IMECHE Professional Engineering Issue 5 2020

cover VERSION

PROFESSIONAL ENGINEERING

Issue 5, 2020 • www.imeche.org

REPRO OP SUBS

PLUS

ART

NUCLEAR ROCKETS HIGH-ACCURACY ROBOTS AT WORK SUPERCHARGE YOUR CAREER

PRODUCTION CLIENT Issue 5, 2020 • www.imeche.org

VENTILATOR CHALLENGE Assembling the most ambitious engineering project in decades

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20900.pgs 19.08.2020 09:32

SolidSolutions

VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20902.pgs 24.08.2020 11:12

CONTENTS VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION

28

CLIENT

CONTENTS Issue 5, Volume 33. September/October 2020 3 From Birdcage Walk – IMechE vice-president Giles Hartill discusses the newly refreshed Nominations Committee

REACTION

The forces shaping engineering 5 Plans to build a Mach 3 passenger aircraft 7 Software developments that are benefiting CAD users 9 How manufacturers can profit from artificial intelligence 13 A handheld device to track patients’ recovery from Covid-19 15 Big numbers reveal the biggest stories in engineering 17 How challenge events for students have gone virtual 19 Your Voice – readers share their views on energy storage, working from home, and maintaining good mental health

FEATURES

22 Tackling the ventilator challenge Developing ventilators for Covid-19 patients proved to be the most ambitious collaborative engineering project since the Second World War. We examine its likely legacy 28 Robots prepare for take-off As robots become more accurate they’re taking on a wider range of tasks in aerospace manufacturing. We examine what’s behind their technological advances 32 The future of nuclear propulsion How progress with nuclear propulsion technology could give a boost to space exploration

38 Delivering innovation Digital technology is a key pillar of Babcock International Group’s strategy, changing how the company manages and operates complex assets 64 Weird Engineering The robot that could prove useful helping out in hospitals or cleaning up nuclear waste

INDUSTRY PULSE

The heartbeat of your sector 41 Why solar power has such a bright future 43 Academic Insight – key papers on engineering manufacture 45 How cylinder deactivation could cut emissions from trucks 47 The IMechE’s response to the coronavirus pandemic 49 Why process safety management is of crucial importance 51 Taking the weight off in the aerospace industry 53 The search for greener building materials 55 How to design smart buildings that consume less energy 57 Why hydrogen trains are sure to join the rail network

SUPERCHARGE

Your engineering career 59 Why Ben Moxey enjoys his job at Millbrook so much 60 Ask the engineers: how can businesses attract more female engineers to apply for jobs?

63 Engineers are needed as school governors Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

1

91IPEAUG20100.pgs 19.08.2020 09:21

COMSOL VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20133.pgs 19.08.2020 15:28

REPRO OP

EDITORIAL Email profeng@thinkpublishing.co.uk SUBS

Editor

Amit Katwala Deputy Editor

Joseph Flaig Chief Sub-editor

John Moore Group Art Director ART

Jes Stanfield Executive Director

John Innes

ADVERTISING 020 3771 7232 Sales Director PRODUCTION

Michael Coulsey michael.coulsey@thinkpublishing.co.uk Group Advertising Manager

Matthew Styrka matthew.styrka@thinkpublishing.co.uk Senior Sales Executives

CLIENT

Nick Tod nick.tod@thinkpublishing.co.uk Josh Lomas josh.lomas@thinkpublishing.co.uk Printed by

Wyndeham Southernprint, Poole.

Copyright Think Publishing 2020

ABOUT IMECHE The Institution of Mechanical Engineers is the professional body overseeing the qualification and development of mechanical engineers. It has 120,000 members in 140 countries. Visit imeche.org for more information about membership and its benefits, or email membership@imeche. org.uk. Views expressed in Professional Engineering are not necessarily those of the Institution or its publishers.

Chief Executive

Dr Colin Brown FIMechE FIMMM President

Terry Spall FIMechE

SUBSCRIPTIONS For address changes, phone 01952 214050 or email subscriptions@imeche.org Member of the Audit Bureau of Circulations

PEmagazine @ProfEng profeng@thinkpublishing.co.uk

BIRDCAGE WALK

VERSION

Professional Engineering is published

by Think on behalf of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers.

PE, Think, Capital House, 25 Chapel Street, London NW1 5DH 020 3771 7200

FROM BIRDCAGE WALK IMechE vice-president Giles Hartill discusses the newly refreshed Nominations Committee For many years, the Institution has operated a Nominations Committee (NomCo); did you know? NomCo has had responsibility for determining the annual trustee board and honorary fellowship nominations, as well as conducting regular reviews of the structure, size and composition of the trustee board and its subsidiary boards.

During the 2019 governance review, we analysed thousands of responses we received from the member survey investigating the effectiveness of our governance. Problems and issues raised by members included: the NomCo process was seen as opaque and distrusted; members did not think it cast its net wide enough or made the effort to search thoroughly enough, and they did not feel that it had sufficient support/resources.

The report concluded that an improved NomCo should have an important, enhanced role. It should be responsible for providing an improved, fair, rigorous and transparent process for nominating trustee candidates and honorary fellowships, but also more widely across council and other boards and committees, and in overseeing the development of a diverse pipeline for effective succession planning in the Institution, thus attracting and providing experience pathways for members to serve at various levels of governance. For our Institution to be effective for the future, NomCo should have a combination of skills, experience and knowledge, be properly constituted with a clear remit and identified authority, with its membership regularly refreshed.

Over recent months, the Implementation Group has been working on the proposal for a newly refreshed NomCo, as outlined in the governance review report, and in June submitted this to the trustee board for approval, which was granted. The committee will be chaired by a past president who is at least three years after leaving office. The trustee board has appointed Isobel Pollock-Hulf OBE

to carry out this important task. Isobel will be supported by a trustee and four independent members or non-members with relevant HR/recruitment experience, of which at least one should be an international member. The Institution’s chief governance officer Maria Powell will be the secretary, and the chief executive Colin Brown and HR director Bims Alalade will attend (no voting rights).

NomCo will be responsible for creating a more inclusive and welcoming ‘front door’ for any member expressing an interest in getting more deeply involved.

It will post opportunities on the website and encourage members to put themselves forward. When assessing the eligibility of candidates, NomCo will consider them on merit and against objective criteria.

NomCo will publicise more widely what it does, with the details of its members

We see NomCo as ensuring that the Institution can benefit more effectively from the skills, expertise and outlook of our members and the terms of reference posted in the members-only area of the IMechE website.

Engagement with members will be key to encourage greater member involvement and support people wishing to explore standing for elected office.

We see NomCo as a real agent of both cultural and operational change, enabling wider participation and ensuring that the Institution can benefit more effectively from the diverse skills, expertise and outlook of our members. We intend NomCo to establish a paradigm shift in its operation, ensuring this is enabled by having members with the skills, expertise and competence required for the role.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

3

91IPEAUG20101.pgs 20.08.2020 11:21

Dassault VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20150.pgs 21.08.2020 11:37

REACTION VERSION REPRO OP

T HE F ORC E S SHAPING ENGINEERING

SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BACK WITH A BANG? Virgin Galactic has teamed up with Rolls-Royce to try to build a Mach 3 passenger aircraft It might seem like an odd time to be unveiling a new form of air travel, with most people still grounded by the coronavirus pandemic. Flying may become more expensive for most of us, and many trips will be replaced by Zoom calls, but there will still be a need or desire for some people to make physical trips in future.

Recently Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic unveiled a design for a high-speed aircraft designed to travel at Mach 3, three times the speed of sound. The company has been working towards commercial spaceflight for a number of years, and is now looking to other applications for the technology it is developing.

It has signed a non-binding memorandum of understanding with Rolls-Royce. The two companies will collaborate in designing and developing engine propulsion technology for

high-speed commercial aircraft. The craft would have capacity for between nine and 19 people, and would fly at an altitude of more than 60,000ft – all powered by sustainable aviation fuel. George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief space officer, said the company wanted to open up a new frontier in high-speed travel. He said: “We are excited to complete the mission concept review and unveil this initial design concept of a high-speed aircraft, which we envision as blending safe and reliable commercial travel with an unrivalled customer experience.”

Concorde’s successor

If successful – and it will be many years before such an aircraft is ready for commercial passenger use – it would mark a return to speeds not seen since the demise of Concorde, and carry people to their destination much faster than existing

vehicles. Virgin Galactic’s management said that a Mach 3 jet would make round-trip travel in one day feasible for 85% of the world’s most popular airline routes – although jetlag might make that undesirable.

Gobbling-up fuel

There are also serious environmental concerns – Concorde burned around 6,700 gallons of fuel per hour, and according to the International Council on Clean Transportation next-generation supersonic jets are likely to burn up to seven times more fuel than comparable subsonic jets.

Perhaps the biggest question, though, is one of cost – even if Virgin can build a fast, safe way of getting from London to New York in two or three hours, will anyone actually be able to afford the tickets?

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

5

91IPEAUG20102.pgs 19.08.2020 09:34

UK Transition

VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20134.pgs 19.08.2020 15:28

VERSION

REACTION

RE AC TION

REPRO OP

SOFTWARE UPDATES

SUBS

CAD technology is becoming cheaper and easier than ever, and it could have a big impact on the industry, writes Tanya Weaver DESIGN ENGINEERING

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

3D CAD has come a long way since it hit the mainstream market in the 1990s.

Functionality has become increasingly sophisticated, enabling users to more quickly and accurately model their designs, with the resulting 3D data used to prototype or manufacture the finished parts.

CAD software has offered fully integrated features, such as visualisation and simulation, for many years, but recent advances have enabled designers to access these tools in real time. Realtime simulation can now be used in the front-end of the design process to analyse and verify product behaviour rather than only towards the end of the process where simulation and testing has traditionally been used.

“There just isn’t the time allowed in the product development process now to get field testing and feedback. It needs to be 100% right first time. The basic building of parts and assemblies in 3D is now a given; to be competitive you need to see how they behave and operate under working conditions,” said Owen Kirby, managing director of Concurrent Engineering, a solutions partner of PTC. Indeed, PTC is one of the vendors that has integrated realtime simulation into its CAD tool. This capability is a key focus in the latest release of the software, Creo 7, in the form of Creo Simulation Live.

Challenge solved

Another development is generative design. The user inputs design goals and parameters into the generative design technology, including boundary conditions, material options, load cases, manufacturing methods and cost constraints. The software will then provide a set of variations that solve that engineering challenge and the user can then select their chosen optimised solution. Enhanced generative design features have been included in the most

recent releases from all the main CAD vendors.

But perhaps the biggest trend in CAD is not within the software but in how the user accesses it. In the past CAD software was installed on a single workstation using a perpetual licensing model. This is now shifting to subscription-based and pay-asyou-go models where users pay a fee to access the software for a period.

Kirby said: “Systems were offered on a capital investment basis, resulting in high cost of entry and ownership. These were deployed on in-house hardware and were typically standalone isolated systems. That model challenges the speed and agility required to meet with the demands of modern product development. The newer Software As A Service (SAAS) model of deployment, accessed via an internet browser on any device, enables lower cost of entry, faster deployment and reduced admin overheads, meaning users that might not have otherwise been able to afford these tools can now get access to higher-end technology on an on-demand basis.”

For small companies this accessibility has been a welcome development. Kevin Quigley, founder of Quigley Design, a Shrewsbury-based product design

‘You can have the flexibility of individual log-ins on different devices, which helps with the remote working side of things’

consultancy, said: “We use a variety of CAD tools in-house depending on what the client uses in their process. Recently we wanted to add PTC Creo to our toolset for advanced surfacing design but we could never have been able to afford it if PTC hadn’t moved to a subscription model.

“With subscription models you can have the flexibility of individual log-ins on different devices, which helps with the remote working side of things particularly now in the situation with Covid-19.”

Up in the cloud

These SAAS subscription models will also in the near future be predominantly cloud-based. Vendors already offer hybrid cloud-based/on-premises CAD solutions, for instance Autodesk with Fusion 360 and Siemens with Solid Edge. Dassault Systèmes also recently announced major updates to its cloud-based 3D Experience platform.

PTC commissioned a market research study from McKinsey that projected the SAAS-based CAD market would grow more than 35% per year and represent nearly 20% of the total CAD market in five years.

“The benefit to the CAD user is that the nature of SAAS allows for greater collaboration among design teams and also facilitates data to easily flow from one business system to another, as the product development process evolves,” said Kirby.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

7

91IPEAUG20103.pgs 19.08.2020 09:34

Millbrook VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20135.pgs 19.08.2020 15:29

VERSION

REACTION

RE AC TION

REPRO OP

DRIVING THE DIGITAL AGENDA

SUBS

To reap the benefits of artificial intelligence, manufacturers need to implement the technology at scale. By Tanya Weaver INDUSTRY 4.0

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

Artificial intelligence has the potential to transform manufacturing performance everywhere from product development to quality control. It has the potential to be a “gamechanger,” according to a recent report published by the Capgemini Research Institute entitled Scaling AI in Manufacturing Operations: A Practitioner’s Perspective.

However, many companies haven’t embarked on their digital manufacturing journey as they don’t know where to begin.

This is a subject close to the heart of Craig Stevens, who recently took up the role of vice-president of digital engineering at Capgemini, but prior to that worked as a chief digital engineer at the Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC) in Coventry.

“At the MTC ‘Making Digital a Reality’ was my strapline and we worked with companies on driving their digital agenda,” said Stevens. “We’d initially carry out a digital diagnostic assessment to see where they are on their Industry 4.0 journey and some instead of being 4.0 were more like 0.4 as they hadn’t grasped it or hadn’t had the opportunity to look at some of these digital technologies like AI. But there is some lowlying fruit that can help them.”

The second is product quality inspection: through the utilisation of highresolution cameras and powerful image recognition technology, realtime in-line inspection can be carried out.

The third is demand planning and forecasting: using machine learning manufacturers can predict changes in consumer demand and behaviour, which then enables them to make the necessary adjustments to production schedules, leading to more accurate forecasts.

But, as the Capgemini study points out, to really tap into the manifold benefits that AI can bring companies need to move beyond pilots and proofs of concept to

It is worth pursuing... the Capgemini study reports that 97% of the AI-at-scale leaders are reaping benefits from their AI deployments

deploy AI solutions at scale. The extent to how successfully companies are doing this is the subject of Capgemini’s latest report, The AI-powered Enterprise: Unlocking the Potential of AI at Scale.

Quality data fundamental

Having surveyed 950 organisations for this report, the research revealed that 53% have moved beyond pilots and proofs of concept.

However, despite this, the report does reveal that scaling AI isn’t easy as only 13% have rolled out multiple AI use cases.

The report highlights that one of the key criteria to scaling AI, which is proven by those ‘AI-at-scale leaders’ which make up the 13%, is investing in laying down a strong foundation of data and then a focus on improving data quality.

This is a point that Stevens resolutely agrees with as he said: “Key for organisations embarking on any AI journey is to have a bedrock of some data science capability.

Even if you’re a small firm starting out with a simple predictive maintenance use case, there are a few caveats such as how easily you can get the data out to do the analysis.”

But wherever an organisation is on their AI journey, it is worth pursuing, as proven by the Capgemini study which reports that 97% of the AI-at-scale leaders are reaping benefits from their AI deployments.

Kick-start the journey

This ‘low-lying fruit’ is highlighted in the Capgemini report in the form of three use cases. The report identified these use cases as the most likely to help manufacturers kick-start their AI journey as they offer clear business value, can be most easily implemented and would deliver the best return on investment.

“Targeting three areas where AI can be easily applied is extremely helpful. These three all offer an ideal starting point,” said Stevens. The first is preventative or intelligent machine maintenance: using data from sensors on machinery and equipment the technology can predict problems and identify when parts need to be replaced.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

9

91IPEAUG20104.pgs 19.08.2020 09:35

LoadTec1 VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20156.pgs 24.08.2020 12:47

LoadTec2 VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20157.pgs 24.08.2020 12:47

COMP AD VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20136.pgs 19.08.2020 15:35

VERSION

REACTION

RE AC TION

REPRO OP

ROAD TO RECOVERY

SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

An IMechE member is helping to develop a handheld device to track coronavirus recovery COMBATING COVID-19 Every day, we learn more about coronavirus and Covid-19 – and unfortunately it’s becoming clear that the disease has a much longer-term impact than originally suspected. While some recover quickly, others still suffer difficulties many months after becoming infected – with breathing difficulty and tiredness common.

Now, IMechE member Barry Warden (pictured below) is part of a company working on a new handheld device that could help track people’s recovery from Covid-19. Wideblue is working with NHS England on a clinical trial of its personal ‘capnometer’ – a device that measures the amount of carbon dioxide exhaled in the breath.

This is a good indicator of lung health, and is usually done in hospitals with large machines.

The device, called N-Tidal, has been in development for six years and was originally designed for use by people with asthma

and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Now, it could monitor the efficiency of the lungs to track recovery from Covid-19, said Warden design manager at Wideblue. “It will tell you how that patient’s lungs look on day one, then day seven, then day 30, for example. It’s more about that change for the individual patient.”

Breath in infrared

To measure CO2, the device sends infrared rays through the breath into a gold Fresnel reflector, which focuses the light back through the breath onto a very sensitive infrared sensor. Each breath is plotted onto a graph, which is analysed by software algorithms and trained clinical experts to potentially reveal underlying health problems.

Crucially, patients only have to breathe out normally. Other measurements, such as peak flow and volume, rely on patients blowing out as hard as they can – with the potential spread of virus particles, these methods have “essentially been put on hold,” said Warden.

Through tracking individual patient

recovery, the N-Tidal device could shed more light on the general recovery process. “The longer-term and shorter-term recovery is quite unknown at the moment,” said Warden. “There is a real urgent need for action, so it is being pushed through safely but faster than previously would have been the case.”

Ultimately the device, which is in the second stage of clinical evaluation, could be used in the home. It wirelessly transmits data to remote servers, currently through 3G. Connectivity is being upgraded to 4G and 5G compatibility to make it in line with regulations in the US, where there has been some interest.

The team has built about 200 handsets and 2,000 replaceable breath tubes, aiming to reach the low thousands of devices in the next few months. The device was designed to enable straightforward manufacturing scale-up.

‘It will tell you how that patient’s lungs look on day one, then day seven, then day 30. It’s about that change for the patient’ Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

13

91IPEAUG20106.pgs 19.08.2020 09:36

HilltopFinance

VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20137.pgs 19.08.2020 15:30

VERSION

REACTION

RE AC TION

REPRO OP

THE NEWS IN NUMBERS The biggest stories in engineering in numbers

SUBS

47%

ART

of 11- to 19-year-olds said they knew little or almost nothing about what engineers do, according to a report from Engineering UK

PRODUCTION

15,100kg

CLIENT

in CO2 emissions saved by JCB’s electric digger, which won the £50,000 MacRobert Award in July

70GW

of floating windfarm capacity will be installed by 2040, estimates the Carbon Trust

98 tonnes

weight of the 16m-long Large Space Test Chamber, which will use nitrogen to test satellite panels for the frigid temperatures of outer space

3,000

UK jobs cut by RollsRoyce owing to collapse in demand for jet engines

£140,000

ventilators were built in less than four months by VentilatorChallengeUK

is how much an engineering degree increases average lifetime earnings, according to a study by money.co.uk

£40m

60%

13,000

funding announced by the UK government towards developing small modular nuclear reactors

of Scottish engineering firms said orders and output had fallen amid the “economic tornado” of Covid-19

A HISTORY OF ENGINEERING IN 100 OBJEC TS

DRAUGHTSMAN’S POUCH Technical instruments have been used for centuries to aid with measurement and the creation of drawings. From the mid-19th century manual technical drawing instruments were produced as sets, which could be purchased with the expectation of lasting for the entirety of an engineer’s career.

This set from our collection dates from the 1940s. Its size and the leather pouch in which the instruments are contained suggest that it was designed to be portable.

It is likely that it originates from the Ministry of Works.

It was deposited with us by an IMechE fellow.

The pouch contains an inventory of its original

contents which include a compass and spring bow to aid with the drawing of curved lines, dividers for transferring lengths, and a ruling pen for committing the elements of a drawing to paper. l Several examples of technical drawing instruments

can be found in our collections and are now available to view online at: https://archives.imeche.org/archive/ artefacts/technical-drawing-instruments

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

15

91IPEAUG20107.pgs 19.08.2020 18:34

COMP AD VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20138.pgs 19.08.2020 15:31

VERSION

REACTION

RE AC TION

REPRO OP

IMechE COMPETITIONS GO VIRTUAL Challenge events for students have had to be adapted for conditions under lockdown

SUBS

ONLINE CONTESTS

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has adapted to challenging conditions this year by taking its competitions online, thereby continuing to develop the skills and experience of young engineers.

Engaging with aerospace students around the world, the UAS Challenge utilised Mashoom’s online platform to take its awards ceremony online for the first time on 19 June. Teams from Brunel University, University of Twente in the Netherlands and Queen’s University Belfast came away with awards for safety, innovation and design respectively. But, without the ‘fly off’ event, an overall winner was not found.

Newcomers from the Islamic University of Technology in Bangladesh impressed judges across several categories, securing the business proposition, media and engagement and best newcomers awards.

“We have seen some very promising and diverse designs and it is a great pity that we have not been able to see all the teams’ hard work reach the flying stage,” commented Lambert Dopping-Hepenstal, head judge for the UAS Challenge. “We hope that teams will have gained some valuable experience in reaching as far as the critical design review, the point when the design is locked down for manufacture.”

Taking place a week later, the Railway Challenge awards ceremony was also held online for the first time. The challenge is now in its ninth successful year, and 2020 saw 15 teams enter.

Huddersfield on a high

The business proposition category, a Dragons’ Den-style presentation event, was jointly won by teams from Poznań University of Technology in Poland and Network Rail. However, the University of Huddersfield’s HudRail team scored exceptionally well across multiple events and were awarded for best design, innovation and best technical poster.

Judge Rebeka Sellick from SellickRail

congratulated the team, saying that they won “with a novel combination of mechanical spring and super-capacitors for energy recovery, making their case with robust references and good arguments setting out the carbon and cost benefits”.

Online racing

Meanwhile, Formula Student has gone entirely online, with more than 80 teams signed up to take part. The competition comprises virtual presentations for business, cost and manufacturing and design, virtual lap timing with multibody vehicle models, competitive Sim Racing and a virtual autonomous development event. The popularity and importance of the competition remains high, with the Sim Racing planned to be streamed online.

Andrew Deakin, chair of Formula Student, explained: “We committed to delivering those elements of the traditional FS event format which could be continued with or offered as virtual or simulation events to provide the fullest possible educational benefit to competing teams whilst complying with the social distancing regulations in force around the world due to Covid-19. This allows teams to demonstrate the engineering work they have completed to date as well as how

‘We have seen some promising designs and it is a pity that we have not been able to see the teams’ hard work reach the flying stage’ they have worked as a team to overcome the challenges resulting from lockdown restrictions. Formula Student continues to offer a real-world project experience.”

Looking further to the future, the Institution is working with Autodesk to develop the 2021 Design Challenge. Tim Baker, vice-chair of the Design Challenge, commented: “Working with Autodesk is an exciting new opportunity, which will enable us to develop the Design Challenge, whilst not losing focus on the practical elements of the competition, which have made it such a success to date.”

Finally, the Apprentice Automation Challenge continues at pace, with the finals due to take place in September at the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry.

The Institution congratulates all teams who have taken part in our competitions this year and looks forward to seeing all teams, volunteers, sponsors and judges again when the 2021 competitions start later this year.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

17

91IPEAUG20108.pgs 19.08.2020 11:39

Norbar VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20139.pgs 19.08.2020 15:31

REACTION LETTERS, 1

VERSION

RE AC TION

REPRO OP

YOUR VOICE We want to hear from you. Get in touch by email at profeng@thinkpublishing.co.uk or tweet us @ProfEng

SUBS

Batteries are not the answer

ART

The article “Storing energy at sea” pointed out the serious shortcomings of any gridscale energy storage methods based on batteries (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020).

Seabed pumped storage offers one interesting alternative to batteries and deserves consideration, but why use costly fabricated concrete spheres as the storage volume? An equivalent volume of cylindrical concrete pipe laid on the seabed would surely be cheaper and easier to construct?

Professor Seamus Garvey of Nottingham

PRODUCTION

University demonstrated many years ago that it is possible to store energy as compressed air on the seabed in little more than a waterproof canvas bag. The problem then, however, is how to counteract the buoyancy force when the bag is fully inflated. A simple solution might again be a concrete cylinder of equivalent weight to the buoyancy force.

What is needed is some support for these, and other energy storage systems, as an alternative to the government myopia in which energy storage equals batteries.

It is a shameful fact that the UK, with arguably the best offshore renewable

STAR LE T TER

Benefits of home working

© THIS IS ENGINEERING

CLIENT

Amid the distress and disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic it is important also to focus on areas where there have been unforeseen but significant benefits.

One such area is the substantial increase in working from home. This has been little short of a working revolution affecting 40% of workers. In years to come this may be regarded as one of the most important and beneficial legacies of the pandemic.

In March the large company I work for made great efforts to enable engineering design staff to work mainly from home while keeping the factory open. This has yielded considerable benefits for the company, the employees, the local town and, on a larger scale, the environment. For the company, management has reported greater productivity and deadlines have continued to be met. For employees, the lack of commuting has saved typically at least an hour per day with associated costs saved. For the local town, there has been less traffic congestion and noise, and resulting lower pollution has led to improved air quality, benefiting especially those with breathing disorders.

On a larger scale of the national workforce, the lower carbon emissions from traffic can only be of great benefit to the environment and the fight against climate change.

As the lockdown eases there have been calls from MPs for working from home to cease where possible in a bid to return to ‘normality’. But why would we wish to return to a ‘normality’ that loses these benefits? To call for the wholesale ending of home working and the consequent return to commuting, increased pollution and carbon emissions seems absurd. Rather, in the longer term companies should be encouraged to support working from home.

Theo Roberts, Langport, Somerset

energy resources in the world, is trailing behind countries such as Norway.

Equinor (previously Statoil) is about to install eleven 8MW floating wind turbines in the Tampen field. The water depth is a record-breaking 300m, and this offers huge ready-made potential for a compressed air or pumped storage system on the seabed.

The Norwegians have yet to tumble to their opportunity to become the world leader in seabed energy storage, but the penny will drop sooner or later. If and when it does, the UK will be left in the energy storage race, as usual, still in the starting blocks.

Ian Crossley, Camberley

Cobalt-free solutions

In “Storing energy at sea,” Jody Muelaner discusses the issue of cobalt in lithiumion batteries (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020). This is not a problem for two reasons.

Cobalt-free lithium-ion batteries based on lithium-iron-phosphate (LFP) chemistry are already used extensively in grid storage applications. Cobalt is only necessary for the bleeding-edge energy density needed for electric vehicles, and even there cobalt is on the way out. Tesla, for instance, are using LFP in their entry-level cars.

Lithium batteries of any kind are far too expensive for the long durations needed to integrate solar and wind into the grid.

Flow batteries using new chemistries such as aqueous sodium sulphur, zinc-air and others are prospective. Developing thermo-mechanical technologies such as compressed air, liquid air and pumped heat also have potential for low-cost, long-term storage.

Richard Jefferys

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

19

91IPEAUG20109.pgs 20.08.2020 11:36

COMSOL 2 VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20140.pgs 19.08.2020 15:32

REACTION LETTERS, 2

VERSION

RE AC TION

Staying happy and healthy REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

Thank you for your article “Under stress” (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020), an interesting read, although perhaps long overdue in terms of highlighting the adverse impact of stress encountered in our day-to-day working life as engineering professionals and the serious impact on our mental and physical health.

How would the IMechE feel about conducting another, more inclusive survey across its members? I would like to think that this could be a starting point of future articles focusing on engineers’ mental health, and what we do as a profession to maintain happy and healthy mental health.

Personally, I would be interested to learn more about the findings of the research being carried out by Jo-Anne Tait, PhD researcher on the mental health of engineers at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, and whether they need more engineers to engage in the study. In addition, what about running an article on Dr Mark McBride-Wright of EqualEngineers who runs courses to encourage men to open up about mental health?

As an engineer who has taken extended periods off work due to stress, anxiety and depression, it’s essential to know your limits, how to cope when work and life gets overly stressful before reaching breaking point – that is a truly nightmarish place to be. This article is a positive and encouraging start, so what about making engineers’ mental health a regular feature in the magazine?

Heather Albion

Paying for decommissioning

In the article “Retirement planning” (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020), Jennifer Johnson states that “British taxpayers could face a £24bn bill for tax reliefs awarded to oil and gas companies for dismantling offshore infrastructure” as if this were a special prize granted to the industry by the government. Its implications could not be further from the truth.

Until a deal was struck with the Treasury a few years ago, corporation taxes on the profits of oil and gas production (levied at far higher rates than on any other business in Britain) took no account of the cost of decommissioning offshore installations at the end of their working lives, even though this was a known

Professional education?

I read the article “Breaking the mould” (Professional Engineering No 3, 2020) in the hope that I would find out precisely how NMITE is reinventing engineering education.

The article failed to make clear what skills and capabilities an NMITE MEng graduate will have acquired after three years of problem-solving projects. It would have been interesting to know what a typical project will entail.

I cannot blame the person who wrote the article as the relevant information is also impossible to find on NMITE’s website.

It is said that the NMITE MEng programme will be validated without indicating by whom. Will it receive IMechE accreditation?

For what level of IMechE membership will NMITE graduates qualify?

I am left with the impression that an NMITE graduate will at best have acquired the skills of a technician able to put together a Lego Technic kit. Valuable and essential as technicians, car mechanics, boiler servicemen (or women) are, that does not equate to them being professional engineers.

Marcel Escudier, Willaston, Cheshire obligation on the industry.

Thus, over several decades, the Treasury received considerably more corporation tax than if the costs of decommissioning had been allowed for, in the way that the capital investment to build installations at the outset is a tax allowable cost. It should also be noted that individual oil and gas fields are “ringfenced” for tax purposes; no losses occurring elsewhere in the business or in a wider group of companies can be used as tax offsets, unlike in other businesses.

The Treasury’s argument for the over-payment of tax was that no one knew how much decommissioning would cost or when it would take place. The trouble is that following the building of an installation its capital cost can be recovered

‘It’s essential to know your limits, how to cope when work and life gets overly stressful before reaching breaking point – that is a truly nightmarish place to be’

from the proceeds of production, but when decommissioning occurs there are no such proceeds left, but the substantial cost is still there. The solution is to allow oil and gas companies to claw back some, but not all, of the over-payment of tax in years past, hence what may appear to be a generous arrangement.

David Odling

Time to capture the tide

I agree with Edward Grist that tidal energy can make a big contribution to renewable energy as around the country the difference in tide times means that it is available more or less 24 hours a day (Your Voice, Professional Engineering No 3, 2020).

However I disagree with building a barrage across the Severn estuary as this would seriously interfere with marine life and shipping.

To me, a much better solution is to deploy water turbines, both in the Severn and around the country. Where I live by the Teign estuary I see the tide rushing in and out with enormous energy which could be used.

Martin Beaney, Shaldon, Devon Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

21

91IPEAUG20110.pgs 19.08.2020 11:49

VERSION REPRO OP SUBS

TACKLING THE

ART

VENTILATOR CHALLENGE

PRODUCTION

The inside story of the UK’s most ambitious collaborative engineering project since the Second World War – and how its legacy could stretch far beyond the 2020 pandemic. By Joseph Flaig

CLIENT

ILLUSTRATION/MATT CLOUGH

O

22

n 9 March, there were 321 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the UK and three deaths. There was still some hope the virus could be contained.

Dick Elsy, chief executive of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult (HVMC), was looking forward to his retirement in August. “I am having slightly mixed feelings about moving on, because we are moving into a fascinating period of change here, where we have got huge societal and environmental challenges coming up,” he told Professional Engineering at the time. He stressed the importance of the Catapult’s “independent stewardship”, and took pride in developing it to become the biggest manufacturing institute in Europe.

Exactly one week later Elsy was on the phone with Michael Gove, minister for the Cabinet Office, and about 100 other industry experts. There were now 1,543 confirmed cases in the UK, and 65 people had died. Earlier that day, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had called on manufacturers to build “as many new ventilators as possible”. The country had 5,000 already, but the government said many more were needed to help the NHS save lives.

Elsy’s retirement was on hold. www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

Consortium comes together On the call, officials shared the ventilator specification before Gove opened up the floor. “He said: ‘Right, OK, over to you industry. Any questions?’,” remembers Elsy.

There was a long, vacuum-like silence.

“I could hear the cogs whirring in people’s minds, that they wanted to do something.

But how on Earth do we put all this together?”

Elsy stepped in. “I think there’s a role for the HVMC here, to bring some interested parties together,” he said. “So I Dick Elsy put his retirement on hold to lead the challenge

kind of made a commitment to then form the principles of a group of people, or a group of companies, that might want to get together to work in a consortium.”

That was the start of the Ventilator Challenge UK, the nation’s most ambitious collaborative engineering project since the Second World War. Aerospace manufacturers, Formula One teams, digital experts and many others came together, aiming to build 20,000 ventilators.

The Cabinet Office had worked with clinicians and the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to put together the specification for the Rapidly Manufactured Ventilator Systems (RMVS), including details of desired ventilation modes, pressure settings and respiratory rates. Other requirements included impermeable casing, in-built alarms, continuous operation for more than 14 days, and ease of training for use.

Elsy immediately started calling people he thought might be interested in the project, and were willing to take a corporate and personal risk. Partners including Microsoft, PTC and McLaren started conversations and the group joined forces with a small aerospace consortium formed

VENTILATORS, 1

I kind of made a commitment to then form the principles of a group of people, or a group of companies, that might want to get together to work in a consortium... Aerospace manufacturers, Formula One teams, digital experts and many others came together, aiming to build 20,000 ventilators Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

23

91IPEAUG20111.pgs 20.08.2020 11:37

VERSION REPRO OP

around Meggitt. The team immediately decided that the quickest way to meet the RMVS specification was to back an existing ventilator design and scale up production, rather than starting with a blank sheet of paper – other firms, such as Dyson, took that approach but ultimately cancelled projects owing to lengthy approval times and lower-than-expected demand.

SUBS

The ideal candidate

ART

Before the pandemic, the only company building ventilators in the UK was Smiths.

The Parapac Plus had been tried and tested in the NHS for 10 years, with a relatively small number built every week at Smiths Medical’s factory in Luton.

The Parapac was ideally suited thanks to its lightweight, feature-rich and transportable design, says Chris Percival, Smiths chief of operations. It can be used during MRI scans, has an internal long-life battery for redundancy, and is designed with fast and intuitive training in mind.

The firm had started contingency planning as the coronavirus first made international headlines. By January, it was sourcing extra materials and planning to train new manufacturing staff. It also did a report on safe working practices during the pandemic for its sites in Asia – in other words, it was an ideal fit for the consortium.

The challenge started working with Smiths straight away, with the company leading that ‘strand’ of the project.

PRODUCTION CLIENT

Full-fat or semi-skimmed?

On Friday 20 March, the Cabinet Office asked Elsy and his colleagues to investigate another option. Penlon, a 75-year-old spin-off from Oxford University, had said it could “comfortably” meet the high end of the specification by reconfiguring subsystems contained within its anaesthesia machine.

A team was despatched to investigate the next day, and given 24 hours to learn as much as possible about the production process and materials involved. “We could only really see what I would call the full-fat version of the product being built,” says Matt Byrom, business excellence consultant at Siemens. “We were going to build a semi-skimmed version.”

Penlon also made what chief executive Guru Krishnamoorthy calls a “loosely put together prototype”. The consortium team investigated the systems, electronics, and options for the supply chain and production ramp-up. There was a call at the end of the day, and the challenge agreed to

24

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

Penlon adapted existing subsystems to create its ventilators.

Below – The new AMRC facility was perfect for Andrew Peters and colleagues.

Right – The consortium embraced digital technology

get behind it on the spot. The hard work was about to begin.

With the designs selected and a government order in place – 15,000 Penlon devices and 5,000 Smiths Parapacs – McLaren took an overarching position on procurement and started sourcing materials and parts for the Penlon strand. The focus switched to how and where the ventilators would be built.

In a stroke of good fortune, Airbus had an ideal – and timely – answer. “I was already aware of this new AMRC facility which had been opened in Broughton at the middle of February, and was 10 days away from Airbus putting their new Wing of Tomorrow [programme] in. If they had already put that in… that would have been a non-starter, because it would have taken millions of pounds [to refit],” says Andrew

Such a spread-out project meant a huge logistics challenge.

The consortium had sourced 11m parts within the first month, all requiring distribution

Peters, managing director at Siemens Digital Factory in Congleton, Cheshire.

Siemens used its NX Line Designer to create a digital twin of a factory floor for the Broughton facility, using it to simulate the required production on a socially-distant one-way system. The team then converted the digital twin to a real-life factory, with eight production lines for the ventilators’ absorbers and eight for the flow meters.

Siemens used standard manufacturing solutions, fitting everything into half the AMRC’s footprint.

Network of sites

Elsewhere, Ford used a site in Dagenham for assembly. GKN and Rolls-Royce offered locations in Luton, Gloucestershire and the Isle of Wight for the Smiths device, with numerous other firms working around the country. The Broughton and Dagenham facilities were equipped within about a month.

Such a spread-out project meant a huge logistics challenge. The consortium had sourced 11m parts within the first month, all requiring sorting and distribution by DHL. Surface Technology International in Hampshire combined ventilator subassemblies before final testing at Penlon and elsewhere.

VENTILATORS, 2

An out-of-production part for the Penlon ventilator threatened to derail the project, but McLaren stepped in to help

the opportunities for mistakes to be made. The company also quantified some measurements and processes to ensure that veteran manufacturers’ knowledge could be safely replicated. ‘Hand tight’ became 1,000Nm, for example.

Poka yoke

Setting up new factories and a giant supply chain was almost straightforward compared to the consortium’s other giant challenge – training the hundreds of people required for the massive increase in production. In the old normal that would have involved assembly operators, engineers and technicians in a classroom with training materials. During the pandemic, that option was off the table.

Instead, the consortium embraced digital technology. Augmented reality (AR) technology, in particular the Microsoft Hololens, played a big part in collecting expert knowledge and packaging it in an accessible way for knowledge transfer.

Teams visited pre-existing manufacturing sites, using the Hololens to film over-the-shoulder videos of production and cutting it into steps using PTC’s voice-controlled Vuforia software.

Production line staff could then watch it, either on tablets or on Hololens headsets.

The digital process prevented disease

We just have to get stuff done. On Sunday afternoon you can’t not be on the grid. So you can’t delay anything, you’ve just got to get it done transmission but also made training much more efficient, says Alex Woolner, AR sales engineer at PTC. Expert knowledge was collected quicker than ever before, and could be digested easier than oldfashioned print-outs thanks to a reduction in ‘cognitive distance’ between the trainee and the information.

Straightforward software editing of training techniques also allowed Siemens to optimise production, says Byrom, altering or reordering steps and maximising the poka yoke – a Japanese term meaning ‘mistake-proofing’, through preventing

The F1 mindset

The strength of the Penlon machine was also one of its weaknesses. The anaesthesia machine’s absorber, flow meters, computing architecture, several pneumatic parts and electronics were reused in the new ventilator. This practically ensured regulatory approval, but not all parts were readily available in the volume needed.

One chipset in particular was out of production, threatening to derail the project. “I was thinking, ‘this could disable the programme’,” says Elsy.

Within 24 hours, McLaren had persuaded a manufacturer in Israel to build the previously obsolete parts from scratch, in a much higher volume than ever before.

The Formula One mindset was key to McLaren’s approach, says Mark Mathieson, lead partner in technology services. “We just have to get stuff done,” he says. “On Sunday afternoon you can’t not be on the grid. So you can’t delay anything, you’ve just got to get it done.”

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

25

91IPEAUG20112.pgs 19.08.2020 12:13

ENGRec2 VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20153.pgs 24.08.2020 10:07

VENTILATORS, 3

VERSION

The next challenge?

REPRO OP SUBS ART

Production increased rapidly, and by late May the Airbus facility in Broughton was producing 400 units a day. Thankfully, the worst-case scenario with the coronavirus was avoided but many lives were saved and the challenge has a rich legacy.

“That awful scenario of insufficient ventilator capacity, and people queuing outside the hospitals, fortunately didn’t take place,” says Elsy. “So we are building for resilience… which is a great place to be.”

Members of the consortium are “determined” not to forget the lessons learned, he says. Principles included empowering people to make the right decisions and self-organisation of teams.

“Moving on to zero-carbon by 2050 – it’s no less of an emergency,” says Elsy.

“Our determination is to use some of the experience we’ve had to get behind

PRODUCTION CLIENT

Wouldn’t it be great if the way that this consortium is operated could be applied to climate change... we’ve all been pulling in the same direction

Thorough testing was vital as production reached hundreds of units every day

big programmes like that.” Across the consortium, members expressed the same desire to maximise the long-term benefits of the project. “Wouldn’t it be great if the way that this consortium is operated could be applied to things like climate change,” says Byrom. “Everything’s been open book, shared purpose, shared goal. And we’ve all been pulling in the same direction.”

The project was a landmark moment for UK engineering, and its influence will last for many decades. “The last time that GKN, Rolls-Royce and Smiths worked on a collaborative project was in the 1940s when they produced the Spitfire aircraft,” says Percival at Smiths.

The intense and fast-moving project has been “life-changing” for everyone involved, says Elsy. “The ‘can do’ spirit has been extraordinary… this is a classic case of engineers getting together and collaborating around a large challenge.” He is still planning to retire, but won’t be leaving until next year at the earliest. In the meantime, industry needs a hand getting back on its feet – it looks like another job for Elsy and the HVMC. Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

27

91IPEAUG20113.pgs 19.08.2020 12:13

VERSION

T

REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION

ALAMY

CLIENT

he requirements for cost reduction and higher production rate increasingly demand automation in aerospace manufacturing. Candidates for automation using articulated robots include machining, additive manufacturing, composite fabrication, drilling and inspection. However, when compared to more established applications such as automotive welding, the higher tolerance requirements place unique demands on automation systems.

A number of methods can be used to improve static and low-speed accuracy, including calibration of kinematic and joint stiffness parameters, joint output encoders, adaptive control that compensates for thermal expansion and feed forward control that compensates for hysteresis and external loads. Within process planning, datums can have a huge impact on process capability and simulation is often required to accurately model and optimise this.

For high-speed operation and the compensation of high-frequency disturbances, a base level of static accuracy is first required, with additional highdynamic compensation. High-dynamic end-effectors compensate for highfrequency disturbances using inertial sensors and reaction masses. They must be located at the end-effector as inertia would prevent the entire robot structure from responding with the required accelerations.

Global measurement feedback can be provided by six degrees-of-freedom (6-DoF) measurement systems, providing high-accuracy turnkey solutions, but these are also costly and have limited capability to compensate dynamic errors.

For applications where a robot is required to position or align relative to some local feature, local feedback systems can provide mature, low-cost and highly accurate operation. In this case, feedback is typically provided by a laser line sensor.

Aircraft structures are typically joined together by drilling thousands of holes through panels and installing solid rivets Drilling and machining

Aircraft structures are typically joined together by drilling thousands of holes through panels and installing solid rivets.

These operations require positional accuracy of approximately 0.2mm with a path straightness significantly better than this. While moving along the drilling axis, the robot must resist the disturbance or drilling vibration and reaction force.

Optimisation of cutting parameters is vital to minimise these disturbances. Articulated robots may undergo rotary joint reversals while interpolating a straight line, causing accuracy to deteriorate as backlash and other hysteresis effects become dominant.

Process planning may, therefore, need to optimise robot programs to avoid this.

Despite challenges, state-of-the-art production facilities are able to achieve the required tolerances, such as the Airbus A320 fuselage assembly plant in Hamburg which uses seven-axis articulated robots, integrated with linear slideways, to create the orbital joints that connect fuselage sections.

Although machining is ideally carried out by dedicated CNC machine tools, which offer high stiffness and accuracy, robotic machining has some niche applications. One example is machining component interfaces during assembly (fettling) in which it may be virtually impossible for a conventional machine tool to gain access to the interface.

Other applications may not require high accuracy but flexibility and large volume are advantageous, such as trimming castings and face machining additively manufactured blanks. The vibration and reaction forces for machining operations may be higher than for drilling. It is also much more difficult to completely avoid joint reversals, making high-accuracy robotic machining extremely challenging.

Static accuracy

Robotic accuracy starts with kinematic calibration. Essentially, this means solving for the 6-DoF errors between each of the joints in the robot’s kinematic chain, although typically some of the degrees of freedom are assumed to be negligible to simplify the maths. For example, the Denavit-Hartenberg convention reduces the six degrees of freedom for each joint to four DH parameters. Controlling a robot involves solving the inverse kinematics, which is complicated by the fact that there are many possible robot poses that could achieve a given end-effector position and orientation.

Most articulated industrial robots have encoders mounted on their drive motors, with gear reductions of at least 100. The dominant errors are hysteresis, backlash and torsional elasticity within this drivetrain. This can be bypassed by fitting high-accuracy encoders to the joint outputs and using feedback from these

As robots become more accurate they’re finding a wider range of tasks in aerospace manufacturing. By Dr Jody Muelaner 28

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

ROBOTS, 1 Robots drilling and setting rivets in the new structural assembly of the Airbus A320

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

29

91IPEAUG20114.pgs 20.08.2020 11:50

MACH VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20141.pgs 19.08.2020 15:32

ROBOTS, 2 VERSION

The Airbus A320 automated fuselage assembly line in Hamburg

REPRO OP SUBS

to control the robot through a machine tool controller. Electroimpact has taken this approach to achieve a global accuracy of approximately 0.25mm, but it greatly increases the cost of a robot. Researchers have shown that a similar accuracy can be achieved without additional hardware by including joint stiffness parameters into the kinematic model and calibration.

Adaptive robotic control

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

Adaptive control is a term used within control engineering to mean the varying of control parameters, such as kinematic parameters, during the control process.

The term Adaptive Robotic Control has been used in a quite different sense within industry to refer to closed-loop control using an external coordinate measurement system to provide feedback on the endeffector position and orientation, which may also be called global measurement feedback or online compensation. Adaptive control could be applied to an industrial robot by adjusting the DH parameters to allow for thermal expansion, using feedback provided by thermocouples mounted on the structure of the robot.

Twenty years ago, researchers at the University of Michigan calibrated robots with joint stiffness parameters included in the kinematic model and adaptive control for thermal deformation of the links. The calibration involved measuring the coordinates of the end-effector in many poses and then solving simultaneous kinematic equations which include all of these model parameters. Following the initial calibration, temperature sensors were positioned at multiple locations on the robot structure and the coordinates of the end-effector were measured again in multiple poses while the robot was heated. These measurements were used to fit an empirical model describing the temperature dependence for the DH parameters. They achieved a positional

After years of R&D, articulated robots are finally starting to make a real impact on aerospace manufacturing. This is as a result of improved accuracy

accuracy of 0.1mm. There is a general agreement that the most significant parameters for robot accuracy, in order of importance, are: l The DH kinematic parameters. l The additional kinematic parameter for rotation about the Y axis. l Torsional joint compliance and backlash about the Z axis, contributing up to 10% of position errors. l Thermal expansion and shape changes owing to variation in the temperature.

Dynamic accuracy

Hysteresis effects can happen too quickly to be fully compensated using feedback.

Feed forward control anticipates the error before it occurs, allowing correction in real time. At its simplest, this can be applied to a robot that is repeating the same trajectory, with previously observed errors used to apply corrections so that successive iterations become progressively more accurate. More sophisticated feed forward control algorithms use modelbased predictions to correct for machining process forces, backlash and other hysteresis effects.

Cutting disturbances, such as vibration, may be random, unpredictable and highly dynamic. The limiting factor for the frequency of dynamic control is often the inherent inertial effects of the robot.

It is simply not possible for the motors to produce enough torque to accelerate the mass of the joints quickly enough.

Improvement in measurement data or communication rate will, therefore, not improve accuracy.

A state-of-the-art system has been

developed by Dr Zheng Wang and others at the University of Bath. This uses a hybrid approach in which high-dynamic endeffectors are used to compensate highfrequency low-amplitude errors (vibration) while a laser tracker providing feedback to the robot controller is used to compensate low-frequency high-amplitude (path following) errors.

The work carried out in Bath has found that an expensive 6-DoF tracking system is not required for the low-frequency path following compensation. A much lower-cost 3D laser tracker provides all the significant benefits, with residual errors being dominated by backlash, hysteresis and vibration – effects that any form of realtime external feedback to the robot controller are unable to correct.

Lower cost

The high-dynamic end-effector contains relatively small motion stages, with much faster response times, which operate independently from the robot controller. Feedback is provided by inertial measurements. Combined with the laser tracker for low-frequency compensation, this is considerably lower in cost than current 6-DoF feedback systems while offering significantly improved accuracy for highly dynamic applications such as machining.

After many years of R&D, articulated robots are finally starting to make a real impact on aerospace manufacturing. This is largely as a result of improved accuracy.

Developments only just emerging from researchers suggest that they will continue to expand into additional operations.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

31

91IPEAUG20115.pgs 20.08.2020 11:40

VERSION

THE FUTURE OF

REPRO OP

NUCLEAR PROPULSION

SUBS ART

Reaching the stars doesn’t require a scientific breakthrough, only engineering development. By Dr Jody Muelaner

T PRODUCTION

here has been a great deal of interest in Russian tests of a nuclear-powered cruise missile over the past couple of years. This article looks at what is known about nuclear propulsion. We examine some of the nuclear-powered jet and rocket engines that have been tested in the past, the early design studies that have shown how nuclear propulsion could transform space travel.

CLIENT

Cold War aircraft engines There was a great deal of interest in nuclear propulsion in the early Cold War era.

During the 1950s, the US and the USSR developed working nuclear-powered jet engines for aircraft. The purpose of these engines was to allow nuclear bombers to remain airborne for prolonged periods, providing a constant nuclear deterrent.

However, the more rapid development of intercontinental ballistic missile systems meant that this capability was no longer required and nuclear-powered bombers never entered service.

These were essentially turbojets, with compressor air intakes, followed by a chamber where the compressed air was heated. However, instead of the heating taking place in a combustion chamber where fuel was burnt, a small nuclear reactor was used to heat the air. Two types of engine were developed. Direct Air Cycle engines allowed air to pass directly through the reactor core, while Indirect Air Cycle engines used a heat exchanger with a coolant fluid such as molten metal or salt.

There were two major issues with nuclear jet engines. Firstly, they created radioactive pollution. Although indirect air cycle engines were intended to reduce this, the radiation released remained

32

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

significant. Secondly, in the event of a crash, there would be major contamination.

Intercontinental ballistic missiles avoided these issues and so became the preferred way to provide a nuclear deterrent.

Nuclear pulse propulsion Around the same time as nuclear jet engines were being developed for bombers, there was growing interest in using nuclear power for space flight. Nuclear pulse propulsion was proposed as a way to provide high thrust and specific impulse.

The fundamental concept was to detonate nuclear explosions behind a reaction surface on a spacecraft, to push the craft forward. The original concept was to eject small directional nuclear explosives that would detonate some distance behind the spacecraft. This approach is now known as external pulsed plasma propulsion. Each explosive device would contain a disc of propellant material designed to produce a jet of plasma on detonation. The plasma cloud would impact on a large pusher plate at the back of the spacecraft, providing huge amounts of thrust at very high specific impulse (requiring little reaction mass).

A crewed spacecraft using this type of propulsion would require a very large shock absorber between the pusher plate and the crew module, to even out the pulses of accelerations produced by the nuclear detonations.

The first detailed study of external nuclear pulse propulsion was Project Orion, which was carried out between 1958 and 1965. This study concluded that it was possible, using 1960s technology, for a spacecraft with a crew of more than 200 people to complete a round-trip mission to Mars in four weeks or around Saturn’s

NUCLEAR ROCKETS, 1

One issue that was not fully resolved was the nuclear fallout produced by the first few detonations, which would be within Earth’s atmosphere moons in seven months. The researchers also believed that they had solutions for crew shielding and pusher plate ablation.

One issue that was not fully resolved was the nuclear fallout produced by the first few detonations, which would be within Earth’s atmosphere. The impact of a failed launch could also be catastrophic.

Inertial confinement fusion

Above, a concept for a pulsed nuclear fission propulsion system, part of the US Project Orion; Below, a design for a nuclear-thermal rocket with an aerobrake disc

Over the years, there have been many attempts to improve on Project Orion’s design concepts. One possibility is to have much smaller and more frequent nuclear detonations, which actually occur inside a containment vessel mounted directly to the back of a spacecraft. Such an approach requires the perfection of inertial confinement fusion, with high-energy beams such as lasers used to initiate fusion in a fuel pellet.

During the 1970s it was believed that inertial confinement fusion would develop rapidly and therefore this form of propulsion was under consideration.

Project Daedalus envisaged a relatively steady stream of plasma from such an engine. NASA continued to develop this concept in the 1980s in Project Longshot.

This planned to use a fission reactor to generate electricity that would power the inertial confinement lasers as well as other on-board systems including a communications laser.

The much slower than expected rate of development in inertial confinement means that these concepts remain highly speculative. Research into nuclear pulse propulsion is continuing with ideas such as using antimatter to catalyse nuclear reactions and hybrid magneto-inertial fusion under consideration.

Direct fusion drive Over the past decade, research has focused on developing a direct fusion drive. This is very similar to the inertial confinement Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

33

91IPEAUG20116.pgs 20.08.2020 11:41

COMP AD VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20142.pgs 19.08.2020 15:35

NUCLEAR ROCKETS, 2

VERSION

Propellant REPRO OP

Channel filler Radiation case

SUBS

Nuclear device

Above: A nuclear rocket designed for missions beyond Mars. Right: a nuclear pulse propulsion unit from Project Orion ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

concepts proposed in the 1970s but would use toroidal magnetic confinement to control the fusion reaction and to direct the resulting jet of plasma. Charged reaction products would be magnetically directed into a jet and augmented by additional propellant. Design studies show this has the potential to achieve very high thrust and specific impulse while also being controllable and producing auxiliary power.

Johndale Solem’s Medusa design goes back to the technically simpler external pulsed plasma propulsion, but would have the nuclear detonations occur in front of the spacecraft, with a huge sail deployed even further forward to catch the plasma and pull the spacecraft forward. There are two advantages to this approach. Firstly, it becomes much easier to smooth out the acceleration of the capsule. Instead of a large shock absorber in compression, a simple cable in tension can be used. It also becomes easy to generate electricity in the capsule, by reeling out the cable as the explosions impact.

Nuclear thermal propulsion – the future of space travel?

Nuclear thermal propulsion (NTP) uses the heat from a nuclear reaction to heat a propellant. This is similar to the early nuclear aircraft engines discussed above. However, with a rocket engine the propellent must be provided from internal tanks. Currently the most popular configuration is to use a fission reactor to heat liquid hydrogen which then expands through a conventional rocket nozzle to produce thrust. This approach cannot achieve the orders of magnitude improvements possible for plasma propulsion; a more modest improvement in payload of two to three times is

expected. It has been suggested that, compared to a chemical rocket, an NTR could reduce transit time from Earth to Mars from 240 days to 100 days. Reduced transit time is important for crew health, reducing exposure to radiation and time in microgravity. However, this transit time is still far more than the 28 days that Project Orion predicted could be achieved using nuclear pulse propulsion.

Jeff Thornburg, CEO of Interstellar Technologies, says: “I believe that modern fission reactors powering nuclear thermal propulsion systems are the next achievable step to increase specific impulse for human and non-human exploration of the solar system within our lifetimes. The movement of the significant mass required for human exploration requires thrust levels only achievable with NTP systems presently.

NTP is a technology focus area for my company, Interstellar Technologies.”

Engines for trips to Mars

The first NTP rocket engines were developed during the 1950s, with the work closely related to the nuclear aircraft engines being developed at the same time. The designs were similar to direct air cycle nuclear engines, with the control rods directly heating the propellant.

Extensive ground testing was carried out;

It is the much more technically mature nuclear thermal propulsion systems that are likely to be seen on spaceflights in the next few decades

Delivery case Fusing & firing

the Phoebus-2A Project Rover was the most powerful engine tested at 4.5GW. It produced 250,000 pounds of thrust with 850 seconds of specific impulse and its longest test involved a burn time of 90 minutes. Later NASA programmes such as the Nuclear Engine for Rocket Vehicle Application (NERVA) produced engines that were ready for human missions to Mars, but NASA’s development of nuclear rockets stopped in 1973.

In 2018 and 2019 new research funding was allocated for NASA to restart NTP research. The aim is to make a test flight in 2024. Last summer Elon Musk tweeted “Nuclear thermal rocket for fast transit around solar system would be a great area of research for @NASA,” seemingly suggesting that, while private companies move forward with the mature technologies of chemical rockets, NASA could focus on NTP development. However, none of NASA’s current manifest of missions planned through to 2028 mentions the use of nuclear propulsion.

Outlook for nuclear propulsion

It’s looking like we may finally be about to enter the age of nuclear-powered space flight. External pulse propulsion remains the only current technology feasible for crewed missions to more distant destinations such as Saturn’s moons and even the stars. A direct fusion drive may provide even higher performance in the future. However, it is the much more technically mature nuclear thermal propulsion systems that are likely to be seen on operational spaceflights in the next few decades.

Russia’s renewed interest in nuclearpowered missile systems may also stimulate development in the west.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

35

91IPEAUG20117.pgs 19.08.2020 13:30

VERSION

In association with

REPRO OP

WHAT NOW FOR UK MANUFACTURING?

SUBS

Professional Engineering has teamed up with Protolabs for a new report on the state of the UK manufacturing industry in 2020 he start of the new decade was supposed to herald a new beginning of sorts for the manufacturing industry in the UK, or at least an end to the uncertainty that has plagued companies since the Brexit vote. Instead, 2020 has brought even greater levels of instability, with the Covid-19 pandemic forcing us to change the way we live and work, and causing huge ramifications across all industries, including manufacturing.

Our annual survey of engineers in the manufacturing industry presents a similar picture to last year, however. We polled 174 engineers from across the UK, working in everything from automotive to energy.

T ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

Change is accelerating There’s a sense that the coronavirus pandemic may cause transitions that were already happening to be accelerated, but the fundamental rules of business still apply just as they did last year. Respondents continue to rate responsiveness and employee skill as the most important factors in business success. Surprisingly, geographical location is still ranked as being as important as it was last year, despite the increase in remote working in many fields.

There is a recognition of the growing financial pressure some companies are

under, with price overtaking speed and efficiency as the biggest obstacle to gaining new business. There were also some signs that the nature of manufacturing is changing, or is about to change.

Jury still out on 5G We asked respondents to choose the five words they most associated with manufacturing – ‘robots and automated processes’ and ‘designing’ both shot up the list compared to last year. Similarly, three quarters (74.8 per cent) said they expected automation in their business to increase moderately or more over the next five years, up from 62.5 per cent in 2019.

Despite the digital transformation going on in offices (and living rooms) across the country, there wasn’t much change among manufacturing engineers. They were fairly open to the other big event of 2020 – the rollout of 5G. Some were excited about the possibilities, but many said the connectivity technology would be of limited use. “If 5G helps capture the data, then significant,” wrote one respondent. “If the coverage is patchy and communication and security protocols are not standard, it will be useless.” In a time of continued uncertainty, it’s up to manufacturers to seize the initiative.

BIGGEST OBSTACLES

PRICE

(up from 2nd in 2019)

SPEED & EFFICIENCY (down from 1st)

PRODUCTIVITY (up from 4th)

OPERATIONAL SCALE (down from 3rd)

INDUSTRY 4.0 IS...

use future

digital

physical

efficiency

data

revolution

improve

traditional manufacturing

machines

connecting

industrial

integration

systems new

design

manufacturing

industry digitisation production world

industrial revolution real time changes

automation

processes

smart

know idea

fourth industrial revolution

improve efficiency making use big data

technology product smart technology internet things automated communication 36

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

57%

of respondents say their business’ manufacturing services are only 25 per cent automated or less

Protolabs Advertorial, 1

AREAS FOR INVESTMENT

Where do you plan to invest in the next 12 months?

37%

Service or product development (down from 43%)

30%

Innovation (down from 38%) DIGITAL HURDLES

TIME

29%

COST

Equipment (down from 36%)

LACK OF AWARENESS LACK OF EXPERTISE

COMPE TITIVE PRIORITIES Responsiveness Being the first to answer a customer’s need

Investing in the right talent Developing highly skilled employees

2020

2019

2020

2019

3.06

2.95

2.80

2.91

Price

Location

Adding value

Closer with offices and support

2020

2019

2020

2019

2.76

2.66

1.46

1.56

28%

78%

Upskilling staff and training (down from 35%)

of respondents believe investment in R&D is the key to maintain their position within global manufacturing landscape

28%

Digital transformation (up from 24%)

Average score out of five

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

37

91IPEAUG20118.pgs 24.08.2020 15:36

VERSION REPRO OP

DELIVERING INNOVATION

SUBS

Digital technology is a key pillar of Babcock’s strategy, changing how the company manages and operates complex assets

ART

What are the core activities of your organisation?

PRODUCTION

We operate across three highly regulated markets: defence, emergency services and civil nuclear, helping our customers get the most out of the critical and complex assets we manage on their behalf, both in the UK and internationally. This can be anything from managing a fleet of warships, through to the specialised equipment and vehicles used by our emergency services on the ground and in the air, nuclear power stations, or the 32,000 protected mobility vehicles we manage for the British Army. Increasingly, our customers are coming to us for technology solutions either at the initial design stage or for through-life operations and support and maintenance.

CLIENT

What are your key managerial responsibilities?

I’m fortunate that my role is so diverse. As well as taking ownership of the group’s technology strategy I am also responsible for a group of businesses within Babcock. It’s challenging and rewarding, not just because of the nature of our work, but because we have some of the best people.

What is the current condition of the market?

Our largest sector is defence, and we’re continuing to grow in the UK and internationally. We’re the secondlargest defence supplier in the UK supporting the army, navy and RAF and internationally. In the UK, I see ongoing investment in major naval programmes, both submarine and surface ships, which remain strong for both near and long term, and the major role we play in the Type 31 programme is testament to that. There are also major new assets such as the Queen Elizabeth Class aircraft carriers that are entering service, requiring planned, complex engineering support. We’re also now widely using digital-twin technology across all our core business areas. In defence this can be the navy’s 4.5-inch gun, for example, which allows us to constantly gather data about the performance of the system, gain insights into predictive maintenance and optimise performance.

In our land defence business, our long-term contracts are focused on military technical training and vehicle support. At the end of 2019 we were chosen as

38

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

the Met Police’s learning partner (a combined initiative we are leading on with a number of academic partners).

From my perspective, international markets are equally positive. For example, major defence programmes in Australia, Canada and South Korea are proceeding largely as we’d hoped. Delivering this level of innovation across the work we do means we also share the risks. But conversely we also share the benefits.

How does the UK’s relationship with the EU affect your market?

Babcock’s business in EU countries is carried out by our established businesses based in those countries, perhaps supported with UK know-how or intellectual property, but increasingly with IP generated locally.

It’s the same model we generally have across our international markets. Being service-oriented, we work locally. Business seems to be going well. For example, last year we secured a long-term contract in France to train jet pilots for the French air force.

Our technology expertise is something our customers are turning to us for more frequently What are the long-term trends for your business?

A number of big technology trends are important to the business and feature strongly in our strategic thinking. The use of data and digital technology is a key pillar of our technology strategy – it will continue to change how we manage and operate complex assets, and how we deliver and integrate technical training and equipment support. Another important trend is autonomy. Remote and autonomous systems are already part of our customers’ assets, and our own assets. More broadly our business is increasingly international. The UK is well-advanced in entrusting the support of critical assets or capabilities to business partners, and we are seeing other countries following that path as assets become increasingly complex.

PROFILE, 1

What do you think has changed the most in your industry in the past five years?

If I focus on the defence sector, there is an ongoing trend of increasing technical complexity in new defence equipment, but also a more significant increase in the drive for operational availability of defence assets or capabilities. At the same time, there has been increasing demand for agility in how these assets are configured and deployed. Together this is reflected in increased connectivity – so communications, command and information systems have become a hot topic in the industry.

How do you think management styles and strategies are evolving today?

I believe we already have fantastic opportunities for people embarking on graduate and apprenticeship schemes with us, but we’re also working hard to ensure all our people have those same opportunities – whether Name Dr Jon Hall it’s retraining, reskilling or international Title/position secondments.

Managing director, It’s not just about creating a diverse technology business but creating a diverse workforce Company name that is attractive to talented people, offering Babcock International flexibility and a great environment. I see Group this pretty consistently day to day in the Company size Over UK across Babcock, our customers and 35,000 employees partner companies. We have to deal with /£540m turnover complexity, and we have to innovate, Description of and rigid procedures or “command and business Babcock control” just won’t get you there. is a leading provider of critical, complex What is the single biggest engineering services, opportunity globally for you at the with its core markets moment? being defence, Babcock has a good “full lifecycle” business emergency services and model and a great platform of expert civil nuclear people, key infrastructure and technology.

We’ve shown that this is transferable and valuable internationally – so fundamentally that, combined with gripping the technology trends I talked about earlier, it represents a huge opportunity for Babcock.

What will your organisation look like in 10 years’ time?

Essentially, we expect to continue to grow both in the UK and internationally, with the ever-increasing connectivity that implies.

Our technology expertise is something our customers are turning to us for more frequently, and we continue to need a skilled workforce that can deliver the increasingly complex challenges they give us. I also hope, and expect, to see better gender balance and overall diversity at all levels across our business. We, and our industry, are working hard on this and must keep pushing. www.babcockinternational.com

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

39

91IPEAUG20119.pgs 19.08.2020 14:04

ENGREC LIVE

VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

LOOKING FOR YOUR NEXT CAREER OPPORTUNITY? DON’T MISS OUR VIRTUAL CAREERS EVENT On 30 October mark your calendar to join IMechE and Professional Engineering at the first virtual careers fair and find your perfect job. Over 1,000 delegates are already signed up to meet companies such as BAE Systems, Royal Air Force and Cranfield University, which are all actively recruiting engineers at every level.

Your chance to:

l Get your CV directly to leading companies looking to actively recruit engineers l Chat with universities offering world-leading engineering courses l See all job vacancies on the day and apply for real jobs there and then

Free seminar programme: Hear from leading speakers discussing topics such as: l Covid-19 – what does this

mean for my engineering career? l Developing skills for the digital revolution l What’s it like to work on an engineering project? l So you have graduated – what’s next? l Diversity & Inclusion in engineering l Deep dive into different industries such as Aerospace, Automotive, Biomedical, Power & Energy, Construction, Manufacturing and Rail

REGISTER FREE TODAY

Simply visit thinkpublishing.co.uk/ engreclive. Why not invite your colleagues and friends to register also.

Who should attend?

l IMechE Student and Young

Amit Katwala, Editor, Professional Engineering

Terry Spall, President, IMechE

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

Member Network, including STEM and university students, recent graduates and those in the early part of their career.

91IPEAUG20151.pgs 21.08.2020 11:51

IP, 1 VERSION

IND U S T R Y P UL S E T HE HE AR T BE AT OF YOUR SE C T OR

REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

SOLAR’S BRIGHT FORECAST HAS NOT DIMMED How coronavirus has delivered a boost to renewable energy. By Jennifer Johnson

NASA GETTY

ENERGY It’s not unusual for solar energy to set records in the springtime. After all, it’s the time of year when photovoltaic (PV) panel installations put in place in the rainier months start to make their first significant contributions to the grid. But the knock-on impacts of the coronavirus pandemic created some truly unique conditions in the UK this year. Just after midday on 20 April, an all-time solar generation peak of 9.68GW was recorded – surpassing the previous record of

9.55GW set on 14 May 2019. When the apex was reached, solar energy was meeting nearly 30% of electricity demand across the country. “At a time when most of us are working remotely, we can say that solar is truly keeping the wi-fi on,” said Chris Hewett, the chief executive of the Solar Trade Association.

The lockdown measures put in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19 partly set the stage for solar’s record-breaking ascent. Air pollution – which obscures sunlight and dampens solar panel efficiency – has famously dropped across

the world’s locked-down cities. When combined with a bout of spring sunshine and some optimal temperatures, falling pollution figures created an ideal environment for PV power generation.

Energy demand falling

There is no doubt that the ongoing pandemic will reshape the global energy industry as we know it. While it’s still too soon to discern the nature and scope of these changes, renewable technologies look sure to emerge in a strong position.

The virus could lead to a “staggering”

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

41

91IPEAUG20120.pgs 19.08.2020 18:02

ENGRec1 VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20152.pgs 24.08.2020 10:06

IP, 2 VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

storage solutions, which are capable of storing excess solar energy when it’s not needed by individual households, communities or the grid. There are still challenges around mining materials and recycling solar panels and batteries.

ENERGY REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

drop in global energy demand of 6% this year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). This has been felt most acutely by fossil-fuel producers, with oil prices in the US turning negative for the first time in history during April. “Only renewables are holding up during the previously unheard-of slump in electricity use,” said Dr Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director.

The logic behind the resilience of renewables is simple: solar panels and wind turbines are cheaper to run than fossil-fuel plants, and therefore receive priority access to the grid in many places.

In recent years, plummeting prices have cemented solar PV as renewable energy’s biggest success story to date. The cost of solar power has fallen by 85% in the past decade, while wind energy dropped 50%.

Once again, the factors behind this phenomenon are easy to understand.

Generous government subsidy schemes unlocked economies of scale.

According to a 2019 report from the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the accelerated deployment of solar PV alone could lead to emission reductions of 4.9 gigatonnes of CO2 by 2050. This figure represents just over a fifth of the agency’s total calculated

Costs tumble

The accelerated deployment of solar PV alone could lead to emission reductions of 4.9 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050 emission reduction potential in the energy sector. However, a transformation of this size could only be made possible through a significant upscaling of solar capacity.

IRENA estimates that capacity would have to increase almost six times – from 480GW in 2018 to 2,840GW by 2030 – to align with its maximum potential scenario.

Needless to say, enhanced policy support will be critical in rolling out PV infrastructure. Perhaps equally important is the development of a range of battery

ACADEMIC INSIGHT Material microstructure effects in end-milling of Cu99.9E Micro machining is finding increased application in avionics, biotechnology, electronics and medicine and end milling represents the most popular process to be used. However, in the transition from macro to micro machining the achievable surface finish is the most important characteristic.

This paper describes cutting tests to investigate the effect of the workpiece grain size, the cutting process and the tool geometry on the reduction of the surface roughness on the workpiece.

Renewable energy research organisation BloombergNEF (BNEF) recently estimated that the average capacity of battery storage projects is now around 30MWh, which is a fourfold rise from just four years ago. Researchers credit increasing project sizes, a growing manufacturing base and more energy dense battery chemistries with halving the cost of storing energy since 2018. Once again, increased scale in solar is unlocking cost reductions that would have been unthinkable in the past. Ten years ago, solar generation costs exceeded $300/ MWh. The best-performing projects of today can achieve costs below $30/MWh. In March, it was revealed that building new wind and solar plants will soon be cheaper in every major market than operating coal power stations. Whether governments and investors will now choose to realise these cost reductions in a world upturned by a pandemic remains to be seen. In a world of uncertainty, the future for solar still looks bright.

Editor-in-chief selection of highly rated papers from the 2018 Journal of Engineering Manufacture Part B

On the Cu99.9E material used for the cutting tests on one group the average grain size was 30 micrometres and on the second group the average grain size was reduced to 200nm by using an Equal channel angular pressing process. Material processed in this way showed high homogeneity and less variation in the coefficient of friction, leading to a more stable cutting process with fewer workpiece surface defects.

(AM Elkaseer et al) l Proc IMechE Part B:J Engineering Manufacture 2018, Vol. 232 (issue 7) 11431155

Smoothed particle hydrodynamic simulation and experimental study of ultrasonic machining Hard and brittle materials such as glass find application in optical, mechanical and electrical micro-parts.

However, efficient machining of such materials is difficult.

Abrasive-based ultrasonic machining has been proposed as a solution.

In this case a slurry of abrasive materials such as silicon or boron carbide flows between the workpiece and the vibrating tool tip.

Abrasive particles in the slurry impact the workpiece, inducing tiny brittle fractures

in the workpiece and hence removing material. Workpiece material removal is governed by the abrasive material shape and abrasive material size and concentration.

It was concluded that if the slurry has hard and spherical abrasive particles material removal efficiency is improved but larger cracks are left on the machined surface.

Hence a balance has to be found between machining efficiency and surface quality.

(Jingsi Wang, Shaolin Xu, Keita Shimada, Masoyoshi Mizutani and Tsunemoto Kuriyagawa) l Proc IMechE Part B:J Engineering Manufacture 2018, Vol. 232, 1875-1884

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

43

91IPEAUG20121.pgs 19.08.2020 17:51

Edmund Optics

VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20143.pgs 19.08.2020 15:33

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

REPRO OP SUBS ART

TACKLING EMISSIONS Cylinder deactivation could improve efficiency and reduce emissions in commercial vehicles, reports James Scoltock

PRODUCTION

AUTOMOTIVE

CLIENT

There is only one direction legislators are pushing emissions requirements and that’s to make them more stringent.

For passenger vehicles that means a huge investment in electrification and pushing the combustion engine out. In the UK it even means not selling hybrid powertrains any more and heading straight to battery-electric vehicles, or, perhaps, a push for hydrogen technology.

The latter would be a great help for commercial vehicles too, especially larger heavy goods vehicles that cover higher mileages and couldn’t run on only a battery.

But, as good an alternative as hydrogen may become, it’s nowhere near being adopted yet, which means one thing – combustion engines need to become more efficient, pumping out fewer emissions, whether that’s CO2, NOx or particulate matter.

Dynamic skip fire

There are many technologies being looked at, but one that hasn’t been developed to any sort of maturity in commercial vehicles and diesel engines is cylinder deactivation.

Volkswagen Group has used it with some success in its passenger vehicles, particularly in four-cylinder petrol units.

Supplier company FEV developed a dynamic skip fire system – an advanced, software-based, cylinder deactivation technology – which has the ability to selectively deactivate cylinders on an eventby-event basis to match the torque demand at optimum fuel efficiency while

maintaining acceptable levels of noise, vibration and harshness. The technology was researched on relatively small two-litre, four-cylinder units, but now it’s being looked at in larger applications.

Cummins is working with Tula Technology to improve efficiency and reduce emissions in commercial vehicles.

The technology is being developed using a Cummins X15 Efficiency Series six-cylinder diesel. The 15-litre combustion engine can produce between 298kW and 373kW of power and 1,966-2,508Nm of torque.

Researchers modified the engine and controller to integrate Tula’s dynamic skip fire control algorithms so cylinders could be fired or deactivated depending on need.

The challenge is making sure that it can cope with the durability requirements of commercial vehicle applications Test data has been collected on a wide range of steady-state conditions and has been used to evaluate transient operation in simulation. Tests have been conducted to evaluate CO2 and NOx emissions on both a heavy-duty FTP test cycle and the Low-Load Cycle (LLC #7) proposed by California Air Resources Board.

Although the programme still has time to run, results look promising. On the FTP cycle, modelling predicted reductions of NOx emissions by 45% while simultaneously reducing CO2 by 1.5%. On the proposed LLC #7, predicted reductions

of tailpipe NOx emissions were 66% while reducing CO2 by 4%.

Trade-off opportunities

Engineers suggest that further reductions in NOx emissions could be achievable with the addition of increased conventional thermal management, but that could reduce the CO2 benefit. Reductions in tailpipe NOx are achieved primarily through optimised exhaust temperature control, and improved conversion efficiency of the selective catalytic reduction aftertreatment system. The CO2 reductions are achieved primarily through reductions in pumping losses. The integration of dynamic skip fire cylinder deactivation allows for additional trade-off opportunities for reductions of CO2 and NOx emissions.

The challenge, other than mirroring the benefits in real life rather than in simulation, which is no small matter, is making sure that it can cope with the durability requirements of commercial vehicle applications. Heavy goods vehicles live on the road, clocking up hundreds of thousands of miles, so it needs to last, and, if anything does go wrong, it also needs to be easy to fix, as vehicle downtime can be disastrous for fleet owners.

But, as commercial vehicles are unlikely to adopt fully electric powertrains, whether battery or hydrogen, for some time because of the duty cycles they work to, eking out the maximum amount of efficiency and reducing emissions to the absolute minimum will be incredibly important.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

45

91IPEAUG20122.pgs 19.08.2020 17:52

COMP AD VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20144.pgs 19.08.2020 15:35

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

REPRO OP

‘We can learn from our colleagues in parts of the world where there have been minimal deaths from the virus’

SUBS

how to ensure that air inside it is clean and safe to breathe and indeed how the people entering the building are not going to put themselves and others at risk’. There is no time to invent new solutions, leading us to look at techniques that have been tried and tested elsewhere.

Sanitising technology ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE The latest on the IMechE’s response to the pandemic from the Institution’s Covid Task Force BIOMEDICAL As we approach nine months since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and six months since the UK found itself closing businesses, furloughing staff and working from home, we look at what engineers have been doing to respond to the evolving challenges of Covid-19.

In the early days, our focus as engineers was on helping the NHS to manage the numbers of sick patients coming through the doors. We helped to build field hospitals and temporary mortuaries, converting buildings, and provided lifesaving and enhancing equipment, we designed and manufactured biomedical devices that supported patients breathing, all in just a matter of weeks.

Since the start of the Covid pandemic there has been a great deal of scientific effort to research this new virus and its transmission routes, which we have used to develop practical engineering solutions that reduce Covid risks and help keep people

safe as they return to everyday life. The Institution has created a Covid-19 Task Force that aims to provide clear guidance to government, businesses and others interested in what they can do to create safe working and living environments. The task force is led by Frank Mills, who is the chair of the Construction and Building Services Division of the IMechE, and chaired by immediate past-president Professor Joe McGeough.

Sharing best practice

The task force has representation from our special interest groups and international regions. This multidisciplined team allows the Institution to share best practice from around the world as well as apply existing knowledge. A core objective of the task force is to provide clear advice on how engineering solutions are used effectively.

Engineers solve problems; one of the first things to address is, ‘how to safely bring back into service a building that has been unoccupied, including how to clean it,

The group has considered the role of UV sanitising technology which can be used to sanitise operating theatres, aircraft cabins and train carriages. We know that direct UV light is carcinogenic so we must be cautious of any negative side effects. We are familiar with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modelling – this shows us how people use the building and how the air flows in the space. We can use this understanding of the CFD science to ensure that clean air is introduced, replacing any that has potentially been in contact with the virus.

We can learn from our colleagues in parts of the world where there have been minimal deaths from the virus and examine the best practice they used to manage this.

In Hong Kong for instance the use of thermal screening is commonplace and the prophylactic use of masks is routine. They have utilised copper technology to kill the virus and used cleaning products that can protect surfaces for up to 28 days. All these solutions are readily available in the UK today.

As engineers we simply want to do our job and to solve the problems associated with getting life back to as close to normal as possible until there is an effective cure or vaccine. We must ensure that the solutions we provide do not reverse any of the good work already done in areas such as the reduction in the use of fossil fuels or in the creation of plastic that ends up in our oceans. Our solutions should be delivered while maintaining our commitments to low-carbon and environmentally positive activities.

This is not our first pandemic and it will not be our last. Our engineering ingenuity in the UK puts us in a good position to develop low-carbon adaptations of existing technologies, fighting coronavirus and climate change in parallel.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

47

91IPEAUG20123.pgs 19.08.2020 17:54

NAFEMS VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20145.pgs 19.08.2020 15:34

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

SUBS

The importance of process safety management can’t be over-emphasised, writes Jennifer Johnson

Automatic response

PROCESS

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

The latter half of the 20th century had its fair share of tragic and high-profile disasters across a wide range of major industries.

The images of the explosions at the Chernobyl reactor or the Piper Alpha oil platform, for instance, are still ubiquitous today. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s easy to see that accidents of this scale are most often the product of procedural and organisational failures, rather than carelessness on the part of individuals.

In the aftermath of last century’s major incidents, psychologists set about creating models to explain systemic flaws and establish accident causation. The bestknown of these is James Reason’s Swiss Cheese Model, which states that a series of barriers prevents hazards from causing serious damage to workers and assets.

However, each layer contains unintended “holes” (much like a slice of Swiss cheese). It’s usually rare that these holes line up with one another, but an accident is sure to follow when they do.

Avoiding this alignment is one of the key goals of a process safety framework.

Safety Executive (HSE) warned that a focus on avoiding serious accidents had led some offshore operators to neglect general platform maintenance, leading to the visible corrosion of infrastructure.

Following a series of inspections made between July 2007 and March 2010, the HSE found that the condition of installations ranged widely from good to poor in terms of non-safety-critical components. While the executive commended operators’ commitment to preventing failures that could lead to major incidents, it emphasised that maintaining the general fabric of platforms is also essential for workers’ personal safety.

According to Matt Powell-Howard, head of strategy at the National Examination Board in Occupational Safety and Health, companies must strike a careful balance between preventing more routine

‘You want to have systems in place so that safety flashes through the brains of all workers when decisions are being made’

“You want to have systems in place, and training and competencies in place, so that safety flashes through the brains of all workers when decisions are being made,” he said. “There must be a deliberate process in place where personnel consider the possible outcomes of their actions.”

Today’s safety professionals are often heard extolling the virtues of so-called “visible felt” leadership. Under this approach, management’s actions lead people at all levels to both feel and understand their leaders’ high standards.

Managers in this mode will make sure that staff know that safety is not just about appeasing shareholders or preventing costly damages – but about protecting the health and safety of all workers.

At large industrial sites, a significant percentage of a workforce will inevitably be made up of contractors, many of whom may only be present for a short time. So visible felt leadership and an embedded safety culture are paramount in ensuring that proper procedures are adhered to.

“Contractors can outnumber staff massively, so it’s important that your expectations of them are equally high,” said Powell-Howard.

The stakes are high

Process safety differs from occupational safety in that it seeks to prevent catastrophic events and near misses, rather than minimising individual workplace injuries. According to the definition set out by the Centre for Chemical Process Safety, process safety deals with “the prevention and control of incidents that have the potential to release hazardous materials or energy”. These kinds of events may lead to fires and toxic chemical releases, which in turn result in serious injuries and environmental harm.

With stakes this high, companies have been eager to implement comprehensive safety procedures. However, the prevention of major incidents must not come at the expense of more routine forms of maintenance. In 2010, the UK’s Health and

Complex organisational failures lie behind major disasters such as Chernobyl

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

GETTY

REPRO OP

CULTURE IS STILL KEY TO SAFETY

personnel injuries and major incidents. To achieve this harmony, it’s important that a safety culture is embedded across all levels of an organisation – and that workers feel empowered to report slight corrosion as well as major procedural oversights.

49

91IPEAUG20124.pgs 19.08.2020 17:59

LASCAR VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20146.pgs 21.08.2020 12:01

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

REPRO OP

New lightweight materials could transform the largest airliners and the smallest drones

SUBS ART

WHY WAIT TO LIGHTWEIGHT?

PRODUCTION

New engineering solutions offer the chance to take the weight off. Joseph Flaig reports

AEROSPACE CLIENT

Aerospace was hit harder by the coronavirus pandemic than almost all other sectors. Flight numbers plummeted as countries introduced travel restrictions, with Aislelabs reporting a year-on-year decrease of 80% in May. Many are calling for a fundamental shift in how we treat air travel. Video conferencing has proved its ability to replace most meetings, and there is more awareness than ever about the need to minimise emissions.

While there is added impetus to find new efficiencies, companies are perhaps less likely to spend on radical improvements such as electric flight or alternative fuels as they struggle to pay staff and keep flying.

Instead, the next few years are likely to bring an increased focus on ‘lightweighting’ and the relatively straightforward fuel savings to be had there. Companies have spent much energy and money on metal alloys to reduce weight already, but new composites could help cut even more mass.

Aluminium metal matrix composites from Basingstoke firm Alvant, for example, combine aluminium – a lightweight, high-performance material in itself – with a secondary high-performance material to

enhance it further. The aluminium acts as the ‘matrix material,’ like a resin in a carbon composite.

The materials could replace expensive titanium or offer improved fatigue and damage tolerance compared to aluminium, said commercial director Richard Thompson. In one test, an aluminium piece failed after 100,000 cycles, whereas the composite got to 10m cycles before the test was halted.

The company is working with French multinational Safran, investigating its composite’s use in a future landing gear project. Replacing a titanium connecting rod could reportedly cut mass by 40%.

Retrofitting is an appealing option for airlines. “We can save a percentage amount per component and they translate that into passengers, and also fuel savings,” said Thompson. “About 1% weight saving can save 1% fuel.”

He added: “Airlines have invested in their fleet, and if we can bring performance benefits that can have a big impact. People are interested in recyclability and sustainability.”

‘You want to use something strong and lightweight, so then you have to use less energy to actually lift the drone’

Unmanned take-off

Lightweighting can also have a big impact on a much smaller scale. A recent report

by Protolabs found that 53% of surveyed businesses expect commercial drone deliveries to become ‘commonplace’ over the next three years. The proportion increased more than 10% from February to March as the pandemic took hold.

If drones are to play a part in the supply chain, lighter materials and longer flight times will become more important than ever before. Drone companies might make use of materials such as carbon fibre-reinforced nylon from MakerBot, which can be 3D-printed to shape.

“Your weight is very important, and also the stiffness, and strength of the part as well,” said Johan Broer, MakerBot’s vice-president of product development.

“You want to use something strong and lightweight, so then you have to use less energy to actually lift the drone.”

Additive manufacturing of lightweight materials is a promising technology for airliners, but has had limited impact so far.

Initial applications in unmanned vehicles could lead the way towards wider integration in aerospace.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

51

91IPEAUG20125.pgs 19.08.2020 18:03

COMP AD VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20154.pgs 24.08.2020 11:30

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

REPRO OP SUBS ART

BUILDING SUSTAINABLY

The search is on for greener building materials, writes Rich McEachran

PRODUCTION

CONSTRUC TION & BUILDING

CLIENT

Two-thirds of the global population will live in cities by 2050, according to the UN. And where land is tight, cities have to expand skywards. The problem is, while high-rise towers of concrete and steel are feats of engineering, they’re bad for the environment.

Concrete is the second most consumed resource after water. The chemical and thermal combustion processes that go into producing four billion tonnes of cement annually is a major reason why concrete is responsible for 8% of total carbon dioxide emissions.

The current situation is unsustainable.

Researchers, start-ups and construction companies have been collaborating and researching for a number years now on new, innovative, green materials.

Cement ousted

One such solution is cement-free concrete.

Ordinary concrete – known as Portland concrete (OPC) – is a mixture of sand, water and aggregate and the methods of producing it haven’t changed that much since it was patented nearly two centuries ago. Cambridge-based construction materials specialist the DB Group has invented a powder-based, alkalineactivated binder that allows concrete to set.

According to a spokesperson for the DB Group, the binder has “the same structural characteristics of OPC” but “carbon dioxide emissions are up to 80% lower compared

to the traditional way of producing concrete”. They add that the material can be produced using a by-product of the iron and steel industry – ground-granulated blast furnace slag – meaning the process is environmentally friendly.

The material has had an onsite trial at a Thames sewer system and a number of small-scale projects. Back in January, it was announced that the cement-free mixture had been successfully applied underneath a viaduct on the M25 as part of repair works.

US firm Solidia Technologies, meanwhile, has invented a similar sustainable cement (in terms of a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions) that can help concrete to cure in less than 24 hours. In

Concrete is the second most consumed resource after water. Concrete is responsible for 8% of total carbon dioxide emissions comparison, the curing of OPC can take 28 days – and months for it to dry completely.

Solidia is taking the meaning of advanced materials a step further by integrating smart technologies and artificial intelligence into its production. By monitoring the curing process using data science, the start-up can build a picture of what’s going on inside the curing chamber and identify where and how production can be made more efficient.

“The standard curing process can be complex. Machine learning allows us to

model, measure and predict and quantify our production,” says chief executive officer Tom Schuler. “Having eyes inside the chamber means we can optimise production, reduce waste and improve quality control.”

Slashing emissions

The case for advanced materials is clear: as populations rise and more buildings and infrastructure are needed, the construction industry needs to find ways to construct sustainably and quickly. It will also drive the cement industry towards achieving its target of reducing emissions by 23 to 24% by 2050, as set out by a 2018 report by the International Energy Agency and Cement Sustainability Initiative.

However, the construction sector has long been known for being traditional and has a reputation for being one of the least digitised sectors. Adoption of advanced materials will depend on a willingness to take risks, while a challenge for those producing the materials will be how to produce them at scale.

The issue of scaleability will be addressed as technology and innovation advances, However, the speed and efficiency by which concrete is produced and cures will need to be matched by efficient processes elsewhere. This includes the development of other advanced materials and the optimisation of processes and ways of working for mechanical engineers, such as the adoption of concrete-printing robots.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

53

91IPEAUG20126.pgs 20.08.2020 08:32

Classified VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20155.pgs 24.08.2020 11:30

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

REPRO OP SUBS

SMART BUILDINGS CAN SLASH ENERGY COSTS

ART

Building management systems can cut carbon emissions, writes Dr Jody Muelaner MANUFAC TURING

PRODUCTION CLIENT

Much of the energy used in manufacturing operations is within buildings, for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting. This energy use within buildings accounts for about 28% of global CO2 emissions. Better management of building systems can significantly reduce this consumption. This is best achieved using a computercontrolled building management system (BMS), otherwise known as a building automation system (BAS).

The use of BMS in large commercial new-builds is well established and they are also increasingly being retrofitted. However, it has been estimated that sub-optimal configuration may increase energy use by as much as 20%. As more and more devices become Internet of Things-enabled, it becomes easier to connect them to the BMS. Within this move towards Industry 4.0, buildings fitted with a BMS are now being referred to as smart buildings. Smart buildings don’t just reduce energy use, they can also improve safety, increase productivity and reduce maintenance costs.

Passive heating

Probably the most important role of the BMS is controlling heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) since this usually uses the most energy. In a smart building, individual rooms can be controlled but the response to changes in occupancy depends on the heating and cooling systems that are connected. The greatest energy savings are achieved when passive heating and cooling is included in the control system, for example, opening and closing windows.

Unlike lights, heating and cooling cannot usually respond instantly when somebody enters a room. Conventional heating and cooling systems have a considerable lag when a temperature change is commanded. This issue can be dealt with by either using more responsive heating and cooling systems, or by adaptively scheduling the HVAC system to predict occupancy.

An effective way to make heating more responsive is to use radiant heating which directly heats the occupants rather than heating the air within a building. This can also be more comfortable, like sunshine on a cool day. With a radiant heating system, the heating can simply switch on and off as people move through a building.

In the most energy-efficient building, where heating and cooling are controlled almost entirely using passive methods, lighting can become the main energy demand. Controlling lighting using photo detectors and motion sensors is relatively straightforward since there is no lag to take into account.

Further reductions in energy can be achieved by also connecting daylightharvesting louvres. To achieve the optimum energy saving, the BMS must integrate daylight harvesting, heating and cooling.

This is because sunlight brings both heat and light into a building. There may be times when it is more efficient to block

Smart buildings can dramatically reduce energy use. They also increase our vulnerability to cyber-attack

natural light and turn on artificial lights in order to prevent the need for cooling using air conditioning.

Other advantages of smart buildings are reduced maintenance and improved safety.

Access to all of a building’s systems makes fault detection and maintenance scheduling easier. The connection of additional systems such as security, fire protection and elevators can improve a smart building’s ability to respond to emergencies. For example, the fire system can direct fire and smoke away from escape routes by controlling windows, dampers in ventilation ducts and fans. Lifts can also be parked on the ground floor.

Cyber threats

Despite the many advantages of smart buildings, they also increase vulnerability to cyber-attacks. Attacks on BMS have been used to gain control of locks, lifts and CCTV cameras. They have also been used for indirect attacks where the BMS provides a back door to other parts of the IT system.

For example in 2013 a back-door attack on US retailer Target exposed the card details of customers through vulnerabilities in the network-attached HVAC system. There are wider national security concerns beyond these isolated criminal attacks. In a conflict situation, coordinated state attacks could shut down large parts of critical infrastructure.

Smart buildings can dramatically reduce energy use and bring other advantages.

They also increase our vulnerability to cyber-attack. Manufacturing facilities should embrace this new technology while taking the security threats very seriously.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

55

91IPEAUG20127.pgs 20.08.2020 11:50

SMC VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20147.pgs 21.08.2020 11:32

IP VERSION

INDUS T R Y P UL S E

REPRO OP

GETTING TO NET-ZERO

SUBS

Cutting carbon emissions on the rail network will require the use of hydrogen trains, writes David Shirres

ART

RAIL

PRODUCTION CLIENT

The year 2012 saw Britain’s first hydrogen train in action at the Institution’s Railway Challenge competition. This was a miniature 10¼-inch gauge locomotive entered by the University of Birmingham. It had a 1.1kW fuel cell which continually charged a 4kW traction battery.

The aspiration that innovations trialled at the Railway Challenge would be seen on the mainline railway was realised in 2016 when Alstom unveiled its two-car Coradia iLint hydrogen train at the Innotrans trade fair. This train entered passenger service in Germany two years later.

Like the Railway Challenge locomotive, the iLint is a hydrogen/battery hybrid. Each car has a 225kW traction battery and 200kW fuel cell supplied from roofmounted tanks which store 89kg of hydrogen at 350bar.

2050 target

The rail industry is currently developing a strategy for net-zero carbon rail traction by 2050. While this will require most lines to be electrified, where this is not feasible diesel trains will need to be replaced with alternative self-powered traction for which the only options are battery and hydrogen power.

As with road vehicles, energy density is a constraint for such alternative traction.

Hydrogen, at 350bar, has one-seventh the energy density of diesel, and so is not suitable for high-speed or high-powered applications such as freight locomotives. However hydrogen trains do offer a reasonable range and performance.

At 350bar, hydrogen has about twice the energy density of a modern battery pack.

Hence battery traction is suitable for short-range services between recharging such as branch lines off electrified lines.

On the roads, the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) considers that hydrogen will be required for zero-carbon HGVs and buses. It estimates that, by 2050, the annual transport demand for hydrogen will be: HGVs – 22TWh, buses – 3TWh and trains – 0.3TWh.

Producing hydrogen

Currently almost all the world’s hydrogen is produced in large plants by reforming methane. This produces CO2 emissions that are around 80% of diesel fuel. As producing hydrogen by electrolysis is more expensive, the CCC report considers that the most cost-effective way of producing large amounts of hydrogen is by reforming with carbon capture and storage.

However, producing hydrogen at large plants would require a distribution network.

The pilot scheme to operate a fleet of 10 buses in Aberdeen demonstrated the practicality of producing hydrogen on site. The scheme’s hydrogen plant consisted of three electrolysers (each the size of a 40ft container) with compressors, dispensers and storage tanks and required a 1MW electricity

Obtaining approval to operate will be challenging.

A further hurdle will be the financing of the hydrogen plant to fuel these trains supply. This produced around 150kg of hydrogen per day to fuel the city’s hydrogen bus fleet. Trains require about 10 times more hydrogen than buses.

UK hydrogen trains

The University of Birmingham now has a full-sized hydrogen train in the form of Britain’s first mainline hydrogen train, Hydroflex, which is a joint development with Porterbrook leasing. However, this is purely a demonstrator vehicle.

Alstom unveiled its design for a UK hydrogen train in January 2019. This uses the company’s hydrogen technology within a converted surplus train. However, owing to the constrained UK loading gauge, hydrogen must be stored inside the train, which reduces available passenger space. It may be possible to produce a hydrogen train with tanks that do not encroach onto the passenger area.

Obtaining approval to operate a hydrogen train, with systems for which there are no standards, will be challenging.

A further hurdle will be the financing of the hydrogen plant to fuel these trains. Hence it may be some years before UK passengers travel on hydrogen trains. Yet, if there is to be net-zero rail traction, these hurdles must be overcome.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

57

91IPEAUG20128.pgs 19.08.2020 18:22

Tinius Olsen VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20148.pgs 21.08.2020 11:33

SUPERCHARGE

VERSION

S UP E R C H A R G E YOUR ENGINEERING C AREER

REPRO OP

MY ENGINEERING JOURNEY SUBS

‘I’m not entirely sure I could have planned my career.

It has been hard but very enjoyable’ Ben Moxey, principal engineer, Millbrook

ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BEGINNINGS I came from a long line of military men, and they were all engineers as well. My greatgrandfather hand-built his own car and was a bomb-disposal expert for the RAF. My grandfather worked for about four or five different engineering companies, and my Dad wanted to be a pilot or engineer in the Royal Navy but didn’t have the eyesight and ended up working in the logistics branch, so he was a frustrated engineer. I was always going to join the navy – I grew up in Portsmouth and we moved around a lot with the navy. It was only when I got to university that I realised maybe I didn’t want to be in the navy, I wanted to be an engineer.

2005-10 Brunel University London I was incredibly lucky to go to university – I’m the first in my family but I also failed my A-levels after making a lot of bad choices. Brunel gave me a second chance with a foundation degree in mechanical engineering. I really enjoyed the degree, but not necessarily in a structured way. You think “That’s nice, I wonder if I can take it apart.”

2008-09 Mentor Graphics It was a great taster for working life – being in an office, getting up every day and being given the responsibility. At the end of it I was offered a job in computational fluid dynamics design, but that fell through due to the financial crisis.

of a rounded experience. The project I enjoyed the most was converting the Mahle-developed three-cylinder engine to run on compressed natural gas and placing it in a car. It was a lot of responsibility on me and I felt rushed off my feet, but I like a lot of work streams. I’ll have five or six different ones at the same time.

2010-14 Brunel University London I realised I hadn’t done any physical work, I hadn’t got my hands dirty. The engineering department was advertising open PhDs and I was only going to have a look, but I saw some flame propagation images and was stunned to see what they could do. It was phenomenal to see milliseconds after a spark event. I said “I have to do that,” and ended up staying another three years.

2015-17 Advanced Propulsion Centre UK The Advanced Propulsion Centre is a nongovernmental organisation that works to provide funding to the automotive industry.

I was administering public money to fund low-carbon technology, and then going to every single company to make sure the public got the maximum value for money.

It was great working with big companies but each project had to have a small or medium-sized firm as well, and it was really nice to get some of these companies with maybe 30 employees and connect the dots with a bigger one. I enjoyed that strategic, high-level thinking. You feel like you’re moving the pieces around the board.

2013-15 Mahle Powertrain After the PhD I went and became a graduate engineer. I was frustrated that I was moving around the company so much and wasn’t able to just go straight into a particular role or department, but looking back now I realise you get so much more

2017-Present Millbrook

Millbrook is relatively new to engine testing, about 20 years now. Maybe five or six years ago, it was slightly behind the curve but the amount of investment has been huge since 2015. I started by running my own performance and economy team, and at the beginning of last year I was made principal engineer and started more of a middle-management role.

I run and manage the ISO 17025-accredited petrochem testing department, testing fuel, additives and lubricants with two engineers and five or six technicians. The test method and hardware are mandated by the Co-ordinating European Council, so we must use these 20-year-old engines. A lot of it is trying to keep those older engines going and keeping to the letter of the method. They don’t make parts for many of the engines any more. I’m not entirely sure I could have planned my career. I would have looked at it and laughed off getting a PhD. It has been hard but very enjoyable. I have always trusted my gut on when to change big roles, and it’s served me well.

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

59

91IPEAUG20129.pgs 19.08.2020 18:23

VERSION REPRO OP

ASK THE ENGINEERS

SUBS

Are you stuck in a career rut or planning your next move? Or maybe you’re a student struggling to decide on an industry. In each issue, we’ll put your burning questions to our panel of seasoned engineers

ANONYMOUS ASKS: ART

What do we need to do to make engineering more inclusive? Why does our medical device small business receive no CVs from female engineers?

PRODUCTION

The engineering industry as a whole needs to do more to promote inclusivity. As with health, safety, quality and business ethics, inclusivity should fall under all parts of STEM activities as a core competence of any engineering business. The UK has to act now by focusing on investment at educational level, businesses need to do more through employee training and awareness and the UK can learn as a whole through other countries as case studies to not only represent women in engineering but black, minority and ethnic communities, disabilities, backgrounds, race and LGBTQI communities.

Simon Donald

CLIENT

Education and selling are key to driving inclusivity. I have seen a growth in female engineers entering the industry, but in my experience it is still dominated by males.

Equality of education and selling a genderneutral industry have to be the basis for the future. Unfortunately, we as engineers only have limited input on these points – we must continue to try and influence.

Robert Davidson

How are you perceived regarding flexible working arrangements? Look at where you advertise or present articles.

Caroline Rose Perhaps there is an unintentional gender bias in your company’s public image.

There are some good online resources for this but you could try targeting your message where you find the demographic you wish to find. This might include increasing your social media presence

60

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

on specific platforms. To that end you could also try to engage with influencers in engineering (i.e. Mina Dezz) or STEM (i.e. Maddie Moate who has an excellent YouTube presence). Also visibly support a body that engages in this, like techwuman or the Wise Campaign. None of this is a quick fix, but worthwhile.

Chris Elliott

Communicate, explain, entice, promote. Explain how important and interesting the roles can be. Train hiring managers and HR to recognise that they may have unconscious bias. Ever thought that the job descriptions are in man speak, the closed language of acronyms and aggressive sounding language, typically: Want to join a thrusting organisation, driving innovation and maximising performance etc. What about a more human approach? Adverts sometimes reflect the language that was used in lads’ mags in the 1990s or car magazines.

Dave Hughes We do not make it more inclusive, the people coming forward do! Better-tailored advertising is essential. We should do more to push STEM ambassadors forward.

The degree of ignorance in schools about what engineers do is extraordinary, and starts with the teachers! What about TV advertisements? Scholarships?

Social-media slots? Enthusiastic female engineers and trainees are a pleasure to work with and a source of fresh ideas and

Get in touch Do you have a careers question for your fellow engineers? Email

profeng@thinkpublishing.co.uk with your name and question and we’ll put it to our expert panel

approaches. So instead of sitting back and waiting for CVs, go out and look for them!

Brian McMahon I remain convinced that it is because of widespread ignorance of what professional engineers do. We do not all merely repair household appliances. I have witnessed large differences in other countries where engineering is recognised as a profession alongside the likes of medicine and law with a resultant increase in diversity – even among school children’s aspirations to a career in a profession.

Gabriel Izienicki Generally poor profile and lack of understanding of what an engineering career entails.

Kay Silver I have been a STEM Ambassador for 20 years and I truly believe that promoting the STEM subjects in junior schools is the way forward, engaging their fascination and curiosity in these subjects and where it can take them. It’s also key and I am very passionate about encouraging girls to consider a STEM-related career and the possibility it affords.

Neil Chattle

Mine doesn’t either.... If you’re serious about this you must get in early. Offer placements to sandwich course students and practise a little positive discrimination. Listen to what the applicants and placement students have to say and try to retain them after graduation.

James Lee

SUPERCHARGE, 1

SUPER C HA R GE

Engineering is misperceived in the public mind as dirty and manual rather than the creative arena that it actually is and women are not encouraged to view it as a great career choice. Primary Engineer and other similar initiatives are aimed at promoting engineering to a young audience and this along with positive role modelling should help.

Nicola Johnson

JOIN OUR VIRTUAL CAREERS FAIR

Š THIS IS ENGINEERING

Professional Engineering and the IMechE have launched a brand-new virtual careers fair called EngRec Live 2020. The event will take place on 21 October 2020 and will be the top event this year for engineering careers, allowing IMechE Students and Young Members to engage with companies looking for top engineering talent and vice versa.

Some of the biggest engineering firms in the country are looking to hire the best graduates and working engineers, and at EngRec you can meet them all from the comfort of your own home.

WHO WILL BE ATTENDING?

BENEFITS FOR ATTENDEES:

HOW TO SIGN UP:

l Sponsors, Exhibitors, Seminar

l Speak directly with companies

l To sign up for EngRecLive 2020,

Leaders: Engineering consultancies, OEMs, universities, institutions and government agencies. l Attendees: IMechE Student and Young Member network, including STEM and university students, recent graduates and those in the early parts of their careers.

looking to recruit l Get your CV in front of engineering recruitment leaders l Find out more about interesting engineering career opportunities, industries and projects on the rise l Apply for your favoured job vacancies on the day

head to thinkpublishing.co.uk/engreclive l If your company is interested in

hosting a stand at the event and reaching loads of top engineering talent, please email IMechE@thinkpublishing.co.uk

Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

61

91IPEAUG20130.pgs 19.08.2020 18:27

QinetiQ VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20149.pgs 21.08.2020 12:01

SUPERCHARGE

VERSION

SUPER C HA R GE

REPRO OP

LEADERSHIP FOR SCHOOLS

SUBS

Through our STEM Ambassadors, the IMechE is passionate about encouraging the next generation to consider careers in engineering…. but is there another way our members can help us achieve this objective?

Becoming a school governor can help IMechE members better understand schools

ART

EDUCATION

PRODUCTION

If there’s one thing you can say with confidence about engineers, it is that they do like a problem to solve. And what trickier problem to solve now than overseeing the safe return of children into our schools?

Implementing that complex task falls to the school’s leadership team, but school governors play a vital oversight role.

The remit of a school governor is a strategic one, helping set the direction and ethos of the school, holding school leadership to account for performance and ensuring that money is well spent. Anybody over 18 can become a governor and you don’t have to be a parent. In fact, 250,000 people (including many engineers) are already governors, yet there remain national shortages and schools would welcome the skills that engineers can bring.

Inspiring Governance is a governmentbacked governor recruitment service connecting volunteers with schools in England. It is run by the charity Education and Employers and comes with 12 months of support for all newly appointed governors, provided by sector experts the National Governance Association.

CLIENT

ALAMY

Campaign champion

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers has become an official School Governor Champion and is actively supporting Inspiring Governance’s Take a Closer Look campaign to get more engineers to consider the governor/trustee role. Dominic Judge, director of governance programmes at Inspiring Governance, explained: “Engineers are perfectly suited to the role of a school governor; they bring a rational ability to ask questions and many bring

strong strategic leadership and project management experience. All bring the skills of working collaboratively as a team and a strong focus on seeking improvements.”

In addition to the skills engineers can bring to school governing boards, undertaking the governor role could also help you as an engineer develop a range of skills yourself, many of which you could take back into your own organisation.

Mark Carter is a fellow of the IMechE and a mechanical engineer at QinetiQ. He said: “I’ve volunteered with IMechE for over 18 years and been a governor at my local primary for five years now. During that time, I’ve chaired the finance committee,

‘It is rewarding to feel that you can help shape the future of the school and use your engineering skills in a completely different area’ undertaken recruitment panels for deputy and headteacher roles and chaired the pay and performance panel. I’ve been vice-chair of the governing board and am now chair.”

Carter talks about how the governor role has helped him develop new skills and, just as importantly, to test those skills he already has, in a different context: “School governance has given me the opportunity to get involved in a range of areas, some that I have not been involved with previously and others where it has given me the chance to apply and refine my own professional skills in a different setting to my usual day job.”

He also talks about how he has developed

new board-level skills and taken them back into his professional role: “I have been able to use a number of these skills within an engineering environment; these include finances and budgeting; recruitment; performance management; strategic planning and chairing board meetings. This has given me the opportunity to expand my knowledge and experiences.”

Promoting STEM

Another potential benefit of more engineers and engineering organisations getting involved in supporting school governance is that it will certainly raise the pressing importance of STEM subjects at a strategic level within education. Engineers on school governing boards could potentially work with the senior leadership teams to develop an engineering strategy, or even liaise with career leads, helping them to make links with engineering organisations that can give pupils first-hand experiences of engineering.

So it seems volunteering for school governance could be a win-win for all concerned, with schools benefiting from the professional skill-set engineers bring, and engineering benefiting from a seat at the strategic decision-making table in schools.

The rewards are significant, as Mark Carter said: “It is rewarding to feel that you can help shape the future of the school and use your engineering skills in a completely different area. You also get the opportunity to work with the teachers and leadership team, who are so enthusiastic and value the different skills and perspective that we, as governors, bring to assisting the school.”

l If you can commit 5-8 hours a month and are considering becoming a school governor, Inspiring Governance would love to encourage you to sign up by visiting www.inspiringgovernance.org/imeche/ Professional Engineering • www.imeche.org

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

63

91IPEAUG20131.pgs 19.08.2020 18:30

WEIRD ENGINEERING

VERSION

W E IRD E NGINE E RING

THE BIONIC MOBILE ASSISTANT REPRO OP

Meet the robot that could help in hospitals or clean up nuclear waste

SUBS

What do you get if you cross a Segway, an industrial robot and a prosthetic hand? Probably something like the BionicMobileAssistant, an “autonomous helper” from German multinational Festo.

Developed with ETH Zurich, the prototype system has a modular design with three subsystems – a mobile robot, an electric robot arm, and Festo’s humaninspired BionicSoftHand 2.0. It moves independently in three dimensions, identifying and picking up objects.

ART

Hand in hand PRODUCTION

“It’s a very interesting looking thing,” says independent expert David Bisset, a member of the government’s Robotic Growth Partnership. He says the hand itself has “some quite novel features” , and predicts “niche” applications for it despite other options having greater dexterity.

Compact valve technology, sensors, electronics and mechanical components are tightly integrated into the small package. The 3D-printed wrist has two degrees of freedom and the pneumatic fingers and thumb are made of flexible bellows, with air chambers surrounded by fabric. “This makes the hand light, adaptive and sensitive, yet capable of exerting strong forces,” Festo claims.

To safely work alongside humans, the

CLIENT

robotic assistant must be very sensitive.

Thankfully, it has an impressive range of equipment – bending sensors to determine fingertip position, a glove with tactile force sensors around the hand, and a depth camera on the inside of the wrist.

The hand is mounted on the robotic arm, which has a lightweight design and compact drive modules. Beneath that is the ball, controlled via rotating wheels on its surface. That design brings great freedom of movement, but could cause issues elsewhere.

“I can imagine stability is a real challenge,” says Bisset. “There is not much video of it rolling around... and yet it is also wobbling.”

Even when static, the machine would need to make constant adjustments with the controlling wheels to simply stay in the same place. An ‘inverse pendulum’ shape means it would have to work extra hard if it picked up a heavy object, adds Bisset, consuming yet more energy.

The robot’s small footprint and impressive reach could make it most useful

The robot could be most useful in human environments – interacting with people and assisting assembly workers

in human environments, says Bisset – going between desks and shelves, interacting with people and assisting assembly workers.

From hazards to hospitals

Hazardous jobs are another possible application. Although many dangerous tasks happen in very constrained environments, there is more room to manoeuvre in jobs such as nuclear waste disposal. The robot could clamp itself onto solid surfaces to negate stability issues before carrying out work.

Those wobbles and constant adjustments take on a whole new dimension when moving around in dangerous situations, however. “If you’re working in a hazardous environment, you’re going to want to be sure this isn’t going to make it worse,” says Bisset.

It might be a while before the BionicMobileAssistant is trusted with spent uranium rods or irradiated equipment, but it could be applied in situations less fraught with danger. Festo suggests it could be used in hospitals, for example.

3

MORE WEIRD THINGS WE LEARNED WHILE MAKING THIS ISSUE

Nuclear rockets could take us to Mars (page 32) Coronavirus has boosted renewable energy (page 41) Concrete production is going greener (page 53)

64

www.imeche.org • Professional Engineering

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20132.pgs 19.08.2020 18:35

Elesa VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20903.pgs 24.08.2020 12:43

DCA VERSION REPRO OP SUBS ART PRODUCTION CLIENT

BLACK YELLOW MAGENTA CYAN

91IPEAUG20901.pgs 19.08.2020 15:35