Sustainable Manufacturing in China

Today we visited Ningbo Kingbell Powder Metallurgy Co., Ltd. The factory tour was arranged for our Mechanical Engineering Students as part of the Materials and Materials Forming Module that I lecture. The students could see how what they had learned in last week’s lecture about powder processing and sintering looks in practice.

During the trip I was very happy to see the sheer enthusiasm Read the rest of this entry »

I had joined the Earth Hour movement by announcing  it on this blog (in one of the widget text boxes on the right side) and in the past I had indeed switched off all lights for Earth Hour. Now, Read the rest of this entry »

This weekend I spent a night in Shanghai. In fact, I am writing this post on the coach on my way back to Ningbo. We are all aware of what is called ‘the triple bottom line’: Sustainability is not just about being green and environmentally friendly, it should consider social and economic factors as well. Now, in Shanghai, I saw the sign below. It was arranged in front of the entrance stairs to a major Chinese bank. Although the social aspects of sustainability are subjective, sometimes controversial, and certainly hard to measure and normalise, I think offering good access for disabled people is definitely one of the social aspects companies should (have to) consider.

Anyway, the sign might make you smile (at first…):

In all fairness, Read the rest of this entry »

Last night I attended a really interesting talk about Gas Turbine Aero-engines. Dr Paul Withey, Rolls-Royce Group plc, outlined the environmental challenges that Rolls Royce is facing in the development of aero-engines. They have to reduce CO2 and NOX emissions while also reducing the levels of noise caused by the engine. Fuel efficiency seems to be the main market driver as it is outweighing the original engine cost (from a customer point of view). Read the rest of this entry »

Have a look  at the Endurance car summary sheet designed for the Shell Eco-Marathon Asia 2010 held in Kuala Lumpur and the World Expo taking place in Shanghai this year.

Having completed the design the students are now looking at building the car. For that purpose the team is still looking for sponsors.

The Engineering Division at UNNC is currently providing a number of PhD research topics related to green manufacturing in China. Here, I would like to introduce the following topical area (if you are interested or would like to have more information, please do not hesitate to contact me directly by phone or email – see contact page):

Resource and energy efficient polymer processing in the Chinese context

Supervisors: Dr Carsten Tietje, Dr Kuan Yoong Chan (Supervision between the campuses to be settled for each individual student)

The energy consumption and efficiencies of various production systems and processes in place in China Read the rest of this entry »

As part of the 5th International Conference on Responsive Manufacturing (ICRM) 2010 that was held at UNNC from January 11th to 13th a Workshop on Sustainable Manufacturing was organised.

I have taken part in that workshop and I would like to give some impressions here. Read the rest of this entry »

Yeasterday I watched the Speak Out for Engineering Presentation Competition (for more information on the event click here ).

The three UNNC Science & Engineering students delivered absolutely fantastic presentations in the contest’s China Mainland Finals. Unfortunately none of them won the competition. However, the jury announced that it was an extremely close call.

A second point, that made me quite proud is the choice of topics of our UNNC students:

• - Wind and Windturbines
• - Low Carbon Technologies
• - Aerodynamics in Formula 1

The first two are directly related to green engineering. The third one, though related to Formula 1 Read the rest of this entry »

Islands of Excellence: Time to Bridge the Gaps?

Richard Farr

Researchers in ‘green’ manufacturing sometimes encounter a great new idea, or a fantastic piece of technology that might one day contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle. Examples that I’ve seen include business practices that have slashed energy bills, and others where a company uses the waste from a neighbouring business as their raw material, to achieve what is called ‘industrial synergy’. Elsewhere, energy-efficient products are being developed, as are ‘low carbon’ manufacturing processes and recycling techniques that recover useful material from low-grade, mixed waste.

There are scores of such examples: some were reported by practitioners at the recent ICRM 2010 conference, and it was a delight to spend time with so many people who are working to protect our shared future. I think of these examples of sustainability as islands of excellence. They’re important stepping-stones on our way to a greener lifestyle… but they are still islands, and this is something of a mystery. Why do these isolated islands of excellence exist at all? If a practice really is sustainable and profitable, shouldn’t it soon be replicated, all over the world? Read the rest of this entry »