Weekly progress report (week 3)

Peer number one: Joshua Steven Hermawan

- Excellent quality models
- Concept would be better if smokers were encouraged to quit smoking in different levels of packaging (level one more cigarets, level two less cigarets ...)

Peer number two: Hyunjin Kim

- Strong stats in the rationale
- Like the layout
- Improve on concept (questions weather a cigarets should be packages with nicotine patches)
Daniel (Hyunjin) liked my concept more after more explanation that I did which indicates I need more explanation on my packaging.
- Calculate/control the dosage provided by the whole cigarette packaging (make sure I am not over providing the consumers with nicotine and raise their daily nicotine needs).

Video Reflection : "The 11th Hour"

'The 11^th Hour' is a collection of interviews off different researchers about their concern towards human effect on their environment.  During this documentary its human activities in order to survive and fulfill their needs have been highlighted and the movie shows the consequences of these activities (i.e. production of excessive amount of Carbon dioxide) for the planet earth.

Its been said in this documentary that if we continue to use energy resource  the way we do now our next generations will not have access to those resources and human race will be in danger of being extinct due to global warming.  Ever since the 19^th century fossil fuels have been the main source of energy production for humans. Fossil fuels and different  human activities cause production of carbon dioxide and other gases such as sulfur monoxide. These gases can raise the average temperature on earth due to the fact that they can act as green house gases. These gases can also harm people and increase the chance of having illnesses such as asthma, cancer and  Parkinson. Fossil fuels have to be replaced with more sustainable sources of energy otherwise the consequences of their excessive use can lean our future into a dangerous situation.

Other human activities on planet earth such as cutting down trees can lead our next generations to live in very uncomfortable environment too. Plants  maintain the richness of soil by maintaining a cycle of  food and nutrition in it. By cutting down trees and other plants we can disable the soil from being fertile. This will cause in expansion of deserts which can lead to dramatic increase in earths temperature. Expansion of deserts and global warming  will cause planet earth to have a climate like other planets such as mars. Human race will not be able to evolve in such climate and eventually be extinct therefore it is necessary for us to find ways which can help us not waste our natural resources.

Solutions such as recycling, use of sustainable materials or reusing products have been effecting in saving earths resources during the last several years. Our responsibility as people in this generation is to follow these solutions and try to expand them by coming up with new ideas in order to save the world from the future than it could be facing.

Reflection on video: "How it’s made > Cardboard boxes"

This video explains a brief history of the invention of card board as well as a very comprehensive explanation of how cardboards are manufactured, printed, folded and cut.

According to this video cardboard was invented by an accident by Robert Gears. They are made of two parts, one wavy sheet of paper called the flute which is surrounded by two sheets of papers called liners. These three layers together form what is called a corrugated board.

In the beginning, large sized recycled papers start the production of paper boards. These papers are very wide and their thickness is dependent on the strength required for the finished cardboard. The wavy layer of the cardboard is made by feeding the recycled paper through a corrugator which makes the wavy shape on the papers by pressing it through a roll. To make the process easier hot steam is used to soften down the board. Then the flute is fed through another roller which covers the both sides of the flute with a kind of glue which is made of a mixture of water and starch. The waves on the flute provide air cushion for the board and the flute is made of half recycled paper.

After the main wide cardboard is made the pieces are cut in order to give the edges a sharper look. Then these boards are stacked up and fed through a roller that presses the parts which are meant to be folded. The fold pattern is made in the roller and it is covered with cushions around it in order to make the fold marks cleaner and sharper looking.

After that the colours that are meant to be printed on the cardboards are mixed up in a container. The specific amount of ink required to make a certain colour is poured in the container and then they are mixed. These colours are then applied to a roller. The cardboards are fed through different rollers that apply a different colour to the cardboard.

At the end the cardboard is cut again through a roller into the desired cutting pattern and they are stacked up ready to be shipped to a specific manufacturer or market. These are normally flat packed when shipped and the flat packed  cardboards are folded in the specific manufacturing company.

Reflection on video: “Giving packaging a new life”

This video introduces people to the new methods used to recycles a wide variety of materials as well as introducing what these materials can be.

In the first video it is shown how technology has assisted in separating different recyclable materials as these materials has to be recycled individually with no impurities. Aluminum pieces are separated using eddy current and tin plates are separated using magnet as they have magnetic properties. Then the rest of the mixtures of recyclable materials are washed and the papers and tetra packs are removed. So many other individual materials are also separated using the new computer scanning system in which an image of the particles are collected and the different pieces are separated automatically based on their transparency properties and using infrared images.

Glass containers are separated according to their colour as different coloured glasses are not meant to be melted and recycled together. This is also done using the computer imaging technology.

About 500 thousand tons of plastic is recycled each year. Different kinds of plastic packaging’s are separated based on their several techniques:

1.                  Separated according size

2.                  Air separators blowout films

3.                  Centrifuges separate different types of plastics based on their properties such as density.

Aluminum containers are separated using eddy current, melted and rolled into sheets which can then be used to make other products such as Canned products. These can also be used to produce aluminum extrusions desired by another production line which can save lots of energy by taking away an step in the production.

Papers are also recycled into cardboards and other products such as toilet papers and tissues. First the whole mixture of recyclable materials are washed and a blower separates the labels. Then all the printing inks are removed by washing in a heated area. The grains of papers then are set on a wide area and are dried and rolled to form recycled paper which can then be used to manufacture so many other products.

These series of videos are very useful for designers looking to expand their knowledge towards recycling methods and ways they can design products in such way that makes the products not only possible but very easy to recycle. Also alerts people of the importance of recycling and how much raw material would have been wasted if these recycling methods were not available.