Week 6

Welcome back to our blog! For this week, we discussed on the Product Life Cycle (PLC) and the Cradle-to-Cradle Designs (C2C).

Visualisation of our chemical product:

Here is our visual for our PLC!

Raw Materials

• Terracotta, found naturally underground

• Metal alloy, synthesised in the lab

• Bricks, man-made
  
  

Manufacturing

• Create pipes made of terracotta

• Create metal frame to hold fan and pipes
  
  

Packaging

• Finished product to be packed in a bag which is put in a one-sized box

• These products in the box are packed into bigger cardboard boxes labelled fragile wrapped in plastic films to be ready for shipping

Distribution

• Distributed to warehouses to be stored carefully

• Shipped to multiple countries around the world to be sold to consumers
  
  

Use

• Portable air cooler that can be readily used when wanted with the assistance of water

• Used when wanting to relax, after a long exercise, during a hot day, etc.
  
  

Disposal

• The broken/used clay tubes can be easily recycled by remaking the structure of the tubes

• The clay to be disposed can also be reused for pottery.

• The metal frame is built with carefully picked alloys to last longer than usual alloy so it will not be recycled but constantly reused.

Afterwards, we used C2C design to optimise and better reduce our environmental impact. In our ways we hope to use these 2 strategies:

Nutrients become nutrients again

• The metal frame could be made out of bioplastics such as cellulose-based plastics (biodegradable)

• 
  

Use of renewable energies

• Since terracotta is made from hot clay, the clay can be heated using renewable energy like geothermal energy

Lastly, we changed our original PLC to meet the 2 strategies. The ones in blue are the changes.

Raw Materials

• Terracotta, found naturally underground

• Cellulose-based plastic, synthesised in the lab with wooden logs
  
  

Manufacturing

• Create pipes made of terracotta

• Create bioplastic frame to hold fan and pipes
  
  

Packaging

• Finished product to be packed in a bag which is put in a one-sized box

• These products in the box are packed into bigger cardboard boxes labelled fragile wrapped in plastic films to be ready for shipping
  
  

Distribution

• Distributed to warehouses to be stored carefully

• Shipped to multiple countries around the world to be sold to consumers
  
  

Use

• Portable air cooler that can be readily used when wanted with the assistance of water

• Used when wanting to relax, after a long exercise, during a hot day, etc.
  
  

Disposal

• The broken/used clay tubes can be easily recycled by remaking the structure of the tubes

• The clay to be disposed can also be reused for pottery.

• The metal frame is built with carefully picked alloys to last longer than usual alloy so it will not be recycled but constantly reused.