AQA GCSE Product Design: 1.1 - New & Emerging Technologies

1.1 - New & Emerging Technologies:

Industry:

• Industrial Revolution -

  • The late 1700s
  • Due to the development of emerging technology (steam power)
  • Before this, products were made in home workshops
  • Now, new technologies allow for products to be made faster and more economically in factories

• Modern factories usually have access to transportation methods, e.g. good roads, railways and seaports

  • Easy to get raw materials
  • Easy to transport products

• Shops - splitting industries into areas in factories

• Car manufacturing shops -

  • Pressing shop
  • Axle shop
  • Body shop
  • Paint shop
  • Plastics shop
  • Casting shop

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Enterprise:

• Crowdfunding -

  • Funding a project by raising money from large numbers of people
  • Uses the internet, e.g. social media, websites
  • People donate small amounts
  • Donations - people give money for believing in the cause
  • Equity - the money buys shares in the business
  • Debt - the money is loaned and paid back with interest

• Co-operatives -

  • A business that is owned and self-managed by its workers
  • Workers set production schedules and determine working conditions
  • Usually have higher productivity than conventional companies
  • Usually, all shares are held by the workforce with no outside or consumer owners

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Fairtrade:

• A movement that aims to achieve fair and better trading conditions and opportunities that promote sustainability for developing countries
• Prevents an unfair balance of power among corporations
• Farmers have to fight against unfair larger farms which can sell for less money
• Allows equality and income stability
• Millions of dollars reinvested.
• 70% of the world's food is grown on small farms.
• Social media promotes it.

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Sustainability:

• Meeting present-day needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

• Finite Resources -

  • A resource that does not renew itself quickly enough to meet the needs of future generations, e.g. coal, natural gas and oil.
  • There is no natural way to bring them back when they are gone.

• Non-Finite Resources -

  • A resource that can replenish itself quickly enough to meet our needs, e.g. water, and plants. Also, we are using renewable energy sources e.g. solar, geothermal and wind.

• Manufacturers need to think about the life cycle of a product and how this will affect the environment.

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Changing Job Roles:

• CAD -

  • Computer aided design
  • Easier to design
  • You can visualise the product before creation
  • It is easy to share and collaborate with others.
  • Designs won’t be lost as easily
  • Ideas easily edited
  • Much quicker than conventional drawings

• CAM -

  • Computer-aided manufacturing
  • Reduces human error
  • Minimises waste

• Robots help efficiency and price but can make people lose their jobs.

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Culture

• The values, beliefs, customs and behaviours used by groups and societies to interact with one another and the world

• We can choose some (political) cultures but are born into some others (religion)

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Production Techniques & Systems:

• FMS -
  • Flexible manufacturing system
  • Productive, efficient conveyor-like system
• One-off production -
  • Where only 1 of these products is made. It’s custom-made and you cannot find another one the same.
• CNC -
  • Computer numerically controlled
  • Efficient automation, saving time, effort and money.
• JIT -
  • Just-in-time production
  • Companies create products when requested because they aren’t commonly requested
• Lean manufacturing -
  • Focusing on the reduction of waste during manufacturing.
  • Save on storage (less space needed)
  • A smaller amount of unused stock
  • Less waste

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How the Critical Evaluation of New and Emerging Technologies Informs Design Decisions:

• Planned Obsolescence -
  • Where a product has been planned so it cannot be fixed so you buy more, making money for companies.
• Design Maintenance -
  • Functions that help a product keep working correctly throughout its life
  • e.g. changing batteries, changing components
• Ethics -
  • Low costs usually mean that they have come from abroad meaning local jobs are lost
• Environment -
  • Designers need to consider how to reduce their impact on the environment
• End of Life Disposal -
  • Disposal can impact the environment
  • Recycling is good as it can be reused instead of being buried or burnt.
  • Aluminium cans are recycled by a re-melt process into ingots to be made into more cans
  • Glass bottles are reused by being sterilised and then reused.
• Biodegradable -
  • The materials naturally break down quickly when in landfill to naturally occurring substances
  • Supermarkets make us pay for plastic bags to encourage us to reuse our bags, saving the environment.

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