Eddy's Good News: Manufacturing high quality plastic products and 3D printed bionic fingers

Virgin Radio

18 Jun 2024, 16:32

Every day during his show on Virgin Radio Anthems, Eddy Temple-Morris brings you Good News stories from around the world, to help inject a bit of positivity into your day!

Be sure to listen each day between 2pm and 6pm (Monday - Friday) to hear Eddy's Good News stories (amongst the finest music of course), but if you miss any of them you can catch up on the transcripts of Eddy's most recent stories below:

Wednesday 18th June 2024

We are in no doubt that plastic is a terrible thing for the planet and for almost every animal on it, or in it, but there is a place for plastic, it’s just not appropriate in single use contexts.

Whereas a water storage tank, or the hull of a boat, things that can last lifetimes and never end up in the ocean, or in landfill, are great candidates for being cast in plastic. This is why a startup has found a way to manufacture high quality plastic products using only the sun.

A company called Light Manufacturing uses a really clever process called Solar Rotational Moulding to make these things. This involves putting raw plastic into a mould then softening, and casting it using concentrated sunbeams via 30 special mirrors called heliostats. They automatically track the sun as it moves across the sky. Even better this all happens in a miniature factory in a shipping container, which can be moved and installed anywhere. The biggest one can make 2000 gallon tanks and all it needs is one acre of flat ground.

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org

The Bionic Man was a TV show some of us grew up with and seemed a million miles away from reality, but these days it’s becoming commonplace. The latest good news story in Bionics is from the UK as we meet Michael Altheim, a 52 year old German who lost 4 of his fingers in a work accident.

He had to give up his beloved hobbies of fishing and cycling, that is until now, because he’s the first person to receive 3D printed bionic fingers. He had partial finger solutions in the past but they were unsatisfactory and only meant he could, at best, use a towel. He couldn’t hold a hammer or a screwdriver, or go fishing.

Now Michael has a ‘hero hand’ from groundbreaking british company, Open Bionics, who custom build bionic hands using 3D scanning, printing and modelling tech. Michael can now hold and drink from a glass, use tools just like he used to and is looking forward to getting back on his bike and going fishing!

Via: goodnewsnetwork.org