Community 3D Print HUB Plan

A plan to consolidate a community's un-recycled material into filament to be used for a community 3D printing HUB. Users can vote / propose new products to be manufactured: Top voted products are assembled.

Different considerations: 

1) What if companies / manufacturers bid on the rights to manufacture --> sell the 3D printed products (Do users commit?)

2) Recycled material / funds are allocated and calculated per user: spent as currency to vote?

3) (similar to kickstarter) Any project / product can be printed as long as pre-determined goal/ cost is met. 

4) Accounts are only held by community/ local government? --> Needs prioritized and met as well with wants.

3 Projct Concepts

Nearly everyone uses stove to prepare certain types of meals, but stoves can be very inefficient. Here are three ways stoves can be improved. 

1. Stove designed to save time and energy. Heating plates of stoves rarely match the size of the pan/pot. In order to save energy heating plates could be made so they can be adjusted to the size of the pan. That way none of the heat from the plate can be lost to surroundings. During cooking, the heat that escapes from the cooking pot can be sucked up and then reused for heating. 

2. Multitasking stoves. Designed so cooking pots will absorb maximum heat and all of the lost heat can be used to charge small electronic devices like cell phones or batteries. Heat energy can be converted into electrical energy. http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/2013/dec/09/new-generator-creates-electricity-directly-from-heat 

3. Stoves designed specifically for cold climates. Fans can be used to distribute the heat from the stove during cooking around the house to keep the house warm during cold winters. 

4. I had a forth idea where sunlight energy can be used for cooking. In the places where it is sunny all year round like Hawaii or places hear equator, stoves can be using solar energy to heat up food.

Project Proposal

In the population with approximately 650,000 people, Seattle can benefit from having the existing green roofs to be transformed into food growing rooftops. As of a survey done in 2009, there are currently 8.5 acres of green roof tops with existing 13,1500 acres of roof tops available to be transformed. Of those 8.5 acres, only 3,631 square feet is used for food growing purposes, when converted to percentages, those 3631 square feet of soil for food results to a minuscule amount too small for percentages. My proposal is to transform the current green roofs into food production green roofs and have budgets set aside to transform the existing green roofs in Seattle.

By moving some food production into the city there will be a decrease in transportation miles which will reduce carbon emission. In addition, being in the city, it will be necessary to grow organically which benefits the consumers, farmers, and the environment. While the rooftops will be used to grow delicate greens, herbs, and fresh berries, the ground level landscaping will be used to plant fruiting trees. I believe that having such an environment will be beneficial to the city and environment since restaurants in the city will have access to fresher and better produce. It might also be possible that the foods grown within the city be sold to customers in the forms of farmers market.

3 concepts for project

dolphin 

about 20 thousands~30 thousands dolphin was killed cruelly in japan, still not get better this condition. 

Japanese government claimed that hunting whale is part of the culture which last more than 400 years, hunting whale was very important to fisherman as an way to maintain business there. 

dolphin was very sensitive to sound. fisherman use wall of sound to hunt dolphin and gather them around, then seal them.  

a relatively high amount of mercury was contained in the body of dolphin, which could cause serious reaction

most of Japanese even don’t know that what they bought on market was actually dolphin meat 

Japanese government don't restrict this killing motion and manipulate the member of IWC to exclude the dolphin from the list of protected whale.

consider to design an product that either could replace or change the need for dolphin meat or appeal to people to protect the dolphin.

Ecological footprint 

my CO2 emission annually = 20224, and U.S average is 16631.

most of emission contributed to the electricity used in heating/ ac and mobility.

3)   i was considering to make an new cooling and heating system that could reduce the usage of electricity. 

water 

reducing the usage of water 

most of water was wasted 

Project Ideas

New generation cooking stove. While cooking using a stove a lot of heat from the stove is lost to the surroundings. I've decided to come up with a new and more efficient kind of stove where all the heat is contributed to cooking and none is lost to surroundings. This would help people to save money on electricity and it would help the environment since less electricity would be used.

Smart water bottle. Water is essential for life and many of us carry around reusable water bottles that keep us hydrated when needed. However, there are many people out there who find reusable water bottle inconvenient. I was thinking about coming up with a new kind of water bottle that can be folded up. Instead of having an empty water bottle and throwing it away a smart water bottle would be able to be folded and can be put away virtually anywhere. This way it can be obtained and refilled anytime and not be a hassle to carry around while it's empty. This would help the environment and people.  

For my third idea I was thinking about focusing on culture aspect. I am not sure what I want to do yet but I was thinking it would be something along the lines of preserving languages. Maybe creating an app that would have all of the written languages in there so anyone can access it and study those languages if desired. 

Depleting Fisheries, Scrap Bike Tubes, the Mountain Pine Beetle

I decided to research three very different problems to potentially focus on for my project.

The first is the unfortunate reality that most fisheries are not being sustainably fished.  There are resources online to decide what fish to eat and which fish to avoid, based on sustainability and health benefits, but most people just don't know or care.  I think that the reason that many people don't care is because they see this as a "saving wildlife" issue, which many people just don't find important.  What they should see it as is a "saving my grandchildren's ability to enjoy fish as I have" issue.

I recently had to replace my bike wheel and tube.  The wheel is scrap metal, and is therefore valuable: someone benefits financially from recycling it.  At the moment, no one benefits financially from recycling my bike tube.  The tube is useless in this function, but it may not be useless in another application.  I would like to research and apply this material to a different application, instead of throwing it in the garbage and adding to already overflowing landfills.

As the climate has warmed, the Mountain Pine Beetle populations have run rampant; they are able to survive the winters in Canada and the PNW.  This means that more and more pine trees are being killed by this beetle.  This jeopardizes the habitats of animals in the forests as well as the jobs of those in the lumber industry.  I would like to address this by preserving the forest ecosystem as well as the employment of those involved.

Project Ideas

Urban Farming: Edible plants and trees in our community: Instead of visual pleasing plants that feed our eyes, having fruiting plants or produce plants along the urban area could potentially increase job for those who are homeless or those needing extra side jobs. Produce plants and trees can be visually pleasing as well with a return from it's edible parts.

Glucose Alerting System: Taking Princeton's developing technology of using a special type of infrared light to obtain blood glucose level, it is possible that with better research a new type of glucose monitoring device can eliminate the traditional prick testing. A wristband with the laser monitoring system will take periodic measurements of the patient, if the glucose is too low--the wristband will vibrate alerting the user of possible hypoglycemia. If the user ignores the vibrations and blood glucose continues to drop, an alarm will sound from the user's phone and connected phones alerting family that their loved one is having a low blood glucose complications. If the blood glucose continues to drop (below 30 mg/dL) medics are alerted because the user may be unresponsive with such low blood glucose. The glucose monitoring armband allows the user to better monitor their diabetes and the alerting system will relieve the family's worries.

Recipes by the People: Users can submit cultural recipes, which are reviewed and posted on website/mobile application. Each recipe will have a little background information of where it comes from and any special meaning behind the dish. Users can submit their recipes to the company for review and editing of background information.

Chinese Manufacturing: Working Conditions

Too often I find myself taking modern technology for granted. In my lifetime alone I have seen the transition from dial-up internet to fiber-optics and high speed cable internet. While my dad would often tell me stories of huge corporate computers, I, among a majority of Americans, carry a super computer in my hand. With a smartphone I can contact a relative across the globe, within seconds, with only the physical expense of pushing a few buttons. 

   It is beyond me to comprehend the electrical and data engineering that allows this communication. Likewise, I found myself equally ignorant of the manufacturing process that physically enabled me to have a smartphone --a product, in the first place. 

   In class we discussed the controversy behind large Chinese manufacturing companies such as Foxconn. Working conditions there were so atrocious that the company had to install suicide-prevention nets around its campus. These workers were not being treated well.

   I feel guilty that I can so carelessly use a product that was so laboriously assembled. I am upset that such conditions are ignored or otherwise accepted to maintain economical efficiency. I feel helpless to change this situation, and I am afraid that those tired, working hands are gears in a mechanism that, if left unchecked, will continue indefinitely. 

Unfair Coffee Trade

Better technology doesn't make everyone better off. Unfair coffee trade is a common problem. Most of the coffee in the United States is being imported from all over the word. Farmers in those coffee growing countries work hard day and night to produce the best coffee they can; however, they do not get much in return. American companies buy bags of coffee beans for a couple of cents. If farmers try to raise the prices for their coffee then the companies would find someone else to buy it from. When the coffee gets imported to the US it is now up to the machines to roast, distribute and even make it for customers. In many places machines make coffee for the customers. With technologies advancing, it is only a matter of time before baristas in coffee shops are replaced with the machines. This will make coffee companies better off because the would no longer have to pay for labor, but it will not benefit the farmers. It is unlikely that the American coffee corporations will start paying more for the coffee they buy from the farmers. It might not seem like it, but we all can help those farmers by buying fair trade coffee. It might not completely cover the cost of growing and distributing the coffee, but it will help and it will make the farmers better off.

http://www.coetail.com/dekokera/2012/10/25/a-visual-take-on-fair-trade/

When our technological advances ends up shortening our lives...

When an idea develops into action or product without thoughtful contemplation, the innovative products designed and made could potentially harm humans rather than benefit. For example, a product may disturb the mental well-being of individuals during production. In the case of producing cell phones, mental health is destroyed when factory workers are pushed to their limits to create the highly valued phones. While we have our expensive phones, these workers are minimally paid and mentally exhausted; so stressed that the factory put up anti-suicide nets to prevent workers from jumping from their residential rooms. As the world advances more into the unknown, it is critical to stop and think, “Are we doing the right thing?” Published in the Journal of Science Advances, scientists concluded that human activity has caused mammal extinction to quicken by 20-100 times when compared to the past. As we inevitably develop more technology, we must consider many aspects: sustaining the environment, sustaining humans, and sustaining the culture many have built. 

Bike Helmets

When I researched how my bike helmet was made, I was stunned to find out that every single component was synthetic.  That meant that each and every piece was, at its beginning, either crude oil or natural gas.  After watching this video and jogging memory for vague chemistry understanding, I realized that you could truly make anything synthetically.  Incredible! 

Another cool thing about the bike helmet manufacturing process is that the outside shell is vacuum formed, a process I have personal experience with in the Advanced Concepts Lab.  I never realized that vacuum forming is a process used in industry; until now, I had always thought of it as merely a prototyping tool.

Sennheiser Momentum Over-ear headphones

   

  As average consumers in modern society it is too easy to concern ourselves only with the process that is driving to the store, picking a product and paying for it. A more discerning eye will find that every product has an extensive and unique lifeline pre-market. Whether it be in the countless conceptual design iterations, the gathering of various materials, or the assembly of these materials, a product passes through many hands before it can reach our own.

       If it is within a scope of sustainability that we choose to examine this pre-market process, we must ask many questions. How carefully is the product designed? For whom? How are the materials gathered? Are these natural resources preserved or cared for? Are the assembly workers treated well? 

Surely it is the equal responsibility of the company, manufacturer, and consumer to ensure the utmost quality and integrity of the product's entire lifeline! Yet how unfortunate is it, that each entity often functions as an individual, blissfully ignorant of the others' agenda. I believe this is a trend in "complacent consumerism" that plagues modern society. If left unchecked, we will continue to deplete our natural resources until exhaustion. That being said, there is hope to be found in responsibility and diligence in the preservation of our environment. 

My Product was the Sennheiser Momentum Over-ear Headphones: they are a luxury headphone produced by Sennheiser as a "fashion" headphone and this much is made clear by the lush and liberal use of leather that covers both the headband and the ear cushions. While I'm not too sure myself of the manufacturing conditions/ process I can imagine that there is a considerable eco-price associated with the mass production of leather-bound products. 

Plastic Toy Dinosaurs!

Plastic Toy Dinosaurs! If I didn't have this same one, I definitely had some like it growing up. Though the final result is made only from glue, acrylic paint and hard plastic (Most likely PVC, or Polyvinyl chloride), many materials are used in the production process.

This one comes in four different pieces -- the body, the lower jaw, the tongue and the upper jaw.

Original models of each piece are sculpted from wax, and a relief is made by surrounding them with Silicone. The Silicone cavity left behind is used to create several hard plastic copies of the originals. One of each is then surrounded with clay puddy and plaster to create production molds of either half of each part. A final mold of each part is made by filling the production copies with molten Zinc, alloyed with Copper, Aluminum and Magnesium. This final mold is finally filled with PVC to create the actual plastic parts. These parts are cooled, glued together and painted using acrylic paint.

Though the PVC used in toys will hopefully stay in circulation for a long time, it is rarely able to be recycled and will likely end up as landfill waste. This is because it often contains additives such as chlorine, lead and several carcinogens which are difficult to remove in the recycling process. However, if pure PVC is used, it can be ground down to a powder to create equal quality plastic products.

How it's made glass container

Glass, as one kind of material that is highly widely used and manufacture, is relatively environmental friendly and saving more energy than metal and plastic in the process of making. Glass container always present green. Glass was consisted of several raw material, such as natural ore, silica sand soda ash, quartz stone, caustic soda, and limestone. Glass container, possessing high degree of transparency and  resistance to corrosion, is always used to store the chemical agent. Also the making process is relatively simple.   About 45 percent of silica sand, 15 percent of soda ash which helps melt the silica evenly, 10 percent of limestone which make the finished product more durable and recycled glass, is putted into the furnace and heated under the 1500 degree celsius in 24 hours. Then the molten glass pulls out of furnace and was split into precise amount that is required for making each glass container. Then those precise amount were transported into each bottle forming machine and comes out as miniature version of the bottle, and each bottle moves into the blow mold, which blows and stretch the glass outward to form final shape of bottle. 

Glass also is known as 100 percent recyclable and can be fully recycled without any loss quality. A great amount of releasing of carbon dioxide us saved by recycling waste glass into new item, and the ingredient of making glass is largely contained by the recycled glass. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mYWKUB6bP7I

The process of creating jewelry chains

For thousands of years people have been using different metals, gem stones or other material to create jewelry. Jewelry has been worn for any centuries by different cultures for many different reasons including fashion, status symbol or superstition.  Coming in every shape, size and form, the process of making jewelry can be very complex and long process. Machines are used to create simpler kind of jewelry like chains for necklaces. In order to create a chain the metal first is processed and separated from dirt or other possible metals. The metal is then combined with other metals to create a combination that is shinier, stronger, or more bendable than the original, pure metal. In order to combine metal with other types of metals it has to be heated to over 1000 degrees Celsius (temperature depends on types of metal). The metal is then cooled down and shaped into long rods. The rods of metal then are being cut, bend, and processed over and over again until the rod becomes thin enough for the jewelry chains to be made. The machines are then used to cut the stings of the metal to create many different types of chains. The video below shoes how golden chains are made.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MTI8y4SjAk4

The process of creating custom jewelry is more complicated. It is usually hand made and jeweler places all the stones and engravings by hand. Which is what makes custom jewelry a lot more expensive. 

http://fashion-history.lovetoknow.com/fashion-accessories/history-necklaces-pendants 

https://www.google.com/patents/US5572886

Pieces of Earth in Your Hands--The Thermos

Becoming one of the essential items I grab whenever I head out the door, I never stop and thought about the creation process of a thermos. With my eyes, I can see my thermos composes mainly out of metal and plastic; however, with further research I found that the materials used to create the thermos I hold everyday goes through a complex process before I can use it. First off the stainless steel body was incredibly made, below links to a video on the production of stainless steel:

Next comes the lid, which is made out of copolyester, a combination of diacids and diols, both of which are organic compounds from either petrol or natural gas. The modified polyester material allows for better durability even when complex and intricate designs are created for hinges and small parts. The final part added to the thermos is a rubber like heat-resistant and waterproof silicone stopper.  

Of all the parts that makes up my thermos, the stainless steel body fascinates me the most because it is the most durable for everyday use yet in terms of recycling can be easily done. All stainless steel scraps can be melted down and purified to create more new stainless steel. Unlike the ability to throw all types of stainless steel together, copolyester must first be sorted among the plastic group, and further needs to be divided by color so white plastic would not be contaminated by other darker colors. Similar to the creation of glass objects, is much easier to create white colored plastic from raw material.