news & trends
Integrated Roadways smart con-
A cookie and its glass replica, which was created with a new liquid-glass nanocomposite.
with fine structures and to push glass mate-
rials further into rapid-prototyping and
additive-manufacturing applications.
Using LiqGlass it is possible to con-
vert arbitrary physical objects made from
almost any material with feature sizes
in the range of tens of micrometers and
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for 177,000 body armor plates (news.3M.
com)Admatec unveils ADMAFLEX 130
high-performance ceramic 3-D printer
(admatec.nl)Kyocera breaks ground
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com)Corning to acquire Alliance
Fiber Optic Products (corning.com)
Saint-Gobain increases flat-glass sales
in first quarter (saint-gobain.com)
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recover rare-earth and critical materials
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Prize competition seeking innovative
approaches to cost-effective, low-volume
manufacturing (mforesight.org)IPS
Ceramics announces new U.S. subsidiary
(ipsceramics.com)Macom initiates
4 www.ceramics.org | American Ceramic Society Bulletin, Vol. 95, No. 6
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roughness of a few nanometers into glass
rapidly and conveniently, according to a
Materials Views article about the work.
The paper, published in Advanced
Materials, is Liquid glass: A facile soft
replication method for structuring glass
(DOI: 10.1002/adma.201506089). n
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semiconductor tech (macon.com)NIST
MEP to help small manufacturers engage
with Manufacturing Innovation Institutes
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by 2020 (reuters.com)PPI: Flat-glass
prices up almost 7% over year ago (bls.
gov/ppi)Arkema joins with HP on mate-
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solution (arkema.com)HarbisonWalker
International announces transforma-
tion and plans for growth (thinkhwi.
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tech incubator (anl.gov) n
crete is helping build smarter,
safer, and connected roads
Integrated Roadways (Kansas City,
Mo.) is a company with big plans for an
uber-connected world. The company is
pioneering its namesake to build a world
literally and figuratively connected by a
mobile Internet of Things.
Integrated Roadways hopes its plans
become reality soon, toothe company
has patented its smart pavement system of
tech-embedded precast concrete slabs that
provide wireless connectivity on the road.
The companys modular concrete slab
system uses dowel bars to join individual
precast concrete slabs, helping to trans-
fer loads and providing a continuous
paved road.
In addition to providing the opportu-
nity for technology to be installed within
the concrete itself, precast slabs also are
quicker to install, reducing construction
delays, and have a longer service life.
While there are many possibilities
that integrated technology provides,
nothing is worse than a tech-embedded
system that becomes obsolete.
So the company also invented a way
to service the pavement, through slab-
embedded access ports that allow the
smart concrete to be connected, discon-
nected, upgraded, and serviced.
With the approval of its U.S. patent
application, Integrated Roadways is well
on its way to making these smart roads
a reality and already has installed its
smart concrete systems in portions of
Missouris highways.
To actually have a patent number and
issuance date after all this work is still
very exciting, even if we knew it was com-
ing, Integrated Roadways founder Tim
Sylvester says in a Startland News article.
Its rewarding to finally be at the point
where we have a patent number and issue
date. We first filed in 2014, so its been a
long time coming at this point.
So what can smart highways actually do?
In addition to adding the ability to
connect to the internet on the gowith-
out burning through a wireless data
 There also is the possibility of ice-
melting heated highways.
And, according to a Racing News Co.
article, the roads also could achieve wire-
less charging for electric vehicles, increas-
ing their range and, thus, potentially
do new things, too.
Catch a glimpse of the installation
of some of the smart concrete slabs in
Integrated Roadways time-lapse video at
youtu.be/ogFrGHNjG3M. n

Credit: HD_Vision; Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

broadening their appeal to a wider audi-
ence of drivers. Shattering expectations: Will
Plus, connected pavement could the Apple iPhone 8 go all glass
communicate directly with autonomous next year?
vehicles, making driverless car technol-
One of the most reliable Apple trend
ogy more feasible and more safe.
analysts, KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo,
Although the possibilities for smart
Integrated Roadways concept connects predicts that next years iPhone iteration
highways are diverse, it is clear that the
wireless networks to highway networks. will say sayonara to its metal casing.
ability for added technology will change
plansensor-equipped roads could make According to Forbes, Kuo predicts that
our world in interesting ways.
rides safer and quicker. the iPhone 8 will replace its aluminum
We need to change ever-so-slightly
According to the Startland News arti- chassis with an all-glass enclosure. Kuo has
how we think about roads, Sylvester
cle, Integrated Roadways already is work- accurately predicted a host of other Apple
says in the Startland News article.
ing with the Colorado Department of changes, so this is one reliable rumor.
Change it from a hard flat thing that
Transportation to install pavement that A mostly glass iPhone is possible and,
just kind of sits there to a hard flat
is so smart that it can call for help when according to the article, could improve
thing that just kind of sits there, but has
it detects that a car has run off the road. wireless reception and wireless charging.
cool stuff inside that makes it possible to
The iPhone 4 actually donned a glass

Durable solutions made from Aluminum Oxide

Improve gas transfer ef ficiency in your application

Refractron ACS bulletin August 2016.indd 1 6/30/2016 15:13:35

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