Highlight
Amid the emergence of global-scale environmental problems, manufacturing is making a transition to a circular economy as part of its efforts to reduce the load on the environment. As current recycling and reuse practices for industrial products diminish economic value, upcycling has attracted attention as a means of simultaneously reducing the load on the environment and enhancing economic value.
Hitachi is currently developing a smart circulating solution for putting upcycling into practice. The solution comprises a technique for the highly accurate assessment of the condition of parts that directly affect the performance of used products and a surface improvement technique that applies gel-electroplating to improve the functionality and performance of these parts. This article reports on development progress and plans for the future.
