Appliance Design - December 2008 - (Page 10)

NEwS watch MODULaR FRIDGE wINS DESIGN LaB tion is expected to reach 320,000 units. The site employs 230 workers. BSh StaYS chINa cOURSE. coox cooking table. iBasket hamper/washer. Flatshare fridge. Stefan Buchberger, from the University of Applied Arts, Vienna, Austria, has been chosen winner of the Electrolux Design Lab competition for designing Flatshare, a modular fridge with individual compartments for people who live with several roommates. Flatshare consists of a base station and up to four stackable modules. The modules allow each individual user to have his or her own refrigerator space and can be customized with various colorful skins as well as with add-ons like a bottle opener. Handles mounted on the side make it easy to transport the modules. The Design Lab 2008 award is a prize of € 5,000 and a six-month internship at one of Electrolux global design centers. The award for second place went to iBasket, by Guopeng Liang, from Tongji University, Shanghai, China. The iBasket is a wireless, remote-controlled appliance that combines a laundry hamper with a clothes washer. Third place went to Coox, by Antoine Lebrun from L’Ecole de Design Nantes Atlantique, France. Coox is an adaptive cooking table that allows users to cook and eat wherever they are in the house. The other six finalists were: 4Sook, a social networking recipe generator with electronic tongue, by Adam Brodowski, Savannah College of Art and Design, Savannah, Ga. 4E-bag, a kinetic energy-powered cooler bag, by Apore Puspoki, Moholy-Nagy University of Arts and Design, Budapest, Hungary. 4Stratosphere, a sanitizing clothes rack/valet, by Atilla Safrani, Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest, Hungary. 4Vesta, a foldaway cooktop with RFID scanner, by Matthias Pinkert, HTW Dresden (FH) University of Applied Sciences, Germany. 4Drawer Kitchen, a desk-drawer hotplate and fridge, by Nojae Park, Chiba University, Japan. 4Scan Toaster, a USB toaster that prints news, weather and snapshots onto slices of toast, by Sung Bae Chang, Sejong University, South Korea. The 2008 Electrolux Design Lab, the sixth edition of the annual competition, challenged undergraduate and graduate industrial design students to create home appliance concepts for the Internet generation two to three years from now. Entries were to address food storage, cooking, and/or washing. This year, there were more than 600 entries from 49 countries. < Bosch and Siemens Home Appliance Group (BSH) plans to continue its investment strategy in China despite the negative impact of the world’s economic downturn and real estate industry on China’s home appliance market. BSH has completed construction on a factory to build kitchen and small household appliances, and plans to further develop its refrigerator and clothes washing machine production capabilities. The company has invested more than $500 million in China’s market to produce products under the Siemens name, a brand under BSH, which will market to the mid-priced market, and under the Bosch name, which will be introduced to the high-end market. MIcROwaVE SaFEtY. Microwave ovens should be equipped with safety controls to prevent children from opening them and being burned by hot foods and drinks, according to a study published by University of Chicago Medical Center researchers in the October 2008 issue of the Journal Pediatrics. The study recommends extra protections, such as locking mechanisms and stepped-up warning campaigns, to reduce accidental injuries to children when they remove food from the microwave. Many current models have an option to lock the oven that requires the user to hold the start or stop/clear button for three to four seconds before it will operate. However, this does not stop a child from opening the oven after something has been heated, the study noted. DOE RULES FOR Ptac. On Oct.7, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a final rule establishing new energy-efficiency standards for packaged-terminal air conditioners (PTACs) and packaged-terminal heat pumps (PTHPs). The DOE, prompted by a request from the AHRI, adopted the www.applianceDESIGN.com 10 applianceDESIGN December 2008 http://www.appliancedesign.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Appliance Design - December 2008

Appliance Design - December 2008 Contents Editorial Shipments/Forecasts News Watch New Products Design Marts Meetings Directory of Appliance Industry Associations EID Call for Entries Design, Engineering, and Prototyping Electrical and Electronic Components Fastening and Joining Fluid, Gas, and Refrigeration Materials, Forms, and Fabrication Mechanical Components Software and Computers Testing and Certification Supplier Locator Product and Services Locator Index Association Report: CEA Advertiser’s Index

Appliance Design - December 2008

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