2020 – 2010s at a Glance

1 huhtikuun, 2020

The start of the new numerical decade 2020 hasn’t been optimal by any means. Things have gone off the track at the very start of the year and continued doing so throughout the first quarter. Let’s see if this year has anything good to offer. We probably just have to wait patiently.

Nokia forecast the future

In the meantime, we could look back how things were ten years ago and see how technology has developed in a decade. Back in 2010 one of the biggest releases was the first iPad that started the era of large screen handheld devices. Now most of the tablets lie in our cupboards as we are used to mobile phones and only a few of us need a larger screen to play Angry Birds.  

Stranger still, Nokia actually had a tablet nine years before the release of iPad, the Nokia M510¹. It was never commercialized, but a prototype series of 1 000 pieces was made. It seems like Nokia had a crooked crystal ball, as this wasn’t their only project that got shelved and years later some other company did a breakthrough with the idea.

3D printing and fancy eyewear

2011 had nothing mentionable to offer in this context, but in 2012 the first commercially available 3D-printer for consumers was released². It started a boom of 3D printing back then and the swell has continued to this day. The materials and equipment developed throughout the decade, but it is still one of the technologies that hasn’t lived up just yet. Hopefully this decade will be a breakthrough for 3D printing, and we can harvest the crops in our business. 

The year 2013 was a year of eyewear. Both Google Glass³ and Oculus Rift (DK1)⁴ were introduced to the audience. Google Glass has remained as promising technology for years, but Oculus Rift is still de facto standard in the VR industry. For true commercialization of VR technology, we probably need another decade.

The last half flew by 

Back in 2014 the must have technology for all was the selfie stick and in 2015 it was the hoverboard. Both of them now lying in the cupboard with the tablet. In 2016 the trendsetters had AirPods and in 2017 Tesla Model 3. 2018 and 2019 offered a few mobile phone releases, but nothing groundbreaking. And I’m forecasting that the hit gadget of 2020 will be a cure/vaccine for COVID-19. But due to the clinical trials, it probably won’t come out until late 2021 or early 2022.

Still and all, we at TT Gaskets have a few tricks up our sleeves. In the best case, our inventions will be in Time magazine’s best of 2020 list of gadgets. But we’ll see. If you are interested, feel free to ask for more. We are here to help you also during these harsh times. 

¹ http://www.youmobile.org/blogs/entry/Meet-the-Nokia-M510-tablet-that-Never-saw-the-light-since-2001-Photos 

² https://www.3dsystems.com/press-releases/3d-systems-debuts-first-consumer-3d-printer 

³ http://glassalmanac.com/history-google-glass/2/ 

⁴ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oculus_Rift 

Batteries – Are lithium-ion batteries Goodenough?

3 maaliskuun, 2020

John B. Goodenough¹. You have probably never heard of him, but I can tell you that he is a good enough bloke. He’s nearly a hundred years old but still rocks in science like a 20-year-old. During his lifetime Goodenough has developed commodities such as computer RAM-memory and lithium-ion battery technology. So, John basically provided us laptops and smart phones. Not bad I would say.

But that’s not all folks, as usual. He is cooking something new for us to tackle one of the most important challenges of our time. As we all probably know, electricity is the noblest form of energy, but it is difficult to store. Lithium-ion batteries are satisfactory energy storages especially for small applications, but in larger scale the weaknesses become evident.

Resource intensive but moderate technology

Manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries is energy and resource intensive business and harmful to the environment with our current craving for batteries. The need for rare-earth metals for the batteries causes ethical and environmental issues as well as the chemicals in the electrolyte are not actually intended for internal use².  

The energy density of lithium-ion technology is moderate, but there’s much room for improvement in large scale storing of energy³. The lifetime of the batteries is also not optimal as renewing batteries every couple of years in for example solar energy plants isn’t economically feasible. But despite the weaknesses, lithium-ion still remains de facto standard of battery technology as there are no other options, yet.

A solid option for lithium-ion 

Goodenough recipe for solving the issues of lithium-ion technology is called a solid-state-battery. The battery is in solid form, hence the name, unlike the lithium-ion which has a liquid electrolyte. Solid electrolyte removes the potential leakage of flammable chemicals and suits better for harsh conditions. The battery composition wouldn’t also require rare-earth metals. The energy density and lifetime should also be significantly higher than with the lithium-ion counterpart. ⁴ 

But how these yet fulfilled promises affect our lives then? In practice not that much I would argue, but in the scene things do change. High yield batteries have the potential to revolutionize our energy production and logistics as storing energy from renewable sources would become feasible and battery-driven vehicles significantly cheaper.  

Batteries with high energy density and long lifetime with low costs could provide more intelligent IoT-systems than we have planned in TT Gaskets, as energy consumption wouldn’t be that big of an issue. We are patiently waiting for breakthroughs in this interesting field of technology and keeping options open for applying it in our innovations. After all, sustainable energy is the solid base of our future. 

¹ https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-B-Goodenough 

² https://blog.energybrainpool.com/en/is-there-enough-lithium-to-feed-the-need-for-batteries/ 

³ https://www.epectec.com/batteries/cell-comparison.html 

⁴ https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/solid-state-battery