Projects for Easter term 2007
1. Flexible rigid structures
Contact: Dr Matthew Santer, mjs204@hermes.cam.ac.uk Cambridge University Engineering Department
More information: http://www-civ.eng.cam.ac.uk/dsl
Dr Santer, working with colleagues at both Cambridge University and MIT, has developed a design for flexible plate structures that are rigid in different configurations. This allows the construction of objects which are flexible, since they change shape, but also rigid, since they hold their shape at each position. Force is needed to change the shape, but each configuration is stable, requiring no force to maintain it. This could have a wide range of uses, from robot hinges which need no power to hold a particular angle, to flexible and foldable display screens.
Each structure will be stable in a range of configurations, taking a surface from flat to tightly folded through progressive step changes in curvature. The current key question for the researchers is what physical scale is important for these systems, so that they can develop and refine the design further.
The design is material-independent, so although initial prototypes are in polymer materials, other materials such as metals or composites can be used. The design is also monolithic, meaning that the structure can be manufactured in a single piece, with no need for assembly of component parts. This should enable future products to be manufactured easily and inexpensively.
The i-Team will need to identify and investigate a wide range of possible uses for this technology, to recommend areas where it brings value, and helping the research team to define the best physical scale at which to focus their ongoing efforts.
2. Recycling car batteries in an environment friendly way
Contact: Dr Vasant Kumar, rvk10@cam.ac.uk Department of Materials Science
Car batteries represent a recycling success story, in that 90% are already recycled and over 50% of new batteries are produced using recycled lead. However, the processes used to break the batteries down into their component parts (lead and other chemicals) are in themselves environmentally unfriendly. Techniques either involve smelting the battery at a high temperature and releasing large quantities of sulphur dioxide into the air (which is both a greenhouse gas and a cause of acid rain), or dissolving the battery with highly toxic and corrosive chemicals, and recovering the lead using capital and electrically intensive processes. Due to the environmental costs of the processes, batteries are increasingly shipped across continents for processing in countries with less stringent environmental regulations, a step which simply moves the environmental damage and which may also be restricted in the near future by EU legislation on the transport of toxic materials.
Dr Kumar, working in the Department of Materials Science, has developed a technique for recycling waste car batteries, which chemically leaches the battery contents into a form that can be used directly in the manufacture of new batteries. This method was designed with the dual goals of being environmentally sound and being cost-effective to operate either locally on a small scale or on larger industrial scales.
Although the environmental benefits of adopting such a new technique appear clear, for it to be adopted in practice requires it to be commercially viable for the businesses involved in battery recycling. A range of companies are involved today, from the car manufacturers, to local battery recyclers, to transporters and the large scale recyclers in countries such as China. In addition there are legislative and environmental pressures on them.
The task for the i-Team is to investigate and understand the key players in the battery recycling market, so that they can recommend which of those players should be approached by Dr Kumar for the further development and eventual commercial adoption of his technique.
3. Cheaper, more power-efficient displays
Contact: Dr Steve Morris, smm56@cam.ac.uk CAPE, Cambridge University Engineering Department
Today, LCD displays are everywhere, in mobile phones, iPods, laptops, and as computer screens and domestic TVs. Current screens use white backlights with red, green and blue filters, and require three liquid crystal cells for each visible pixel (one per colour). They are also limited by the switching speed of the LCD materials, which are generally operating at their maximum in order to get acceptable quality video output.
Professor Coles and Dr Morris of the Centre for Advanced Photonics and Electronics, while working on telecommunications projects, identified a way to improve on this method to produce LCD displays which are more power efficient and have a significantly higher switching speed. Their technique allows the development of displays which work in a frame sequential way, illuminating the display first with red light, then with green and blue. This removes the need to use coloured filters, reducing the light lost, and hence increasing the power efficiency. It also allows each pixel to be made from a single liquid crystal cell, reducing the cost, and providing the potential for increased resolution.
However, the invention represents only a small part of the technologies needed to produce a complete LCD display, and needs to be combined with a number of other technologies to create a complete product.
The i-Teams challenge will be to recommend who the inventors should work with in order to enable this invention to be fully exploited. Who are the companies who today provide components for and manufacture complete displays? Which of these will benefit most from incorporating the invention into their products, and which are most open to doing so? And are there particular product categories where the technology brings more advantages than in others, and in which the technology brings the maximum value?