Viewing the future

As many industrial organizations have learned to apply roadmapping successfully, they have also learned that it is "roadmapping" rather than "the roadmap" that generates value. This two-part special report has focused primarily on product and technology roadmapping in industry. The first part (RTM, March-April 2003, pp. 26-59) examined the workings of the process at Lucent Technologies, Rockwell Automation, the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry, and United Kingdom-based Domino Printing Sciences. This second part examines roadmapping in the UK, Motorola, General Motors, the services sector, and in cases that demand major investment decisions under conditions of volatility.

MgO expansive cement and concrete in China: Past, present and future

Uniquely, China employs MgO already contained in cement clinker or as an expansive additive to compensate for the thermal shrinkage of mass concrete, particularly dam concrete, with almost 40 years' experience in both research activities and industrial applications. Compensating shrinkage with expansion produced by MgO has been proved to effectively prevent thermal cracking of mass concrete, and reduce the cost of temperature control measures and speed up the construction process. Moreover, the expansion properties of MgO could be designed flexibly, through adjusting its microstructure by changing the calcination conditions (calcining temperature and residence time). The collective knowledge and experience of MgO expansive cement and concrete is worthy of sharing with relevant engineers and researchers globally but dissemination has been hindered as most of the relevant literature is published in Chinese. This paper reviews the history, state-of-the-art progress and future research needs in the field of MgO expansive cement and concrete. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

Steel and aluminium in a low carbon future

Production of steel and aluminium creates 10% of global carbon emissions from energy and processes. Demand is likely to double by 2050, but climate scientists are recommending absolute reductions of at least 50% and these are Increasingly entering law. How can reductions of this order happen? Only 10-20% savings can be expected in liquid metal production, so the primary industry is pursuing carbon sequestration as the main solution. However, this Is as yet unproven at scale, and as well as carrying some risk, the capital and operating costs are likely to be high, but are as yet unknown. In parallel with these strategies we can also examine whether we can reduce demand for liquid metal. 'Material efficiency' may allow delivery of existing services with less requirement for metal, for instance through designing products that use less metal, reducing process scrap, diverting scrap for other use, re-using components or delaying end of life. Overall demand reduction could occur if goods were used more intensely, alternative means were used to deliver the same services, or total demand were constrained. The paper analyses all possible options, to define and evaluate scenarios that meet the 2050 target, and discuss the steps required to bring them about. The paper concludes with suggestions for key areas where future research In metal forming can support a future low carbon economy. © 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA. Weinheim.