Alumina Glass Made in Bulk
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Melting tiny alumina beads at the right temperature yields superhard glass.
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(InfoWorld) - Hitachi Maxell has developed a thin optical disc that could lead to data cartridges capable of storing terabytes of information. The Stacked Volumetric Optical Disc (SVOD) is less than a tenth of a millimeter thick and it's from this thinness that the technology has an advantage over current CD, DVD, and blue-laser discs, all of which are 1.2 millimeters thick. Many of the discs can be stacked together to realize a large data storage capacity in a small space, said Akira Ijichi, assistant department manager of the company's recording media sales department. Working prototype discs on show at this week's Ceatec Japan 2006 exhibition in Chiba, Japan, are based on DVD technology and each holds 4.7GB. Hitachi Maxell envisages cartridges of 100 discs would be only a few centimeters thick but would be able to offer a total capacity of 470GB, said Ijichi. To keep the discs safe each is housed in a protective sleeve inside the cartridge. The cartridge slots into a dedicated drive and the discs are pulled out of the cartridge automatically by a mechanism inside the unit and mounted into the drive. Making the discs so thin doesn't come without its problems. The discs are flexible but optical disc systems require a rigid disc so that the laser remains in focus on the disc's surface. To get around this problem, Hitachi Maxell has fitted inside each drive a 0.6 millimeter-thick piece of glass through which there are holes. Air is drawn through the holes when the disc spins causing the flexible disc to be drawn against the rigid piece of glass to make it flat. The disc marks a different approach than that of many competitors, which are fixed on increasing the storage capacity by using ever more complicated storage technology to cram data more closely together on a disc. HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc achieve higher because the storage bits are smaller and next-generation systems in development rely on holographic technology. Hitachi Maxell has basically finished development of the system but doesn't yet have commercialization plans, said Ijichi. It is considering working with an optical drive maker to develop a better drive for the system. It's targeted at commercial storage applications. The company says that a system about the same size as a tower PC and will be able to hold 4.7TB of data. A 19-inch rack mount model will be able to hold three times that amount of data.
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Owens-Illinois Inc., the world&#39;s largest manufacturer of glass containers, on Thursday said it will sell two of its plants in Europe to Spanish rival Vidrala SA in a $179 million deal.
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A Sterling company called 4Wave is trying to turn its nanotechnology materials into big things in the optical component market.
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By The Philadelphia Inquirer  Dec. 7--Air Products & Chemicals of Allentown said today it will double manufacturing capacity at a membrane-production plant in St. Louis by mid-2007.
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A novel nanolaser could cram more data onto a hard disk.
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For an easy-to-make adhesive inspired by mussels, possible applications abound.
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TOLEDO, Ohio, Nov. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Owens-Illinois, Inc. (NYSE:OI) today announced that the Company has signed a definitive agreement to sell two of its European glass container plants to Vidrala, SA, of Alava, Spain.
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Twenty-five hundred tons of concrete, 350 tons of steel and nine tons of aluminum window frames will be left after a seven-story downtown building is taken down. But instead of ending in the scrap heap, the concrete will be ground up and used to fill the site, steel will be melted to create rebar and the aluminum will be reused in cans and other products.
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MONTREAL (CP) - Alcan Inc. said Thursday it has reached an agreement to sell its ferroalloy division to a Spanish company in a deal expected to be worth more than 100 million euros or about $165 million Cdn.
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Scientists have developed an alloy they say can be used to create memory chips more than 500 times as fast as todayÂs flash chips.
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One new stock has left quite a footprint.
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New use for old silicon: Broward County officials are using recycled glass to make sparkling new beach sand. No need to dredge sensitive reefs, either.
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A research chemist at a Tennessee weapons plant creates a dust rag that mops up deadly beryllium particles 20 times smaller than the naked eye can see. By the Associated Press.
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Saranno intensificate le ricerche della piccola
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- Glassware maker Libbey Inc  posted a surprise fourth-quarter profit, driven by higher sales, lower expenses and a litigation settlement, and forecast first-quarter sales above Wall Street's view, sending its shares up more than 16 percent.
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New services are helping appliance makers and consumers find spare components.