This paper presents the results of the research project ‘Going Eco, Going Dutch’ (2015- 2017), which investigated the production, design and branding of fashion textiles made from locally produced hemp fibers in the Netherlands. For fashion labels and designers it is often difficult to scrutinize the production of textile fabrics manufactured in non-European countries due to physical distance and, often, non-transparency. At the same time, many designers and established fashion brands increasingly search for sustainable textiles that could be recycled or upcycled after being used by consumers. For the project ‘Going Eco, Going Dutch’, local textile manufacturers and fashion brands closely collaborated to explore how to develop fashionable textiles made from locally produced hemp – from the very first fiber to the final branding of the fashion product. In addition to the technical insights on the production of hemp, this paper will present and highlight the importance of the visual identity of the textiles, which was created by using Dutch traditional crafts – suggesting that this should be understood in terms of Kristine Harper’s ‘aesthetic sustainability’ (2017) as an essential design strategy. In addition, this paper will reflect on the importance of storytelling by focusing on locality and transparency, and on creating an emotional bond and connection between producer, product and consumer. This paper will argue that this form of ‘emotional durability’ (Chapman, 2005, 2009) is essential to both design and branding strategies. Moreover, this paper will critically reflect on the performance of Dutchness – Dutch national identity – through these locally produced fibers, textiles and fashion products.
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RFID technology is a promising technology currently finding its way into the field of customer interaction strategy, supply chain accuracy and inventory management. Primarily, RFID tags are seen as substitutes of traditional barcodes, yet they can add a lot of value and functionality. Where barcodes require a scanning device to be placed directly in front of the tag to be read, RFID tag readers are able to scan all tags that are in the proximity of the scanner . The next difference is that whereas barcodes usually are the same for all articles of the of the same type (i.e. a jar of peanut butter of brand x), RFID tags will be unique for each individual product occurrence. This opens up the possibility of tracking the entire history of a specific occurrence of a product. Moreover, due to the nature of the scanning technology, it suddenly becomes achievable for manufacturers to track individual products through all stages of production and base inventory management and front office planning on real-time data at item level from production facilities.
A-das-PK; een APK-straat voor rijhulpsystemen Uit recent onderzoek en vragen vanuit de autobranche blijkt een duidelijke behoefte naar goed onderhoud, reparatie en borging van de werking van Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), vergelijkbaar met de reguliere APK. Een APK voor ADAS bestaat nog niet, maar de branche wil hier wel op te anticiperen en haar clientèle veilig laten rijden met de rijhulpsystemen. In 2022 worden 30 ADAS’s verplicht en zal de werking van deze systemen ook gedurende de levensduur van de auto gegarandeerd moeten worden. Disfunctioneren van ADAS, zowel in false positives als false negatives kan leiden tot gevaarlijke situaties door onverwacht rijgedrag van het voertuig. Zo kan onverwacht remmen door detectie van een niet bestaand object of op basis van verkeersborden op parallelwegen een kettingbotsing veroorzaken. Om te kijken welke gevolgen een APK heeft voor de autobranche wil A-das-PK voor autobedrijven kijken naar de benodigde apparatuur, opleiding en hard- en software voor een goed werkende APK-straat voor ADAS’s, zodat de kansrijke elementen in een vervolgonderzoek uitgewerkt kunnen worden.
The maximum capacity of the road infrastructure is being reached due to the number of vehicles that are being introduced on Dutch roads each day. One of the plausible solutions to tackle congestion could be efficient and effective use of road infrastructure using modern technologies such as cooperative mobility. Cooperative mobility relies majorly on big data that is generated potentially by millions of vehicles that are travelling on the road. But how can this data be generated? Modern vehicles already contain a host of sensors that are required for its operation. This data is typically circulated within an automobile via the CAN bus and can in-principle be shared with the outside world considering the privacy aspects of data sharing. The main problem is, however, the difficulty in interpreting this data. This is mainly because the configuration of this data varies between manufacturers and vehicle models and have not been standardized by the manufacturers. Signals from the CAN bus could be manually reverse engineered, but this process is extremely labour-intensive and time-consuming. In this project we investigate if an intelligent tool or specific test procedures could be developed to extract CAN messages and their composition efficiently irrespective of vehicle brand and type. This would lay the foundations that are required to generate big data-sets from in-vehicle data efficiently.
Plastic products are currently been critically reviewed due to the growing awareness on the related problems, such as the “plastic soup”. EU has introduced a ban for a number of single-use consumer products and fossil-based polymers coming in force in 2021. The list of banned products are expected to be extended, for example for single-use, non-compostable plastics in horticulture and agriculture. Therefore, it is crucial to develop sustainable, biodegradable alternatives. A significant amount of research has been performed on biobased polymers. However, plastics are made from a polymer mixed with other materials, additives, which are essential for the plastics production and performance. Development of biodegradable solutions for these additives is lacking, but is urgently needed. Biocarbon (Biochar), is a high-carbon, fine-grained residue that is produced through pyrolysis processes. This natural product is currently used to produce energy, but the recent research indicate that it has a great potential in enhancing biopolymer properties. The biocarbon-biopolymer composite could provide a much needed fully biodegradable solution. This would be especially interesting in agricultural and horticultural applications, since biocarbon has been found to be effective at retaining water and water-soluble nutrients and to increase micro-organism activity in soil. Biocarbon-biocomposite may also be used for other markets, where biodegradability is essential, including packaging and disposable consumer articles. The BioADD consortium consists of 9 industrial partners, a branch organization and 3 research partners. The partner companies form a complementary team, including biomass providers, pyrolysis technology manufacturers and companies producing products to the relevant markets of horticulture, agriculture and packaging. For each of the companies the successful result from the project will lead to concrete business opportunities. The support of Avans, University of Groningen and Eindhoven University of Technology is essential in developing the know-how and the first product development making the innovation possible.
