The Engineer articles from February 2002

The Engineer archives from February 2002

The combustion engine is dead... long live hydrogen.
February 1, 2002... THE CAR INDUSTRY is at a historic crossroads. The signals suggest that car makers are no longer seeking to question the need to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from cars, and that they may be coming to terms with the realisation that oil...

Government in Enron funding row.
February 1, 2002... THE GROWING scandal surrounding the collapse of ENRON threatened to embroil the government this week, after it emerged that the company had donated [pounds sterling]36,000 to Labour Party funds shortly before policy decisions were taken its...

Lola adds muscle to medal bid.
February 1, 2002... THE BRITISH bobsleigh team will be defending its bronze medal at the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics next week with the aid of racing car designer Lola. The company said it has signed a five-year deal with the British Bobsleigh Association...

Superjumbo production takes off.
February 1, 2002... THE FIRST AIRBUS A380 superjumbo went into production this week. Carbon-fibre components for the centre wing box, between the wings and the fuselage, are being produced at Airbus's Nantes plant in France. The factory specialises in...

Old parts get air crash blame.
February 1, 2002... A CONSPIRACY to sell old and faulty aircraft parts to the world's airlines may have caused up to 10 recent crashes, investigators believe. Italian police raided warehouses in Naples and Rome last weekend and uncovered thousands of parts...

Phone studies to be mobilised. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... VOLUNTEERS will take part in the world's most extensive study into the possible dangers of mobile phone radiation, the government announced this week. A series of 15 projects costing [pounds sterling]4.5m will examine the effects of mobiles on...

Land Rover wins a High Court injunction over UPF Thompson. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... LAND ROVER has secured a High Court injunction to force its insolvent West Midlands supplier UPF Thompson to continue delivering chassis. KPMG, acting as receivers for UPF, had threatened to stop delivering chassis to Land Rover unless the...

Pits set to close as government ceases subsidy. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... AS MANY as six deep coal mines could close, following hints by energy minister Brian Wilson that he will not renew an aid package for the industry. Last year the government subsidised struggling pits to the tune of [pounds sterling]120m,...

Labour 'tampers with figures'. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... THE GOVERNMENT is considering a controversial move to change the way manufacturing output figures are measured. It claims it should now take into account the contribution from areas such as the software industry, and activities outsourced to...

Good week. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... Plastic: A British PhD student wants the fashion industry to use fabric made recycled plastic water bottles. Maybe the new clothes range will be called Pret a PET? Robots: Lego's fighting robots have won the British Association of Toy...

Bad week. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... Chess cheat: An Italian tournament player was banned for using a credit-card computer hidden in his mac. Marine biologists: They are attaching cameras to seals that can dive beneath the Antarctic ice to try to film the rare silverfish and...

Stretching the imagination. (This Week).
February 1, 2002... FIBRES THAT get fatter, not thinner, when pulled are among the entries for the British Female Inventor of the Year award. Material made from such fibres, invented by Dr Kim Alderson and Ginny Simkins of the Bolton Institute, is much tougher...

Hydrogen engine to replace petrol: AIGM report claims hydrogen-powered transport is the key to reducing greenhouse emissions. (Exclusive).
February 1, 2002... A RADICAL PLAN to replace all petrol engines with hydrogen fuel cells will be presented to the government by an influential industry body later this year, The Engineer can reveal. The Automotive Innovation and Growth Team, chaired by Sir...

Card technology shows smart way ahead. (News).
February 1, 2002... UK MICROPROCESSOR specialist ARM hopes to carve out a major new market from a boom in 'smart card' technology. The Cambridge-based company this week claimed demand for increasingly sophisticated tiny processors embedded in mobile phones,...

Robots give surgery a cutting edge: French aerospace design technology is adapted for use in delicate and accurate medical procedures. (Exclusive).
February 1, 2002... A NEW RANGE of medical robots based on technology first developed for the aerospace industry is poised to enter use in hospitals around the world. French aerospace group Sinters has adapted materials and processes used in aircraft design...

GKN secures [pounds sterling]20m MOD helicopter deal. (News).
February 1, 2002... AUGUSTA WESTLAND has won a [pounds sterling]20m development contract for a new Lynx helicopter. A full replacement order for the army's existing Lynx fleet could be worth up to [pounds sterling]lbn to Westland, which last month announced...

It's all quiet on the Boeing front. (News).
February 1, 2002... BOEING HAS claimed it has developed a 'quieter' jet engine to power its 280-seater Sonic cruiser aircraft, due in 2008. The company said it was working with Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney and GE in a [pounds sterling]10m-a-year Quiet...

Laser to quadruple LAN capacity: Cambridge University research aims to speed up data transmission rates for business networks. (Technology).
February 1, 2002... A LASER designed to provide 40Gb of data per second for optical fibre networks is being developed to transmit large video files and faster internet access. As businesses use ever-increasing file sizes, whether they are Powerpoint...

UK team gives straw an industrial makeover. (News).
February 1, 2002... MILLIONS OF tonnes of discarded straw could be turned into raw materials for industry, with applications as wide ranging as power station fuel and polymers for paints and coatings. Scientists at Bangor University are working on an...

Fuel-saving gear system in doubt: Ford last hope for Torotrak transmission technology after rejections by General Motors and Toyota. (Automotive).
February 1, 2002... TIME IS running out on Torotrak's efforts to get its fuel-saving transmission system into mass production, it was claimed this week. The Lancashire-based engineering firm suffered a major setback when General Motors, the world's biggest...

MP calls for debate on manufacturing future. (News).
February 1, 2002... AN ENGINEERING MP has called for a parliamentary debate before this year's Budget to address the problems facing the manufacturing industry. Claire Curtis-Thomas, Labour MP for Crosby and a chartered mechanical engineer, said an all-day...

Civil aviation cutbacks hit Hampson workforce. (The Week in Business).
February 1, 2002... Hampson Industries this week warned up to 370 jobs were at risk as cutbacks of up to 40 per cent in its customers' civil aviation projects began to bite. The aerospace components group said postponement or cancellation of orders by major...

GKN buys Boeing plant for Raptor production. (The Week in Business).
February 1, 2002... UK engineering group GKN has boosted its stake in the US Air Force's F22 Raptor programme after buying an aerospace facility from Boeing. The group paid [pounds sterling]4.8m for Boeing's Thermal Joining Centre in Kent, Washington State. The...

Internet support network on line for MG Rover. (The Week in Business).
February 1, 2002... Car maker MG Rover has signed up electronic content specialist Enigma to create an internet-based support network for the 60,000 parts used in its vehicles. The interactive online catalogue is the latest initiative in a logistics contract...

Components division of Manganese Bronze flags. (The Week in Business).
February 1, 2002... Manganese Bronze this week told shareholders its divisions would record a patchy performance when its financial year ends in July. The firm, which produces black taxi cabs and automotive components, said problems with a supplier contract had...

British Vita in Swedish firm buy-out. (The Week in Business).
February 1, 2002... British Vita, the specialist polymer technology group, has spent [pounds sterling]5m on a Swedish thermoplastic compounding business. Nolato Elastoteknik serve the medical, electronics and automotive sectors. It made a [pounds sterling]500,000...

Rolls-Royce gets Trent maintenance contract. (The Week in Business).
February 1, 2002... Rolls-Royce has on a 15-year, $250m ([pounds sterling]177m) maintenance contract with Air Canada. The agreement covers maintenance of the Trent 772B engines which power the airline's eight Airbus A330-300s. Rolls-Royce is on a major push to...

Call for global bodies to reform: Royal Academy of Engineering tells Lords that the World Bank, IMF and WTO must be more international. (Policy).
February 1, 2002... MAJOR international economic bodies are struggling to keep pace with globalisation and must shed their image as agents of the West, the Royal Academy of Engineering has warned. In a surprisingly frank submission on globalisation to the...

Letters.
February 1, 2002... Local balancing mechanism is the only way forward for UK and the euro. The decision to adopt the euro (Comment, 11 January) is political not economic, which at any given time may be favourable or unfavourable. Entry to the single currency...

UK innovators. (Feature).
February 1, 2002... Zero sales, lost investors, redundancies, bankruptcy... it's a risky business setting up a new company -- particularly if you're in the hi-tech sector. When it comes to turning new technology into innovative products, the problem most blamed...

Is energy from rubbish just a load of hot air? (Feature).
February 1, 2002... Forget wind farms, solar power and hydro-electricity, the growth area in renewable energy is actually far closer to home in our dustbins. Rob Coppinger outlines the Pros and Cons of burning waste for energy. Mention renewable energy and...

Skills for survival: while even successful manufacturing subcontract businesses are feeling the squeeze of recession the most positive noises are coming from those offering the widest range of services. (Special Report: Production).
February 1, 2002... For many engineering subcontractors there is no certainty for the future. Investment is largely on hold while they wait to see what the world economy has in store. Manufacturing in the UK has been in trouble for some time; arguably it has...

Moving with the times: in the sheet-metal industry keeping up to date with machine tool technology is crucial to staying competitive--and doing just that has allowed CSM to triple its turnover. (Special Report: Production).
February 1, 2002... When Paul King, managing director of computerised Sheet Metal, plotted his company's strategy for the current climate his plans were underpinned by investment in modern manufacturing systems. Adhering to this strategy has allowed CSM to triple...

Horizons open up with five-axis flexible machining; Case study: Beaubury Precision Moulds invests in a radical rethink to cut lead times. (Special Report: Production).
February 1, 2002... Paul Matthews, production manager of Beaubury Precision Moulds, was facing a dilemma. While the company has a reputation for quality, this was not enough to maintain a strong competitive position. The market's demands for the shortest lead...

Technology optimises skills of top-quality workforce; Case study: Hardy & Sons goes for growth with purchase of TechMaster grinder. (Special Report: Production).
February 1, 2002... When Andrew Pailor, managing director of Hardy & Sons, recognised a growth opportunity for supplying precision ground components he acted swiftly, purchasing a Jones & Shipman surface grinder. The microprocessor-controlled Techmaster...

Ringing the changes: with utilities facing controls on carrying charges and commodity suppliers up against market forces, Andrew Cavenagh explains why the UK's service industries are in the throes of a major overhaul. (Special Report: Utilities).
February 1, 2002... The UK's essential basic service industries are in the throes of far-reaching and permanent change. The paradoxical combination of greater market liberalisation and tightening regulation are forcing its participants to revamp their operations...

Dyson should set the agenda for wider debate.
February 8, 2002... A SMALL UK manufacturer of electrical appliances decides to move production from the UK to Malaysia with the loss of 800 jobs -- and suddenly manufacturing is front page news. The cutbacks at Dyson are lamentable -- but the fact that...

Guard jailed for secrets theft. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... A NIGHT SECURITY GUARD who worked for BAE Systems has been jailed for 11 years for stealing military secrets and trying to sell them to the Russians. Raphael Bravo, 30, of Willesden, was employed by the Crusader security firm at BAE's Stanmore...

Good week. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... Cows: Personalised milking for cows is on offer An automated milking system uses identity tags to detect individual cows and adjust for their specific udder dimensions.

Bad week. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... Drunks: Remote-controlled toilets that disappear below ground during the day could be installed across Britain to stop people who have had a few too many urinating after closing time. But don't fall asleep in one. Speeding drivers:...

Manufacturers pull in horns. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... MANUFACTURING contracted for the 11th consecutive month in January, but the rate of decline eased, according to the latest figures from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. The index of manufacturing activity was still well...

Dyson production goes East. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... UK VACUUM CLEANER maker Dyson is set to move production to the Far East. The company, which set up a production site in Malaysia two years ago, said many of its suppliers are now based in the Far East, where production costs are much lower. ...

French industry safety attacked. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... FRENCH INDUSTRIAL safety has been severely criticised in a report commissioned following last year's fatal explosions at a Toulouse chemical plant. The explosion killed 30 people and injured thousands of others, making it the country's worst...

Going into hamster drive. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... YOU SAW IT HERE FIRST. A car that looks like a ladybird and is powered by hamsters may sound like a joke, but it was among the winners at the 26th annual Toyota Idea Olympics. The car's motor is driven by amplifying the electric power generated...

Every drop has a silver lining. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... ENGINEERS AT Newcastle University are using llama droppings to combat water pollution from abandoned mines in the Bolivian Andes. Paul Younger, professor of hydrogeochemical engineering, is pioneering the technique, adapted from a project...

No euro no trade says Toyota. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... TOYOTA SAID it has held back investment in its Derby plant because of the UK's lack of a firm commitment to adopt the euro. Alan Jones, Toyota's UK managing director, told a CBI meeting in Birmingham that the factory would have expanded...

The first straw. (This Week).
February 8, 2002... THE UK'S FIRST straw-burning power station has been opened by energy minister Brian Wilson. The [pounds sterling]60m plant, the largest of its kind in the world, will generate 270GW/h of electricity a year, enough to power 80,000 homes. It will...

Coal to clean up its act for oil: Coal-station carbon dioxide emissions could be used to boost North Sea oil yields by 15 per cent. (Environment).
February 8, 2002... A NEW METHOD of recovering more oil from offshore fields looks set to offer a secure and greener future for the UK's coalfired power stations. A report on cleaner coal technologies, published this week by the DTI, said the environmental...

UK launches all-in-one entertainment centre. (News).
February 8, 2002... A UK ELECTRONICS firm is poised to give a high-street debut to an all-in-one entertainment system adapted from space-saving industrial technology. Densitron Technologies, which specialises in advanced display systems and industrial...

Enron collapse hits UK generators: British Energy, Magnox Electric and American Electric Power most at risk as a result of US trader's crash. (Power).
February 8, 2002... FOLLOWING the crash of giant US energy trader Enron, leading UK electricity generators look set to face losses of tens of millions of pounds. Their exposure arises from the forward contracts they had with Enron, and the administrator for...

Railtrack demise scuppers ATP. (News).
February 8, 2002... PLANS to install a basic form of automatic train protection on the West Coast mainline were put on hold when Railtrack went into administration, the company said this week. In his report on the Paddington and Southall rail disasters Lord...

Car giants to share quality data online. (News).
February 8, 2002... THE WORLD'S three biggest car makers have agreed to adopt common technology to share quality data via Covisint, the automotive industry's global online trading portal. GM and Ford will install a web-based system from US software specialist...

Bookham integrates for survival: Optical components supplier sees Marconi technology acquisition as financial hope for the future. (Business).
February 8, 2002... STRUGGLING optical components manufacturer Bookham is racing to combine its own technologies with those newly acquired from Marconi into an integrated sub-system. Just days after completing the purchase of Marconi's optical components...

Spot checks on quality control. (News).
February 8, 2002... CAMERA TECHNOLOGY that is capable of spotting tiny defects moving past at high speed could be used to eliminate bottlenecks in paper, textile and wood production. Though modern paper factories can produce enough paper to cover a football...

Teesside gets [pounds sterling]40m hydrogen mega-plant. (News).
February 8, 2002... THE LARGEST hydrogen plant in England -- capable of producing 32,000 tonnes of the gas a year -- started production on Teesside this week. Built at a cost of [pounds sterling]30m for the privately owned chemical company Huntsman, the plant...

Car makers prioritise fuel cell power: Survey reveals hydrogen technology will be one of the most crucial innovations over next five years. (Automotive).
February 8, 2002... DEVELOPING fuel cell power will be one of the most important areas of technological change facing the automotive industry over the next five years, a new survey has found. Though economic issues, such as continuing global over-capacity and...

Ethernet to link boardroom to the shop floor. (News).
February 8, 2002... RESEARCHERS FROM Warwick Manufacturing Group are developing ethernet technology to create a seamless connection between the shop floor and the rest of a business. The research programme will allow manufacturing and technology firms to...

EEF calls for a cut in tax burden: Key speech hits at lack of government aid. (Exclusive).
February 8, 2002... INDUSTRY IS facing its toughest time ever and the government must do more to help, Paul Lester, president of the Engineering Employers' Federation will tell ministers next week. In a speech to the EEF's biennial dinner on Tuesday, Lester...

Gloom as Eurodis sees sales and profits slump. (The Week in Business).
February 8, 2002... Sales and profits slumped at Eurodis Electron, Europe's third-largest electronic components distributor. The company made [pounds sterling]1.2m before tax in the last half of 2001 compared to more than [pounds sterling]6m a year earlier....

Brunel upbeat as profits double and sales leap. (The Week in Business).
February 8, 2002... Machinery manufacturer Brunel Holdings this week produced an upbeat forecast for the year ahead thanks to a strong order book and the sale of loss-making subsidiaries. The group boosted sales by 22 per cent to [pounds sterling]26.2m in the...

BOC to snap up Seiko pump arm in [pounds sterling]70m deal. (The Week in Business).
February 8, 2002... The turbomolecular pump operations of Seiko Instruments are to be bought by BOC in a deal worth about [pounds sterling]70m. The UK industrial gases group said the acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approval, will strengthen the range...

ICI rights issue aims to reduce [pounds sterling]2.9bn debt. (The Week in Business).
February 8, 2002... ICI this week announced plans for one of the biggest rights issues in UK corporate history in a bid to reduce its [pounds sterling]2.9bn debt mountain. The chemicals giant hopes to raise [pounds sterling]800m by issuing up to 463 million...

Enterprise Oil links with Innogy for gas marketing. (The Week in Business).
February 8, 2002... Enterprise Oil this week announced a gas marketing alliance with Innogy under which the power utility will buy most of Enterprise's uncommitted natural gas in north-west Europe. Enterprise's link with Innogy is just one of a range of...

EC rules set to aid spares suppliers: Europe unveils plans to cut out parts 'middle men' and put an end to car manufacturers' cartels. (Automotive).
February 8, 2002... COMPONENTS SUPPLIERS are to benefit from new European Commission proposals allowing them to sell spare parts directly to dealers, rather than through car makers. European Union Commissioner Mario Monti this week unveiled proposals to...

UK sensor system keeps eye on Dutch canals. (News).
February 8, 2002... A PROJECT to control shipping on Holland's canals using advanced video networking technology could herald new types of traffic-management systems, according to its UK developer. The Dutch government is rolling out a combination of video,...

Letters.
February 8, 2002... Simply a case of buyers reaping what they sow Helen Knight's article (Legal battle threatens UK investment, News, 18 January) implies that smaller manufacturers may be a threat to UK investment by exploiting the firms they supply. I...

Cruise power goes overboard. (Cover Story).
February 8, 2002... Cunard plans to launch the most technically advanced liner in history, powered by the world's biggest outboard motor. Will this bring a revival of the luxury transatlantic cruise, asks Hugh O'Mahony? Many people believe the age of the...

Fuel for thought. (Feature).
February 8, 2002... For nearly a century the combustion engine has been at the heart of our road transport. But as oil stocks run out and environmental pressures intensity, the car industry is turning to fuel cell technology. Never in history has the...

Events.
February 8, 2002... FEBRUARY NEW 12 February: Delivering Sustainable Development London. The annual Institution of Civil Engineers Brunel International Lecture. Roger Venables, chairman of the ICE Environment and Sustainability Board, will cover topics...

Brain Teaser. (Backpage).
February 8, 2002... A village has a population of 800. Three per cent of them wear one earring. Of the other 97 per cent, half are wearing two earrings, and half are wearing none. How many earrings are being worn? Last week's question: Here are some statistics...

Deals that grow on trees. (Backpage).
February 8, 2002... In the Scotch timber trade business has been fair, and numerous sales have been reported. Considerable activity exists in softwoods -- spruce particularly -- but the sharp advance in prices of hardwoods has to some extent affected demand....

Are engineers ready for the next big challenge?
February 15, 2002... FOR YEARS engineering has suffered from people associating the profession either with smoky factories and environmental pollution, or, like comedian Clive Anderson (with no trace of irony) at the EEF's annual dinner this week, washing machine...

It's the last buzzword in space travel. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... BUZZ ALDRIN, the second man on the moon, is leading proposals for a series of spacecraft to orbit between earth and Mars. Each 'cycler', as they will be called, would carry up to 50 people, and supplies to support a future Mars colony....

'Geeks' warning from ETB head. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... SCIENCE and engineering could become a 'cult subject' studied only by geeks, according to Sir Peter Williams, chairman of the newly-created Engineering and Technology Board which will succeed the Engineering Council. Asked to describe his...

Robots go on nuclear mission. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... * ROBOTS will be used to remove six miles of contaminated pipework from the golf-ball like dome of Dounreay nuclear power station, it has been announced. The move is part of a [pounds sterling]250m decommissioning operation at the...

Brown wades into Trident row. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... CHANCELLOR Gordon Brown is looking into the controversy surrounding the refitting of Trident submarines, after it emerged that switching the contract from Babcock International's yard at Rosyth to Devonport in Cornwall had tripled the cost. ...

A fighting chance for reconnaissance. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... UNMANNED fighter aircraft will be operational by 2015, according to the head of the defence and civil systems division of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company. Following the extensive use of US-built unmanned aerial vehicles...

I fly with my little eye. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... HEATHROW AIRPORT is to begin trials of a new eye-recognition system to speed up immigration checks. The five-month trial will involve 2,000 frequent fliers between the UK and US, and will use Eyeticket's Jetstream iris-scanning technology. Each...

Double first for engineering exam. (This Week).
February 15, 2002... VOCATIONAL GCSES in manufacturing and engineering will be available in some schools from September. Each will be a double award, equivalent to two GCSEs. Under existing rules pupils must study GCSE maths, English, science and information...

Good week.
February 15, 2002... \ Tapes: The humble cassette appears to have beaten off a threat from the hi-tech Minidisc, which was meant to replace it. Minidisc sales fell by 77 per cent last year, says the British Phonographic Society. \ Aviation pioneers: Derby Aero...

Bad week.
February 15, 2002... / Dagenham: As the last Fiesta rolls off the line today, 70 years of car production at Ford's Dagenham plant comes to an end. The plant is being revamped as a centre for diesel engines. / Criminals: Salt Lake City police patrolling the...

Cars to get early warning system: Philips teams up with Israel's MobilEye in step towards development of autonomous driving systems. (Innovation).
February 15, 2002... A SYSTEM THAT allows cars to automatically sense danger on the road ahead will be viable for mass-production vehicles by 2005, electronics giant Philips claimed this week. The Dutch group's Philips Semiconductors division has linked with...

Vapour catalyst set to cut diesel emissions. (News).
February 15, 2002... A METHOD OF reducing air pollution from diesel engines by 90 per cent went on trial in York this week. Engineers from Emission Technology, based in Phoenix, Arizona, fitted the city council's cars and Road Haulage Association's vehicles...

Delays threaten Eurofighter orders: as June delivery deadline looks in danger, experts warn that buyers will opt for Joint Strike Fighter. (Aerospace).
February 15, 2002... EXPORT ORDERS for the Eurofighter Typhoon could suffer as delays to the programme threaten to push more countries into buying the US Joint Strike Fighter, experts have warned. Under the programme agreement the RAP is due to receive its...