www.eurekamagazine.co.

uk January 2019

DESIGN | INNOVATE | ENGINEER

CREATIVE
ROBOTS
HOW AI DEVELOPED FOR
ENTERTAINMENT
IS AIDING
INDUSTRY

IN THIS P18
AUTOMATING
P20
A DECADE OF
P28
RESISTANT
P30
TRULY WEARABLE
ISSUE CITIES EXCELLENCE BEARINGS TECHNOLOGY
 VOLUME 39 | NUMBER 01 JANUARY 2019 | EUREKA!

12 18

23
26
Pic Credit: Bot & Dolly / Google

12 COVER STORY 23 ADDITIVE REGULARS 30 MATERIALS

THE RISE OF CREATIVE
ROBOTICISTS
The entertainment industry has
co-opted industrial robots for
�lming special e�ects sequences.
Now, knowledge gained here is
�ltering back into industry.
18 ON THE TOPIC OF…
AUTOMATION
Autodesk’s CEO, Andrew
Anagnost talks about how
automation has the potential to
change not just industries but
entire cities.
20 BEEAS 10TH
ANNIVERSARY
A DECADE OF
EXCELLENCE
Ten years ago, the BEEAs were
launched to champion and
celebrate design innovation and
excellence. In the �rst of a series
of features we look back at 2009.
MANUFACTURING
PUTTING 3D PRINTING
TO WORK
The latest developments
in metals and plastics from
Stratasys are going to be
signi�cant.
26 SENSORS, TEST &
MEASUREMENT
INTELLIGENT TUBES
A fusion of advanced stainless
steel and cloud technology is
giving engineers unprecedented
insight into industrial and
chemical processes.
28 BEARINGS
ANSWERING THE
CORROSION QUESTION
Bearings are available in a
variety of materials, the most
common being steel. However,
these materials are not always
appropriate.
05 COMMENT
The opening of the
Graphene Engineering
Innovation Centre or
GEIC in Manchester in
December should mean
that graphene won’t 33 DESIGN PLUS
fall into the ‘Valley of
Death’.
06 NEWS
■ Bloodhound shuts
down
■ Remotely-operated
passenger ferry
■ New features for
LabVIEW NXG 35 COFFEE TIME
■ Arti� cial robot skin
■ Open � le format for
thermal simulation
■ UK team in Ocean
Discovery XPRIZE
� nal
TRULY ‘WEARABLE’
TECHNOLOGY
Utilising a very di�erent
approach to other conductive
textiles, Pireta Technology
is looking to enable truly
‘wearable’ technology.
DISABILITY CHAMPIONS
CREATE OPPORTUNITIES
The government’s recruitment of
technology and product design
disability champions represents
a new chance for those seeking
opportunities regardless of
disability.
CHALLENGE
BORED OF THE RINGS
This month’s challenge is to
design a device to help people
su�ering from tinnitus reduce the
ringing that can be so dibilitating.

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 3

EDITOR’S COMMENT

GREAT GRAPHENE
OVER NEARLY FOUR decades of existence,
Eureka! has carried more than its fair share
of stories about wondrous and brilliant
new technologies that have spun out from
British universities. Invariably, these were
all destined to revolutionise industry and
transform our lives. Almost as invariably,
most of them did not.
The phenomenon of ideas failing to
make the leap from academia to industry is
so common it has acquired the Tennysonian
metaphor: ‘The Valley of Death’.
One might have been forgiven, then, for
a certain amount of scepticism when the
wondrous properties of a material isolated
in Manchester University were being touted
back in 2004. 200 times stronger than steel; The CEO of Graphene@Manchester,
the world’s most conductive material; James Baker, is a former head of BAE’s
transparent; �exible; impermeable – surely Advanced Engineering Centre and describes
too good to be true? the strategy of the GEIC as ‘Industry-led.
14 years (and a couple of Nobel Prizes) Academically-fed’. This approach, he
later, it is no longer possible to be dismissive believes, will ensure that graphene does not
of graphene. If this point required emphasis, become just another story of innovation let
the opening of the Graphene Engineering down by poor business decisions.
Innovation Centre or GEIC (pronounced Paul Fanning, Editor
‘geek’, inevitably) in Manchester in
December has certainly provided it.
The £60m GEIC (pictured above) will MISSION
STATEMENT
commercialise graphene by working with
industry to explore how the material can be
used in their products, provide independent DESIGN | INNOVATE | ENGINEER
testing and demonstrate how graphene is
better than the current alternative. Eureka! connects design
It is clear that those behind the GEIC engineers with the UK’s
are determined to avoid the mistakes industrial heartbeat by
made in the past by academic institutions, providing in-depth coverage
which have nurtured new technologies, on the very latest technology
only to let them go unaided into the world. developments and industry
Manchester University is keeping graphene’s trends; keeping you inspired,
development as close as it can to ‘home’. informed and innovative.

W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 5

 NEWS | EUREKA!

Editor PAUL FANNING

paul.fanning@markallengroup.com

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Bloodhound rides again?

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On 7th December 2018 it was
Publisher LUKE WEBSTER
luke.webster@markallengroup.com announced by administrators,
FRP Advisory, that Bloodhound
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based entrepreneur Ian Warhurst
stepped in and bought the
business and assets on 17th
December for ‘an undisclosed
sum’ allowing the project to
continue.
Warhurst is owner and
MD of Melett, an aftermarket
manufacturer of precision
engineered turbochargers, parts
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Andrew Sheridan, joint
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“In the meantime, we would
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Royce for their support and
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Foot Anstey provided
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Warhurst.

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6 W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019

REMOTELY OPERATED
PASSENGER FERRY
ABB AND HELSINKI City
Transport have remotely
piloted the passenger ferry,
Suomenlinna II, through
Helsinki harbour.
“We are excited about the
potential impact of this test
on the future of the maritime
industry,” said Peter Terwiesch,
president of ABB’s Industrial
Automation division. “Advanced
automation solutions are
making the previously
impossible possible for a wide
range of sectors, including Speaking after the voyage, operation systems.
shipping, which is actively Captain Lasse Heinonen “Autonomous does not
searching for technologies said: “The progress we have mean unmanned. As vessels
that can rapidly deliver more made with the remote trial become more electric,
e�ciency and better safety.” has been remarkable. I believe digital and connected than
Suomenlinna II was we are on the right track to ever before, ABB is able to
retro�tted with ABB’s dynamic exploring further possibilities equip seafarers with existing
positioning system, ABB of this technology as we move solutions that augment their
Ability Marine Pilot Control, forward.” skillsets. In this way, we are
and piloted from a control This trial represents a enhancing the overall safety of
centre in Helsinki. crucial step toward increasing marine operations,” said Juha
the maritime industry’s Koskela, managing director at
acceptance of autonomous ABB’s Marine & Ports unit.
TECH BRIEF

NEW FEATURES AND

FUNCTIONALITY FOR LABVIEW NXG
NATIONAL INSTRUMENTS challenging time-to-market president of platform
(NI) has announced the requirements. software at NI. “We’ve
latest release of LabVIEW “Since the initial launch added more than 40 new
NXG, demonstrating of LabVIEW NXG in 2017, features to LabVIEW NXG
continued investment in the we’ve made continuous over the past year and a
next generation of LabVIEW progress on our e�orts to half, resulting in remarkably
engineering system design make programming and e�cient development
software. measurement automation software that gives
This version of LabVIEW more approachable for engineers the ability to
NXG is said to simplify engineers and scientists,” con�gure, automate and
time-consuming tasks said Dave Wilson, vice visualise their test results,
in automated test and all from one place.”
measurement applications,
from setting up and
con�guring systems
to developing test and
measurement code
and creating web-
ready applications.
These enhancements
help engineers meet

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 7

NEWS | EUREKA!
Arti�cial Robot Skin
RESEARCHERS AT SAUDI Arabia’s
King Abdullah University of Science
and Technology (KAUST) have
created an arti�cial skin for robots
that combines strain-sensing with
conductivity.
The material, which also has
potential applications in wearable
electronics, could provide robots
with sensory feedback to assist them
with navigation and handling tasks.
It features embedded meshed silver
nanowires that enable conductivity
and sensing in the �exible polymer.
High resistance at the junctions
£11M CAV EVALUATION PROGRAMME
MIDLANDS FUTURE MOBILITY, led
by WMG, at the University of Warwick,
is leading the Meridian 3 programme,
an £11 million project funded by
Innovate UK to evaluate connected
and autonomous vehicles (CAVs).
This will enable CAV technology,
developed using simulation and test
tracks, to be evaluated on roads
in real-world driving situations,
providing invaluable learning that
will enable them to become a
commercially viable and desirable
means of road-transport.
TECH BRIEF
OPEN FILE FORMAT FOR
THERMAL SIMULATION
AN OPEN NEUTRAL �le format
developed by ANSYS is said to
enable electronic component
manufacturers and their
customers to easily share design
models between di�erent thermal
simulation toolsets. It is expected
to promote interoperability
and ease the exchange of data
throughout the supply chain.
Steve Pytel, director of product
management for the Electronics
Business Unit, ANSYS, said: “This
model will work with all simulation
tools that support the standard –
saving customers time, improving
8 W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019
of each nanowire limits the overall
conductivity through the material.
This increases signi�cantly when the
material �exes and the nanowires
are pulled apart so that the nanowire
network acts as a strain sensor.
Applying voltage made the nanowire
network very hot at the points of
high resistance, where the nanowires
meet. This localised heating welds
the nanowires together, forming
a highly conductive �rmly bonded
network that the researchers claim is
impervious to stretching and �exing.
“The versatility of this sensor
WMG’s Professor Paul Jennings,
lead of the Midlands Future Mobility
project said: “The development and
deployment of CAVs is led by the
desire of both policy makers and the
public to make transportation safer
accuracy and
reducing import
errors.”
ANSYS
collaborated
with several industry leading
companies, led by Intel, to
develop thermal model exchange
standards. The companies
validated that the �le exchange
format met the necessary criteria
and have endorsed the ANSYS
open neutral �le format standard.
David Ochoa, data centre
platform applications engineer,
Intel added: “Productivity
enables it to operate in water and air
environments. It also has the ability
to measure vibration, touch and �ow,
which is unique in the realm of tactile
sensors,” explained the researchers.
The next step is to gain greater
control over where the nanowires
weld, giving the researchers the
ability to draw precise conductive
patterns into the arti�cial skin.
and more e�cient.”
The evaluations will not just
be on vehicle and infrastructure
technologies, but also on how it can
be used and developed to bring new
and enhanced services to drivers
and passengers, and to enable CAVs
to provide a range of new services to
communities and business.
The Meridian 3 programme
extends CAV testing from urban
areas to include rural and highway
environments, both of which will
provide new opportunities for future
CAV deployment and adoption.
is expected to increase with
automation and custom tools
will be directly compatible
with commercial software via
this standard. Intel’s customer
support for thermal simulation
will be simpli�ed and streamlined
since we can provide customers a
single format rather than spend
time developing, validating and
supporting multiple types.”
MOVERS &
SHAKERS
BCAS ANNOUNCES
NEW PRESIDENT
The British Compressed Air
Society (BCAS) has
announced Jason Morgan,
managing director of HPC as
its new President. Morgan,
who has been BCAS vice
president since June this
year, takes over the role
from James Maziak,
managing director of Maziak
Compressors.
FORMER F1
PROFESSIONAL
JOINS KWSP
High performance
engineering consultancy,
KWSP, has added signi�cant
motorsport expertise to its
growing business after
appointing former F1
programme planner Henry
Jones, to its senior team.
With �ve years at Mercedes
AMG Petronas, Jones brings
a wealth of valuable
experience to Brackley-
based KWSP.
NEW APPOINTMENTS
TO BCGA COUNCIL
Suzanne Lowe and Lucia
Sainz de Mier have been
appointed to the leadership
and governance roles in the
British Compressed Gases
Association (BCGA). Both
have years of experience in
the industry, operating at a
highly strategic level. Lowe
is BOC’s head of operations
for the UK and Ireland, and
Sainz de Mier is the
managing director of Air
Liquide UK.
NEWS | EUREKA!
NEW GLOBAL
TECHNOLOGY
CENTRE
THE SECRETARY OF State for
Business, Energy and Industrial
Strategy, Greg Clark, and the chief
executive of GKN Aerospace,
Hans Büthker have revealed plans
for GKN Aerospace’s new Global
Technology Centre in the UK.
The centre – funded by a £17m
commitment from GKN Aerospace
and a £15m commitment from
the UK Government, through the
Aerospace Technology Institute
– is expected to open in 2020. The
10,000m2 facility will host 300
highly skilled engineers, and will
include collaborative space for
research and development with
universities, the UK’s Catapult
network and GKN Aerospace’s UK
supply chain.
The new facility will focus on
additive manufacturing (AM),
advanced composites, assembly
and industry 4.0 processes to
enable the high rate production
of aircraft structures. The
facility will serve as a base for
GKN Aerospace’s technology
partnership in Airbus’ “Wing
of Tomorrow” technology
programme as well as new additive
manufacturing programmes.
SOLUTION TO LAST MONTH’S
COFFEE TIME CHALLENGE
The solution to last month’s
Co�ee Time Challenge to design
a portable system for helping
workers who �nd themselves in
scenarios where a second pair of
hands or eyes would be of huge
bene�t comes from researchers
from Keio University Graduate
School of Media Design and the
University of Tokyo, Japan.
They have devised a remote
collaboration system called
Fusion, a wearable, backpack-like
device that includes a wireless
camera system and a set of robotic
arms linked to a PC-connected
10
UK team in Ocean
Discovery XPRIZE �nal
A TEAM OF subsea engineering
experts, based in the North East,
is preparing to represent the UK in
the �nal of the prestigious $7m Shell
Ocean Discovery XPRIZE competition
to map the sea �oor.
TeamTao, the only UK team and
one of the smallest to reach the
grand �nal, has headed to Greece
to �eld test its technology, which
aims to create next generation tools
and techniques for rapid, unmanned
ocean exploration and discovery.
The eight teams get 24 hours
to map as much of the 500km2
area of sea�oor as possible at a
resolution of 5m horizontally and
microcontroller.
The camera is mounted over
the shoulder of the wearer and
0.5m vertically, using autonomous
swarm system technology, and
identify 10 archaeological, biological
or geological features of interest at
any depth. There can be no human
intervention and the equipment must
�t within a 40ft container.
Dale Wakeham, TeamTao project
leader, said: “The team has been
working tirelessly during the last six
months to develop and re�ne the
technology and we are looking forward
to representing the UK in such a
prestigious international arena.”
The team that wins gets $4m.
Second place earns $1m. The winners
will be announced this March.
sends visual and aural information
back to an Oculus Rift VR headset
worn by a remote operator who
can move the robotic limbs via
a pair of motion controllers.
The camera is also embedded
with sensors that mimic the
head movements of the remote
operator.
The aim of Fusion is to promote
collaboration, learning at a
distance and even rehabilitation.
While Fusion is still in the prototype
stage, it’s creators are currently in
the process of turning the device
into a marketable product.
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019
BUSINESS
NEWS
£175K INVESTMENT
SPARKS GROWTH
Alongside a 50% company
growth and an employee
increase of 30%, Belfast
based McGreevy Engineering
has injected a £175,000
investment to enhance its
advanced technology.
HYPERDRIVE
SECURES £6.7M
FUNDING
Hyperdrive Innovation, the
developer and manufacturer
of lithium-ion battery
technology, has announced
an additional £6.7 million of
equity funding from its
existing shareholder base.
The funding will support the
Company’s growth plans in
the UK and internationally, as
well as ensuring it is debt free.
SCHAEFFLER
ACQUIRES ELMOTEC
STATOMAT
Automotive and industrial
supplier Schae�er has
acquired Elmotec Statomat
Holding, a German
manufacturer of production
machinery for the high-
volume construction of
electric motors, for an
undisclosed sum.
ADI LAUNCHES
VERTICAL
TRANSPORTATION
DIVISION
In response to growing
demand from customers, the
multidisciplinary engineering
�rm, adi Group has launched
its Vertical Transport Lift &
Escalator Consultancy to
o�er services to clients in
commercial, retail,
manufacturing, healthcare,
residential, leisure, hotel and
pharmaceutical
environments.
COVER STORY | AI AND ROBOTICS
THE RISE OF
CREATIVE
ROBOTICISTS
The entertainment industry has co-opted industrial robots for
�lming special e�ects sequences. Now, lessons learned here are
�ltering back into industry. Tom Austin-Morgan reports.
B
ack in 2014 a company
called Bot & Dolly used
Autodesk’s Maya 3D
modelling software to
build a revolutionary software tool
called BDMove. With this tool, the
two robots owned by the company,
Iris and Scout, could be operated
more intuitively by people with no
experience of coding movements
into industrial robots.
Evan Atherton, senior research
engineer, Autodesk Robotics
Lab, explains: “What they were
doing was so exciting that Google
acquired them. Shortly after the
acquisition, Bot & Dolly went dark
– because Google – and with them
so did their tool. So, even though
they built this super awesome tool,
nobody had access to it anymore.”
The work Bot & Dolly did
inspired Atherton to create his own
similar tool, but he soon found that
he wasn’t the only one attempting
this.
“The problem was we were all
building the same tool,” he says.
“One of the major trends that we
found in our research, is that people
keep building the same robotics
tools over and over and over, not
because they want to but because
they lack access to tools that have
already been created.”
To fight this trend, Atherton
designed and released Mimic, a
free, open-source software that
provides intuitive animation-
based tools in Autodesk Maya for
programming industrial robots.
This gives access to anyone who
wants to use Mimic and through it
12
the animation tools contained within
Maya, the opportunity to build on
it, modify it and contribute back to
help other users of the software.
“There are more people who can
animate on Maya than are trained as
professional roboticists,” Atherton
says. “If you take a 15-minute
YouTube tutorial on Maya, you can
programme a robot.”
One project that made use of
Mimic was headed up by visual
effects artist Landis Fields. Fields
wanted to shoot a chase sequence
using a physical model spaceship
for a series he is developing at his
studio. For the dynamic movement
he wanted to create two robots
were used, one to hold and move
the model and another to hold and
move the camera.
INTUITIVE PROGRAMMING
Fields had no prior experience
with programming industrial
robots, but Mimic allowed him to
create a virtual camera to visualise
the movements of the model and
input keyframe animation, enter
specific positions the model and the
camera needed to hit while moving
and the time intervals between
these. Mimic then interpolates the
movements required to recreate
this animatic, allowing the user to
edit out moments where the model
leaves the frame, crashes into the
camera, etc. All this information is
then exported as a program for the
robots to follow and hours later the
scene can be filmed.
Atherton says: “In a world
where it can take weeks or months
to programme a single robot in a
factory cell, the fact that Landis
– who has never touched a robot –
programmed two robots to work
together to do something this
complex overnight is insane. It
probably took us longer to wire the
LEDs into the model ship than it did
for us to programme the robots.”
This deviates from the way those
in industry currently programme
their robots by painstakingly
entering lines of code that
correspond to movements to
specific locations, carrying out a
task, moving to another specific
space and repeat.
To combat this in industry,
Autodesk’s Robotics Lab is looking
for ways for users to better interact
with their robots to accomplish
their goals. To this end Heather
Kerrick, senior research engineer
at the Autodesk Robotics Lab in
San Francisco has been working
with colleagues in Autodesk’s
Technology Centre in Birmingham
which opened in early 2018.
The collaboration has
developed a simple interface that
allows text commands to be sent
through an app called ‘Slack’ and
Forge, Autodesk’s cloud-based
developer, to the robot which then
carries out tasks such as cutting
and milling.
“Forge makes a tool path, gives
you a preview, you can say ‘yes’
or ‘no’, then say ‘please send this
to the robot’ and the robot runs
the milling operation,” explains
Kerrick. “The operator didn’t need
to set the whole robot up, they’re
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019
 Pic Credit: Bot & Dolly / Google

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 13

COVER STORY | AI AND ROBOTICS
now able to accomplish the task
they need to accomplish, which is
dealing with the STL and approving
what the robot is doing. We think
that enabling these kinds of ways to
talk to your machines will be part of
the future of making and part of how
automation can scale.”
The team at the Birmingham
facility even installed a camera into
the robot’s cell so, after the milling
is completed, the robot can hold
the part up for visual inspection,
meaning the operator doesn’t even
have to be in the same building.
“We’re trying to find future ways
of working with robots, it’s hard
when those future tools don’t exist
yet,” Kerrick says. “I’ve been using
Mimic as a project environment, as
a proxy, for creating other software
workflows.
ASSEMBLY
“The project that I’ve been working
on is ‘CIRA’ (CAD Informed
Robotic Assembly), the idea is
that assemblies already have a
ton of information baked into them
about how the different parts
relate to one another. Exploded
assemblies are often used as actual
assembly instructions, yet they’re
not really machine-readable,
there’s a lot of information that gets
lost in translation between all the
painstaking work that goes into
putting your assembly together,
putting in constraints, putting in
joints and then getting it to a factory
line that actually puts those parts
together. Their needs to be some
sort of intermediary that can read
the assembly and then turn that
14
into individual bits of machine
instruction.”
The goal of the CIRA project is
to try to pull as much information
out of an existing assembly while
minimising engagement with the
robot to simplify the task. To do
this, Kerrick used CAD data from a
Lego car, exploded all the parts and
figured out the best way in which
they would have to be placed back
together by the robots, one with a
gripper – to pick and place – and
one with a plunger – to press the
pieces together.
“That’s the kind of thing that
shows up a lot in assemblies,”
Kerrick explains. “One bolt might
block access to another so, that first
one needs to be put in in a very
particular order. That’s the kind of
information that the designer of that
part may know and needs to convey
to whoever’s going to be driving the
machinery.”
Still, the easiest way to get a
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK |
BRICK BY BRICK
Another Autodesk
project, based at
the San Francisco AI
Lab, developing AI in
industrial robots is
‘BrickBot’.
Led by Autodesk’s
head of machine
intelligence, Mike
Haley, BrickBot can build a tower from
di�erent sized Lego bricks with no
programming. Again, this application is at
a very early stage and isn’t the intended
end-use, but industrial robotics is one of
the biggest segments that’s going to see a
huge impact from AI.
Haley says: “The irony of this is that
as we’ve looked at things like generative
design and techniques to make design
more e�cient, manufacturing hasn’t
become more e�cient. So, great, we can
design things 10 times faster, but we have
to still make them at the same pace as we
did before.”
Haley uses the example of a car
manufacturing plant. Generally, one model
of car is produced on each production
line because it would be too expensive
to recon�gure the line every time a new
model was designed or sold.
“Today, most factories are dumb,
they’re predicated on making things in very
large quantities in a very predictable way,”
He says. “Everything’s always in exactly
the same place and the same thing is going
to be done over and over and over again.
If you change the design, all of a sudden
those repeatable processes get broken
and you have to recon�gure them.
“So, how could we use digital
information to make factories adaptable,
instead of just the stupid process over and
over again. Wherever a component is lying
the robot can look for it, �nd it, pick it up
and do whatever it needs to do with it.
JANUARY 2019
COVER STORY | AI AND ROBOTICS
robot to move to a particular place
is to give it a very precise location.
She created a fixture plate with
each item of the Lego car in pre-
determined locations on the plate.
Using Mimic she ran the explosion
of the pieces from a fully-built car
to the individual components in the
fixture plate in reverse to create
assembly instructions showing the
car building itself. This was fed into
Mimic which describes to the robots
the exact distances the pieces must
travel to their final location and
click into place.
What’s more, because this
application is based around
measurements defined by the
fixture plate, the plate can be
moved anywhere within the reach
of the robots and they will still be
able to carry out the assembly.
Building a car from Lego is
obviously just a demonstration
of Kerrick’s early stage research
with CIRA, but it signals the
potential major consequences in
industrial applications where robots
are currently fixed and work in
precisely programmed locations.
Not too far in the future Industry
4.0, smart factories and mass
customisation will require robots to
work more flexibly.
COLLABORATION
“Maya and Mimic are great
prototyping tools for exploring this
larger workflow, especially when
it comes to where the robots are
in a factory environment,” Kerrick
says. “What I’m really excited about
for CIRA 2.0 is giving the robot a
higher-level command, like ‘please
16
go pick up that part’ and the robot
will go to a region it knows that part
is, use a camera to see that part and
grasp it.
“Evan and I are working together
to merge our two projects. It’s
still early stages, but we’re really
excited about the potential future
for making robots easier for people
to control and making it so you
can ask higher-level questions as
opposed to get into the nitty gritty of
very particular turning angles and
locations in 3D space.”
Atherton concluded: “There’s
been a ton of anxiety lately about
robots and automation displacing
humans, much of which is well-
founded. But we’re working towards
a brighter future where a new breed
of technically-literate creatives
have access to intuitive design tools
that enable them to do more than
they were capable of doing before,
to better express their creativity
and to do it all with less technical
barriers.” !
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK |
In order to do that the robot needs
to sense its environment, it needs to
understand its environment and it needs to
understand what to do. We can’t program
robots constantly to do that, so we have to
have a learning system.”
This is the reason Lego bricks have been
used to teach the robot how to build. First,
there are many different sized bricks that
the robot must learn the shape of and
there are many ways in which they could be
oriented and combined to produce the final
model. Second, Lego bricks might be easy
for us to put together, even as children, but
for robots it’s very difficult as they have
a tolerance of 0.1mm when being placed
directly together.
The robots, a UR10 and a UR5 cobot
fitted with cameras and sensors, have
been trained only by digital means. Digital
simulations of robots grasping bricks can
be run in parallel and at incredible speed
meaning in just a few hours 10 million
attempts can be simulated. And, once
learned, the robot never forgets.
“Let’s take this away from Lego,” says
Haley. “Imagine you’re a designer in a
manufacturing company: You’ve finished
your design, it’s been approved, you’ve
checked it in, it goes into the system, you
go home. That digital model gets loaded
out of the system, put in a simulator, the AI
starts training against it overnight in the
cloud. By the next morning the model has
been updated with the understanding of
how to work with your component, all the
robots in the factory are now ready to go
with the thing you designed just the night
before. It’s that kind of turnaround where
AIs can now adapt to new digital models,
that can learn quickly.”
The BrickBot project is about to
be tested by a manufacturer and a
construction company with items more
complex than Lego bricks. Haley says
it’s likely to be commercialised in less
than 10 years.
JANUARY 2019
ON THE TOPIC OF | AUTOMATION
BETTER LIVING
THROUGH
AUT MATI N
Autodesk’s CEO, Andrew Anagnost talks about how
automation has the potential to change not just industries
but entire cities. Tom Austin- Morgan reports.
“A
utomation is changing
the very things we’re
capable of making and
how we make them.”
These were the opening words of
Anagnost’s introduction to Autodesk
University 2018. “Automation is
introducing new ecosystems, new
jobs and whole new ways of working.”
Last year Anagnost talked about
automation not as a threat but as an
opportunity to make more things,
make them better, and with less
negative impact on the world. This
year’s speech was entitled ‘the
opportunity of better’, and how
automation will free people from
repetitive tasks, letting them get
on with more creative, stimulating,
better work.
For example, Anagnost says: “In
1900 40% of the United States worked
in farming. Today only 2% of us do.
Automation has enabled us to use
farmland more effectively and with
better precision, and in place of
repetitive jobs there’s a whole new
ecosystem of jobs. Better jobs.”
The transportation industry is
likely to be the next big industry to
feel the effects of automation. With
the advent of autonomous vehicles
fewer people will be employed as
drivers, just as there are fewer people
employed to build cars. But again,
Anagnost points out that more jobs
will be created just as they have in
other areas.
“How many sustainability
coordinators existed a decade ago?
How many cloud architects, user
18
experience architects, data scientists,
drone operators, big data analysts,
even BIM managers? Automating
repetitive tasks doesn’t make the
tasks we do redundant, it means we
have more time to focus on what adds
value.”
He explains that we shouldn’t
spend time being concerned about
jobs going away, what we should
concern ourselves with is how jobs
are changing and what skills will be
needed to thrive in the future.
Having grown up in Los Angeles,
the fact that the city will host the
Olympic Games in 2028 has attracted
Anagnost’s attention.
“Los Angeles is a very diverse
and dynamic place,” he says. “It has
more of everything: More people,
more celebrities, more beaches,
more culture – though some people
might not call it culture – more theme
parks. One thing people don’t know
is that Los Angeles County has more
manufacturing jobs than any other
county in the US. But more comes at
a real cost: Alongside LA’s population
diversity, you’ll find population
density. Alongside LA’s culture,
you’ll find incredible congestion – its
commuters spend an extra two weeks
per year stuck in traffic.”
The population of LA will be twice
as big in 2028 as it was when it hosted
the Olympics in 1984. Additionally, 2
million more people will arrive in the
city from all over the world looking for
comfortable housing, good food and a
great experience. LA has a decade to
plan for the 16-day competition and,
like so many
host cities
before, legacy
is a big focus
when the
circus leaves
town. How will
automation help
LA meet the needs
of both the athletes and
visitors as well as its citizens
in future?
“Take the design of the athlete’s
village for example,” explains
Anagnost. “After most Olympics
these developments are usually
turned into low-income housing. But
the short-term needs of world-class
athletes and the long-term needs of
low-income families (that often inherit
the apartments after the Games) often
compete.”
Failing to meet the design
challenges this poses is why some
host cities’ Olympic facilities have
failed to provide a legacy and have
instead become white elephants.
“Today, you would typically
approach a design challenge like
this with ‘the waterfall process’,” he
explains. “Designing through cycles
of work and re-work; re-drawing what
has already been drawn; re-detailing
what has already been detailed; re-
creating what already exists; and
dealing with the inevitable problems
that cascade from all the re-work
and re-dos, leaving a lot less time to
use creativity to solve real problems
and less time to address all the
requirements that could have been,
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019
 leaving the promise of the athlete’s
village exactly that: a promise.
“In 1900 40% “Automation is going to
of the United States allow us to explore dozens of
worked in farming design options really early
Today only 2% of us do. in the design process and
Automation has enabled share the ones that best
us to use farmland meet the requirements with
more e�ectively all of the disciplines most
of us consider downstream
and with better
today. These tools are going
precision.” to give real-time feedback on
the constructability, the cost, the
reliability and the risk of our designs.”
Instant, automated communication
of changes to the design will not just
keep all those involved in the project
informed, it also means that the model
will actually represent exactly what is
built with no compromises.
The other area Anagnost
sees automation helping during
the Olympics is around the
visitor experience. The design
of reconfigurable food trucks,
for example, which could be
manufactured, deployed and moved
around the city to meet demand in
certain areas where it is high.
This big data approach to a public
event can even help the organisers
plan the locations for the various
stadia and facilities to prevent
congestion – something that LA is
infamous for. To this end, Autodesk
is working with design consultancy,
Atkins on a project to do just that.
Using Autodesk’s Forge cloud-
based development platform and
knowledge gleaned from helping
plan the London Games in 2012,
Atkins has developed an app that
allows city planners to fi nd the
optimum position for buildings in
terms of the price of the land and
possible congestion that could build
up around them.
“When all of these digital assets
are combined, anyone can look
across a digital twin of the entire city
that aggregates data in real time,”
Anagnost concludes. “You can always
fi nd food when you need it, athletes
can always get to where they need
to go, and the city can look out for
hazards or congestion and stop them
before they even happen.
“Automation makes the whole
experience better for everyone.
That’s what ‘the opportunity of better’
is all about; better knowledge; better
insights; better outcomes.” !

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 19

BEEAS | 10th ANNIVERSARY
A DECADE OF EXCELLENCE
The British Engineering Excellence
Awards were launched in 2009 to
champion and celebrate design
innovation and excellence. Since then,
the BEEAs has grown in stature as has
the number of companies entering
to win the foremost engineering
accolade for design.
he BEEAs has been
T highlighting the breadth
and depth of the UK’s
design engineering
community and how they are
competing on a global stage for the
last 10 years. Winners of the Grand
Prix, the best-of-the-best of each
year, have ranged from individual
engineers doing outstanding
work both in their industries and
communities, to small companies
with staff numbers in the single-
digits, to larger OEMs.
Each year, hundreds of entries are
debated and analysed by a judging
panel of industry experts, which
includes the winners of the previous
year’s Grand Prix and Design
Engineer of the Year Awards.
Cambridge Consultants has
been a headline sponsor of the event
since 2009. Its CEO, Eric Wilkinson
says: “Cambridge Consultants has
supported the BEEAs right from their
inception, because we believed that
the quality of depth of engineering
talent here in Britain needed to be
highlighted and celebrated. The
BEEAs do more than give engineers a
lift for a day – they inform and inspire
fellow engineers, entrepreneurs,
investors and, perhaps most
importantly, graduates and students
to be proud of what they are part
of and to give free rein to their
ambition.”
20
2009 WINNERS
GRAND PRIX
Sponsored by: Electronics
Leadership Council
Winner: Flybrid Systems
JUDGES’ SPECIAL AWARD
Sponsored by: Bloodhound SSC
Winner: Lotus Engineering
CONSULTANCY OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: Prototype Projects
Winner: Plextek
DESIGN ENGINEER OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: Element 14
Winner: Mark Sanders,
MAS Design Products
Highly commended: Dr Robin
Taylor
of Lein Applied Diagnostics
YOUNG DESIGN ENGINEER
OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: RS Components
Winner: Oliver Start, Powelectrics
IN RETROSPECT
This is the first in a series of features
looking back at the past winners
of these awards and seeing how
winning has affected them and their
business.
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK |
NEW ELECTRONIC PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: New Electronics
Winner: Electrosonic, VN Matrix
Highly commended: Entries from
Atlantic Inertial Systems and Cambridge
Semiconductor.
GREEN PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: Centre for
Remanufacture and Reuse
Winner: Artemis Intelligent Power
NEW MECHANICAL PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: Eureka
Winner: Blatchford
Highly commended: Oxford Instruments
Nanoscience’s entry.
SMALL COMPANY OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: Technology Strategy Board
Winner: Specialised Imaging
START UP OF THE YEAR
Sponsored by: Cambridge Consultants
Winner: Flybrid Systems
The inaugural British Engineering
Excellence Awards ceremony took
place at a gala luncheon on 1 October
2009 at London’s Globe Theatre. The
winners are listed above.
JANUARY 2019

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?
Start Up of the Year winner, Flybrid
Systems, also won the prestigious
Grand Prix for its elegant kinetic
energy recovery system (KERS)
solution. The Flybrid KERS device
could be fitted to road and racing cars
to reduce fuel consumption and CO2
emissions. It could also be scaled up
for use on busses, trucks and even
trains. What’s more, it cost a third of
the key competitor product.
Founded in 2007 by Jon Hilton and
Doug Cross (pictured in the centre of
the group shot above), the company
began operations from the Silverstone
Park Innovation Centre.
Hilton recalls: “It was just Doug and
I and one paid employee in a 500ft²
office – we couldn’t manufacture
anything in there of course, but we
could draw and sub-contract out to
people with equipment to machine
and build components.
“The start date was 2 January
2007 and by Christmas that year we
were testing on a dyno – by March
2008 we’d landed a big contract with
Jaguar-Land Rover and by July we had
moved into a 7000ft² premises 200
yards away.
“In winter 2008 we saw product
finally in a vehicle and since then
it’s snowballed. In our fourth year
of trading 100% of our sales was
export. We now have UK customers,
but we’ve done business around the
JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK
Flybrid is today
regarded as one of the
leaders in mechanical
hybrids in the world. The
company also has
world in China
55 patents pending targets.
and the USA, “I’ve always
which did surprise globally punched above my
me to start with. weight in the size of
“We’re now 23 the projects I’ve taken
people. We’ve designed, on, but getting the message
developed and built 12 systems for across that you’re capable of bigger
different vehicles from companies projects is quite difficult. This last 10
such as Volvo, Jaguar, the Wright Bus years, the hard work I’ve put in prior
group and JCB excavators, plus we to that has come to fruition.
are now owned by the Torotrak group “I’ve taken on much bigger
which has 80 or so engineers.” international clients like Mando in
Flybrid is now regarded as one of South Korea and Xaiomi in China.
the leaders in mechanical hybrids in They’re the sort of places that a small
the world. The company also has 55 company like mine wouldn’t normally
patents pending globally. get a look in.”
Mark Sanders of MAS Design When asked if he had plans
Products won the Design Engineer to expand the company, Sanders
of the Year in 2009 (above right) says: “No, I just love the hands-on
having been judged to be prolific, engineering design. I’ve employed
practical and creative, with a wide people in the past but missed doing
range of design expertise. The judges the work myself. I just want to do more
were particularly impressed with his and more ambitious projects.
involvement in the education of the “I’d encourage all engineers
next generation of engineers, running particularly to enter the BEEAs.
workshops in schools and universities Designers are so much more forward
in the UK and internationally. about putting themselves forward
An engineer and designer and engineers don’t promote
describing himself as a ‘one-man themselves as much. It’s bad for the
band’, Sanders says: “My career industry because it doesn’t promote
really took off since then, I’m sure engineering as a career.”
it’s no coincidence. Having such an We will be covering the 2010
Award verifies your reputation and Awards in the February issue. Entries
adds some gravitas. Getting the for the ‘10th Anniversary’ awards will
Award also boosted my confidence open in the Spring. Visit www.beeas.
when pitching to bigger companies co.uk to pick up some top tips on
and allowed me to reach for higher entering your submissions. !
21
 ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | INNOVATION

PUTTING
3D PRINTING
TO WORK
As a leading player in the additive manufacturing
market, the latest developments in metals
and plastics from Stratasys are inevitably
going to be significant.

S
tratasys has released further landscape – presenting a
details of its new platform viable alternative to typical
currently being developed production methods –
and designed for short-run and helping customers
metal applications. First unveiled dramatically reduce
earlier this year, the additive platform the costs of creating
is based on Stratasys’ innovative, reliable, consistent
first-of-its-kind ‘Layered Powder production-grade,
Metallurgy’ (LPM) technology, metal parts for short-
designed to make production of metal run applications.”
parts quicker, easier and more cost- Developed
effective than ever before. internally over the
Intended to disrupt conventional past several years,
manufacturing approaches, Stratasys’ platform
the advanced platform is being incorporates the
developed to combine the value of company’s proprietary
additive manufacturing with short- jetting technology and
run metal parts production. The commonly-used powder
innovative technology is built to drive metallurgy, starting with
improved efficiency and cost savings offering aluminium
using standard Powder Metallurgy powders. The LPM
(PM) alloys, mechanical properties solution includes a
with high accuracy and controlled three-step additive
shrinkage – as well as extremely fast manufacturing process
throughput. combining traditional
“We note that current approaches powder metallurgy with
to 3D printing metal parts leave a Stratasys’ PolyJet robust
lot to be desired – including slow ink-jet technology. The
post-processing, painstakingly process includes printing
intricate support removal, and of boundaries with
hours of matching and grinding. proprietary thermal
Combined with the high cost of ink, powder dispensing
AM powders, this means each part and spreading, and
is expensive, with a total cost of then compaction of the
ownership that is too hard to justify,” powder layer to achieve
said Rafie Grinvald, director of high-density and
product marketing and management, controllable shrinkage.
Stratasys. “Our new platform is being The end result
designed to transform the current is intended to be
metals additive manufacturing economically

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 23

ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING | INNOVATION
competitive vis-à-vis cost-per-
part and throughput with easy to
implement post-processing and
extremely high part quality.
Stratasys is currently in closed-
loop feedback discussions with OEMs
and Tier-one suppliers on the new
metals platform.
Away from metals, Stratasys is
also bringing to market advanced
elastomers and enhanced materials
for its leading FDM and PolyJet
machines. Enabling customers to
make it today with 3D Printing, the
FDM elastomer solution is intended
to provide manufacturers with
new levels of elasticity, durability
with true soluble support – while
advanced colours for PolyJet
drive enhanced realism to
transform legacy design and
prototyping processes.
Empowering engineers
with fast, accurate, and
functional elastomers,
customers can now
produce parts with
unique resilience – with
an ability to greatly stretch
or compress without losing
shape. Offered across the F123
3D Printer platform and via North
America’s leading service provider,
Stratasys Direct Manufacturing,
the Stratasys TPU 92A Elastomer
is designed to meet the needs of
manufacturers requiring high part
elongation, superior toughness, and
full design freedom. With hands-free
soluble support, the solution can
significantly reduce both production
time and labour costs.
“Creating elastomer parts using
traditional silicone or CNC molds
are extremely costly and time-
consuming – while it is our view
that other additive techniques just
cannot deliver parts with the size
and complexity of our elastomer
approach,” Zehavit Reisin, vice
president and head of solutions
and materials business, Stratasys.
“Manufacturers demand 3D printing
solutions that can be put to work
in real prototyping and extreme
production environments. With
reliable and highly resilient parts,
our solutions are designed to enable
customers to do just that.”
“The new Stratasys 92A is
a compelling material for our
consortium members because when
24
“We note that
current approaches
to 3D printing metal parts
leave a lot to be desired combined with water
– including slow post- soluble supports, it will
processing, painstakingly provide them with the
intricate support removal, opportunity to produce
and hours of matching medium to large, complex,
and grinding” durable and resilient
elastomeric parts that were
previously not feasible,” said
Vince Anewenter, director of rapid
prototyping consortium, Milwaukee
School of Engineering.
Further advancing realism for
3D printed prototypes, Stratasys
also announced a range of new
materials for its J750 and J735 PolyJet
3D Printers. These enhancements
include five new materials with
an ability to mimic rubber, leather
or plastic. These highly realistic
prototypes are designed to enable
teams to better meet specific design
objectives, streamline iterations, and
shorten time-to-market.
The Agilus30 White material can
mirror such parts as rubber-like
seals and gaskets for automakers
– or vividly coloured models used
for prototypes in sporting goods,
consumer electronic components,
or toys/figurines. Mixing both rigid
and soft materials, Agilus30 White
produces the widest range of life-like
prototypes on a single printer. The
newest member of the Agilus family
of colours that includes translucent
and black, Agilus White creates the
highest levels of detail – critical for
such industries as healthcare, where
true white is necessary for such
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK |
applications as medical devices.
VeroVivid Cyan expands the J750
and J735 gamut to more than half
a million distinguishable colours
– encompassing rigid to opaque,
flexible and transparent. Producing
vibrant colours and translucency in
a single print, VeroVivid Cyan and
the new VeroFlexVivid engineer
effective, realistic prototypes for
such markets as consumer goods,
packaging, and eyewear. Supported
by enhanced GrabCAD Print colour
profiles, designers can actually “print
what they see” with enhanced colour
accuracy.
Delivering on previously
announced roadmaps, Stratasys is
also now making its PEKK-based
FDM thermoplastic – Antero800NA
– available on F900 3D Printers.
This high-performance material
is chemical resistant, possesses
ultra-low outgassing properties, and
exhibits high heat resistance.
MED625FLX is a bio-compatible
material, well-suited for dental and
orthodontic applications such as
indirect bonding (IDB) trays and
implantology case work ups. Now
available on both Objet260 Dental
and Objet260/500 Dental Selection
3D Printers, the material is designed
to advance Indirect Bonding Trays by
allowing the direct printing of flexible
IDB trays and is built to enable
orthodontists to reduce bracket
placement times up to 75% and cut
the cost for labs to produce by 40%. !
JANUARY 2019
SENSORS, TEST & MEASUREMENT | METALLURGY
RISE OF THE
INTELLIGENT
METAL TUBE
A fusion of advanced stainless steel and cloud technology is giving
engineers unprecedented insight into industrial and chemical
processes across several sectors. Erika Hedblom, manager
intelligent tube systems at Sandvik Materials Technology, explains.
F
rom smart homes to
connected cars, data
gathering and analytics are
inexorably finding their way
into every aspect of technology,
blurring the traditional distinction
between hardware and software.
One striking example of this trend
comes from the stainless steel
industry, where advanced metallurgy
is getting a boost from sensor
technology and 4G connectivity,
resulting in the intelligent metal tube.
For more than a century, the
stainless steel tube has been a
hardware mainstay in a large
variety of different industries.
Sandvik Materials Technology
manufactures tubes from high-
performance stainless steel alloys,
with applications including chemical
processing, industrial heating,
power generation and petrochemical
plants. In such facilities, tubes are the
building blocks for the vast systems
of piping that not only conduct
materials, but often also play host to
crucial chemical processes.
Surprisingly, the ability to
closely monitor conditions inside
the tube has been very limited.
This was especially true in the case
of harsh processes involving very
high temperatures or corrosive
substances. But these are the very
processes where technicians need to
have optimal insight in order to act,
rather than relying on a combination
of deduction, intuition and post-failure
troubleshooting.
26
WHAT YOU DON’T analytics to deliver detailed and
KNOW CAN HURT YOU actionable insights.
Stainless steel tubes are selected
largely for their material properties, THE SYSTEM EXPLAINED
with different grades exhibiting Each intelligent tube contains highly
varying degrees of hardness, sensitive sensors embedded within
corrosion resistance, yield strength the metal wall, thus avoiding direct
and tensility. These properties contact between the sensor and the
are conferred by the precise internal chemical processes taking
combination of elements in each place in often harsh conditions within
grade; differing proportions of the tubal cavity. However, their
nickel, chromium, molybdenum and proximity is such that the sensors
manganese determine the material’s are able to collect accurate
microstructure and performance readings of the tube’s
under different environmental internal environment,
conditions. including
Once in place, the hardware temperature What technicians
experiences stresses including fluctuations, really needed was a
temperature fluctuations, physical vibration and way to monitor conditions
strain, corrosion and vibrations. physical strain. with accuracy and in real
These are often dynamic, varying This data time, enabling a shift
in rate and intensity over time, is collected from a routine and
which makes it difficult to accurately and sent reactive approach
predict damage and eventual failure. continuously to an intelligent and
The classic approach has been a via cables to the proactive one
combination of regular assessments signal conditioning
and reacting to problems as they equipment, where
arise. From a commercial point of
view, this results in costly downtime
and maintenance or repair costs.
What technicians really needed
was a way to monitor conditions with
accuracy and in real time, enabling
a shift from a routine and reactive
approach to an intelligent and
proactive one. This is what Sandvik
set out to achieve when developing
Sentusys. The new intelligent tube
system connects integrated sensors
with cloud computing and data
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019
a gateway employs 4G technology
and local output for real-time
production process control.
Technicians can closely monitor
conditions and respond to potential
issues before they become limiting,
avoiding downtime and maintaining
operational efficiency.
In addition to this local processing,
the system is connected via 4G to a
cloud-based Microsoft Azure data
platform, where the readings are
transmitted and stored for deeper
analysis yielding, for example, longer
term insights into trends and patterns.
Sandvik’s research and
development team were faced
with considerable challenges in
developing the new technology. The
intelligent tubes had to combine the
accuracy and sensitivity of a digital
system with the hard-wearing quality
required of physical equipment
exposed to harsh industrial
processes. They therefore had to
be fully load-carrying and tough
enough to withstand the thermal,
chemical and physical stresses being
monitored.
The system also had to be versatile
and adaptable for use with a variety
of stainless steel grades, given
ABOUT the breadth of tube applications,
THE each calling for different material
AUTHOR properties to deliver optimal
Erika Hedblom, performance. Sentusys intelligent
manager tube can indeed be made from the
intelligent tube majority of stainless steel alloys, and
systems at in a range of sizes from 15-110mm
Sandvik Materials in diameter, and up to 15m in length.
Technology Crucially, the inclusion of the sensor
system does not affect the material
certification of the metal: it simply
requires an additional 2mm thickness
to the tube wall.
INTELLIGENT TUBES
IN ACTION
Industrial boilers are one of the key
applications of intelligent tubing.
Such systems are highly sensitive
to temperature fluctuations, and
typically use cooling water to limit
thermal damage. If a technician
discovers a boiler has been
operating without sufficient cooling
water, the potential risk of damage
and failure, combined with a lack of
insight into exactly what temperatures
the system has been exposed
to, might lead to a precautionary
shutdown and costly investigation.
But with the data monitoring system in
place, it’s easy to track the condition
history and make an intelligent
assessment of likely consequences
before taking the appropriate action.
One user of the intelligent tube
system is Swedish power plant
Bomhus Energi AB, where intelligent
tubes are monitoring the inner
workings of a 150 MW bubbling fluid
bed boiler. The primary aim is to
proactively work against corrosion,
a constant risk in the low pressure,
high humidity and high temperature
environment. Technicians keep a
close eye on the thermal fluctuations
in real-time, taking action when
necessary to maintain temperatures
above the dewpoint, thus avoiding
corrosive damage to the pipes and
resultant costs.
This level of monitoring represents
the first fruits yielded by the new
technology. As the stored data
builds over time, it is anticipated that
machine learning, data mining and
artificial intelligence will be brought
into play to deliver even more
insight-driven process optimisation.
The humble steel tube now has a
brain. !

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 27

BEARINGS AND LINEAR SYSTEMS | NON-METAL BEARINGS
ANSWERING THE CO
Bearings are available in a variety of materials, the
most common being chrome steel and stainless steel.
However, these materials are not always appropriate.
N
on-metallic bearings
may not be suitable for
every application, but
in some, they are ideal.
One of these is in submerged or
saltwater environments where metal
alternatives are prone to corrosion.
Plastic bearings provide excellent
corrosion resistance and most are
also chemically resistant. These are
often made from acetal resin (POM)
but other materials are available for
stronger acids and alkalis such as
PEEK, PTFE and PVDF. These plastics
also have good resistance to chlorine
and are often used in swimming
pool equipment. However, these
should only be used in low load and
low precision applications. Equally,
bearings used across the food and
beverage industry need to be able
to handle regular wash-downs and
steam cleaning as well as potentially
corrosive fluids and materials, yet
they must also meet the industry’s
hygiene standards.
Plastic can even operate effectively
in water and salt water. What’s more,
unlike stainless steel varieties, the
bearings performance is unaffected,
even when completely submerged.
However, if used with PA66 cages
— a type of reinforced nylon — the
cage will absorb water after lengthy
exposure, causing a loss of tensile
strength for the bearing.
There is a common misconception
that all corrosion resistant bearings
are suitable for underwater use.
However, this is not the case. It is
important to consider every aspect
of the bearing before declaring it
safe to use in wet environments. For
plastic bearings, there are several
alternative materials for rings,
cages and balls, when PA66 cages
will not suffice. However, the most
appropriate choice would depend
on the required application of the
bearing.
28
Full ceramic bearings, made
from zirconia or silicon nitride
with PEEK cages and
seals are not affected
by sea water and
can therefore be
used in marine
environments,
even when fully
submerged.
However,
most ‘ceramic
bearings’
are hybrid
bearings —
the inner and
outer rings of
the bearings
are made of
steel, but the
rolling elements
of the bearing are
ceramic.
When using a hybrid
bearing, it is important to “Acetal resin
remember that the stainless steel
elements will still rust and corrode if
is the standard
used in submerged environments. material but alternatives
Ceramic bearings made from are available for greater
zirconia or silicon nitride can “Our range corrosion resistance in
operate when fully submerged and of plastic aggressive environments
are the best option if looking for a bearings
such as the chemical
complete ‘underwater bearing’. are ideal for
These bearings are unaffected by these types of industry”
seawater and operate seamlessly applications,” Chris
when permanently underwater. For Johnson, managing
complete underwater corrosion director at SMB Bearings
resistance however, the bearing said. “Plastic bearings are
may require relubrication to a more non-corrosive and are usually
suitable oil or grease. unlubricated which makes them ideal
Clearly, corrosion resistant for commercial food equipment.
is a broad specification when Acetal resin is the standard material
looking for a bearing. Whether the but alternatives are available for
application is for food processing, greater corrosion resistance in
chemical manufacturing or marine aggressive environments such as
applications, choosing the correct the chemical industry. The standard
bearing is no easy feat. In fact, the range of plastic bearings are
material, cage and lubrication all available with glass or 316 stainless
depends on the exact application of steel balls, the latter being more
the bearing. popular in food applications as the
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019
RROSION QUESTION
balls are easily detected in the event bearing and a conventional metallic
of bearing failure. bearing in salt water. Results prove
“While plastic bearings are that the use of lubrication-free and
suitable for a wide array of maintenance-free tribo-plastics
applications, they do have enables the xiros bearing to remain
limitations,” Johnson explains. completely unharmed.
“As the material is much For the experiment, the igus
softer than steel, plastic engineers filled a container with
bearings should saltwater from the sea and heated
only be used in low it to 80°C. Then two bearings were
load applications. put inside for 120 hours: a classic
However, many 2-hole flange bearing made of metal
manufacturers don’t and a xiros flange bearing made of
realise that the xirodur B180. Both bearings were not
bearings can be completely covered in the test, but
paired together exposed to air in order to trigger the
to increase their corrosion effect.
overall load “The test result spoke clearly in
capacity.” the end,” says Robert Dumayne,
The range of dry-tech director at igus. “After
plastic bearings just a few hours, the metal bearing
offered by SMB began to corrode.” At the end of the
Bearings is ideal experiment, significant traces of rust
for lower precision were visible on all the metal bearing
applications, such as components. The xiros flange ball
conveyor rollers and bearing remained untouched, even
trolleys. They can also after 120 hours in the heated salt
be supplied with flanges for water - being corrosion-free is a
easier location in a housing. clear advantage for machine builders
In a recent experiment at the designing equipment for use in
company’s dry-tech test lab in cleanrooms and food and medical
Cologne Germany, igus compared technology, where rust poses a
the resilience of its xiros flanged ball hygiene risk.
The xiros ball bearings usually
consist of four components: the inner
and outer rings as well as the cages
made of plastic and the balls made of
stainless steel or glass. Unlike metal
bearings, the wear-resistant polymer
bearings enable a very smooth and
hygienic dry operation without a
single drop of lubricating oil and are
maintenance-free. Their long service
life can be easily calculated online.
In addition, the plastic bearings
are electrically insulating,
temperature-resistant from -40
to 80°C, non-magnetic and 60%
lighter and up to 40% more cost-
effective than comparable metal
bearings. They are suitable for
absorbing medium loads and, due
to their reliability, are widely used in
conveyor belts, labelling, handling
and packaging machines as well as in
filling machines. !

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 29

MATERIALS | WEARABLES
TRULY
‘WEARABLE’
TECHNOLOGY
Utilising a very different approach to other conductive
textiles, Pireta Technology is looking to enable truly
‘wearable’ technology. Neil Tyler talks to Ian Russell
about the company and its technology.
B
ack in October, the Centre
for Process Innovation (CPI),
a UK-based technology
innovation centre and part of
the High Value Manufacturing Catapult,
announced that it would be working
with Pireta Technology to scale-up
wearable technology in textiles.
Pireta Technology has expertise in
the printed electronics sector and is
able to coat individual fibres of fabrics
with metal, creating selective patterns
to form a printed circuit board and
does this without changing the fabric’s
physical and mechanical properties.
By working with CPI, and using
its state-of-the-art equipment,
Pireta is looking to reduce existing
manufacturing timescales while
optimising the resolution of the
electrode pattern.
“Our aim is to demonstrate
the commercial viability of our
technology,” explains the company’s
Chief Commercial Officer, Ian Russell.
Pireta Technology was set
up by CEO Chris Hunt while he
worked at the National Physical
Laboratory, where he headed up a
multidisciplinary team of scientists
looking at material problems in
electronics interconnects.
“NPL were keen to commercially
exploit inventions developed in its
laboratories – and Pireta was spun out
in 2017,” says Russell.
Wearable electronics, in its
broadest sense, can include devices
like Fit-Bits and Apple watches but,
according to analysts, it’s going to be
textile-based wearables that will have
30
the biggest impact on this fast-
growing market.
“It’s the technology
“Enabling this
around adding conductivity technology will impact
to textiles, where we’re significantly on smart
seeing the real growth, textiles and wearable
and that’s where Pireta is electronics, especially
focused,” Russell says. when there is an increased
Wearable technology demand in this area
is seen as being an
intrinsic part of the Internet
from multiple
of Things and will allow industries”
devices embedded in fabrics
to send and receive data via an truly wearable smart electronic
internet connection. systems, and we’ve achieved this
Pireta’s technology has the through the attachment of copper to
potential to unlock many of the the fibres of textile yarns.”
current restrictions associated with The technical issues associated
smart textiles. with wearable fabrics are formidable.
“Enabling this technology will “At present conductivity can be
impact significantly on smart textiles added to a material in a number of
and wearable electronics, especially ways each, however, has its own
when there is an increased demand drawbacks,” according to Russell.
in this area from multiple industries,” “You can add conductivity via a
says Russell. metal coating to a fabric, but that makes
“The opportunities for textile it difficult to create a pattern so it’s not
wearables are huge. We’re talking really suitable for a printed circuit.
primarily about wearable medical “Another method is using
devices, but other opportunities exist printed inks, but while they can be
in terms of tracking an individual’s used to create a pattern, the TPU
psychological parameters in military plastics used as a base layer can
applications or the emergency impact the handling, drape and
services, for example. They can also feel of the material – the stretch and
be used in elite sports to measure breathability of material can also
stress levels.” be affected – that’s critical if you’re
deploying sensors and need them to
PATENT PENDING be in close contact with the body.
TECHNOLOGY “Another technology is conductive
Pireta has come up with a patent threads where a thread can be coated
pending technology that, according with a conductive metal – while this is
to Russell, “has the potential to enable ok it tends not to be a scalable process
W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK | JANUARY 2019

Left: A smart glove
incorporating
Pireta’s conductive
materials.
Above left : An RF
transmission line
Below left: A close up
of the coated fabric
IAN RUSSELL
CHIEF COMMERCIAL
OFFICER
With over 20 years of experience
managing early-stage
business ventures working in
high-technology sectors, Ian
Russell has built and managed
international development, sales
and service organisations. He
has negotiated multi-million
dollar technology licensing
contracts and strategic alliances
with key vendors and partners
and led three successful trade
sales of early-stage technology-
based businesses to publicly
listed companies.

and it’s awkward to connect the yarn
to a component. Soldering doesn’t
work, and while forms of stitching
and the use of certain adhesives is
possible, neither are robust.”
According to Russell, all these
technologies are problematic and
for wearable fabrics to be accepted,
they need to be not only wearable
but durable with the ability to stretch
and breath and be washable over the
longer term.
The technology devised by Pireta
enables wearable electronics to be
more discrete as the electrodes are
actually integrated into the fabric,
retaining its characteristics – the
way it feels and hangs – and can be
applied to knitted, woven and non-
woven, natural and synthetic textiles.
“Our technology enables real
‘wearable’ technology,” Russell says,
“with discrete devices disappearing
and being built into the clothes we
wear. It allows for complex designs
and patterning via a simple printing
process.”
That process involves five-stages
and employs proven aqueous
processes and commercially available
chemistries, Russell explains.
“The fabric has some pre-
conditioning, but the chemistry is
relatively straight-forward. After that
we look to activate the textile and
functionalise it. This is the key part
of the process and involves using
a jet ink printer to coat individual
fibres with a nano-metal in ionic form.
The process bonds the metal to the
individual fibres in the yarns. The
process is fundamentally the same,
whichever textile is being used.
“Once the catalyst is down we
then look to optimise its functionality
by increasing the thickness of the
metal coating. After that we use an
immersion process using silver or an
organic passivate to stop oxidising
and provide isolation.”
According to Russell, the process
gives the textiles a low sheet
resistance, creates a conductor that
does not crack, and a fabric with
the flexibility, breathability and
performance that can be maintained
even when its washed or stretched.
“We’re providing the function
of the printed circuit board on a
textile with interconnection between
components. Not only that but you can
also implement other devices such as
sensors, antennas or energy harvesting
devices simply by printing conductive
patterns – the main thing is that our
technology permits interconnectivity
between components that can now be
mounted onto textiles.
“Think of it as a form of structural
electronics, where the textile
becomes the substrate on which the
circuit is built and assembled.
“The process that we have
developed is well characterised
and understood, but while we can
prototype and undertake small
volume production, we’re not at the
stage where this is fully set up to go
into production,” Russell concedes.
“That’s why we are working with
CPI. We’re looking to go from bench
top production and scale to the point
where this process could be operated
on a roll-to-roll process.” !

JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 31


DISABILITY
CHAMPIONS
CREATE
OPPORTUNITIES
The government’s recruitment of technology and product
design disability champions represents a new chance for
those seeking opportunities regardless of disability.
T
he UK government
has revealed it will
be recruiting a new
technology disability
champion. The announcement was
made to coincide with International
Day of Persons with Disabilities
(IDPD 2018).
The champion will use their
influential status as a leader in the
tech industry to raise awareness
of the need for compatibility of
mainstream products with assistive
technology.
The assistive technology sector
currently contributes £85 million
to our economy, and has enriched
many disabled people’s lives across
the world. But many mainstream
businesses are still missing out on
disabled people’s custom by failing
to design technology with their
needs in mind.
The new champion will join the
existing 14 champions who are
already driving improvements to
the accessibility of services and
facilities in a range of sectors,
including banking, music and
tourism.
“There are nearly 14 million
disabled people living in the UK,
and our world-leading tech industry
must ensure that it is capitalising
on the spending power of their
households – the Purple Pound –
worth £249 billion every year.
“I want tech companies to be a
JANUARY 2019 | W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK
DESIGN PLUS | DISABILITY
force for good, ensuring inclusion “Becoming a champion has
is a fundamental component of the allowed me to bring key players to
design process so that disabled the table to agree on a clear set of
people can benefit from the latest actions for making the insurance
innovations.” industry more inclusive.”
Alongside the new technology The disability champions are just
champion, the Government one of the ways the Government
is also looking for a product is ensuring that disabled people
design champion to work with can participate fully in society. A
manufacturers and designers to whole range of support is on offer
improve accessibility. to support those disabled people
The existing champions have who want to work to find a job that is
already made significant progress right for them. !
in breaking down the barriers
faced by disabled consumers.
For example, the music champion
Suzanne Bull has launched a
new industry taskforce aimed at
improving the experience for deaf
and disabled customers when
booking tickets for live music events.
Johnny Timpson is the disability
champion for the insurance industry
and Industry Affairs Manager at
Scottish Widows. Johnny Timpson is
bringing together representatives
from the insurance industry,
regulatory bodies and charities for
the first time to look at how to make
the industry more transparent and
inclusive.
Timpson said of his role:
“Walking the talk on diversity is
essential for the insurance sector,
and my champion role enables me
to work with the industry to improve
access to affordable insurance for
disabled consumers.
33
CALL JEZ WALTERS ON 01322 221144 TECHNOLOGY UPDATE

Coatings
WS2 Stops galling of SS and

www.ws2.co.uk
Titanium
Stainless Steels and Titanium are both prone to
galling and seizing. WS2 is a very low friction dry
lubricant surface treatment, developed by NASA for
use in deep space. It has been shown to provide a
very cost effective solution, preventing both
problems on threads and other sliding surfaces.
WS2 works well from -273° to 450° C and down to
10-14 Torr. WS2 has been applied to bearings and
gears to extend life.
Design Out maintenance problems with WS2!

@: sales@ws2.co.uk
✆: 01430 861222
COFFEE TIME CHALLENGE | SPONSORED BY MICRO-EPSILON

BORED OF THE RINGS

F
or people suffering from tinnitus, the
irritating ringing, buzzing or hissing
in the ears can be debilitating.
Even if you’ve never had it, you can
probably relate. If you’ve ever had water
stuck in your ear after swimming, you’ll
know that even the mildest change to your
hearing can be a total pain. Just like with a
blocked nose when you’re suffering from a
cold, it’s all you can think about.
Frustratingly for those that suffer with
tinnitus, it’s not a disease or illness and as
such has no medical cure. It is generally
attributed to some kind of change, either
mental or physical, and not necessarily
even to do with hearing. It can also be
intermittent, so for days, weeks or months
at a time you may think it has gone, only
for it to return and ruin your sleep, work or
social outing.
It is reported in all age groups, even in
young children, and will affect about 30%
of us at some point in our lives, though the
number of people living permanently with
it is around 10% according to research
carried out by tinnitus.org.uk.

THE CHALLENGE
As there is no clear way to ‘cure’ tinnitus
– as it’s not an illness, more a reaction by
the brain to unfamiliar or affected aural
activity or stress – this month’s challenge
is to come up with a device to lessen the
effects of this debilitating condition.
There are no limits to what you can
design, just as long as it causes no
adverse effects to its user. !

The idea we have in mind will be revealed in the February issue of Eureka! Until then see what you can come up with. Submit your ideas by leaving a
comment on the Coffee Time Challenge section of the Eureka! website or by emailing the editor: paul.fanning@markallengroup.com

W W W.EUREK AMAGAZINE .CO.UK 35