Cellphone Dissection

For this assignment, I dissected a Nokia flip phone.

How It's Made Video: A Nokia Cellphone
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwoGxrLZlAk

Nokia flip phone chassis made primarily of polyethylene plastic.

The flip phone contains a small LCD screen as well as key pad made of silicone rubber.

The cellphone's battery is a lithium ion battery.

The circuit board is made of primarily the same material that the cellphone body is made of which is polyethylene. There are also trace amounts of copper as well as lead for soldering.

Here is the phone taken apart as much as possible without being completely destroyed. This phone was very simple, and as a result, was made of relatively simple and cheap materials.

Three Sustainable Statagies:
1. Phone could be made so that it is easily disassembled and reassembled. Parts should be interchangeable with newer parts from the same company.
2. Parts should be made of recyclable materials.
3. Make the phone in such a way that requires fewer parts which will help the recycling process become faster and more efficient. 

Field Trip: Hallmark

http://www.hallmark.com/

INDD 508 Materials & Processes 

Field Trip Notes
Who is/ what is Hallmark?

• Hallmark is a chain retailer for greeting cards, gift wrap and collectibles, ornaments and other seasonal items. Hallmark started in 1910 and was founded by Joyce Hall who began the company by buying cards from print houses and selling them to retail stores.

Products & Services: What do they do/ what do they make?

• Hallmark produces many seasonal products, but their main focuses are greeting cards, gift wraps, and ornaments. They sell approximately one billion cards per year. 

Materials:

• Hallmark's primary resource is paper which comes in rolls, then guillotined, sent to Georgia where the paper is printed, then processed back in the Hallmark plant here in Lawrence. The paper is sourced from Shrilanka and comes from a sustainable forrest in Asia. They also have their own unique materials for cards and other items such as Plastisol, Flock, Flitter, Virko, and Iridesence. Other materials include race foil, and flat foil.

Forming Technologies:

•  Hallmark will primarily use magnesium and brass dies. magnesium dies are not as durable and can only form about 25000 prints. Brass dies are more expensive but are capable of producing over 25000 prints since they tend to last longer. It is also important to note that Hallmark is currently in the process of moving away from hand printing, and towards digital printing.

Cutting Technologies:

• A large guillotine is used to cut masses of cards. Various machines also run on AutoCad to cut specific shapes out.
  

Joining Technologies:

• Hallmark will use what is called Plastisol which is a special glue that stays wet until a temperature of two hundred degrees Fahrenheit is reached.

Finishing Technologies:

• Other special finishes that Hallmark produces include Flock which is a fuzzy material that undergoes an electrostatic process in order to orient the fuzz to a particular direction. Flitter is a reflective material which is produced by taking a reflective color and printing over aluminum. Virko is a thermal graphic powder, or powdered nylon. For the printing process, and application of these special materials, 2D and 3D machines are used to spray materials onto the cards such as Flitter. At the end of some of the printing machines are silk screens which are used to apply various shapes and colors onto specific cards.

 Overall Impressions/ Epiphanes/ Aha Moments?

• I think the biggest surprise for me when going into Hallmark's facility was seeing how educated the staff giving the tour were. A lot of them seemed very old, but remained relevant in their knowledge of current technologies. I also found it surprising to see that the cards weren't nearly as "mass-produced" as I had thought. For example, when watching the silk-screening process, I expected to see hundreds of cards flow through the assembly line, but was surprised to see that the cards were being individually printed out. It makes the cards seem more special now.

Field trip: Berry Plastics

http://www.berryplastics.com

INDD 508 Materials & Processes 

Field Trip Notes
Who is/ what is Berry Plastics?

• Berry Plastics was established in 1967 under the name Imperial Plastics. In 1972, the injection molding company entered the container market and was purchased by Jack Berry in 1983, hence the name Berry Plastics.

Products & Services: What do they do/ what do they make?

• Berry Plastics produces packing solutions for companies such as Walmart, Target, McDonalds, Burger King, Coco-Cola, Kraft Foods, General Mills, just to name a few. Berry Plastics manufactures and markets a number of plastic packaging products, including open top and closed top packaging, polyethylene-based plastic films, industrial and duct tapes, medical specialties, heat-shrinkable coatings, and specialty laminates.

Vocabulary Terms & Definitions (Materials):

• Berry Plastics primarily uses polythylene-based plastics for all of their products ranging from the packing line to their laminates and adhesives.

Forming Technologies:

•  Berry Plastics has a ton of forming technologies. They have injection molding, thermoforming, blow molding, laminate extrusion, and sheet/film extrusion. Based on the tour, it seemed like they mostly used blow molding and extrusion processes to form a good portion of their products like the McDonalds' cups and lids.

Cutting Technologies:

• There didn't seem like there was a stand-alone cutting process on the assembly line. Much of the cutting technologies are integrated in the forming technologies like blow molding where at some point during the manufacturing process of a product, the pieces are cut in mass quantities. 

Joining Technologies:

• No real joining technologies as Berry Plastics mainly deals with products which are capable of being produced in such a way that doesn't require a joining process. They do however contain their very own tool shop full of people that are responsible for reducing manufacturing times, and costs, and increasing the efficiency of the processes as well as increasing the quality of their products. 

Finishing Technologies:

• On some occasions, Berry Plastics will apply calendering to cloths found in tapes and other adhesive products to produce a watered effect. They will also coat some of their plastics to enhance the glossiness, and to protect them from the environment, as well as increase their longevity.

Overall Impressions/ Epiphanes/ Aha Moments?

• Out of all of the field trips that we had that involved mass-producing, I would say that Berry Plastics had staff that were more technical and skilled compared the staff and employees from other companies. The environment was also surprisingly clean as well for how much was going within the factory.
  
  
  

El Dorado

INDD 508 Materials & Processes 

Field Trip Notes
Who is/ what is El-Dorado?

• El-Dorado is an architecture consulting agency located in Kansas City. The company was formed in 1996 by three employees from BNIM.

Products & Services: What do they do/ what do they make?

• They offer consultancy to various architecture firms and solve issues for them in order to enhance their own portfolios.

Note: Arrived to the field trip late so there wasn't actually too much information that I could gather with the time I had there. From what I saw, the staff was small, and the building's interior layout was similar to that of Dimensional Innovations. Honestly, it seemed like the workspace was originally a very large studio, transformed into a workspace. It was actually a really relaxing environment. I liked the advice that was given by founder of El-Dorado who suggested that we should work hard to meet timelines and tidy up the little things in life that we take for granted like showing up to class on time, or early because such habits translate into our work ethics later on in life. I also thought that it was interesting when he said that when we do find a sustainable career in the industry, we shouldn't immediately try living a lavish lifestyle, buying expensive cars, etc since we should be prepared to move around, travel and focus our lives on the job in order to really appreciate it. It seemed like he was trying to communicate that our immediate wants in life right out of college can be distractions to our career path.

Target: Watches/ How It's Made

How It's Made: Watches

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQAQqt9qxuY

Field Trip: IKEA

Film: National Geographic Mega Factories- IKEA

 National Geographic Mega Factories: IKEA
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xs8c5c_national-geographic-megafactories-ikea_news

Reflection: Before watching the video, I originally thought that IKEA was just a European version of Wal-Mart. I thought that there wasn't much thought put into design of much of their products, and that they just were the type of company to produce as much as possible, as fast as they can in order to create the largest profit. I was impressed by how large their design staff is, and how many of their products are outsourced from numerous locations, including locations outside of Europe. I can not wrap my mind around how difficult it must be to create products that are efficiently produced on the assembly line while maintaining quality. It seems like IKEA spends a lot of their time on things that most people take for granted when actually buying their products. For example, I liked how the documentary showed the process by which IKEA produced their famous red shelf. It was both cheap, efficiently produced, made of quality, and easily packable. It's hard to imagine how there are so many products that IKEA offers, yet the majority of them require the attention of an actual human worker to either check the quality of the work, or assemble them properly.