA printing is time.  Depending on the complexity of the part, the manufacturing time varies accordingly.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS):  The SLS process uses a high-powered carbon-dioxide laser to selectively fuse pieces of plastic, metal, ceramics, or glass into a three dimension form.  The material lays in a tub underneath the laser.  With the input to the SLS system being a CAD file, the file is then broken down into layers, determined by the complexity of the part.  This process is well known for being stronger and more rigid that similar prototyping methods.  For instance, one SLS produced part can be a finished product if desired. 

Fused deposition modeling (FDM): The FDM process is one that most are familiar with.  I have been using FDM machines since high-school.  These machines are relatively cheaper than its other competitors.  The FDM process begins with a CAD file, then the FDM machine does the rest.  In Fused deposition modeling, the printer head lays out a molten bead of plastic.  After these rows of liquid plastic are 'printed', the machine rebuilds specific areas of the piece until the desired shape is complete.  Although these machines are cheaper, the main drawback is with this process is time.  The fact that the FDM machine needs to repetitively layer up .005" beads of plastic means extensive manufacturing time. 

Laminated Object Manufacturing (LOM):  The LOM process is one of the cheaper processes used in todays prototyping world.  The LOM process uses paper which is laser-cut or machine cut to the desired dimensions.  Each individual piece is cut to its specific dimension by input provided by CAD data.  Paper models, once completed, have similar finishing properties as wood, which allows this process to be a final output level of manufacturing.  

Mongolian Yurt Construction

Nomadic Mongolians are known for the style of dwelling they live in.  This make-shift home is called a yurt, and they only take about an hour or two to be entirely constructed.  Having been around since the 13th century, the Mongols have perfected this style of living.

The walls that make up the entire circumference of the yurt structure are similar to sliding slat blinds.  The walls of the yurt are able to compress together, making traveling and relocation with/of the yurt easy.  When the walls of stretched out and arrayed in a circle, the yurt now has a strong structure to rest on.

The next piece of building materials, and probably the most important one, is the circular wooden dome that sits in the center of the yurt.  This dome is the crux of the roof.  Two legs project from the dome to the floor on the inside of the yurt.  Wooden poles lock into this dome, and the opposite end of the same pole is strapped tightly to the side of the wall.  To hold objects in place, the Mongols use specific types of rope, most commonly from the hair of a yak.

Once the dome is secure, the main structure is complete!

Now it is time to insulate the Yurt.  The first layer is intended to waterproof the structure, so they wrap the structure in a tarp-like plastic. This layer is followed by skins or felts that insulate the yurt for warmth. There are usually two or three layers that comprise the exterior shield.

A yurt is typically furnished with the necessities for life on the Mongolian planes. Typically a wood-burning stove is present, as well as a couple beds (depending on family size), and basic kitchen amenities.  If you are a guest in someone's yurt, make sure you sit on the LEFT! The right is for family...

Berry Plastics

Berry Plastics has a plant in Lawrence, so our materials class group went to check it out. While main headquarters, as well as R&D are located in Indiana, this particular site focuses on drinking cups and food packaging. On a yearly average, Berry Plastics will go through 2.5 billion pounds of plastic resin (1.1 million metric tons) to manufacture all products.  It is also the largest producer of duct-tape.  They also focus on a few specialty items such as specific types of film.

The plant utilizes eight thermoform machines as well as twenty-one injection molding machines.  The thermoform machines at Berry primarily manufacture drinking cups and their respective lids.  Such products are typically produced for food companies such as McDonalds, Burger King, and TacoBell.

What amazed me was how much is produced on any day.  The average day yields around 1.5 million drinking cups, as well as lids.  The thermoform machines are what makes this happen; they are able to produce an estimated 50-75 cups per mold.  With a seven second manufacturing time, it is understandable how they are able to produce these products on such a large scale.

I wish we were able to take pictures, I am certain you would be impressed as well.

Manufactured Landscapes

 Edward Burtynsky is internationally acclaimed artist due to his large-scale photographs of "manufactured landscapes".  These images include but are not limited to: recycling yards,s factories, dams, and old mines.  I saw his documentary, Manufactured Landscapes, and honestly i was not impressed.

People are acclaiming trash.  Trash is rather terrible.  Although people recycle, the combination of different types of plastics, i.e a grade 4 plastic cup, is not mixable with a grade 5 plastic.  These combinations are vast, and most of them are not able to be mixed. The average recycling contains a whole mix of different types of plastics.  Even though you are technically recycling, one may not comprehend this fact.

With this movie, I do not feel that Burtysnky's aim for this documentary has been followed correctly.  The fact that people are admiring landfills for beauty may subliminally call for an increase in consumption of 'recyclable' materials. Increasing the amount of debris in landfills is not doing any good.

I would ask you readers to watch the film to see if they have the same beliefs as I do, and if not, please repost why!

El Dorado Inc.

El Dorado is located in downtown Kansas City.  Fabrication is their primary source of employment. They focus their fabrication on a large scale, aiming for residential, condominiums, and high-rises.
They work with a lot of tube steel, using MIG and TIG welders to showcase their immaculate craft.  Most of this fabrication takes place in their shop located below their offices. This shop is a 'high-output' shop, meaning that they can handle a pretty substantial work load.  Objects/ projects that get too large are outsourced, or materials to be galvanized are outsourced as well.

Although El Dorado is known for being cohesive throughout their entire design process, each client comes with different intent. El Dorado's ability to use their philosophies to benefit others is what sets them apart from the competition.

Lawrence Paper Company

The Lawrence Paper Company has been around since 1882, and is located only 5 minutes away from KU campus.  Last week, we were able to go behind the scenes with our Materials&Processes class. While we were there, we saw many things like state of the art, multi-million dollar manufacturing equipment. One of these box making machines is able to produce an entire production run in as little as an hour (depending on order quantity)

What I found to be the most fascinating part of our tour was when we walked through the die-making room.  From my experience during my freshman year internship, I had only designed flat dies, where as the standard at LPC is a semi-circle cutting head. I was also impressed that these dies are traditionally assembled by hand because many of the dies I designed were cut using CAD/CAM and other tooling methods.

 These are the dies in storage.
When in use, these are mounted on rotating cylinders.

 These are huge rolls of paper varying in weight from one to several tons.
Market price per ton is around $550.

Large paper roller.

Dimensional Innovations

This Thursday we had the privilege of going to visit Dimensional Innovations. They have been around since the mid 90's, when they primarily did work for theaters.  Today, their clientele has expanded tremendously through custom manufacturing.

DI is definitely a true innovator when it comes to bridging the gap between design and engineering.  All areas of DI work seamlessly to produce one of a kind creations for each client they work with.  The main benefit of DI is that all work is done in-house, except for some machining jobs. This allows for cheaper products, less build time, increased communication skills, and overall improved products.

Typical fabrication materials consist of aluminum, acrylics, polycarbonates, and more; most of which are machined in-house.  I was impressed upon learning that they have custom designed machines specifically manufactured for their patented processes, along with the expansive machining section of the facility.

This work setting is the type of place that I could see myself working at.  I tend to be the type of person who tries to be on top of everything constantly, and I think this work scenario would be right up my alley.

 Fabrication of a modern chandelier.

This is the display stand that will hold one of Toyota's new cars, also displaying their new slogan.
(I know it at you don't)

Mardis Gras: Made in China

It is safe to say that one of America's biggest parties is the Mardis Gras festival held each year in New Orleans. If you are familiar with this festival, you are familiar with the beads that are exchanged for partial nudity.  Most people fail to see where the beads come from. These beads although rather cheap and simple, are manufactured manually and produced on a large scale.

The beads come from China, and are manufactured in work-camp type scenarios by people who will work to complete a quota for around 14 hours straight.  They eat, sleep, and work in these factories 300 days out of the year, only leaving on Sundays and for the Chinese new year.

Although the workers are there by choice, the conditions are kind of terrible. Ten people to a room with five beds, cafeteria style meals each day, shared showers/bathrooms are among the few things they deal with each day.  The beads are composed of polyethylene and polystyrene.  Polystyrene is also a carcinogenic.  The factories are not well ventilated so toxins are constantly inhaled by most, if not all workers.

I believe if that the workers are there by choice, the people in charge of the factories need to step up their game when it comes to working conditions. Although the money the factory makes isn't on such a grand scale as the US, but pay the workers real wages for the work they do, and keep them safe.

Droid X Dissection

As our class has been studying the effects of E-waste on the world, we found it necessary to dissect the most common form of technology today: the cell phone.  Traditionally I keep all of the cellphones I have put in use, and I destroy the ones that I didn't like.  Fortunately, I kept my old Motorola Droid X, now outdated but still useful.

As I disassembled the specimen, I was interested in seeing that very little (if any) glue was used in the construction of the phone. Through our research, we learned that glue used in the technology manufacturing field is very toxic, and is rather carcinogenic.  This Droid was held primarily held together with screws of various sizes, which allows me to think that some of the phones on the market are built for deconstruction.

All together, there were six primary layers of the phone which includes the:

• screen cover which covers...
• the screen itself which rests on... 
• the chassis that holds the...
• motherboard, protected by...
• the back cover.

Sketches of Frank Gehry

Frank Gehry is one of the most inspiring people in todays realm of architectural design. I have seen the autobiography called "Sketches of Frank Gehry" multiple times. The first time I saw this film was in Mr. Allen's humanitities class, and it actually helped me understand what I wanted to do with my life.  Prior to seeing this video, I had thought i wanted to be a businessman like my father.  Obviously, after seeing this enlightening video, I had realized that this choice would not suit me best.

In Highschool, I was a CAD junkie. I spent all of my time in the CAD room hand-drafting, model making or doing computer modeling.  I never even thought that I could do this for  a living until I saw Sketches of Frank Gehry for the first time.  It made me realize that I should do architecture, after all, I had been doing work like this for the last four years.

Since I already been accepted into the University of Kansas business school, I had to fly to KU and present my portfolio to the dean of architecture, who proceeded to tell me that he loved my portfolio, but he didn't think I should be an architect.  My heart dropped and I figured I had just wasted two or three days for nothing.  Then he said that he is going to call Brian Hanabury of the Industrial Design department, and he pushed me out of his office to talk to him.

I met with Hanabury and he enjoyed my work, so he told me to submit a portfolio to the design department.  Needless to say, I was accepted to the ID program solely due to the "Sketches of Frank Gehry".

Zahner

For over 115 years Zahner has pioneered the architectural metal industry by applying aerospace engineering to the fabrication of art and architecture. Zahner is internationally renowned for intelligent engineering and precision craftsmanship on buildings throughout the world. The museum-level craft and engineering that Zahner consistently provides can be found in the Americas, Europe, Asia & the Middle East. (source:www.azahner.com)

This past week our Materials class had the privilege of experiencing Zahner's shop settings. Zahner usually has clients that are architects that want to have free-form/flowing buildings that require extreme engineering efforts. The client that I am most impressed by is Frank Gehry, whom Zahner helped produce his pavilion in Millenium Park, in Chicago. Seeing this sculpted pavilion every day produced endless questions for me to ponder, now I know some of the answers.

Zahners' primary materiall choices consist of copper, steel, aluminum, stainless, titanium, and certain types of infused steels.  More recently, Zahner has been experimenting with newer materials like copper infused glass, and other glass materials.  

With the current age of technology, most of Zahner's processes require CAD modeling, and CAM to produce a lot of the pieces that we see in the world today.  Most of Zahner's tooling is multi-functional, which allows Zahner to produce product more cost effective and efficiently. Although a considerable amount of processes are accomplished with the use of multi-functional robotic technology, some techniques are too intricate for them, requiring humans to step in and complete the job. 

Hallmark Cards

The Hallmark production center in Lawrence Kansas was first opened in 1958.  With a facility of 650,000 square feet, it produces nearly 12 million cards during a busy production week.  This facility is one of three manufacturing facilities in the United states.  Besides cards, Hallmark also produces ribbon, bows, film-wrapped items, invites, and stickers.  This facility accounts for nearly 40% of the Hallmark trade.

Materials commonly used by hallmark include paper, foil, film, corrugated cardboard, ribbon or bows (extracted mixture).  One thing that is noteworthy about Hallmark is that they only throw out 2.5% of their garbage, making them a highly sustainable manufacturer.

The cards are laid out digitally on the computer, then they are die cut, sorted and boxed.  All of the paper that is not utilized is to be recycled.  Depending on the style of card, there are a lot of finishes that can be applied. Most of these finishes are heat applied, some of them use glue.

Finishing technologies:

• halftone hot foil
• cloisonne
• textured prism background
• halftone dot prism
• prism without background
• flitter/laser
• puff print
• gold bronze 
• white lithography
• varnish
• flitter/flock

I found myself most impressed with how sustainable the company is.  With all of the materials and scraps that are produced, I imagined that the production floor would be covered with paper and other things.  Another aspect that impressed me was that nearly everything is produced in house!  With less out-sourced manufacturing, Hallmark is a dominating force in the world of cards. 

Star Signs

Star Signs is a local business located in Lawrence Kansas.  We had the opportunity to visit Star Signs to see how they worked in their shop, and to see what kind of tools they use.

Star Signs designs and manufacturers signs of all types for companies around the globe.  They specialize in signs for: civic and fine arts, sports and entertainment, corporate, healthcare, and retail.

To manufacture these signs, they first have industrial designers draw up a plan in the drawing room, then to the computers to stylize and finish the idea. Once the client approves the design, creation can begin!  Star Signs constructs their signs out of a variety of materials including:  polycarbonate, steel, aluminum, acrylic, vinyl, polyurethane, maple, walnut, etc.

Most of these materials are shipped in with stock sizes and measurements.  They have all the utilities necessary to fabricate signs from start to finish. some of these materials include a giant steel sheer, large CNC routers, full paint booth and also a curing room.

Not all of Star Signs is involved in huge industrial signs to be placed outside! They also incorporate large flat bed printers to lay out large murals that can be adhered to walls.

The thing I found most interesting about Star Signs is that there is a lot more going on than meets the eye.  I was particularly impressed with the amount of processes they can handle under one roof, as well as how many different products they are able to create simultaneously.

 large bed CNC (computer numerical control)

converted Ford automotive paint booth.

Reuter Organs

Reuter has been custom fabricating organs for nearly an entire century.  They build for clientele who wish to have organs in: churches, department stores, universities, theaters, or even residential areas.

Reuter uses traditional construction  methods when creating every organ.  From ideation to fabrication, everything Reuter does is 100% custom.  Commonly used materials in the organ building process include:  Iron, wood led, nickel, leather, brass, copper, computer chips, steel, chalk, bone, tin poplar, goat skin, zinc, walnut, kangaroo skin, oak, etc... the list goes on and on!

As for the pipes themselves, they are all made from hand rolled steel formed on a bed. After the metal is shaped around mandrels, they are soldered together and sent for tuning. Router also does all of the wood working and engraving on every organ!  With an entire wood-shop at their disposal, Reuter is one of the few all inclusive companies!

From start to finish Reuter does it all, and I am lucky to say I was able to see how their fine organs are built.