Major Japanese Companies Put A Halt On Their Manufacturing Operations in China

As reported by Reuters, the Japanese manufacturer of heavy machinery, Komatsu Ltd has recently announced that it was forced to cease all the production processes in three plants based in Shadong province, as a result of anti-Japan demonstration that has swept across the country.
Toyota Motor Co. has also temporarily suspended some of its manufacturing operations in China. Toyota used to produce the vehicles in China through joint ventures in Tianjin and other cities. Unfortunately, Toyota spokesman refused to unveil any further details concerning the suspended operations.
Similarly, Sony Corp. has stated that they were going to suspend two, out of their seven plants in China, just the same day Toyota did, but again, no further details were disclosed.
The anti-Japan manifestations have been incited by a recent decision of the Japanese government to buy the disputed islands in the East China Sea from their private owners, who, by the way, are Japanese. The islands are referred to as the Senkaku in Japan and the Diaoyu in China. 

A New Roof-and-Attic Design System Turns Out to Be Efficient

A brand new type of roof-and-attic system tested at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory manages to keep homes cool during summer and warm in winter. That multi-seasonal versatility is something brand new in roof and attic design and the history of construction industry.
The newly-tested system uses controls for radiation, convection and insulation, which includes a passive ventilation system pulling the air from the attic into  an inclined air space above the roof. That improves the efficiency to a great extent.
Owing to that system, the heat, that would otherwise have gone into the house, is carried up and out. The good news is that the new system design can be retrofitted with almost all roofing products, as the design is based on the use of foiled covered polystyrene insulation, fitting over and between rafters in new construction or can be attached on top of the already existing shingle roof system.
In the nearest future the system is going to be upgraded to become even more cost-efficient. That is why the scientists keep working on designs with lower initial installation costs and some further reduction in the costs, overally.

Are Nanotubes Able to Tell of the Bridge Collapse Risk?

A few years ago, in 2007, the I-35W bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis tumbled down and killed 13 people, injuring 145.  The collapse was then blamed on a design deficiency which resulted in a gusset plate failure during the continuous construction work.
Recently, the interdisciplinary group of scientists at the University of Delaware has been developing a novel structural health monitoring system that could prevent disasters of that kind in the future. The two affiliated faculty members in the UD Center for Composite Materials have received a 3-year $300.000 grant from the National Science Foundation to find out if there’s any use of the carbon nanotube composites as a sort of “smart skin” for the built structures.
In the preliminary examination, the two researchers  found that a carbon nanotube hybrid glass-fiber composite attached to small-scale concrete beams, created the conductive skin, incredibly sensitive to changes both in strain and the development of damage. The nanotubes remained totally integrated into complex fiber composite systems, imparting new functionality without  the necessity to alter the microstructure of the composite.
As the preliminary results look more than promising, the researchers are now going to face such issues as sensor processing, characterization and modeling followed by testing of components and complete structures.

Revolution in Construction is About to Come: New Space- Age Insulating Material

The important  change in the world’s lightest solid material and the best insulating material, as it has been reported lately, may result in putting more of that space-age wonder into buildings, clothing and other common uses.

The electrifying news concerning the development of a new, flexible aerogel  - so light it was nicknamed  “solid smoke”, was announced on the 224^th National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society.

Traditional aerogels, made from silica that is found in beach sand, usually break and crumble easily. In time, scientists have improved the durability of the aerogels. New materials can be up to 500 times stronger than their silica equivalents. A really  thick piece of the aerogel is able to manage the weight of a car. They can also be produced in a thin and flexible forms, making them suitable for all the construction and commercial uses.

The improved aerogels would be perfect for a new series of super-insulating clothes keeping people warm, tents and sleeping bags, home refrigerators  and freezer walls. Even  NASA considers using a heat shield made from the flexible aerogel  that will inflate like a balloon when the spacecraft enters the atmosphere. The stronger and more durable aerogels have been produced in two ways. One involved making changes to the core structure of traditional silica aerogels. Another was based on polyimide and then inserting brace-like crosslinks in order to strengthen the whole structure.