Appliance Design - December 2007 - (Page 11) NEwS watch (HFCs). The new partnership will result in the proper disposal of more than 1 million residential refrigerators and freezers per year. The annual greenhouse gas emissions savings resulting from Sears’ efforts will be equivalent to preventing the emissions from 650,000 cars. Through the program, the refrigerants and appliance insulating foam that contain CFCs and HFCs are captured and destroyed or recycled. The program will also include the recovery and proper disposal of other appliance waste streams, such as PCBs, mercury switches, and used oil. warned by as much as 70 percent when compared to today’s county-by-county system. The Emergency Alert System is geared toward counties and alarms will still be generated if there is a warning anywhere in the county. However, text and audio messages will provide more specific information about where in the county the storm is, and the direction the storm is moving. The warnings will reference landmarks such as highways, shopping centers, and parks, and will use directional delimiters to indicate county location. major obstacle to extending the life of the device, was solved by improving the light-emitting materials and through the development of Epson’s own original element structure. As a result, Epson was successful in lengthening the life of the device to more than 50,000 hours. Future plans call for Epson to develop displays with OLED systems for different uses, and study their potential for commercialization. Epson has already installed a manufacturing line that is capable of small-scale production. a QuIcK charGE. Seiko Epson Corp. motor PLaNtS cLoSE. Milwaukee, Wis.-based A.O. Smith will close its residential electric motor plants in Kentucky, North Carolina, and Hungary. By the end of next year, the company will transfer residential hermetic motor manufacturing now being done in Kentucky and commercial compressor motors built in North Carolina to plants in Mexico. Production at a motor plant in Budapest will transfer to China. The company points to a weak housing market and says that the market share of one of its larger customers has declined resulting in declining plant utilization rates. and Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. have agreed to jointly develop a wireless quick battery charger capable of substantially shortening charging time. The thin, compact wireless quick battery charger system is expected to shorten the charging time from the one to two hours required by current charging systems down to approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Furthermore, a wireless charger makes it possible for devices that would ordinarily require their own dedicated charging units to share a single charging unit. LENNoX cLoSES PLaNt. Lennox International of Dallas plans to close its refrigeration operations in Danville, Ill., and consolidate the manufacturing, support, and warehouse functions at its Tifton and Stone Mountain, Ga., factories. The consolidation will be a phased process and is expected to be completed in the next 18 months. oLED GoES BLacK. NwS storm tracking. cELL PhoNE Storm aLErtS. The National Weather Service has begun issuing weather warnings based on latitude and longitude as opposed to county-by-county. And, someday soon, these warnings could be sent to a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device. The storm-based warnings allow forecasters to pinpoint the specific area where the threats are highest, reducing the area www.applianceDESIGN.com Seiko Epson Corp. has developed an OLED display system that it says offers “the ultimate black,” which the company says is the key to better image quality. The company also says that it has made inroads into lengthening the device’s life span. One problem, early stage brightness deterioration, which had been a AD12074Bress.indd 1 For more Information Enter 100 applianceDESIGN December 2007 11 11/13/07 10:49:37 AM http://www.bresslergroup.com http://www.bresslergroup.com http://www.appliancedesign.com
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