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Over the last 50 years since Whittingham created the world's first lithium-ion battery (LIB) in 1970, LIBs have continued to develop and have become mainstream for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. However, when an LIB for an EV reaches 80% of its state of health (SOH), although it still retains about 80% of its capacity, it is no longer suitable for use in general EVs and must be retired. This is problematic because not only is a retired LIB still viable for use and not totally obsolete, if not properly disposed of, a retired LIB may cause environmental pollution on top of being a waste of resources. Therefore, the reuse of retired LIBs from EVs is increasingly important. This paper uses circular economy (CE) and extended producer responsibility (EPR) as a theoretical basis to deal with the disposal of retired LIBs from EVs in Taiwan from legal, technical, and economic perspectives, and hopes to provide suggestions for the reuse of retired LIBs from EVs in Taiwan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated high temperature ultrasonic transducer (HTUT) sensor has been utilized for diagnosis of gas-assisted hot embossing process to fabricate V-cut patterns real-time, nonintrusively and nondestructively. The progression of the process, including plastic plate soften, gas introducing, cooling, and plate detachment inside the chamber, was clearly observed using ultrasound. Ultrasonic velocity could not only indicate the four steps of process, but also evaluate the replicating degree of the V-cut patterns on surface of plastic plate under various temperature and gas pressure settings. The experimental results indicate that the heights of V-cut patterns increase with temperature and gas pressure. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 53:2175-2182, 2013. [c] 2013 Society of Plastics Engineers, INTRODUCTION Hot embossing is a productive method for the parallel replication of precision micro-features at low cost. With a single master or stamp, identical structures can be reproduced onto substrates. [...]

Co-injection molding, also known as sandwich molding, is a process in which two or more polymers are laminated together in a mold cavity. Integrated ultrasonic sensors embedded into a mold insert of a co-injection-molding machine have been used for real-time, nonintrusive, and nondestructive diagnosis of co-injection-molding processes. Diagnosis of core arrival, core flow speed, part solidification, part detachment from the mold, thickness of skin and core, and core length at the mold was demonstrated. It is found that core flow speed and peak cavity pressure monotonically increased and decreased with the core volume percentage, respectively. Thicknesses of the skin and core of the molded part were estimated using the presented ultrasonic technique during molding with an accuracy better than ±17%. In addition, the core length had correlation with core thickness, core flow speed, and peak cavity pressure. Among them, the core thickness measured by the ultrasonic technique had the better correlation. This technique enables process optimization, the maximum process efficiency, and in-process quality assurance of the molded parts. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 47:1491-1500, 2007. ©2007 Society of Plastics Engineers*, INTRODUCTION Plastic injection molding is widely used in mass production and prototyping for various kinds of polymeric products including automotive components and housings for consumer electronics. This technology has a [...]

Poling process is one of the widely used strategies to enhance the film properties during the manufacturing processes of ceramic film. A lab-made PbZrxTi1-xO3 (PZT) film by spin-coating on Ti substrate is presented. After heating treatments, the fabricated film was passed corona poling under ultraviolent (UV) light of various power. The characteristics of the PZT film have been evaluated by several instruments, such as X-ray diffractometer (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and impedance analyzer. The results indicated that UV light would affect the orientation of crystallization, microstructure and grain size of PZT film surface during poling process under room temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The injection molding (IM) process is a widely used manufacturing process for injecting material into a mold for producing a diverse array of parts. It includes several energy-consuming procedures, such as heating plastic pellets, forcing melted polymer into a mold cavity, and cooling down the molded products. In this study, developmental factors of IM machines and processes along with energy savings progress are reviewed. In addition to several machining factors and process parameter optimizations, applying an energy management system (EMS), as well as new tools to reduce energy consumption in the IM process, has the potential for great improvements in the long term. A cloud energy management system (CEMS), called the intelligent Energy Management Network (iEN), which was launched by Chunghwa Telecom, was installed on two IM machines to illustrate the optimization of energy savings by a variable-frequency drive (VFD) and process parameter optimization. Through the recorded process dynamics, the energy usage, and product quality of the IM process using the iEN, the energy savings could be analyzed by the expert, measurement and verification (M&V) systems on the software as a service (SaaS) platform. The electricity savings on the IM machine after installing a VFD were 41.3%. Further optimization by using the one-factor-at-a-time (OFAT) approach to measure the process parameters, such as melting temperature (310.0~350.0 °C), mold temperature (110.0~130.0 °C), and clamping force (120.0~160.0 T), was carried out. The experimental and analyzed results indicated that the optimal operating conditions were at a melting temperature of 330.0 °C, a mold temperature of 120.0 °C, and a clamping force of 140.0 T. Through the optimization procedure of the process parameters carried out by the iEN, further electricity savings of 12.2% were added. Therefore, the saved electricity cost and payback period of installing the VFD and the iEN were NT$ 26,363/month and within 4 months, respectively. The saved electricity and reduced carbon dioxide (CO) amounts were 107,200.5 kWh/year and 55,851.5 kg/year, respectively. Continuous analysis of the optimization process, energy savings, resource conservation, and waste reduction of the IM process using the iEN has shown overall benefits to the IM process, the machines, and the future decisions and designs regarding new products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]