The Protolabs Insight video series will help you master digital manufacturing.Every Friday we’ll post a new video – each one giving you a deeper Insight into how to design better parts. We’ll cover specific topics such as choosing the right 3D printing material, optimising your design for CNC machining, surface finishes for moulded parts, and much more besides.<a href="https://get.protolabs.co.uk/insight-registration/?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uk-insight-video-0919&utm_content=wevolver-insight-subscription-1121" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Never miss an Insight by subscribing here</a>.<hr><h3>Insight: 3D Printing Sustainability</h3>TranscriptHi and welcome to another video. This time, we’re going to be tackling a topic that seems to be cropping up in every headline – sustainability.Sustainability in general is something that’s probably a bit too weighty a topic to take on in a five-minute video. So, instead, we’re going to be taking a look at how sustainability relates to 3D printing as a technology, how it stacks up against other manufacturing methods and what shortcomings it might have.Right. That’s all very weighty stuff, but let’s start things off with some good news: In general, 3D printing is viewed as pretty sustainable.There are a couple of big reasons for this. Firstly, and most obviously, the process doesn’t produce all that much in the way of waste. The fact that it’s an additive technology – one where we’re adding material as we build, rather than removing it - means that when you 3D print a part, that’s just what you get. Beyond some burrs and maybe a few support struts, nothing is wasted.Compare this to, say, CNC machining, where the parts you’re making are being cut from a big block of material. In many builds you’re looking at about half of the original material being cut away, and if you have a particularly complex part this can easily go as high as ninety percent.That’s a lot of waste, and even if you’re working with a material that can be recycled, the process of sorting out this waste and processing it eats up energy.Another boost to 3D printing’s sustainability comes in the form of its ability to produce parts quickly, and on-demand.Okay, the benefits of this this one are a little less obvious, but think about how this factors into producing prototypes or low-volume parts. When you’re using a technology like injection-moulding, where you need to create expensive moulds and tooling, manufacturers often intentionally produce surpluses, just in case something goes wrong or demand is higher than expected. This is a sensible move, as once you’ve made the investment in tooling the cost of a few extra units isn’t particularly significant, but it’s not a particularly sustainable way to do things.If you’re 3D printing parts, however, it’s easy to make exactly the amount you need, when you need them. And if you need to make a few changes to the design, that’s super-simple too – no need to throw out a pile of stockpiled parts.Finally, we have the fact that 3D printing can allow you to create lighter, more efficient parts. There are plenty of light-weight designs that simply wouldn’t work with more traditional manufacturing methods, and not only do these help reduce the amount of material being used, they also cut down on emissions associated with shipping. Even a ten percent weight saving can add up when you’re sending pallets of parts across the globe.All of these factors add up to help the technology become more sustainable, especially when compared to other manufacturing techniques such as CNC and injection moulding. There’s even room for things to improve as our processes become more and more efficient.Having said all that, it’s important we don’t pat ourselves on the back too quickly. There are still some areas where 3D printing can potentially lose some sustainability points.For one thing, note that when we were talking about waste earlier, I said that 3D printing causes “less” waste, not “no” waste. We still tend to throw away some material, in the form of post-processing waste.This is all the stuff we print that isn’t part of the finished part, with supports being the main culprit. If you’re making a complex part, a decent amount of the material you use can end up being clipped off and tossed in the recycling.This is something you need to keep in mind if you want to make your designs as sustainable as possible. The fewer supports, in general, the better. It’s good for the environment, and it’s good for your bottom line.On top of this, there have also been concerns that the flexibility of 3D printing might lead to increased consumption of plastic parts. Basically, if there are more goods on the market, people are probably going to buy them, and from an environmental point of view this isn’t exactly ideal. Not sure if there’s an engineering solution to that one, unfortunately.On that cheerful note, that’s about all the time we have today. Check back in next week, and we will have another video ready and waiting for you.<hr>Watch other Protolabs Insight videos <a href="https://www.protolabs.co.uk/resources/insight/insight-video-library/?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uk-insight-video-0919&utm_content=wevolver-insight-library-1121" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>, or <a href="https://get.protolabs.co.uk/insight-registration/?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uk-insight-video-0919&utm_content=wevolver-insight-subscription-1121" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subscribe here</a> to never miss an Insight.

Sustainability itself is a weighty topic, so this video will focus on how sustainability relates to the 3D printing process, how it stacks up against other manufacturing methods.

20240119-Protolabs Insight: 3D Printing Sustainability

The Protolabs Insight video series will help you master digital manufacturing.Every Friday we’ll post a new video – each one giving you a deeper Insight into how to design better parts. We’ll cover specific topics such as choosing the right 3D printing material, optimising your design for CNC machining, surface finishes for moulded parts, and much more besides.<a href="https://get.protolabs.co.uk/insight-registration/?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uk-insight-video-0919&utm_content=wevolver-insight-subscription-0821" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Never miss an Insight by subscribing here</a>.<hr><h3>Insight: Creating Greener Parts</h3>TranscriptHi and welcome to this week’s Insight video. &nbsp;Today I’m tackling a topic that is becoming more important with every year that passes – how can we create greener products and parts?I really wish at this point that I could give you a definitive answer to this one, but the truth is creating greener parts depends on a number of different factors. &nbsp;And some of these factors may contradict each other, so there are times when you’ll need to make a judgement call.So, the easiest way to look at this is to work my way through a list of different factors that could make that part greener, more sustainable and save carbon. To do this I think we need to trace a product from raw material right through to end of life and consider how much energy it consumes along the way.I’ll begin right at the beginning, selecting the right amount of the right material.I’m going to focus on two of the most common types of materials used - plastics and metals. Of course, there are hundreds of each so let’s try and get some metrics that will fit our green agenda.One important concept that you won’t generally find quoted on a material’s datasheet is embedded energy. The embedded energy of a material is all of the energy taken to produce a certain quantity of it.A quick search on google reveals that a kilogram of aluminium extracted from bauxite will take between 227 to 342 mega joules of energy to produce. &nbsp;A typical plastic from crude oil would be 82 to 108 mega joules. &nbsp;As always there is a but, a kilogram of recycled aluminium will take just 11 to 17 mega joules. &nbsp;So even here you need to delve a bit deeper for answers.This leads me rather neatly onto how much material you use. &nbsp;If you use less, then you are using less embedded energy, but when you begin manufacturing you also need to factor in manufacturing and delivery into the final parts’ embedded energy calculation.Sadly, it’s not simply a question of looking at embedded energy though. Increased manufacturing can make massive in-service savings. &nbsp;For example, in the aerospace industry grams of weight saving can save kilos of fuel over an aircrafts’ life. &nbsp;Light weighting, as we know it, is also important in the automotive industry for the same reasons. &nbsp;Making parts more effective, in terms of fuel efficiency and serviceability further contributes to reduced lifecycle cost.Also let’s not forget that a product that lasts longer and does not need replacing has less environmental impact than a shorter-lived version. As an aside this can throw up some surprising results. &nbsp;One organic farming group actually found that it is more environmentally friendly to use plastic crates on their farms instead of wood when they factored in the number of times they used them.This begs the question how can you make your products and its parts more durable and/or lighter? &nbsp;The answer of course is to prototype, test and reiterate your design. &nbsp;When you get it right you will give your customers a better performing product that will save them costly replacement, repair and servicing costs – which in turn cuts down the lifetime energy and monetary costs for them.Manufacturing technology really helps here. &nbsp;Rapid digital manufacturing technology makes rapid prototyping, well … even more rapid. &nbsp;You can upload a CAD and have a prototype delivered in as little as a day using 3D printing and CNC machining and, believe it or not, even for injection moulding.This means you can design, test and reiterate your design for a lightweight durable product in next to no time. &nbsp;It’s never been easier or faster to get it right.Also, recent technology allows you to design components in a way that was previously not possible. &nbsp;Additive manufacturing means you can produce virtually any shape or geometry that you want – perhaps a honeycomb structure to use less material and save weight.But back to our lifetime costing analysis for a product. &nbsp;We all talk about designing for manufacturability and assembly, but it’s time to also consider design for serviceability.&nbsp;When you design your product think through how easy it will be to service, maintain and repair it through its life. &nbsp;Think about access for spanners and other tools. &nbsp;Is a part easy to replace? &nbsp;Do you use helicoil for higher strength threads so that replacement does not damage the product?Which brings me to designing for end of life. &nbsp;Think about how you can make your product simple to disassemble and recycle – do you know what your WEE obligations are?Rather neatly we have come full circle at this point. &nbsp;Virtually all metals can and should be recycled. &nbsp;With plastics some can and some can’t. &nbsp;Also, while you could use a 100% recycled metal product, a plastic’s quality decreases each time it is reused because its polymer chain grows shorter.The answer is not necessarily to turn to metal however, because the right plastic in the right application can last a long time and also when plastic does replace metal it often provides a lighter alternative – something that is key to saving “in use” carbon in some industries.There is an answer on the horizon for plastics with the development of ecoplastics – but that is another subject for another video in the future.For now, I’ll say goodbye and see you next week.<hr>Watch other Protolabs Insight videos <a href="https://www.protolabs.co.uk/resources/insight/insight-video-library/?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uk-insight-video-0919&utm_content=wevolver-insight-library-0821" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">here</a>, or <a href="https://get.protolabs.co.uk/insight-registration/?utm_source=wevolver&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=uk-insight-video-0919&utm_content=wevolver-insight-subscription-0821" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">subscribe here</a> to never miss an Insight.

An increasingly popular topic these days is how to make greener products and parts. Whilst we can’t give you a definitive answer, this video will look at different factors to consider.

20240119-Protolabs Insight: Creating Greener Parts

Remote temperature monitoring systems provide critical insights for IoT applications across many industries, including real estate, manufacturing, and healthcare. Early adopters are already seeing measurable ROI from automatic temperature monitoring in terms of increased productivity, decreased costs, and lower risk.Temperature sensors are the “eyes and ears” of remote temperature monitoring systems. They continuously, automatically collect and aggregate temperature data for analysis and real-time decision making.Just as temperature monitoring systems have advanced in recent years, so have the temperature sensors that power them. Today’s most advanced sensors are more affordable and easier to install than ever before. With simple and scalable wireless temperature sensors, you have the freedom to experiment with new temperature monitoring applications without a massive up-front investment.<h2>How do you choose a temperature sensor solution?</h2>Working with IoT applications like remote temperature monitoring systems requires some planning and experimentation. Below are critical questions to consider as you plan your temperature sensor project. They’re designed to help you use temperature data as part of your daily operations and gain a rapid return on your investment more rapidly.Temperature sensors aren’t a one-size-fits-all solution. Understanding your environment is key to a temperature sensor implementation that meets your goals. Your answers to these questions will determine:<ul><li>How many sensors are appropriate for your implementation?</li><li>How densely should sensors be installed?</li><li>What specific setup for temperature sensors is required (such as angle of placement or other installation techniques to match requirements for thermal mass)?</li><li>How will temperature data from sensors be integrated with analytics and monitoring systems?</li></ul><h3>1. Where is the specific location you want to measure?</h3>Understanding what you want to measure and the conditions that impact temperature will help you understand how many data points — and thus, how many temperature sensors — you’ll need to accomplish your goals. For example:<ul><li>Will sensors be near windows? The temperature on a window sill will be different than the temperature in the middle of a room. For&nbsp;<a href="https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/4832865/Ambient-Temperature.pdf" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">ambient temperature monitoring</a>, you may need reference sensors to compare different locations.</li><li>Will temperature sensors be placed on&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4832865/pdf/pm.pdf" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">metal, on heated pipes, or on other equipment</a>? In an equipment room, for example, a sensor can pick up the heat signature of an asset next to the asset you are trying to measure – instead of your target.</li><li>Will sensors be near people? For example,&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4832865/pdf/space-occupancy.pdf" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">temperature sensors under a desk</a> will be different when a person is present vs. when the workstation is unoccupied.</li><li>Will the cellular connection need to be underground? If so, remote temperature sensors may need special attention for network access. Sensing solutions can be attached to Ethernet, if available, or to a 4G cellular network for wireless temperature sensing.</li></ul><h3>2. How often will you want to check temperatures?</h3>Depending on your project, you may want to record frequent, minute temperature fluctuations, or you may want to see an average result over an extended period of time.Keep in mind, assets with lower thermal mass don’t hold heat, so their temperatures fluctuate more frequently than assets that have higher mass. In contrast, assets with higher thermal mass provide a slower response to changes and therefore provide smoother data results. This can be important to consider for fault finding on larger objects or where quick response is required.This difference can impact temperature measurements of locations such as&nbsp;<a href="https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/4832865/pdf/cold-storage2.pdf" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">walk-in freezers or cold cabinets</a> and drive how frequently you must check them.<h3>3. What are your acceptance criteria?</h3>Do you have compliance or other reporting requirements that mandate specific margins of error for temperature sensitivity? If so, what level of temperature sensitivity do you need to make decisions and stay within compliance?Are you looking to measure absolute temperature? Or, is it more important for you to measure relative temperature to understand changes and comparisons? Do you need a reference temperature sensor for the relative comparison?<h3>4. How will you act on the findings?</h3>Before beginning any temperature monitoring project, work with your team to determine what you’re trying to achieve. How are you going to use the data you collect and analyze?Temperature sensors can provide backup data to confirm suspicions you already have. For example, you may suspect that&nbsp;<a href="https://www.disruptive-technologies.com/blog/your-building-can-talk.-are-you-listening" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">energy is being wasted</a> due to poor temperature control. Or, your<a href="https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/4832865/Ambient-Temperature.pdf" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">&nbsp;building tenants may be complaining</a> about temperature inconsistency and you need the data to confirm the problem.Even more exciting is the potential for temperature sensors to tell you things you never would have known. For example, when temperatures on equipment unexpectedly spike, the change can indicate a malfunction or an impending problem. If that happens, what will you do next? Ask yourself:• What teams and systems need to be alerted when temperatures change? • What actions will be triggered when temperatures change? • How quickly will you need to respond to those changes?<h2>Give yourself the freedom to experiment&nbsp;</h2>The questions above are designed to get you off to a strong start with your temperature monitoring project, but you should also make sure you leave some room to experiment. IoT is a nascent industry, with new applications and technologies released all the time. You may find that temperature data you collect through temperature sensors give you the capacity to launch new projects you didn’t originally anticipate.Small and lightweight, Disruptive’s mini-sensors allow you to place temperature sensors in high density and test new locations and configurations. You can easily move sensors to compare data so you can continue to adapt your solution.Disruptive Technologies and&nbsp;our partners&nbsp;are here to help you design a temperature sensor solution that fits your unique environment so you can meet your goals – and allows you the freedom to test and learn.For inspiration, see how temperature sensors are being used in a <a href="https://www.disruptive-technologies.com/use-cases" rel=" noopener" target="_blank">wide range of applications and use cases</a>. ***written in collaboration with my colleague and DT Founder, Erik Fossum Færevaag.&nbsp;

Temperature sensors are the “eyes and ears” of remote temperature monitoring systems. 

Remote temperature monitoring systems provide critical insights for IoT applications across many industries, including real estate, manufacturing, and healthcare. Early adopters are already seeing measurable ROI from automatic temperature monitoring in terms of increased productivity and more.

How to Select the Best Temperature Sensors for Your Smart Project

The guide to the technologies that can lower the environmental footprint of transport.

Decarbonization, Sustainability, and Innovations in Transportation and Mobility

Article 2 of the Power Conversion Series. Rechargeable batteries provide untethered power, enabling convenience, dependability, and mobility. Unplug and recharge and learn how rechargeable battery technology makes life better.

Rechargeable Batteries for Greener Solutions

Before Fikile Brushett wanted to be an engineer, he wanted to be a soccer player. Today, however, Brushett is the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. Building 66 might not look much like a soccer field, but Brushett says the sport taught him a fundamental lesson that has proved invaluable in his scientific endeavors. “The teams that are successful are the teams that work together,” Brushett says.That philosophy inspires the Brushett Research Group, which draws on disciplines as diverse as organic chemistry and economics to create new electrochemical processes and devices.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1606908890541-Fikilie_Brushett.jpg" style="width: 788px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">As the world moves toward cleaner and sustainable sources of energy, one of the major challenges is converting efficiently between electrical and chemical energy. This is the challenge undertaken by Brushett and his colleagues, who are trying to push the frontiers of electrochemical technology.Brushett’s research focuses on ways to improve redox flow batteries, which are potentially low-cost alternatives to conventional batteries and a viable way of storing energy from renewable sources like wind and the sun. His group also explores means to recycle carbon dioxide — a greenhouse gas — into fuels and useful chemicals, and to extract energy from biomass.In his work, Brushett is helping to transform every stage of the energy pipeline: from unlocking the potential of solar and wind energy to replacing combustion engines with fuel cells, and even enabling greener industrial processes.“A lot of times, electrochemical technologies work in some areas, but we'd like them to work much more broadly than we've asked them to do beforehand,” Brushett says. “A lot of that is now driving the need for new innovation in the area, and that's where we come in.”

As the world moves toward cleaner and sustainable sources of energy, one of the major challenges is converting efficiently between electrical and chemical energy.

Designing electrochemical technology to secure the planets energy future.

Orthopaedic cast immobilisation is one of the most common ways to treat broken and fractured bones. This process involves the use of materials to encase and restrict the movement of broken bones, allowing them to heal.As technology has become more accessible, 3D Printed casts have grown in popularity. They are much lighter, more comfortable and easier to produce than traditional casts. Despite the evolution in cast production qualities, all casts share a fundamental flaw – they are single-use products.Since the job of a cast is to set body parts in a fixed position, they have to be tailor-made to the unique anatomy of the individual patients.3D printed casts are also complex in their structure, these factors eliminate the possibility of reusing casts, even if hygiene issues were non-existent.&nbsp;CREATE Education Ambassador, <a href="https://www.createeducation.com/community-partner/jack-cockle/" target="_blank">Jack Cockle</a> identified an opportunity to explore alternative strategies to make immobilisation casts more sustainable. With an aim to reduce the inevitable waste generated by their complex and tailored form and maintenance of hygiene standards. <img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNjA0NDg3NDY4NDE4LUpDUzUuanBnIiwgImVkaXRzIjogeyJyZXNpemUiOiB7IndpZHRoIjogOTUwLCAiZml0IjogImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 300px;"><h1 dir="ltr">The Process</h1>As part of one of Jack’s final year projects whilst studying BA (Hons) Sustainable Product Design, he began by making a normal plaster cast, trialling traditional methods of the cast making to justify future design choices.Then making a basic 3D printed cast, by scanning his hand/arm using a 3D scanner and software. Exporting the scan as an STL file into <a href="https://marketplace.createeducation.com/product/fusion-360-software-training/" target="_blank">Autodesk Fusion 360</a>, which was then converted to a b-rep file, allowing Jack to model a form around the hand/arm.Next, 3D printing the cast in <a href="https://marketplace.createeducation.com/?swoof=1&post_type=product&pa_material=petg&paged=1" target="_blank">rPETG</a> on the <a href="https://marketplace.createeducation.com/product/ultimaker-s5-3d-printer/" target="_blank">Ultimaker S5</a>. This was made easier by the scale of the printer, saving time where Jack would have had to split up the model into more pieces, then glueing them together.&nbsp;To explore the scope of making casts more sustainable, Jack evaluated multiple design ideas through an iterative process. The aim was to investigate the possibility of fabricating 3D printed casts that adapt to the form of the user, rather than existing as a rigid form tailored to individual patients, thus making them more suitable for reuse.This idea came to Jack as his colleagues tried on the 3D printed cast, which almost, but didn’t perfectly fit them due to the varied shapes of individuals' limbs.Owing to Auxetic materials and structures exhibiting certain abnormal mechanical responses, thanks to the possession of negative Poisson’s ratio response. Meaning they get thicker when stretched lengthwise and thinner when compressed. Jack began experimenting with auxetic forms in different materials such as <a href="https://marketplace.createeducation.com/product-category/filament/?swoof=1&paged=1&pa_material=tpu&really_curr_tax=812-product_cat" target="_blank">TPU</a> and Flexible Resin.<img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNjA0NDg4NTU1MjYyLTMwMGRwaUR5bmFtaUNhc3QzLmpwZyIsICJlZGl0cyI6IHsicmVzaXplIjogeyJ3aWR0aCI6IDk1MCwgImZpdCI6ICJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 300px;"> In Rhino3D, Jack generated a series of cylindrical auxetic lattice forms, choosing the ones that required no support material (as this would be difficult to remove from such a complex structure). Jack printed them in both TPU and flexible resin to test how well each structure and material compressed under pressure.The concept was a flexible resin auxetic sleeve that fits over the arm of the patient, which is compressed by the rigid PETg shell, immobilising the limb.In theory, the reusable cast would reduce waste, cut lead times (as a stock of casts could be kept) and the longer-term cost of casts per patient (since the costs of one cast could be distributed across several patients).Jack has been developing the mesh further, to become elastic resin bands that are finer, have more layers, and are preinstalled into the cast shell before being applied to the arm. <img class="fr-fic fr-dib" src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiAid2V2b2x2ZXItcHJvamVjdC1pbWFnZXMiLCAia2V5IjogImZyb2FsYS8xNjA0NDg5Mzc1NzUyLTMwMGRwaUR5bmFtaUNhc3QyICgxKS5qcGciLCAiZWRpdHMiOiB7InJlc2l6ZSI6IHsid2lkdGgiOiA5NTAsICJmaXQiOiAiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 300px;"><hr><h2 dir="ltr">Do you want to CREATE the Future of Education?</h2>Industry is adopting additive manufacturing at an exponential rate, it is critical to be equipped with the skills needed in employment.&nbsp;It is imperative that individuals experience these ground-breaking technologies today, to futureproof UK manufacturing in a globally competitive marketplace and address the many global issues we face.CREATE Education are expert providers across the UK and Ireland, specialising in developing 3D technologies in education, to enable learners and empower educators.&nbsp;Get in touch with our education specialists today on 01257 276 116 or email us at&nbsp;<a href="mailto:enquiries@createeducation.com" target="_blank">enquiries@createeducation.com</a>.

Further harnessing 3D printing technology to promote sustainability within the medical industry

As technology has become more accessible, 3D Printed casts have grown in popularity,  owing to several benefits. However, all casts share a fundamental flaw - they are single-use products

3D Printing Sustainable Casts

This is the one of the most cost effective and affordable solutions for autonomous construction. Mud and straw has been used as a construction material for thousands of years but never like this. Could this be an early iteration of affordable housing that has 0 emissions? Creators Ronald Real and Virginia San Fratello said ‘On the 40th anniversary of the Smithsonian Magazine, they announced the 40 things you need to know about the next 40 years.&nbsp;Number one on that list was: “Sophisticated buildings will be made of mud”. Emerging Objects explores these frontiers of technology and material using traditional materials (clay, water, and wheat straw), to push the boundaries of sustainable and ecological construction in a two phase project that explores traditional clay craft at the scale of architecture and pottery.&nbsp;The end goal of this endeavor is to demonstrate that low-cost and low-labor construction that is accessible, economical and safe is possible. The project began in the contemporary borderlands along the Rio Grande watershed beginning in El Paso and Juarez and ended near the headwaters of the Rio Grande in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, which was the edge of the historic border between the U.S. and Mexico prior to 1848.&nbsp;The entire region has employed traditional pottery and earthen construction traditions for centuries.’

An Adobe Mixture of Dirt and Straw

3D Printed Hyper-sustainable Shelter called the Mud Frontiers Project by Emerging Objects

New York, NY&mdash;September 27, 2018&mdash;With temperatures rising and heat-waves disrupting lives around the world, cooling solutions are becoming ever more essential. This is a critical issue especially in developing countries, where summer heat can be extreme and is projected to intensify. But common cooling methods such as air conditioners are expensive, consume significant amounts of energy, require ready access to electricity, and often require coolants that deplete ozone or have a strong greenhouse effect.An alternative to these energy-intensive cooling methods is passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC), a phenomenon where a surface spontaneously cools by reflecting sunlight and radiating heat to the colder atmosphere. PDRC is most effective if a surface has a high solar reflectance (R) that minimizes solar heat gain, and a high, thermal emittance (Ɛ) that maximizes radiative heat loss to the sky. If R and Ɛ are sufficiently high, a net heat loss can occur, even under sunlight.Developing practical PDRC designs has been challenging: many recent design proposals are complex or costly, and cannot be widely implemented or applied on rooftops and buildings, which have different shapes and textures. Up to now, white paints, which are inexpensive and easy to apply, have been the benchmark for PDRC. White paints, however, usually have pigments that absorb UV light, and do not reflect longer solar wavelengths very well, so their performance is only modest at best.Researchers at <a href="https://engineering.columbia.edu/" target="_blank">Columbia Engineering</a> have invented a high-performance exterior PDRC polymer coating with nano-to-microscale air voids that acts as a spontaneous air cooler and can be fabricated, dyed, and applied like paint on rooftops, buildings, water tanks, vehicles, even spacecraft&mdash;anything that can be painted. They used a solution-based phase-inversion technique that gives the polymer a porous foam-like structure. The air voids in the porous polymer scatter and reflect sunlight, due to the difference in the refractive index between the air voids and the surrounding polymer. The polymer turns white and thus avoids solar heating, while its intrinsic emittance causes it to efficiently lose heat to the sky. The <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/cgi/doi/10.1126/science.aat9513" target="_blank">study</a> is published online today in <a class="has-markup" href="http://www.sciencemag.org/" target="_blank">Science</a>.&nbsp;<iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8lTdZ-U0Qm8?&wmode=opaque" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable" style="width: 766px; height: 462px;"></iframe>Passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) involves simultaneously reflecting sunlight and radiating heat into the cold sky to achieve a net heat loss. The process, which is spontaneous, can cool down structures to sub-ambient temperatures.&nbsp;The team&mdash;<a href="https://engineering.columbia.edu/faculty/yuan-yang" target="_blank">Yuan Yang</a>, assistant professor of <a href="https://matsci.columbia.edu/" target="_blank">materials science and engineering</a>; <a href="https://engineering.columbia.edu/faculty/nanfang-yu" target="_blank">Nanfang Yu</a>, associate professor of <a href="http://apam.columbia.edu/" target="_blank">applied physics</a>; and Jyotirmoy Mandal, lead author of the study and a doctoral student in Yang&rsquo;s group (all department of applied physics and applied mathematics)&mdash;built upon <a href="http://innovation.columbia.edu/technologies/CU15297_versatile-bio-inspired-systems-for" target="_blank">earlier work</a> that demonstrated that simple plastics and polymers, including acrylic, silicone, and PET, are excellent heat radiators and could be used for PDRC. The challenges were how to get these normally transparent polymers to reflect sunlight without using silver mirrors as reflectors and how to make them easily deployable.They decided to use phase-inversion because it is a simple, solution-based method for making light-scattering air-voids in polymers. Polymers and solvents are already used in paints, and the Columbia Engineering method essentially replaces the pigments in white paint with air voids that reflect all wavelengths of sunlight, from UV to infrared.&ldquo;This simple but fundamental modification yields exceptional reflectance and emittance that equal or surpass those of state-of-the-art PDRC designs, but with a convenience that is almost paint-like,&rdquo; says Mandal.The researchers found their polymer coating&rsquo;s high solar reflectance (R &gt; 96%) and high thermal emittance (Ɛ ~ 97%) kept it significantly cooler than its environment under widely different skies, e.g. by 6˚C in the warm, arid desert in Arizona and 3˚C in the foggy, tropical environment of Bangladesh. &ldquo;The fact that cooling is achieved in both desert and tropical climates, without any thermal protection or shielding, demonstrates the utility of our design wherever cooling is required,&rdquo; Yang notes.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1568901232607-ir-vis.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">When exposed to the sky, the porous polymer PDRC coating reflects sunlight and emits heat to attain significantly cooler temperatures than typical building materials or even the ambient air.&nbsp;<section class="col-lg-7 entity entity-paragraphs-item paragraphs-item-content">The team also created colored polymer coatings with cooling capabilities by adding dyes. &ldquo;Achieving a superior balance between color and cooling performance over current paints is one of the most important aspects of our work,&rdquo; Yu notes. &ldquo;For exterior coatings, the choice of color is often subjective, and paint manufacturers have been trying to make colored coatings, like those for roofs, for decades.&rdquo;The group took environmental and operational issues, such as recyclability, bio-compatibility, and high-temperature operability, into consideration, and showed that their technique can be generalized to a range of polymers to achieve these functionalities. &ldquo;Polymers are an amazingly diverse class of materials, and because this technique is generic, additional desirable properties can be conveniently integrated into our PDRC coatings, if suitable polymers are available,&rdquo; Mandal adds.&ldquo;Nature offers many ways for heating and cooling, some of which are extremely well known and widely studied and others that are poorly known. Radiative cooling&mdash;by using the sky as a heat sink&mdash;belongs to the latter group, and its potential has been strangely overlooked by materials scientists until a few years ago,&rdquo; says Uppsala University Physics Professor Claes-G&ouml;ran Granqvist, a pioneer in the field of radiative cooling, who was not involved with the study. &ldquo;The publication by Mandal et al. highlights the importance of radiative cooling and represents an important breakthrough by demonstrating that hierarchically porous polymer coatings, which can be prepared cheaply and conveniently, give excellent cooling even in full sunlight.&rdquo; <img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1568901341598-ir-vis-process.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Illustration showing how passive daytime radiative cooling (PDRC) involves simultaneously reflecting sunlight and radiating heat into the cold sky to achieve a net heat loss. The process, which is spontaneous, can cool down structures to sub-ambient temperatures.&nbsp;Yang, Yu, and Mandal are refining their design in terms of applicability, while exploring possibilities such as the use of completely biocompatible polymers and solvents. They are in talks with industry about next steps.&ldquo;Now is a critical time to develop promising solutions for sustainable humanity,&rdquo; Yang notes. &ldquo;This year, we witnessed heat waves and record-breaking temperatures in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. It is essential that we find solutions to this climate challenge, and we are very excited to be working on this new technology that addresses it.&rdquo;Yu adds that he used to think that white was the most unattainable color: &ldquo;When I studied watercolor painting years ago, white paints were the most expensive. Cremnitz white or lead white was the choice of great masters, including Rembrandt and Lucian Freud. We have now demonstrated that white is in fact the most achievable color. It can be made using nothing more than properly sized air voids embedded in a transparent medium. Air voids are what make snow white and <a href="https://engineering.columbia.edu/news/staying-cool-saharan-silver-ants" target="_blank">Saharan silver ants</a> silvery.&rdquo;###Columbia Engineering Columbia Engineering, based in New York City, is one of the top engineering schools in the U.S. and one of the oldest in the nation. Also known as The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School expands knowledge and advances technology through the pioneering research of its more than 250 faculty, while educating undergraduate and graduate students in a collaborative environment to become leaders informed by a firm foundation in engineering. The School&rsquo;s faculty are at the center of the University&rsquo;s cross-disciplinary research, contributing to the Data Science Institute, Earth Institute, Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Precision Medicine Initiative, and the Columbia Nano Initiative. Guided by its strategic vision, &ldquo;Columbia Engineering for Humanity,&rdquo; the School aims to translate ideas into innovations that foster a sustainable, healthy, secure, connected, and creative humanity.</section>

When exposed to the sky, the porous polymer PDRC coating reflects sunlight and emits heat to attain significantly cooler temperatures than typical building materials or even the ambient air.

Columbia Engineers make white paint whiter—and cooler—by removing white pigment and invent a polymer coating, with nano-to-microscale air voids, that acts as a spontaneous air cooler and can be fabricated, dyed, and applied
like paint.

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