By a miracle no one was injured after the end of the afternoon a wing of a windmill broke off and landed on the motorway A6. The rotor blade that broke from the windmill belongs to a series along the highway near the Flevo power station. The colossus of 20 meters came onto the right lane of the motorway A6. The age of the NUON blade is around 12 years.

You probably wonder whether something similar has happened before. Yes, it did, and quite nearby, in the Netherlands (for the dutch readers follow this link: Article Webregio.nl). Please contact us for similar cases.


Windmill rotor blade at the A6 motorway, Lelystad, The Netherlands.

It is widely recognized that shelf and service life of various polymer based electronic equipment is largely dependent on UV resistance and diffusion barrier properties. Examples are light / video displays and solar cell components.

Nevertheless, diffusion analysis is usually carried out using the layman's equations: Fick's Laws. In addition and paradoxally, current use of FEA simulation software is leading to an increasing use of Fick's laws in all kinds of - in itself state-of-the-art - simulations. This is probably due to the often suggested plain analogy between FEA computed Fourier equations for heat transport, and Fick's Law for diffusion. However in our opinion, this analogy between Fourier and Fick is only valid in 1% of the industrial simulations, at least when polymer based materials are involved.

In this new case study "Evaluation of Transparent Polyimide for Flexible Solar Cell Substrates", it is shown that already small deviations from Fick's laws result in fundamental material decisions.

Composite Agency is pleased to inform you on the Offshore Symposium organized by the Offshore Engineering Student Association DOT. Presentations include topics by reputable experts on Deep Sea Installations, Offshore Production of Stranded a Natural Gas resources that are currently not used for economic/technical reasons Gas, Wind Turbines Installation Offshore, Carbon Dioxide Storage Opportunities, etc.

website: www.dot.tudelft.nl.

You may be interested in participating in a one-day workshop organised by the IOP Printing and Graphics Science Group and the UK Displays and Lighting Network:

Gas and Moisture Permeation Measurement for High Barrier Films
at Institute of Physics, London
on Thursday 25th September 2008

There are many instances where flexible films are being used because of their conformal nature or transparency. While many materials provide near ideal optical and mechanical properties, their barrier and chemical resistance properties often need to be improved to provide useable service life. For example in plastic electronics, many of the promises of flexible plastic Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLED) and Photovoltaics (PV) can only be realised by having a substrate with superior barrier properties. This raises the issue of barrier measurement since any measurement systems needs to have at least 1 order of magnitude better resolution than the barrier properties being measured.

This joint workshop aims to improve understanding in the area of barriers and their measurement. It will be of interest to scientists developing barrier layers for films, and using or improving permeability testing equipment.

The meeting will include presentations from:
* Holgor Norenberg, Technolox
* Hazel Assender, University of Oxford
* Stephane Cros, CEA, France
* Sharon Louch, CPI
* Jasper Michels, Holst Centre, The Netherlands
* Sijmon van der Wal, Composite Agency, The Netherlands (see abstract below)

For details regarding the event (including a form to register online) please see the workshop web page, or contact Eifion Jewell of UKDL at eifion@ukdisplaylighting.net

For Boeing, the 787 Dreamliner, with its radical lightweight design, represents far more than a potentially juicy profit stream. Made from carbon-fiber-reinforced plastic, the aircraft is supposed to be the symbol of a new Boeing... read more. [source: businessweek]