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Jason Ford
Jason Ford
News Editor
Building a better Britain?
Wednesday sees UK Manufacturing Summit 2011: Rebuilding UK Manufacturing taking place at the IMechE’s Birdcage Walk premises in London.
The inaugural Manufacturing Summit was launched in March 2010, focusing on The Future of UK Manufacturing.
At the event, UK manufacturers were able to hear from and question representatives in industry, government, politics, economics and industry associations with the aim of restating the importance of manufacturing prior to the May General Election.
This year’s Manufacturing Summit brings together leading keynote speakers including industry minister Mark Prisk, a Question Time panel and discussion forums addressing skills, capital investment, SME innovation and outsourcing-versus-insourcing.
This year’s summit is expected to provide a further opportunity to influence the consultation document for UK manufacturing strategy planned for mid-2011 and to further discuss how confidence in UK manufacturing can be restored.
Questions to be addressed include: can Britain rebuild to become a thriving industrial economy? And, against a background of massive spending cuts, how can this be accomplished?
The 81st International Geneva Motor Show kicks off this week, promising 170 World and European premiers, of which over 40 fall into the category of alternatively powered vehicles.
On Wednesday The Engineer’s Stephen Harris will be providing an in depth report on three such vehicles including models from Rolls-Royce, Jaguar Land Rover and BMW.
In the interim, Briefing is drawn to the so-called ‘Electric Tilter’ all-electric urban mobility vehicle. Developed in France by SynergEthic, the two-seat, three-wheeler is claimed to have a range of 75 miles and a maximum speed of 68mph.
At 2.53m in length, 0.90m wide and 1.65m in height, the rear-wheel drive Tilter is expected to make it onto the market in 2012 at a cost of less than €10,000, including tax and a subscription package that includes the use of batteries.
Anyone who doesn’t subscribe to the ban on using a mobile ’phone whilst driving will be pleased to hear that Ford SYNC is coming to Europe in 2012.
Ford president and CEO Alan Mulally will deliver the news to the 2011 CeBIT technology show in Hanover, Germany this week.
Installed in around three million cars in the US already, SYNC has been designed to offer a simpler and safer means for drivers to operate mobile devices inside their cars and to stay in touch with the outside world while on the move.
Vehicle functions, settings and information are made accessible to the driver through voice control, steering wheel controls or a tap of the centre stack touch screen.
Ford anticipates that nearly two million new vehicles in Europe will feature the system by 2015.
Other notable events this week include today’s launch of a consultation on the route of HS2, a 250mph high-speed rail line aiming to link London to Birmingham in 49 minutes by 2026.
Commenting on the consultation, Tom Foulkes, director general of ICE said: ‘High Speed Rail carries huge economic and environmental potential and could free up capacity on an already stretched network. The consultation on the preferred route is a welcome step towards progressing this ambitious project, however actually delivering it still demands the very strongest commitment going forwards, both politically and financially.’
Finally, the National Audit Office publishes a report this week regarding Eurofighter Typhoon procurement. Entitled ’Defence: Eurofighter Typhoon’, the report will look at the development and procurement of the aircraft and the aircraft’s support package and at how well partner nations have been working together. The number of aircraft the UK is purchasing fell to 160 following the 2010 defence review.
Readers' comments (9)
Bob Watkins | 28 Feb 2011 1:02 pm
The high speed rail link is a huge white elephant.I cannot see any benefit in carving up more countryside - who wants to arrive 20 miles outside of Birmingham anyway?
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Trevor Best | 28 Feb 2011 2:06 pm
Building the High Speed Rail Link is not only about getting to Birmingham 30 minutes early from London it is about restarting British Industry. In all of recent history from the early 1900's major projects have lifted countries out of recession and into growth. Germany used armaments production after World War 1 and again Autoban building after World War 2. Japan used electronics and auto mobile manufacturing to re-build their country. Britain is in trouble because of many things ranging from poor education of children who are the future wealth creators to insane regulations on employment and benefits to name a few that made us a nation of consumers instead of producers.
So the High Speed Rail Link is replacing Gordon Brown's attempt to build his way out of the impending recession with his re-generation program. The spin offs of the project will be many and will help the recovery process.
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Joseph A. Decker, Jr. | 28 Feb 2011 4:46 pm
During my high school public education period in the United States, I remember a teacher telling us that we should never give up our "means of production" to a communist state for it would mean the decline of our republic and democratic society. We handed over our "means of production" to China for lower production and material costs. As a result, we are now in trouble. We must and need to get them back!
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Anonymous | 28 Feb 2011 4:48 pm
I'm not sure how much Ford's SYNC system will actually do to improve safety while using mobile devices in cars. In the five years since the ban on using hand-held mobiles while driving was introduced, the most obvious result has been to stop those of us who before that didn't use our phones while driving because we thought it might be dangerous. Many people who previously did have honoured the law more in the breach than observance.
A couple of years ago a van I was following along the A14 was being driven very erratically. Over 6-7 miles the van repeatedly accelerated to 80mph before slowing to below 40mph (by coasting, not braking). At the same time the van had several near misses with the central reservation barrier and traffic in the inside lane. Eventually I gave a long blast on the horn and to my surprise the driver found a space in the inside lane and moved over. As I accelerated past, I glanced over and saw that he had a bluetooth earpiece in. His left hand was holding the steering wheel and a clipboard resting on it while he wrote with his right hand!
Systems like Bluetooth and SYNC do have benefits for the responsible motorist who may need to tell a loved ont they've been delayed etc. but the technology has to be used responsibly. Sadly, there is a hardcore group of motorists for whom increasingly advanced technology merely frees up capacity for enhanced displays of stupidity and no amount of technology will protect us from them.
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Philip Kearn | 28 Feb 2011 4:52 pm
I applaud the idea of a high speed rail network, but why can't it follow alongside the motorways, this would provide good access for construction traffic and follow the routes where commercial centres have developed.
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Maurice Shakeshaft | 28 Feb 2011 6:44 pm
HS2 is so 19th Century!
A fast, effective affordable transport infrastructure is essential for near future prosperity of the United Kingdom.
The organisation which 'selected' the route for HS2 was the DofT. It is against rail in general and HST in particular. The route through the Chilterns, seemingly perverse in terms of infrastructure etc., might possibly have been selected on it's embarrassment value rather than it's efficacy as the most cost efficient route. A route close to the West Coast mainline via Lichfield Trent Valley might have led to less uproar and an easier build - less need for tunneling for a start. So in the fullness of time there will be no HS2 and no Infrastructure development.
If we had UK companies to actually build the units, we should consider using monorails? I'm sure ABB, Siemens and Alsthom will gladly take a bit of UK taxpayer subsidy to build some ineffective kit. Maybe BAE systems could be encouraged to convert some of its military expertise into a transport 'Peace dividend"?
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Anonymous | 1 Mar 2011 0:21 am
Imagine driving along a motorway at 70 when the driver in front of you receives a call from his girlfriend saying "I have just telephoned your wife to say I am pregnant with you child." Is Ford SYNC really going to help?
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Nick | 1 Mar 2011 2:16 am
Putting aside the question of whether a route through the Chilterns is the best idea, and the fact that 15 years seems a very long time to achieve it, exactly who will benefit in terms of "restarting British industry"? The foreign firms who have been allowed to take over British industry will use such projects to boost their own sales. Even if they undertake to manufacture some equipment in UK, you can bet the equipment design will be back at their home countries. After the project is completed, what then?
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Martin Serrano | 4 Mar 2011 9:48 am
I am a Spanish student of Engineering.
High speed rail network is useful only to join the two main cities of a country, if they are far away each other.
A wide network joining 30 cities and towns, like in Spain, costs lots of money, and it brings economic benefits for politicians only.
These days, having just inaugurated the Madrid- Valencia link, some experts say that part of the Spanish high speed railway (the largest in Europe) will have to be dismantled in 15- 20 years due to its high costs per passenger, definitely untenable for any serious country.
Research has been carried out for the recent Huesca- Zaragoza- Madrid section, showing that it is cheaper for us taxpayers to carry each passenger from Huesca to Zaragoza (100 km) in an individual high class Mercedes- Benz with a chauffeur along the toll motorway.
Incredible !
Large high speed rail networks are the result of politicians megalomania...
Be careful.
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