Ford patent-pending soy-oil rubber on new Explorer is more flexible.

[68fastback]

Can Ford soy-oil condems be far behind? :rofl:

This is not earth shattering, but Ford has really been on a tack of reducing their overall impact on the environment ...from green roofs to water-borne paints to waste-energy recovery and more environmentally friendly interiors like soy foam seat cusions (intro'd on '08 Mustang) ...now Ford engineeres bring soy rubber weather-stripping to the party. Cool!

Media release:
FORD PIONEERS PATENT-PENDING USE OF ECO-FRIENDLY SOY OIL IN RUBBER AUTOMOTIVE PARTS


Ford’s researchers find that using renewable soy oil as a 25 percent replacement for petroleum oil more than doubles rubber’s stretchability and reduces its environmental impact
Ford’s biomaterial researchers are applying for a patent for soy oil-based rubber that can be used in automotive parts such as deflector shields and baffles, radiator deflector shields, cupholder inserts and floor mats
Ford previously pioneered the use of soy oil in foam for seat cushions, seatbacks and vehicle headliners; there are more than 2 million Ford, Lincoln and Mercury vehicles on the road today with bio-based foam content
More... (http://media.ford.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=32928)

[Black Vert SS]

I always wonder how much energy is used to make these energy saving and earth friendly devices.

[68fastback]

I always wonder how much energy is used to make these energy saving and earth friendly devices.

lol --and all to omany companies mistt that point.

What I l like about Ford's approach (I don't post all this stuff because it would be boring) ...it's a net energy global approach ...not just car mileage, not just some isolated process improvements. The goal is to account for reduce and all imbedded energy ...energy consumed in everything the company does ...everthing that goes into making cars from office buildings to sub-tier doo-hickey suppliers -lol. A big task, but one Ford is considerably ahead of the competition on (over 10 years now). I fully expect Ford will eventually tout this energy/efficiency work in advertising in the future -- at least I hope so. Presently Honda uses the tagline something to the effect: Americas most efficient car company (something like that), but I just bet if you peel that onion it's more about the fact that they don't make anything bigger than a Ridgeline (mileage) and not about how efficient their global energy footprint is/isn't. Will be interesting to see where this all goes -- even if it goes no where from an advertising p.o.v. It saves lots of money which makes product more affordable, etc ...what is sort of what Ford has been about since the model-T.

It's odd, but when I test-marketed my "home" course as 'green' it got less interest than when I marketed it as how to get more for less-- even tho the content was identical. Everyone liks more for less -- especially when it's true (this disqualifies the gov't -lol).

[Alloy Dave]

lol --and all to omany companies mistt that point.

What I l like about Ford's approach (I don't post all this stuff because it would be boring) ...it's a net energy global approach ...not just car mileage, not just some isolated process improvements. The goal is to account for reduce and all imbedded energy ...energy consumed in everything the company does ...everthing that goes into making cars from office buildings to sub-tier doo-hickey suppliers -lol. A big task, but one Ford is considerably ahead of the competition on (over 10 years now). I fully expect Ford will eventually tout this energy/efficiency work in advertising in the future -- at least I hope so. Presently Honda uses the tagline something to the effect: Americas most efficient car company (something like that), but I just bet if you peel that onion it's more about the fact that they don't make anything bigger than a Ridgeline (mileage) and not about how efficient their global energy footprint is/isn't. Will be interesting to see where this all goes -- even if it goes no where from an advertising p.o.v. It saves lots of money which makes product more affordable, etc ...what is sort of what Ford has been about since the model-T.

It's odd, but when I test-marketed my "home" course as 'green' it got less interest than when I marketed it as how to get more for less-- even tho the content was identical. Everyone liks more for less -- especially when it's true (this disqualifies the gov't -lol).
It costs more than one cent to make a penny. Just sayin'

:sneaking2:

[Joe G]

It costs more than one cent to make a penny. Just sayin'

:sneaking2:

:2cents:

[68fastback]

...so, pennies are like ethanol from corn, then: costs more in energy to make than it contains ...but hydrogen makes ethanol look like a good deal (for now, ayway)! Hmmmm. A better distraction than even Houdini could pull-off? :smile:

French bread dilemma:
In the late 70s when I used to travel to France regularly the French had a dilemma. The people were up in arms over a proposed price increase for bread! The Government, whcih controlls the price of French baguettes and some other bread products, had a serious shorage of centimes (...those tiny coins analygous to our penny). Seems the gov't was losing a small fortune for decades subsidizing bakers but because it would cost more to make more centimes than to subsidize the next 1-centime increase, the price never went up to the consumer. This was never the intent, which was to soften increases but not absorb them all forever. But now people had come to expect that the price would never go up from it's rediculously low price of 13 centimes (as I recall, don't quote me -lol) ...the gov't had an interesting decision to make. They could subsidize it further -- again -- and further propagate the problem, or play a tiny bit of catch-up on part of the increase they'd been eating (no pun intended -lol) over the decades and raise the price directly to 15 centimes (vs 14, which would only make the centime shortage even worse). This would not only save money on the subsidy but a lot more on coining many million more 'bread' centimes (as they were called since few other transactions ivolved the tiny coins). Now realize, to show how out of line the price of bread was in France (arguably one of the most socialist regimes in Europe), a bottle of Perrier at the Intercontinental hotel cost $10 American!!! but even in a local store Perrier cost way more than in the US! -- go figure. So 13c was a mere pittance -- for a 3' long loaf of fresh loaf of artisn bread baked fresh daily in wood-fired stone ovens all over France!! What to do? Well, the gov't decided: it's time to bite the bullet and move the price of a baguette to 15c. Now realize that bread in France is not like here. It's the basis of life just after Espresso -lol. Virtually everyone buys a baguette or two every day -- really! Hey, for only 13c when it should really be well north of 50c it's a deal you just can't pass up ...those socialist subsidies are tough to pass on! The result: work stoppages. Union sitdowns. Sick-ins. Picketing. Rioting. Firebombings. Storming of gov't buildings. The message: hey, don't mess with my friggin' bread. Amazing? When locals would tells us what was going on it seems bizarre! And nearly forced a change of government leadership (some say it did in the ensuing election). Faced with such outrage and elections not far off, the gov't fliched and retreated -lol. They increased the subsidy to bakers. The price of a baguette remaied the same. And, the irony, they still had to spend a fortune minting millions more centimes (the original shortage problem) ebcause now folks were directly blaming the shortage on the goverment -- so they wouldn't have to reimburse for as many loaves. Gotta love French socialist politics: survival of the baguette whores! :rofl:

I can't wait for healthcare to get better *and* cheaper while we also fix social security :shades:














:haha: :rofl: :hilarious: :rofl: :haha:
(hey, it's my thread and I can PW if I like - lol)


Ok, some trivia: Henry Ford is the person who brought soy beans to the US from China during the depression. He saw soy as a magical near-perfect farm product not only as a food staple but as a key agri-business product to potentially integrate farming and industry. He envisioned a biological car using soy-based plastics (whihc Ford pioneered) and other soy derivatives as both fuel and fillers (seats, headliners, etc). He envisioned soy products grown and processed by the farmer on the farm into such industrial products, thereby better securing farming as a key partner in his automotive supply chain. I mention this since Ford has played with soy oil and soy products for the better part of 8 decades now. In the late 30s Ford was producing a third-million gallons of soy oil a year in three plants of Ford's design. It was used in paint enamels and the waste was filler for seats and headliners, etc, as I understand it. I believe the Glidden paint company eventually picked up on that too and may have been a spin-off of the development done by Ford (uncertain). At the 1934 Worlds fair, Ford fed the photojournalists meals of near 100% soy products made into various 'tasty' dishes (lol - to the dismay of some) to demonstrate how versatile it was in addition to providing information on how Ford was using soy in its cars. Gotta love Henry! ;-)

[Alloy Dave]

Let's tell Obama that a lobotomy only costs 13 centimes.

[68fastback]

:spitcopy: ...and lets tell Pelosi she's a fine surgeon :weg: ;-)

[Joe G]

I love reading Dan's stories.
























Especially late at night... I needed the help. :sleep:














:haha:














:jk: Danny :shades:

[Joe G]

:haha: :rofl: :hilarious: :rofl: :haha:
(hey, it's my thread and I can PW if I like - lol)





:spitcopy:

[68fastback]

:tiphat: :biggrin: