Inside Design Visionaries

Evapo-Rust

Evapo-Rust is a rust remover.  But, not just any rust remover.  It may be used on brass, copper, aluminum, gold, lead, titanium, steel, cast iron, chrome, solder points, vinyl, plastic, rubber, silicone, glass, cork, or wood.  It is non-corrosive to steel.  And, it is biodegradable, non-toxic and re-usable.
On average, one gallon  costs about $20 and may be used for up to 300 pounds of light to moderately rusted steel.
Get it here.

Leaving a smaller footprint?

More and more, people are talking about being green, leaving a smaller footprint. 
Here's an interesting article relating to this subject, from Machine Design, published August 23, 2007.

Treading lightly

The pressure is on for designers to pick materials that will leave little to no environmental footprint at the end of a product's useful life.

Product designers have historically focused on performance and how much it will cost to mold parts when spec'ing engineering resins. With FEA and CAE software, it's easy to narrow the field of options based on mechanical, thermal, and physical performance. But these tools won't tell designers about the environmental footprint the various resins (including fillers, additives, and reinforcements) leave at the end of a widget's useful life.

The rest of the article is here.

--by the staff