The Engineer articles from March 2006

The Engineer archives from March 2006

COMMENT: Nuclear bombshell only confuses the issue.
March 13, 2006... 'Nuclear is a low-carbon technology with an impressive safety record in the UK. Nuclear could generate large quantities of electricity, contribute to stabilising CO2 emissions and add to the diversity of the UK's energy supply.' This is...

THE BIG PICTURE: Tank testing for Discovery.
March 13, 2006... NASA commissions research into fuel tank foam that caused Columbia shuttle disaster The external fuel tank that will help launch the space shuttle Discovery on its next mission arrived two weeks ago at NASA's Kennedy Space Centre. ...

THE BIG PICTURE: Koenigsegg burns rubber in US.
March 13, 2006... On display at the Geneva Motor Show, this exotic-looking creature is the CCX (Competition Coupe X), the latest in the Koenigsegg CC family. Built to comply with US road vehicle regulations, the CCX has a top speed of 245+mph (395+km/h)...

THE BIG PICTURE: Putting a productive spin on hurricane damage.
March 13, 2006... This piece of hardware is a 150G-ton centrifuge, one of just four of its kind in the US. Engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York State, will use it to collect data that will lead to the rebuilding of Hurricane Katrina-ravaged...

IN BRIEF: Air-con becomes a sitting target.
March 13, 2006... The US Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) has demonstrated that ventilated car seats not only improve passenger comfort but also a vehicle's fuel economy. That's because ventilated seats keep people cooler, so...

IN BRIEF: Dirty waters run fluorescent.
March 13, 2006... Birmingham University researchers have developed a new method of detecting pollution in water. Normally it would take hours or days to test for some organic pollutants in the laboratory, but Dr Andy Baker's team has found a method of using...

IN BRIEF: Action stations for unmanned aerial vehicles in Wales.
March 13, 2006... Qinetiq is to run a UAV demonstrator project at ParcAberporth, west Wales. The #17m site is being established as the UK centre for excellence for testing and developing unmanned systems for civil applications. A number of UAV applications...

NEWS: Picture of health.
March 13, 2006... UK team is working to develop clearer ultrasound images for better medical diagnostics A fifteen-strong team from the universities of Edinburgh, Paisley and Birmingham is working on a technology to provide clearer ultrasound images than...

NEWS: Fast forensics.
March 13, 2006... Mobile scanner claims to speed up mass fatalities results UK RESEARCHERS are believed to be the first to develop and demonstrate a new scanning approach for mass fatality investigations. The technique is said to be safer, faster and...

NEWS: Shape of treatment to come.
March 13, 2006... Medical technology could benefit from polymer research A development in shape-memory polymers promises to pave the way for many interesting new applications in medical technology, according to its developers. The resultant polymer is...

NEWS: On call.
March 13, 2006... Cambridge group trials network-free mobile messaging system People could receive emergency messages on their mobile phones via an audio system - even when networks are down or out of reach, such as when underground. Intrasonics Sound...

NEWS: Widen the communications gaps.
March 13, 2006... AN EU-funded project has led to the development of a prototype network, WIDENS, that could be quickly deployed in areas where there is no available communication infrastructure to support emergency or peacekeeping operations. Emergency...

NEWS: Beating the gun.
March 13, 2006... Two-year UK project aims to develop portable, hand-held arms detection technology A portable device capable of detecting concealed guns on people at key locations, such as airports and entertainment venues, is being developed by UK...

NEWS: Turning the tide.
March 13, 2006... Water-driven air turbine that dispenses with moving parts claims to offer flexibility and cost-effectiveness a renewable tidal energy technology which eliminates the need for moving parts and could prove more competitive than fossil fuel...

NEWS: Building up resistance to oil deposits.
March 13, 2006... A consortium of UK universities is to research ways to minimise the build-up of deposits from crude oil and so increase the efficiency of the UK's oil refineries. Imperial College London and the universities of Bath and Cambridge are...

NEWS: Absorbing step.
March 13, 2006... Highly porous metal-organic frameworks could hold key to hydrogen storage A class of materials developed at UCLA could bring the 'hydrogen economy' a step closer by solving a problem that has so far eluded scientists: bulk storage of the...

NEWS: Step towards drive by hydrogen.
March 13, 2006... The first production-line hydrogen vehicles in Europe are being used in hospitals, towns, waste plants and other commercial applications. Denmark's H2 Logic and A Flensborg said the first six of its H2 Trucks - a small vehicle designed...

FOCUS: Ikea robot.
March 13, 2006... The robot, once the preserve of large industry, could be coming to the shopfloors of SMEs to perform light tasks alongside staff via 'intuitive' programming. Samantha Pears reports Some of Europe's leading research institutes, universities...

BUSINESS: Blue-eyed CSR.
March 13, 2006... Cambridge Silicon Radio goes from strength to strength on the back of Bluetooth's popularity The steady growth in the use of wireless technology and the increasing adoption of Bluetooth across a range of platforms helped Cambridge...

BUSINESS: Imperial College spin-out to chip into AIM.
March 13, 2006... Parametric Optimisation Solutions (ParOS), a spin-out of Imperial College London specialising in advanced electronic control technology, is set to make its debut on the stock exchange following its acquisition by an investment company. The...

THE WEEK IN BUSINESS: GKN file high with aerospace sales.
March 13, 2006... GKN flies high with aerospace sales, but automotive market is running in low gear Strong sales by its aerospace division saw UK engineering group GKN post a trading profit increase of 42 per cent to #54m. With more than a third of revenue...

THE WEEK IN BUSINESS: Dual-Fuel technology goes on to stock exchange.
March 13, 2006... Clean Air Power, the company behind Dual-Fuel automotive technology, floated on the stock market last week with the proceeds being directed towards product development, test facilities and marketing. More than 1,600 trucks worldwide have...

THE WEEK IN BUSINESS: Seeing Machines looking at a #1m turnover.
March 13, 2006... Seeing Machines, the vision tracking systems specialist, announced at its AGM that revenue had increased 28 per cent over the previous year to #1m. This was largely due to increased sales of faceLAB - which provides head, gaze and eyelid...

THE WEEK IN BUSINESS: Toyotas go live with NXT sound system.
March 13, 2006... NXT, the flat speaker technology developer, has seen its system deployed in a mass-production vehicle for the first time. The Toyota Estima, launched in January, uses NXT's SurfaceSound technology to transform the entire inside of the roof into...

THE WEEK IN BUSINESS: Ford focuses on a #37m profit in Europe.
March 13, 2006... Speaking at the Geneva motor show, Ford of Europe chief executive John Fleming said he is confident three new models - a convertible Focus and new Galaxy and Transit models - will generate growth in a flat European market. The company's...

VIEWPOINT: In the know.
March 13, 2006... Since the 1970s KTP projects have provided knowledge-sharing partnerships that are just as valid now as in the days of flared trousers and platform heels, says Jo Stevens The BBC series Life on Mars - which has just finished its first...

LETTER: A class apart.(Letter to the Editor)
March 13, 2006... The technical superiority of the U-boat in World war II described in your leader (Comment, 27 February) is an interesting product of the different approaches to war taken by the Germans and the British. Convinced that the U-boat would win...

LETTER: Measured response.(Letter to the Editor)
March 13, 2006... I was most disappointed that you published Mike Batiste's complaint (Letters, 27 February) about the use of imperial units in your golf Brain Teaser. Personally, I applaud the use of such units as a reminder of the reality in which we...

LETTER: Nuclear denial.(Letter to the Editor)
March 13, 2006... It was pretty depressing to hear the comments following a recent announcement by a government thinktank that we don't need any more nuclear power stations. I wonder just how bad the energy situation has to get in this country before...

X-RAY LASER: Grand slalom.
March 13, 2006... The XFEL particle accelerator will be like no other: its unique action, zigzagging electrons at high speed along a tunnel, will enable researchers to film atoms in motion. Jon Excell and Christopher Sell report It's just as well for those...

INTERVIEW: Flexible working.
March 13, 2006... Smart fabric producer Eleksen has moved from satirical puppetry to cutting-edge wearable computing in just eight years, and the man charged with extending its potential is Andrew Newman. Niall Firth reports There cannot be many UK...

DESIGN ENGINEERING - SUSPENSION SYSTEMS: Suspension bridge.
March 13, 2006... With the ever-increasing popularity of race track days, the launch of the Lotus Exige S claims to close the gap between road comfort and circuit performance. Charles Clarke reports Lurking beneath the surface of most mechanical engineers...

DESIGN ENGINEERING - IMAGING: In the picture.
March 13, 2006... Stimulating the brain to focus on a specific subject during MRI scans proved a challenge to German researchers, who combined two technologies to project images inside a scanner. Stuart Nathan reports The use of magnetic resonance imaging...

DESIGN ENGINEERING - MOBILE IT: Tough challenge.
March 13, 2006... A mobile workforce able to access company and data resources wirelessly is key to improving productivity, accuracy and profitability. But choosing the right equipment for the job is crucial. Mark Venables explains The trend for...

DESIGN ENGINEERING - FASTENERS: Smart moves.
March 13, 2006... Manufacturers planning to launch next-generation products, seeking more profitable markets - or just wanting a fresh look - could find the answer in aesthetics. Mark Venables explains IN technology-based products, the initial focus is...

COMMENT: More action, less gas.
March 27, 2006... The researchers at Heriot-Watt's Institute of Petroleum Engineering featured in our news story on page 10 will no doubt be pleased to know they are on Gordon Brown's radar. Not personally of course. Even the most detail-obsessed...

THE BIG PICTURE: Guarded response.
March 27, 2006... Tests to go ahead of Sentinel plane equipped with Airborne Stand-Off Radar long-range surveillance The first Sentinel R Mk I aircraft to have been completed in the UK has left Raytheon's Broughton facility in north Wales for Greenville,...

THE BIG PICTURE: US takes the rest of the world to the cleaners.
March 27, 2006... Scientists at the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) are taking air pollution detection to a new level. They have built a room-sized environmental test chamber incorporating more than a dozen smaller chambers and a mass spectrometric...

THE BIG PICTURE: Stately home for planes.
March 27, 2006... The USA's 10th and final Nimitz-class aircraft carrier, George HW Bush (CVN 77), gained a colossal 800 tons last week as Northrop Grumman lowered the upper bow section of the ship into place. The addition of the upper bow completes the...

IN BRIEF: Healthy sum for bio-research.(Brief article)
March 27, 2006... EPSRC and Philips Research have agreed a four-year project worth #6m to fund research and training in biomedical technology. The team, which includes Imperial College London and Cambridge University, aims to develop next-generation...

IN BRIEF: Mapping out what's happening down under in this country.(Brief article)
March 27, 2006... The first 3D maps of subterranean Britain are to be created in a #2.2m project being led by researchers from the Universities of Leeds and Nottingham. Four million holes are dug each year in Britain's roads to repair pipes and cables or...

IN BRIEF: Flying low easy with Boeing UAV flight control technologies.(Brief article)
March 27, 2006... Boeing has completed its DARPA- sponsored Software Enabled Control (SEC) programme to develop and demonstrate flight control technologies that enhance the autonomous operations of advanced UAVs. During demos the SEC software assumed control of...

NEWS: Slick operator.
March 27, 2006... Radar adapted to incorporate oil spill detection Radar-based technology for instantly detecting and monitoring oil spills has been unveiled by engineers in Norway. Developed by offshore sensing expert Miros, the system is claimed to be...

NEWS: Top flight technology.
March 27, 2006... Thales meets key challenges in development of Airbus A380 full-flight simulator The first commercial full-flight simulator for the Airbus A380 is ready for inspection by its first customer, Singapore Airlines. Developed by Thales UK...

NEWS: Qinetiq heads #7.5m close-combat project for MoD.
March 27, 2006... The MoD is funding a three-year research project to develop new sensor systems for use in close combat. The #7.5m Sensor Systems for Close Combat (SS4CC) programme is being led by Qinetiq, with additional input from Selex Sensors and...

NEWS: Getting cagey about CO2.
March 27, 2006... Storing carbon dioxide in hydrate 'cages' on the seabed could prevent damaging leakage Petroleum engineers are developing technology designed to remove a potential obstacle to under-sea storage of carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon...

NEWS: On a different wavelength.
March 27, 2006... Microwave technology adapted to create diagnostic test for breast cancer A safer and more effective way of screening for breast cancer could be on the cards, thanks to research being carried out at the University of Northumbria. Dr David...

NEWS: A bug's death.
March 27, 2006... A rapid, non-invasive device to diagnose bacterial infections is being developed by an international team of engineers and clinicians, with the help of a N1.67m (#1.2m) grant from the EC. A trauma or burns patient may show no signs of...

NEWS: Talking points.
March 27, 2006... Siemens creates speaker-independent voice recognition technique to improve accuracy of vehicle inspections A voice recognition technology to help speed up and improve the accuracy of inspections undertaken by Germany's official vehicle...

NEWS: Taking charge of diesel fumes.
March 27, 2006... Finnish company Dekati has designed a sensor that is claimed to detect much smaller particulates in diesel exhausts than is currently possible. Traditional monitors use an optical detection method that essentially measures the darkness...

NEWS: Thinking ahead.
March 27, 2006... Study mimicks human brain to improve the efficiency of air traffic control systems A UK research project is attempting to apply lessons learned from one of the most complex systems of all - the human brain - to improve the efficiency of...

NEWS: Talisman with dual benefits.
March 27, 2006... BAE Systems has launched Talisman, an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle which can operate both automatically and manually. The multi-modular, multi-role system has been designed to undergo maritime littoral operations and according to...

NEWS: Open and shutter case.
March 27, 2006... Mini-radiator with proactive heat-control system provides prototype for new breed of nano-satellites A tiny radiator to control heat emissions inside small satellites was launched aboard a test spacecraft last week, heralding a new...

FOCUS: Silicon trough.
March 27, 2006... It is being treated as if it's past its sell-by date, say UK universities, but such is silicon's value in our electronics future that we need to build a special facility to advance its research. Christopher Sell reports Silicon, and more...

BUSINESS: Smiths strengthens potential.
March 27, 2006... Group spends #43m on key acquisitions as all divisions turn in robust performance Robust core markets and a series of acquisitions designed to encourage greater R&D helped Smiths Group establish a solid financial platform for 2006. ...

BUSINESS: Corus shows its mettle.
March 27, 2006... Anglo-Dutch steel giant Corus overcame a difficult third quarter to record pre-tax profits of #580m for 2005, up #13m on the previous year. The overall increase of 16 per cent in steel selling prices compared to 2004 offset a five per cent...

VIEWPOINT: Identifying a need.
March 27, 2006... A new initiative is encouraging government-level discussion on one of the fastest growing areas of technology. Ian Smith calls for a national dialogue on RFID Many applications in retail, manufacturing, services, and research across...

LETTER: No Cinderella.(Letter to the editor)
March 27, 2006... I was most interested to read Niall Firth's article 'It all adds up' (Focus, 13 February) about the benefits of industrial mathematics. In all the heat and light which (justifiably) surrounds the quality of our workforce when it comes to...

LETTER: Unhealthy attitude.(Letter to the editor)
March 27, 2006... Interesting though Brian Hammond's contribution was (Letters, 27 February) on who will pay one half of the population to provide care for the other half, it begs an answer to the root cause of the question. Everyone seems to accept that...

LETTER: Power to our elbow.(Letter to the editor)
March 27, 2006... Your leader 'Nuclear bombshell only confuses the issue' (Comment, 13 March) and your correspondent Colin Smith (letters, the same issue) talk about the need for nuclear power. I think that both you and Mr Smith underestimate how much we need...

LETTER: Astute observation.(Letter to the editor)
March 27, 2006... I really enjoyed your article about the Astute class submarine (Feature, 27 February). But who figured out what a family saloon car is per sq metre? That is so inaccurate. I always use unladen Audi A4/sq m, which works out at around...

SUB-SEA OBSERVATORIES: In deep water.
March 27, 2006... Ambitious projects are underway to create underwater research facilities that will enable oceanographers to detect violent activity such as tsunamis, and even perhaps uncover mysteries of the deep. Niall Firth reports If it was not already...

INTERVIEW: Material benefits.(Interview)
March 27, 2006... Hartmut Lower, head of Bayer MaterialScience's polycarbonates development section, believes we've only seen a fraction of the potential of these innovative plastics. Stuart Nathan reports It's a truism of design that form is dictated by...

PRODUCTION ENGINEERING: Fluid solutions.
March 27, 2006... UK project aims to chemically remove unwanted minerals from coal using waste-free technique that is environmentally friendly and cost efficient. Stuart Nathan reports A process using solvents to strip away minerals from coal to remove...

COMPUTER SIMULATION: A foamer therapy.
March 27, 2006... Computer simulation methods are being used in an attempt to help manufacturers avoid foaming problems and optimise mould designs before going into production. Stuart Nathan reports A high strength-to-weight ratio makes polyurethane foam...

MEASUREMENT & CONTROL: Blade runner.
March 27, 2006... With the ever-increasing use of non-metallic aerospace parts, a new method of measuring turbine tip clearance is needed. German researchers believe laser sensors hold the key. Stuart Nathan explains A laser sensor for more efficient turbine...

PROCESS CONTROL: Beyond control.
March 27, 2006... Combining technological advances and manufacturing techniques can provide flexibility to respond rapidly to changing demands, while improving quality and cutting waste. Mark Venables reports In today's ever-competitive climate companies...

AUTOMATION: Giant leap for man.
March 27, 2006... Global statistics show that robot capability has taken enormous strides thanks to better control algorithms and improved sensors - now it is set to step up a gear. Colin Carter reports As technology makes them more and more capable,...