European Plastics Converters

Abstract DRIVES is a 4‐year project created to deliver human capital solutions to the automotive supply chain and small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs). The establishment of an Automotive Sector Skills Alliance covers all levels of the value chain (vehicle production, supply, sales, aftermarket services, and disposal). The automotive sector is facing many disruptive changes in this rapidly changing world. This paper, based on literature review, outlines the drivers of change that impact future developments in the automotive industry. This serves as an input to a questionnaire, which will provide a prioritisation and guidance to which direction the DRIVES project proposed and European Union (EU) skills agenda should concentrate.

A man, aged 55, presented with a spontaneous haemarthrosis of his right knee, 1 year after an unicompartmental knee replacement. This case showed an atraumatic rupture of the metal marker wire of an all-polyethylene inlay tibial implant which caused a destruction of the polyethylene surface and a disseminated synovitis of the right knee. This is a rare but destructive complication following an unicompartmental knee arthroplasty.

<div class="htmlview paragraph">Due to the upcoming European Directive on End-of-Life Vehicles, car manufacturers are currently setting new environmental standards to be applied by their suppliers. In order to face the challenge of developing cost competitive products that also meet environmental targets, French plastic component suppliers organized a consortium under the coordination of the French Federation of Plastics Converters for the Automotive Industry. This consotium, wich gather more than 2/3 of the plastic components suppliers for the french automotive industry, have initiated a three year program called EDIT (Eco Design Interactive Tool), that will lead to the development of a DfE tool addressing the issues of hazardous substances, eco-design and end-of-life management.</div>