[Design and Technology] A tool for "sustainable design" - foryourinterest

[Philip Cranswick]

Hi Faye, 

 

No I don't think so, I know there are a lot of woven materials includes
such as carbon fibres and composites.  Solidworks is more of a product
and engineering design program.  There are some amazing textiles
companies overseas that are totally clean and use  safe chemicals for
colouring their fibres. 

 

You may be interested in looking this company up on the internet....

Biological Nutrients
By 1995, the Swiss firm Rohner and the textile design company DesignTex,
working with McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC), had already
developed examples of a textile that is a biological nutrient, a product
so benign it could be assimilated by natural systems without any
toxicity [24].

To ensure that the fabric would safely biodegrade, the design team
worked with the chemical company CibaGeigy to select only the most
inherently benign chemicals and materials used in the textile industry
to finish and dye natural fabrics. The team eliminated from
consideration chemicals containing any form of mutagen, carcinogen,
heavy metal, endocrine disruptor, or bio-accumulative substance.
Applying these criteria, the team identified 38 chemicals suitable for a
material destined to be food for the soil, enough to produce a textile
meeting all quality standards.
Going into the project, the mill chosen to produce the fabric had an
interesting problem: although the mill's director had been diligent
about reducing levels of dangerous emissions, government regulators had
recently defined the trimmings of his fabric as hazardous waste. In
stark contrast, the trimmings of the new biological nutrient fabric
serve as mulch for the local garden club. At the end of its useful life,
the fabric itself can be safely composted to build healthy soil. 

Hope this helps.

 

Phil 

 

From: destech-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:destech-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Faye Moriarty
Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 2:28 PM
To: Design and Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Design and Technology] A tool for "sustainable design" -
foryourinterest

 

Would this include textiles materials as well?

	----- Original Message ----- 

	From: Philip Cranswick <mailto:pcranswick at aitkencollege.edu.au>


	To: syseng at edulists.com.au ; destech at edulists.com.au 

	Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 4:48 PM

	Subject: [Design and Technology] A tool for "sustainable design"
- for yourinterest

	 

	Hi everyone,

	 

	I thought some of you may be interested in reading the attached
brochures; when you have a moment.

	 

	As an enthusiast of sustainable design, I am excited about a new
component of Solidworks 2010 (an engineering design CAD software) that
gives designers the ability to choose environmentally sustainable
materials for their products. So now when students allocate a material
to a computer model, they can have a fuller understanding of the
environmental impact of their design. 

	 

	The new Solidworks has a functionality called, Solidworks
Sustainability Xpress, that  considers how and where materials are
produced, parts are manufactured, and products are used and discarded.
It's a built in data base that gets automatically updated as newer
materials become available. It's just what I want my students to
consider as a part of their "designing" process, as they move away from
the old unsustainable "Cradle to Grave" design model to a "Cradle to
Cradle" design model - that aims for zero waste; materials are either
food for microorganisms or kept in closed cycles within industry.

	 

	Regards, 

	 

	Philip Cranswick - Technology

	 

	
************************************************************************
*************

	 

	"Products can be designed from beginning to end to become "food"
for either biological or technological metabolisms".  

	 

	"The goal is zero: zero waste, zero emissions, zero ecological
footprint."  

	 

	"Cradle to Cradle Design - putting eco-effectiveness into
practice". 

	 

	- William McDonough & Michael Braungart

	 

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