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When faced with the need to measure key parameters with field instrumentation, it is vital to have good accuracy as well as reliability. Any field engineer, technician, surveyor or agronomist will tell you that it is a real nuisance to send meters away for recalibration and checking even when it is mandatory so to do. Continue Reading »Field Instrumentation For Industry
Field Instrumentation For Industry
Categories: Editor's View, Engineering Seen
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Tags: 4-20mA, ambient, calibration, Code, dew point, engineer, field, field instrumentation, humidity, hygrometer, IEE, meter, PAT, portable, Portable Appliance Test, probe, recalibration, relative humidity, ruggedized, technician, tester, transmitters
Engineering On The Move
Phil The Editor
Last week, I complained about the lack of courage in the public sector when it comes to mega engineering projects for the long-term benefit for the society it is meant to serve. This week, let’s go closer to the nuts and bolts of every day life of an Engineer on the move. Continue Reading »Engineering On The Move
Categories: Editor's View, Engineering Seen
mtec 2011 + Midlands Design And Manufacturing Review
“There were four main shows rolled into one main event at the NEC on 6th and 7th April 2011. A cog in the wheel was mainly intertested in the mtec and Midlands design and manufacturing sections and our sister site bloghazard.com (for labface.com) covered the Medtec side of the event as well.
The atmosphere and general feedback from exhibitors and visitors was very positive and although the exhibition showed diminishing numbers from around 3.00 pm onwards on both days, there seemed to a be a high quality aspect, in terms of visitors and potential customers. The NEC hosted a well attended event which offered a good mix of cross-over products and applications within the science, engineering and manufacturing industries.”
Andrew Long, event reporter, A Cog In The Wheel.
Video transcription continues…
Around 200 exhibitors lined up their wares at this years event and around 40% of them were listed as either a mtec or midlands design and manufacturing exhibitor. After a quick look around I visited a few manufacturers and suppliers to see what they had to offer.
First up was Stemmer imaging who were showing a range of smart camera products and vision systems with associated application software. These products are designed to simplify automated inspection processes for a variety of manufacturing tasks and procedures.
I then went onto the Lee Spring stand to see a selection taken from their vast range of springs, wire forms and other associated products used in engineering and manufacturing industries. They can offer a bespoke solution or a choice of over 17,000 stock products.
A member of the Parker Hannifin team then showed me a self retaining device that has full product traceability built in. Parker can offer full custom engineering solutions for elastomers and a wide range of sealing products which includes nitriles and silicones of various types. This device also had a sealed bead system in place with very close
tolerances – this minimizes the contamination from the media flowing through it.
Next up was the MDM300 advanced dewpoint hygrometer from Michell instruments, a portable dew point meter device with very fast response times and its own data logging facility. Also on show was the Optical which is a bench-top, fully self-contained humidity/ temperature calibrator which incorporates a dual chamber that can house up to five or more humidity sensors, depending on their physical dimensions.
I then went to see Igus who were showing their twisterband TB30 – an innovative compact energy chain system that can guide energy, data and other media through 3,000° at high rotating speeds. Some of the main applications for these chain systems are for robotics, medical devices, machine construction and areas where demanding rotary movements are required in more confined spaces.
My next stop was at the Huba Control stand where I spotted their 200, 210, and 230 type flow sensor products. All models are highly accurate, are not sensitive to pollution and offer consistently low pressure loss qualities. Also on display were a range of pressure transmitters and switches for a variety of applications including refridgeration, the water industry and in vehicle manufacturing.
I then went to see the schaeffler group who were showing off their shaft guidance systems – available in many designs and allowing unlimited stroke length, low wear and maintenance and very low friction. Their ball guidance systems were also on display which features four rows of balls and an intergral lubricant reservoir situated next to the raceways, thus allowing maintenance free operation
Sticking with the linear theme, I also went to see Hepco Motion who were showing their PDU2 belt driven units. The product incorporates the Herculane® wheel technology and offers great performance, speed and low friction characteristics.
Of course, this is just a small selection of products and services on show at this year’s event. If you would like to find out more, please click on a live link where available. Alternatively, take a look at engineeringface for more products, applications and networking functionality.
Categories: Out And About
Winning Engineering Work
If you were thinking this article is going to be about how you and your company can win engineering project business or the best strategy for efficient bidding, I am sorry to disappoint you. It could rather be the reverse depending on your point of view. You can decide and comment and hopefully, we can get a real debate going.
Phil The Main Editor
I’ve just read a report in this weeks’ New Civil Engineer (NCE) where Australia’s state-owned National Broadband Network Corporation (NBN) has announced it’s abandonment of the bidding process after receiving 14 bids from consortia for the A$43bn (£27.5bn) broadband infrastructure project for the whole of Australia. This was billed as the country’s biggest infrastructure project. The recent natural disasters have left Australia with an enormous infrastructure repair bill and this has, undoubtedly, influenced NBN’s (and that of their political masters) thinking on value for money just as the 14 tenders hit the tender adjudication team’s desks.
I want to make two points arising out of Australia’s bad news. The first relates to the ‘millions’ spent on bidding alone by both Australia’s and the international private sector that is ultimately sucked out of the participating organisation’s resources for further investment and bidding ‘war chests.’ Apparently, there were four rounds of bidding by the consortia before the plug was pulled. Ultimately, it is the project sponsors’ who are responsible for this dreadful waste of both public and private money by not getting their act together before inviting bids. To add insult to injury, the bidders will not be able to claim compensation for their bidding costs in view of an enforced ‘no bid.’
With 14 consortia bidding, it cannot be beyond the wit of man (the NBN’s estimators, accountants and principal stakeholders) to realise that at least some of the bids would be competitive and close to the and even below the real project budget. Driving cost down in the negotiation stage is all very laudable in terms of ‘value for money.’ However, I would venture the opinion that political influence and the changing national priorities in the face of the aforementioned natural disasters (although ‘vigorously denied) is really to blame.
This brings me onto my second point which is about political consensus (or lack of it) for major infrastructure projects and the lack of vision. In the above case, Australia’s Liberal party leader, Tony Abbot, has been sniping at the project for some time and this has sapped the support for that essential investment into Australia’s technological infrastructure.
We can see this closer to home with the UK’s proposed High-Speed Rail Link (HS2) from London to Birmingham and ultimately onwards to Scotland. The positive influence of High-Speed rail travel with its knock on effect on business re-generation can be seen around the world. HS2 is going to cost a lot but most engineers and infrastructure experts say that it is an investment worth pursuing in engineering and whole life financial benefit terms. I would venture to suggest that HS2 will be ‘kicked into the long grass’ of political expediency without a sod been turned.
What a shame and what a waste of money. Let’s hope that we don’t get to the point of four rounds of bidding after spending billions getting there and then abandon it just like the Australians have. Maybe, Australia is paying the risk price for international consortia’s confidence in bidding competitively for huge infrastructure projects wanes in the face of previous projects round the world going the same way.
What do you think?
Categories: In the news, Politics And Legislation, Uncategorized
| Tags: (NBN), Australia, bidding, engineering, High-speed rail, HS2, National Broadband Network Corporation, NCE, risk
What’s In Hydraulic Seals
I am a the kind of engineer that likes to pontificate about all things technical, even subjects that I know little about but interest me. I must also be a sad person who loves to find out about quite
Phil The Editor
ordinary things like why doesn’t my mower start or why is this car service guy telling me something that is plainly a load of tosh? What’s more he is insulting my intelligence!
So instead today, I thought I would surprise you by talking about a subject that would be a challenge for most people; hydraulic seals. From the early beginnings in the early 18th century during the industrial revolution here in the UK where a hydraulic seal meant that oiled leather disk sandwiched between two iron plates in a beam engine piston, today, hydraulic seals are the life blood of all power electromechanical machinery. The pioneers of power soon found that if you could contain the oil within the machine, it saves an awful lot of manual oiling the piston with an oil can and make mobile machinery, notably the steam locomotive, a practical proposition.
In the old days, sliding joints, pistons, and bearings were metal-to-metal, requiring constant lubrication and any seals were designed and built by the machinery manufacturer himself. Nowadays, hydraulic seal manufacture has become a specialist area requiring a lot of research and development and using some very esoteric materials. It is now a partnership between the machinery manufacturer, the specialist hydraulic seal manufacturer and the chemical company developing special materials to suit ever more extreme conditions of temperature, pressure, abrasiveness and very aggressive chemical environments. The aim is ever more efficiency and that means less down time, longer service intervals and ever less leakage round/through the seal.
The modern hydraulic seal is normally a blend of materials and inert fillers and braces to assist it in retaining its shape without undue distortion and keeping its sealing properties. These inert fillers and bracing inserts include bronze, spring steel, short-strand glass fibre and copper wire.
There are an enormous array of 30+ elastomers as hydraulic seal materials are called, some of which are well known to engineers, but others, which mean nothing as they are TLAs (two or three-letter acronyms to you). So just for you, here is a quick run-down of what’s around. Firstly, the standards people, ISO and AST, have standardised on these and for the most part, they are coincident in their respective standard ISO1629 and AST MD 1418.
Just so you have an idea what these all are, and what they can do, it’ll give you a brief rundown on the materials now in common use.
Nitrile is a synthetic rubber or copolymer and it is commonly used with petroleum based oils, it’s resilient in compression and with an operating temperature range of -40°C to +115°C. Next, we have Ethylene-Propylene (EPDM). This is usually specified for phosphate ester hydraulic oil (Skydrol) but it is not suitable for petroleum oils. Applications include steam, acetone, dilute acids and alkalis. If you want a good static seal with good resistance to dry heat, ozone or UV light and a wide temperature range (-90°C to + 230° C), then Silicone (VMQ) is what you need.
If you need good tensile resilience then Urethane (AU, EU) is the copolymer you need. It has a good temperature range – 55° C to + 95° C. It is commonly used with petroleum based hydraulic oils and thus has wide automotive use. Flourocarbons (FKM) come in many acronymic guises. DuPont, the chemical giant, provides a wide variety with a wide resistance to chemicals like alohol, aromatics and ozone. They are also UV light resistant. The latest in this range includes DuPont’s Kalrez Spectrum perfluoroelastomer which has an even wider temperature range and is resistant to over 1,800 chemicals now found in industry.
Finally. We come to another of DuPont’s elastomer range; that is Teflone (PTFE). Typically, PTFE seals, are combined with short glass fibre, bronze flashes, carbon, graphite, or a combination of these fillers. It has high chemical inertness, high heat resistance, low temperature flexibility, low running friction, high slip characteristics and a maximum operating temperatures of + 125° C.
I told at the outset that I have some strange enthusiasms. You are probably either turned off with the whole business of hydraulic seals or alternatively, you would like to know more. In any event, you must agree that hydraulic seals do help to keep pollution from leaks to a minimum. You may however, feel that the carbon price of producing these modern elastomers is not worth paying.
Let’s hear your view.
Categories: Engineering Seen
| Tags: aromatics, AST MD 1418., carbon, DuPont, elastomer, ethylene-propylene, fillers bronze, fluorocarbon, hydraulic, ISO1629, material, nitrile, oil, perflouroelastomer, petroleum, piston, resilience, seal, teflone
WELCOME FROM PHIL THE EDITOR
A Cog In The Wheel Main Editor, Phil
Welcome to the engineeringface blog, ‘A Cog In The Wheel’ – the home of good off-the-cuff comment on engineering matters wherever you are coming from. I hope to combine good quality information and news about products, what’s going on in industry as well as some light-hearted topical pieces. You don’t have to agree with me; far from it! I hope you will keep me on my toes and put me right with your comments, especially in my weaker areas of knowledge. After all, contrary to popular myth, you can teach an old dog new tricks!
Over the coming weeks and months, I will be featuring an eclectic range of subject matter from most, if not all, engineering disciplines. This could range from the history of electric motors, air motors and electromagnetic flow meters, through tilt sensors and what’s new in hydraulics, to image processing software and what’s new in rail and civil engineering. If you would like me to cover other engineering subjects as I seem to be neglecting them, please do let me know in your comments. I will rise to the challenge – I promise!
Today, I want to make a start the subject of pneumatic motion. “What is that?” I hear some of you ask. Pneumatic or air motors find uses in any place where there is a compressed air supply or in places where it is dangerous to use the infernal combustion engine or electric motors. Tyre and machine shops have a handy air supply in everyday use for blowing up tyres. What could be more natural than to have a range of air drills, paint sprayers and other air motor driven tools in these environments? However, it is not just convenience that they are there. The ubiquitous air drill reacts fast to changing load and more particularly, it exerts maximum torque at start up or in the stall – ideal for undoing and doing up recalcitrant wheel nuts.
But did you know that there are a wide range of air motor applications; today, you can find applications in defence and industry and particularly in food processing & packaging, medical & pharmaceutical, material handling as well as printing & paper. In an age where no only scarce and exotic materials used in electric motors and oil for internal combustion are becoming ever more expensive, the use of air motors are finding their niche.
For example, In the pharmaceutical, chemical and petro-chemical industries, the use of expensive and heavy electric motor driven seal less process pumps is needed to mechanically separate fluids or gasses from the atmosphere or sparking motors to avoid cross-contamination and/or explosion. On the other hand, the very efficient air motor with it’s construction out of more prosaic alloys and plastics, is a great alternative with the source of power being generated well away from sensitive areas.
Typical Air Motor
Air motors are normally very quiet for constant duties as well as use as a stepper motor in machining operations. Their precise control and lack of vibration makes them a very good candidate for any new production line or machine shop application. Check out Huco-Dynotork on the main engineering face.com website.
I’ve just touched on this large subject but do click on any links provided for more information.
Hasta La Vista!
Categories: Welcome
| Tags: Air, chemical, civil, electric, engineering, huco-dynatork, hydraulic, industry, material handling, motion, pharmaceutical, pumps, rail, seal, tilt sensor, torque
