Who killed the Electric Car?

This video explores the life of the electric car and the many factors such as consumers, manufacturers, the government and the oil industry. 

"In 1996, electric cars began to appear on roads all over California. They were quiet and fast, produced no exhaust and ran without gasoline........... Ten years later, these futuristic cars were almost completely gone."

Electric cars have actually been around for many decades, where in that time there were more on the road as they were smooth and easily charged at home. Over 5000 electric cars were designed for example by GM, Chrysler, Toyota and Ford but later destroyed or were donated to museums and educational institutions in later years.

The pollution that were released from cars had serious public health issues which lead to the rising of the earth’s temperature from carbon dioxide released also contributing to smog. The electric car was environmentally friendly in contrast however this was not enough to make it successful in the industry. The battery life of the cars limited travel as they had little charge, although they were later upgraded to 50x their charge this was not enough to keep them abundant. these lead to the problems with electric cars and their path to success included consumer interaction and poor marketing tactics. Lack of consumer knowledge and interest created a low emergence and acceptance of the car and increased scepticism. People were not willing to change their lifestyle or willing to pay for something they had little knowledge about. they were also too comfortable with the existing cars. The importance of money and price being low also outweighed the care for the environment.

Furthermore, gas cars were mass manufactured, which is faster and cheaper compared to the electric cars. (even though they required more servicing such as brake and oil changes). In addition Californian Legislation changed and governments and oil companies binded together to create a higher power. Their greed and power led to getting rid of the competitors (electric cars) as corporate profit was their focus which had a great impact on the car industry.

To conclude, both cars had their advantages and disadvantages but the electric car was more in low demand and low key due to uncertainty which made them live a short product life. All elements had to be considered and on board for the implementation of the electric cars into the market for them to be successful. In addition there are now other ways to help the environment and stop pollution instead of buying an electric car. Even now electric cars are a challenge to innovate, market and implement. This is a great example to show that a product may not be successful in the real world due to other factors even though it has environmentally sustainable elements.

updated cad drawing --pelican

front and back (closer view)

side view

top and bottom view

How it’s made: Packaging

How it’s made: Packaging 
I found that these six videos are incredibly as a student of industrial design because it shows an insight in the manufacturing side of materials that are used for  packaging, and gives designers an idea as to what kind of technology there is existing within these industries.

How it’s made: Aluminium Cans- hydrofluoric acid washes that they use to clean the cans, and the de-ionised water rinses. The different protective coatings are applied/ sprayed on the aluminium cans, both several layers inside and outside to prevent them from rotting due to the carbonated drinks-this I found was an interesting aspect of the aluminium-can making process. An advantage of aluminium cans is that they can be recycled continuously, an infinite amount of times, thus cutting out the step of mining and refinement of virgin aluminium.

How it’s made: Cardboard boxes- were invented through by accident through Robert Geers the basic structure of a corrugated board is a flute which is glued (glue: made out of water and starch so it does not contaminate food products) in between two flat sheets. These may vary in size and shape depending on what the box’s purpose. Recycled paper is used in the making process as it is not only more efficient and environmentally friendly but it is more malleable that ordinary paper.  The cut offs from the box’s net are sent back to the paper mill to be recycled and can be re-used six times over- I found this useful in sustaining and reducing the amount of materials used.

How it’s made: Glass Bottles- Glass can be made from completely natural materials that are abundant and also that glass is 100% recyclable (recycled glass is called collete) and making glass uses less energy when compared with plastic or metal--This I found, was an advatage over the other materials in the production method.  It is made with multiple raw materials such as limestone, silicastan and soda-ash. After the blow moulding process, the glass bottles are passed through a flaming belt, this process is conducted to prevent glass from shattering due to thermal shock, so they take longer to cool down--this was an interesting process in glass making.

How it’s made: Packaging Tubes- it is made through pieces of slug, the size of a 20c coin. It is mixed with a lubricant. It is compressed and sealed through rolls. Epoxy lacquer protective barrier between the aluminium and the content that will be in the tubes. this part made the packaging tubes more interesting and useful to my knowledge in future, if I ever needed to create tube packaging. It is then painted and dried for 7minutes. Another machine is used to screw the cap on the tubes and is checked by a worker for any flawed tubes (1 out of 500 are flawed).

How it’s made: Tetra Paks- these containers are lightweight and eco-friendly and can be kept for a year without it going bad.--the long-life materials is an advantage to many products used today. tetra pak containers are entirely recyclable even with the multiple layers inside such as: the plastic layer, the paper board and the foil with sometimes the plastic coating –which makes it leak proof. The first step of making them is printing then is applied on the cylinder printing press and can hold up to 6 colours, having able to print within minutes. It is then laminated to join the other materials together. The excess material is trimmed off, where another process is used to fold and store the content then delivered to market.

How it’s made: Plastic Bottles and Jars-   these are becoming increasingly more common as they are lightweight, cheap and easy to carry. I found this video, very interesting and one of the most useful ones as it is widely used in todays consumerist world.  Made from PET pallets and recycled PET, however for hygienic purposes, the recycled plastics are not used to make food content plastic bottles, only the left over plastic from the machines are used. The pallets are melted in a 600degrees Fahrenheit injection mould and cooled instantly by another machine—this makes the production process more efficient. The pre-form is taken to another machine to be blown moulding which creates 10000 bottles per hour. It later gets evaluated for compression pressure, durability and resistance.

video blog: the light bulb conspiracy

The Light Bulb Conspiracy

The documentary, ‘The light bulb conspiracy- the untold story of planned obsolescence’

“We live in a society dominated by a growth, whose logic is not creating because we need things, but just for the sake of it.”

Planned obsolescence emerged in the 1920s, the same time as mass production and the consumer society and since has been a crucial factor in the world’s economy. It was the idea of manufacturing fragile products in industries to help keep the world’s economy running by increasing consumer consumption and demand and increase the employment rate. Bernard London—stockbroker tried to make planned obsolescence compulsory (as a result of the Great Depression) to achieve a balance in the market between capital and labour, so “the wheels of industries will keep turning, people will keep consuming and everyone will have a job.” But it was dismissed.

Then in the1950s it reappeared again, but with a “twist”. The idea was to “seduce” the consumers with products by the look and advancement in the technology, something “a little newer, a little sooner than necessary”. (The idea of making the consumer wanting to next new thing) For eg: Brooke Stevens created products that appealed to the consumers.

“Growth society’s logic is not only to grow to meet demand but to grow for the sake of growth, unbounded growth in production that is justified through the boundless growth in consumption” Serg Latouche –noted critic in consumer society. The three factors are advertising, planned obsolescence and credit.

lynn owens, chairman of the lightbulb committee provides us with the example of the longest burning light bulb in the world in Livermore in California.  In 1972 its significance was discovered

–it has been burning since 1901 and already outlasted two webcams. Chaillet (inventor) built his filament to last, however the light bulb became one of the first products to have planned obsolescence. This lead to Phoebeus: to take control of main manufacturers of light-bulbs, where light bulbs were to last up to only 1000 hours à re-designing, testing and manufacturing light bulbs.

The theory behind this was to maintain the flow of the economy and unemployment to a minimum, with the thought that resources were infinite, but that was found to be false. Today, we see the damages caused through production of planned obsolescence, where Electronic waste are claimed as “second-hand goods” (80% of waste are past their lifespan) are shipped to Gahna, destroying their natural land.

People today are re-thinking the engineering and production side of consumer goods, which leads to the new concept: “cradle to cradle”. This idea claims that if factories work like nature, planned obsolensce itself will be obsolete.

Michael Braungart, “Environment is generally linked to saving, reduction, zero waste, etc.” he compares production industries to nature, where nature produces no waste, only nutrients, as it becomes a cycle. However, if manufacturers use nutrients, the products can be used in something new unlike using waste-based materials to create products. Also the increase in manufacturing limited life span products does not necessarily create money to industries since the cost of capital and resources may increase which leads to higher pollution output, whereas if a product was made to last up to 25 years, it can reduce cost in production which can lead to other opportunities for business to grow and reduce the amount of pollution emitted on the planet.

He also uses an “Anti-Growth Society meets Ghandi’s vision: the world is big enough to satisfy everyone’s needs,” but will always be too small to satisfy individual greed”