The first images of Populous' MSG Sphere venue, which is planned for a site near the Olympic Park in east London, have been released.  Populous is designing the 18,000-seat spherical arena to host both music and esport events for the Madison Square Garden Company (MSG).  Plans for the venue emerged earlier this year, alongside images of an almost identical arena planned for Las Vegas.

American’s have once again selected New Zealand-born Envy™ apple as their favourite in a consumer competition run by the US Apple Association.

Saule Technologies has created a new kind of printable solar cell that offers almost infinite possibilities for its installation.

Working with experts from across the globe, Olga Malinkiewicz and the Saule Technologies team have improved on existing technologies to create a panel that is not only lightweight, flexible and cheap to produce, but also incredibly efficient.

By using perovskite, the solar cell is not only more effective in sunlight, but can also produce energy from artificial light, helping to ‘recycle’ indoor lighting.

The versatility of this printable design opens the door to a huge number of innovative uses. “We can put disc panels on the buildings, we can make it partially transparent, we can put it in the windows, put it on the back of our phones. Unlimited applications”, says Malinkiewicz. “There is no better time than now” to develop alternative sources of energy considering the growing challenges we face with climate change.

| A EuroNews release |  ||  April 05, 2018   |||

Iceland Foods has launched two new major product ranges for the ready meals market packed in Stora Enso paperboard trays.  With its 900 stores, Iceland Foods accounts for 30% of frozen ready meal sales in the UK, and the business is growing.

“A supermarket with empty shelves is completely pointless. Ensuring our millions of customers can get what they want, whenever they need it is absolutely critical,” says Chris Quin, CEO Foodstuffs North Island. “Equally important is the ability to transport products safely and efficiently – reducing time spent on the road and the impact on our environment."

Architect, designer and thinker, Neri Oxman has been at the forefront of computational design, additive manufacturing, material engineering and synthetic biology.

Dairy company Fonterra is constructing an advanced plant that is set to reduce the amount of groundwater extracted for its Darfield manufacturing site by around 70%.

Based on New Zealand’s South Island, Darfield is already considered a world-leading facility, according to Fonterra. Now the company is investing $11 million in new water processing technology for the site, which is expected to have a significant impact on its environmental footprint.

“Thanks to the new plant we’ll save the equivalent of around 100 tanker loads of water every day,” said Robert Spurway, head of Fonterra’s global operations.

“As well as reducing water use, the new technology also decreases the amount of water the site discharges for irrigation. It’s a win-win situation.”

The new plant uses a reverse osmosis technique to purify the water extracted from cow’s milk during the manufacturing process. Water is passed through a membrane filtration system, which makes it drinkable and suitable for use in a range of on-site activities such as cooling, heating and cleaning.

The Darfield development aligns with Fonterra’s six water commitments to help improve the quality of New Zealand’s waterways:

• Farm within regional environmental limits.
• Encourage strong environmental farming practices.
• Reduce water use and improve wastewater quality at manufacturing plants.
• Build partnerships to improve waterway health.
• Invest in science and innovation to find new solutions.
• Make the products people value most.

“We’re prioritising investment to reduce water consumption,” said Spurway. “Last year we announced our 2020 target to reduce the amount of water we use across our 26 New Zealand manufacturing sites by 20%.

“The new plant will go a significant way toward helping us achieve our target, creating a manufacturing site that’s more self-sufficient.”

The new plant is expected to be up and running by October, in time for the 2018–2019 milk season.

| A Fonterra release  ||  march 19, 2018   |||

Russian Federation aluminium behemoth U.C. Rusal announced yesterday that a revolutionary new scandium-aluminium alloy intended for shipbuilding has broken free of the laboratory and entered the testing phase.

The University of Canterbury Eco-marathon team is again coming home from Singapore triumphant, after beating more than 100 teams from 21 countries at the Shell Eco-marathon Asia 2018 event.

The student team has won this year’s Technical Innovation award, an off-track prize which includes a trophy and US$3000, in UC’s second Eco-marathon competition entry after competing in the international event for the first time last year at Changi race track.

The judges said the UC team “was awarded the Technical Innovation Award for the self-designed 3D-printed titanium engine in their UrbanConcept car, which makes for a stronger engine with finer, more intricate details”. The student team, which meshed the use of 3D-printing with the traditional machine, was lauded for “taking a holistic approach to designing and printing the complete engine in a way that is not only optimised for efficient production of the printed parts, but also for optimised engine fuel efficiency”.

Faculty advisor to the UC Eco-marathon students, Bruce Robertson says the team has done extraordinarily well in the second year of competing in the Eco-marathon contest and has left its mark on a global stage.

“The 3D-printed titanium engine has been met with so much interest that our voices were failing from having to talk to people about it so much,” Mr Robertson says.

“When competing internationally, it always strikes me that we must be doing a particularly good job of educating engineers at UC. As one delightful elderly Pakistani man said to me yesterday, ‘after a lifetime of watching the Kiwis on the cricket field, I had no idea you could be so clever!’

“We are honoured to have such generous support from our external partners including Shell NZ, Singapore Airlines Cargo, and Rodin Cars. Without their support, the world might have one fewer glimpse of what Kiwis can do.”

Last year the UC team won the Eco-marathon Design award for: “producing a car that brought fresh thinking about recyclability to the competition. By entering a car largely made of a common thermoplastic, the team showed a refreshing and holistic approach to design – it chose a material that was easy to work with, light, low-cost, and easy to re-use”.

| A UC release  || March 16, 2018   |||