Freedom of design, mass customisation, waste minimisation and the ability to manufacture complex structures, as well as fast prototyping, are the main benefits of additive manufacturing (AM) or 3D printing. A comprehensive review of the main 3D printing methods, materials and their development in trending applications was carried out. In particular, the revolutionary applications of AM in biomedical, aerospace, buildings and protective structures were discussed. The current state of materials development, including metal alloys, polymer composites, ceramics and concrete, was presented. In addition, this paper discussed the main processing challenges with void formation, anisotropic behaviour, the limitation of computer design and layer-by-layer appearance. Overall, this paper gives an overview of 3D printing, including a survey on its benefits and drawbacks as a benchmark for future research and development.

Additive manufacturing (3D printing): A review of materials, methods, applications and challenges

Recycling of rare earths: a critical review

The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century Thomas L. Friedman Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005 Thomas Friedman is a widely-acclaimed journalist, foreign affairs columnist for the New York Times, and author of four best-selling books that include From Beirut to Jerusalem (1989). His eminence as a journalist is clearly demonstrated in the way he prepared for The World is Flat. He traveled throughout the world, interviewing in depth the political and business leaders who have the most direct, hands-on knowledge of the truly incredible developments occurring in the business structures and technology of globalization. Only a journalist who moves freely at the highest levels could interview the likes of Sir John Rose, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce; Nobuyuki Idei, the chairman of Sony; Richard Koo, the chief economist for the Nomura Research Institute; Bill Gates of Microsoft; Wee Theng Tan, the president of Intel China; David Baltimore, president of Caltech; Howard Schultz, founder and chairman of Starbucks; Nandan Nilekani, CEO of Infosys in Bangalore - and many others, each of whom gave him the inside story of how, specifically, the barriers of time and space separating economies, workforces, sources of capital, and technical abilities are crumbling. The result of this unfolding story, already far along but with much farther to go, according to Friedman, is that "the world is flat." With some notable exceptions in sub-Saharan Africa and the Islamic swathe, everything is connected with everything else on a horizontal basis, with distance and erstwhile time-lags no longer mattering. Friedman describes in detail the galloping globalization that has unfolded in even so limited a time as the past five years. Under the impetus of a worldwide network of interconnectivity, the world economy is much-changed from what it was at the turn of the century a mere half-decade ago. Friedman quotes the CEO of India's Infosys: "What happened over the last [few] years is that there was a massive investment in technology, especially in the bubble era, when hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in putting broadband connectivity around the world, undersea cables," while (Friedman paraphrases him) "computers became cheaper and dispersed all over the world, and there was an explosion of software - e-mail, search engines like Google, and proprietary software that can chop up any piece of work and send one part to Boston, one part to Bangalore, and one part to Beijing...." Microprocessors today have 410 million transistors compared to the 2800 they had in 1971. And now, "wireless is what will allow you to take everything that has been digitized, made virtual and personal, and do it from anywhere." The effect on productivity is revolutionary: "It now takes Boeing eleven days to build a 737, down from twenty-eight days just a few years ago. Boeing will build the next generation of planes in three days, because all the parts are computer-designed for assembly." The most strikingly informative aspect of this book, however, is not about technology. Most especially, Friedman explores the rapidly evolving global business systems, each constantly regenerating itself to keep ahead of the others. These are systems that span the continents seeking the lowest-cost providers of everything from expert scientific and engineering work to the lowliest grunt work. Friedman points out that India produces 70,000 accounting graduates each year - and that they are willing to start at $100 a month. It is no wonder that Boeing employs 800 Russian scientists and engineers for passenger-plane design when "a U.S. aeronautical engineer costs $120 per design hour, a Russian costs about one-third of that." Friedman describes a call center in India where outbound callers sell "everything from credit cards to phone minutes," while operators taking inbound calls do "everything from tracing lost luggage for U.S. and European airline passengers to solving computer problems for confused American consumers. …

The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century

Lithium-ion batteries play an important role in the life quality of modern society as the dominant technology for use in portable electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets and laptops. Beyond this application lithium-ion batteries are the preferred option for the emerging electric vehicle sector, while still underexploited in power supply systems, especially in combination with photovoltaics and wind power. As a technological component, lithium-ion batteries present huge global potential towards energy sustainability and substantial reductions in carbon emissions. A detailed review is presented herein on the state of the art and future perspectives of Li-ion batteries with emphasis on this potential.

The lithium-ion battery: State of the art and future perspectives

Rapid growth in the market for electric vehicles is imperative, to meet global targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, to improve air quality in urban centres and to meet the needs of consumers, with whom electric vehicles are increasingly popular. However, growing numbers of electric vehicles present a serious waste-management challenge for recyclers at end-of-life. Nevertheless, spent batteries may also present an opportunity as manufacturers require access to strategic elements and critical materials for key components in electric-vehicle manufacture: recycled lithium-ion batteries from electric vehicles could provide a valuable secondary source of materials. Here we outline and evaluate the current range of approaches to electric-vehicle lithium-ion battery recycling and re-use, and highlight areas for future progress. Processes for dismantling and recycling lithium-ion battery packs from scrap electric vehicles are outlined.

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Diran Apelian

Papers

Fatigue behavior of A356-T6 aluminum cast alloys. Part I. Effect of casting defects

A closed loop process for recycling spent lithium ion batteries

A novel method to recycle mixed cathode materials for lithium ion batteries

Analysis of the spray deposition process

Fatigue behavior of A356/357 aluminum cast alloys. Part II – Effect of microstructural constituents