The Engineer
October 2004 Online
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Plug-ins for quick comparison
29 Oct 2004
Raindrop Geomagic has released new plug-ins that enable instant 3D comparison for inspection applications. The plug-ins work in conjunction with Geomagic Qualify 7 software, released earlier this week.
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China orders metro cars
29 Oct 2004
Changchun Bombardier Railway Vehicles has today received a $20 million order from the Guangzhou Metro Corporation for the supply of 48 MOVIA metro cars.
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Contact lenses deliver medication
29 Oct 2004
Scientists in Singapore have recently invented a simple method of making polymeric lens materials that can be loaded with eye medication for ophthalmic drug delivery applications.
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Welding done in a flash
29 Oct 2004
Chemists have found that an ordinary camera flash causes the instantaneous welding together of nanofibres made of polyaniline, a synthetic polymer that can be made in conducting or insulating form.
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Inxight files suit against Verity
29 Oct 2004
Inxight Software, a provider of enterprise software solutions, has filed a lawsuit against Verity alleging breach of contract and misappropriation of trade secrets.
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PAS acquires fourth Q300
29 Oct 2004
Bombardier Aerospace has signed a $16.0 million contract with Cairo-based Petroleum Air Services (PAS) for the sale of one additional Bombardier Q300 turboprop 50-seat regional airliner.
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Low cost, low power
28 Oct 2004
Parvus Corporation will soon release a PCI-104 form factor Single Board Computer, the SpacePC 8500, designed with a low voltage 400MHz Intel Celeron Processor and Intel 815E chipset.
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New CompactFlash serial cards
28 Oct 2004
Sealevel Systems, a supplier of serial and digital I/O solutions, has recently announced four new CompactFlash serial I/O adapters aimed at mobile computing applications.
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Turkish Airlines places $1.5 billion Airbus order
28 Oct 2004
The Turkish national carrier, Turkish Airlines, has signed a firm contract for the purchase of 36 Airbus single aisle and wide body aircraft.
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Superconducting clues uncovered
28 Oct 2004
Scientists at the US Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory have uncovered another possible clue to the causes of high-temperature superconductivity.
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Crimes caught on cassette
28 Oct 2004
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology has developed a real-time magnetic imaging system that enables criminal investigators to "see" signs of tampering in audiotapes.
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Low power light switch
27 Oct 2004
Cornell University researchers have demonstrated for the first time a device that allows one low-powered beam of light to switch another on and off on silicon.
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Globally positioned
27 Oct 2004
The Chinese have joined the Galileo GPS project. The US is a tad worried. And who can blame them? Dave Wilson spills the beans.
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Transmitting through the fog
27 Oct 2004
Engineers at Penn State University believe multi-rate, ultra-short laser pulses offer a new approach to help optical wireless signals penetrate fog and other adverse weather conditions.
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Integris Metals sold for $410 million
27 Oct 2004
Alcoa and BHP Billiton have today agreed to sell 100% of their respective equity interests in Integris Metals to Ryerson Tull for $410 million in cash.
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Laser shines light on artificial limbs
27 Oct 2004
Artificial limbs might one day be controlled directly by the brain following the discovery of a method to stimulate and control nerve cells via laser light.
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Alstom awarded 150 million Euros
27 Oct 2004
The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority has today awarded Alstom an order worth around 150 million Euros for the supply of 120 heavy rail subway cars.
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Three-axis stepper drives
27 Oct 2004
Parker Hannifin has launched a range of three-axis stepper drives specifically designed to meet the needs of system builders and OEMs.
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Monkey think, monkey do
27 Oct 2004
Researchers have demonstrated that a monkey can feed itself with a robotic arm using signals from its brain, an advance that could enhance prosthetics for people with spinal cord injuries.
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Toward quantum communications
26 Oct 2004
A team of physicists at the Georgia Institute of Technology has successfully transferred quantum information from two different groups of atoms onto a single photon.
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Single-chip power over Ethernet
26 Oct 2004
National Semiconductor's LM5070 is claimed to be the first single-chip Power Device (PD) interface port and pulse-width modulator (PWM) controller that meets the IEEE 802.3af standard.
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Transforming 3D imaging
26 Oct 2004
A start-up company has emerged from Johns Hopkins University with a product that processes millions of data points in real time and turns them into 3-D graphics.
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Hydrogen Aggressor
26 Oct 2004
Yesterday, at the annual meeting of the Association of the US Army in Washington, DC, the US Army unveiled a hydrogen fuel cell based off-road vehicle that can be used for stealth operations.
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13,300-lumen LED array
26 Oct 2004
Lamina Ceramics claims to have developed the brightest LED light array ever built - it says its RGB (red-green-blue) LED array is about 10 times brighter than any previously demonstrated.
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High-power blue LEDs
25 Oct 2004
SDK has developed a 12 mW blue light-emitting diode LED with a flip chip structure that will be used to backlight liquid crystal displays and be used in the photoflash units of mobile phones.
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7E7 contract nets Parker over $1 billion
25 Oct 2004
Parker Hannifin has recently been awarded a contract for the hydraulic subsystem for the new Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner, plus individual components on the aircraft and GE candidate engine.
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Alcoa to clean up in Spain
25 Oct 2004
Alcoa announced today that it will invest 64 million Euros in technology and environmental improvements for three of its smelters in northern Spain.
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Arch sells materials business for $160 million
25 Oct 2004
Arch Chemicals has signed an agreement to sell the majority of the operations of its microelectronic materials business to Fuji Photo Film for approximately $160 million.
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Consolidated steel
25 Oct 2004
Ispat International is to acquire LNM Holdings and to merge with International Steel Group in a deal that will form the world's largest steel company.
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New fibre optic sensors increase range
22 Oct 2004
Researchers in the US are on their way to solving a problem that is limiting the range and number of sensors used to safeguard civil and industrial infrastructure.
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Taxiing toward $183 billion in aircraft acquisitions
22 Oct 2004
Boeing this week released its Current Market Outlook for China, projecting that by 2023 the country's air carriers will require nearly 2,300 new airplanes.
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Express image acquisition
21 Oct 2004
National Instruments announced yesterday that its first PCI Express-based image acquisition board for high-throughput vision applications will be ready for delivery in January 2005.
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Hollywood goes mobile
21 Oct 2004
It won't be long before you can watch your favourite TV broadcasts on the go, thanks to a new chip that Texas Instruments is developing for mobile phones.
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Money in the wind
21 Oct 2004
Siemens Power Generation is to buy the Danish wind turbine manufacturer Bonus Energy, a company that currently ranks fifth among the world's biggest turbine manufacturers.
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Boeing confirms Primaris order
21 Oct 2004
Boeing today confirmed that Primaris Airlines has chosen the Boeing 7E7-8 Dreamliner and the 737-800 for the carrier's future fleet development.
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Magnetic sensors tackle viruses
21 Oct 2004
Scientists from the Argonne National Laboratory in the US have developed a new type of magnetic sensor that can detect biomolecules.
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Robot investment on the up
21 Oct 2004
The 2004 World Robotics survey, produced by The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), shows that orders for robots were up by 18% in the first half of 2004.
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Banning PFOS
21 Oct 2004
Defra, the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, is proposing national regulations to manage the risks posed by the environmentally damaging and hazardous chemical Perflurooctane sulphonate (PFOS) and phase out its use.
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Point-and-pay
21 Oct 2004
Agilent Technologies has introduced software compliant with the IrDA's (Infrared Data Association's) IrFM (infrared financial messaging) Point and Pay Profile version 1.0.
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When good metals go bad
21 Oct 2004
Air travel may become safer as a result of research at USC into corrosion-induced failure in high-performance metals used in aerospace and other demanding applications.
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Microsphere shot
21 Oct 2004
A new 'stable liquid' technology, developed by Cambridge Biostability will enable vaccines to be stored for long periods in a range of environmental conditions.
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Rolls-Royce to power Spanish plants
20 Oct 2004
Moyresa of Spain, a major operator in the oilseed crushing and refining industry, has selected nine Rolls-Royce K-gas engines to power three major electricity cogeneration projects.
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With Bill, it's personal
20 Oct 2004
If you don't have Broadband, you might have to rely on the Post Office. And that, as Dr. Bill found out, can be problematic. Dave Wilson explains.
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Testing times for pathogens
20 Oct 2004
Affymetrix is to develop a biodefence microarray test that can detect hundreds of bacterial and viral biological threats, such as anthrax and plague, in as little as four hours.
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Yellow river
20 Oct 2004
GE Energy has received a contract of nearly $35 million to supply four turbine-generator sets for the new Xi Xia Yuan hydroelectric facility on the Yellow River in Henan Province, China.
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Under my skin
20 Oct 2004
A US researcher has developed a microscopic colour-changing sensor that can be placed just under the skin to allow a user to visibly monitor glucose levels.
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VFDs for all seasons
19 Oct 2004
Mitsubishi Electric Automation has introduced its F700 series of variable frequency drives (VFDs) that can control motors ranging from one to 800 horsepower.
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15 million gates
19 Oct 2004
Honeywell has introduced a 150 nanometre, 15 million gate integrated circuit technology that increases speed and bandwidth capabilities for processing and transmitting data in aerospace systems.
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ABB wins $100 million oil platform order
19 Oct 2004
ABB announced today that it has won a contract worth nearly $100 million to modify an oil platform off the coast of the Russian Far East.
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Record breaking nanotube
19 Oct 2004
Scientists in the US have synthesised the world's longest electrically conducting nanotubes, a development that could lead to improved power transmission lines and extremely strong, lightweight materials.
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Network security
19 Oct 2004
Cisco Systems has teamed up with Microsoft to ensure that their respective computer and networking security architectures are compatible and interoperable.
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Integrated Aerospace bought for £61 million
19 Oct 2004
Smiths Group announced today that it is acquiring Integrated Aerospace, a privately owned, California-based supplier of specialist landing gear systems, for £61 million.
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Green sea energy
19 Oct 2004
Atlantis Energy has signed an agreement with Country Energy to develop a pilot site in the Clarence Valley on the far north coast of New South Wales to test out a new wave energy machine.
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Visteon moves to Slovakia
18 Oct 2004
Visteon Corporation is to invest $49 million building a new manufacturing facility in Nitra, Slovakia to support its business relationships with automakers Kia and PSA Peugeot Citroën.
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New partners for engine programme
18 Oct 2004
Rolls-Royce announced today that Goodrich Corporation and Hamilton Sundstrand have been selected as partners on the Trent 1000 engine being developed for the Boeing 7E7 Dreamliner.
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ABB wins $60 million Three Gorges order
18 Oct 2004
ABB has today been awarded contracts worth $60 million to supply a 500kV gas insulated switchgear and 12 sets of power transformers to China's Three Gorges dam project.
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China orders 20 high-speed trains
18 Oct 2004
Bombardier and two joint venture partners have recently received a $424 million order from the Ministry of Railways of China to produce and deliver 20 eight-car high-speed trains.
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Nuclear energy to go
15 Oct 2004
Three US Laboratories are aiming to develop a small, sealed, transportable, autonomous nuclear reactor in a tamper-resistant container.
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Alzheimer's disease
15 Oct 2004
A $60 million US study, sponsored by top names in the pharmaceuticals business, will examine ways of measuring the progression of mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
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Ground monitoring
15 Oct 2004
A team of US scientists are developing a wireless sensor designed to warn against geotechnical hazards such as earthquakes, landslides, and floods.
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Nuclear slammer
14 Oct 2004
One of the first ever global reports into industrial cyber security reveals a tenfold increase in successful cyber attacks on process and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems since 2000.
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Flueless gas action
14 Oct 2004
The UK Government has announced a series of proposals to improve indoor air quality by reducing pollution from flueless gas appliances such as gas cookers, water heaters and flueless gas fires.
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Cargo scanner
14 Oct 2004
Australian researchers at CSIRO Minerals have developed a scanner that can accurately and rapidly detect illicit drugs and explosives concealed inside air freight containers.
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Ultrasound diagnosis for whiplash
14 Oct 2004
Lengthy waits for personal injury compensation after car crashes could be a thing of the past, thanks to research being carried out at The University of Nottingham.
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Shielded power
14 Oct 2004
The US-based IEEE has approved a new standard for the testing of shielded cables using very low frequencies.
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Mobile phone neuroma
14 Oct 2004
A study produced by researchers at the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden shows that 10 or more years of mobile phone use almost doubles the risk of contracting a tumour on the auditory nerve.
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Testing times for software
13 Oct 2004
A software controlled cruise control system needs to undergo more than 800,000 unique test scenarios before software errors can be completely removed. And that's economically impossible using standard software development techniques.
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Deere in Brazil
13 Oct 2004
Deere and Company is to invest $80 million to construct a new tractor facility in Montenegro, Rio Grande do Sul in Brasil.
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Parker acquires Sporlan Valve
13 Oct 2004
Parker Hannifin has acquired the Washington, Missouri-based Sporlan Valve Company for an undisclosed amount.
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Band aid
13 Oct 2004
Researchers at IMEC are aiming to produce an intelligent flexible band-aid that will contain all the necessary technology for sensing and communicating with a nearby base station.
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Gel seals incisions
13 Oct 2004
Boston University researchers have produced an elastic, transparent gel that sets so fast and adheres so surely to the eye's surface that it could soon become the best choice for sealing corneal incisions.
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Qualcomm buys Trigenix
13 Oct 2004
US-based Qualcomm has acquired the Cambridge, UK-based user interface development tools software vendor Trigenix for $36 million in cash.
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Buying magnets
12 Oct 2004
Palo Alto, CA-based Varian is to acquire the Oxford firm of Magnex Scientific Limited for $32 million in cash and in the process will 'rationalise' its field support administration in the UK.
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Display start up
12 Oct 2004
Researchers from Ghent University and IMEC have formed a new company to develop liquid-crystal-on-silicon micro-displays.
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Shaping and welding
12 Oct 2004
Co-developed with Swiss based THE Thomas Machines, Krauss-Maffei's new Latig machine can produce plastic metal composite pipe up to 110 mm in diameter.
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Optimised cooling
12 Oct 2004
Kistler has developed a new system to optimise the residual cooling time of an injection moulding process in order to lower the cycle time.
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Wind in China
11 Oct 2004
GE Energy is supplying 14 of its 1.5MW wind turbines for the first two utility-scale wind projects to be built in Shanghai, China's largest city.
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Mapping pollution
11 Oct 2004
European researchers have successfully processed data from Envisat to generate the sharpest maps yet made of vertical columns of tropospheric nitrogen dioxide.
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Roping in Transcore
11 Oct 2004
US-based Roper Industries is to acquire TransCore Holdings from an investor group led by KRG Capital Partners in a transaction valued at approximately $600 million.
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No need for needles
11 Oct 2004
An instrument developed by US-based InLight Solutions can be used to screen patients for Type 2 diabetes without the use of invasive techniques.
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Alstom breaks billion Euro barrier
11 Oct 2004
Alstom has been awarded separate contracts in China worth over one billion Euros to supply regional trains and locomotives and to provide power-generating equipment for three pumped-storage projects.
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Buying turboprops
11 Oct 2004
Bombardier Aerospace announced yesterday that Air New Zealand has signed a $269.5 million contract to acquire 17 Bombardier Q300 50-seat turboprop aircraft.
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HTS alliance
8 Oct 2004
American Superconductor and Northrop Grumman have formed a business alliance to sell, market and develop products for the US military based on high temperature superconductor (HTS) wire.
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Listeriosis licked by new biosensor
8 Oct 2004
The pathogen responsible for a pre-cooked chicken recall in the USA last summer will become easier to detect in ready-to-eat meats, thanks to a new biosensor developed at Purdue University.
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Radio astronomers remove the blindfold
7 Oct 2004
UK radio astronomers at the Jodrell Bank Observatory, working with colleagues from Europe and the USA, have demonstrated a new technique that will revolutionise the way they observe the stars.
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Research shines light on explosives detection
7 Oct 2004
A team of University of Florida researchers has invented a way to rapidly detect traces of TNT or other hidden explosives by shining a light on any potentially contaminated object.
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Bombardier Aerospace axes 2000 jobs
7 Oct 2004
Bombardier Aerospace announced today that it is to shed approximately 2,000 jobs at its Montréal and Belfast sites over a nine-month period starting this November.
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National statistics
7 Oct 2004
According to data recently released by the Office for National Statistics, manufacturing output in the UK decreased by 0.4% in the three months to August compared with the three months to May.
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Cord in China
7 Oct 2004
Bridgestone Corporation has earmarked $94.3 million to build a plant in Shenyang, China to produce steel cord for radial tyres.
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Better junctions for silicon-based semiconductors
6 Oct 2004
Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a technique that uses surface chemistry to make tinier and more effective p-n junctions in silicon-based semiconductors.
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UK regulators suspend Fluvirin production
6 Oct 2004
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency has temporarily suspended Chiron Corporation's license to manufacture Fluvirin influenza virus vaccine at its Liverpool facility.
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Calculation results in hydrogen rethink
6 Oct 2004
Researchers have calculated that any move to replace Britain's oil burning vehicles with hydrogen powered equivalents would require the erection of 100,000 wind turbines or 100 nuclear power plants.
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Buying test and measurement
6 Oct 2004
On the heels of its recent North American restructuring, EADS North America has acquired test and measurement specialist Racal Instruments in a deal worth $105 million.
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It's not Origami
6 Oct 2004
Dave Wilson discusses how the art of paper folding could potentially reveal how good we are as managers. Or does he?
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Petrobras places $80 million genset order
6 Oct 2004
Rolls-Royce announced yesterday that it has been awarded $80 million to supply seven power generation packages for Brazilian offshore projects currently being undertaken by Petrobras.
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Reducing NOx
5 Oct 2004
Glennan Microsystems proposes to develop and demonstrate an active fuel and emission control system that will reduce NOx emissions from gas turbine engines by 70%.
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Climate change
5 Oct 2004
The University of Adelaide is working on the development of a radar imaging system that could assist researchers in better understanding climate change.
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Boeing predicts $552 billion market
5 Oct 2004
According to Boeing, Ireland will require more than 300 new aeroplanes over the next 20 years, with the rest of Europe's airlines needing 6,700 aircraft to meet travellers' demands.
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Click to touch
4 Oct 2004
New software developed at Nottingham Trent University enables people to use a computer to examine the properties of different fabrics.
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Schneider buys Dinel
4 Oct 2004
Schneider Electric announced today that it has acquired Dinel, a French company that designs, develops and markets a wide array of optoelectronic products.
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Under the sea
4 Oct 2004
Sponsored by major players in the oil and gas field, Qinetiq and Input/Output are to develop and deploy the world's first fibre optic seabed seismic acquisition system.
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Industry's first multi-mode wireless device server
4 Oct 2004
DeviceMaster AIR from Comtrol enables users to connect serial or Ethernet devices to an Ethernet network either "wirelessly" using the 802.11b industry standard or using standard wire.
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Reducing the impact of collisions
1 Oct 2004
Research carried out by scientists at the University of Surrey could lead to a significant decrease in the number of pedestrians and cyclists killed each year on Europe's roads.
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Offshore manufacturing: ending apathy is the only solution
1 Oct 2004
Is offshore outsourcing an inevitable fate for UK manufacturing? Chris Astall of Cincom Systems argues that looking closer to home at lean operations can lead to equal savings.
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DuPont and Cheil form SD Flex
1 Oct 2004
DuPont and Cheil Industries have signed a 50/50 joint venture agreement to establish SD Flex, a company that will manufacture DuPont Pyralux adhesiveless, flexible copper clad laminate.
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Grabbing Spike
1 Oct 2004
Qualcomm, the CA-based CDMA digital wireless company, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Spike Technologies, a semiconductor design services company in Milpitas, CA with a design centre in Bangalore, India.
