Blog

24 Jun 2016

Solar Impulse 2 left New York on Monday 20th June and landed in Seville, Spain on 23rd June at 7.30 am. The total flight time was 71 hours and 8 minutes and now means that the aircraft has crossed both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans.

Solar Impulse 2 is attempting the first renewably powered circumnavigation of the globe and is now nearing the end of its 35,000km journey. The trip started in July 2015 and will finish back at the starting point in Abu Dhabi. The immediate next steps are to negotiate a route back to Abu Dhabi via Egypt or Greece.

Solar Impulse 2 has a wingspan of 72m and weighs more than 2 tons. It is powered by more than 17000 solar cells and achieves an average speed of 75 km/h.

Just like the Bloodhound project, the Solar Impulse 2 team are providing an educational platform around their project, giving resources to schools and universities as well as providing opportunities for live hangouts with members of the team.

17 Jun 2016

After a busy few days at the Subcon Show in Birmingham, it was all hands on deck to take delivery of our new Idroline S1730 Hydro-Abrasive Waterjet Cutting System from Selmach Machinery.

The system is the latest addition to our suite of state of the art CNC Multi Axis / Multi Discipline machining centres and will allow us to continue to improve and provide the best service possible to our clients.

The Idroline S1730 hydro-abrasive waterjet cutting system is an elite design which ensures superior technological and productive performance. It uses a very high pressure jet of water or a mix of water and abrasive to cut a wide variety of materials and allows greater control and precision when materials being cut are sensitive to high temperatures.

10 Jun 2016

After nearly 2 decades of construction work, the Gotthard Tunnel, the world’s longest and deepest rail tunnel opened in Switzerland earlier this month.

The tunnel is expected to revolutionise travel between northern and southern Europe by providing a high speed rail link underneath the Swiss Alps, moving freight traffic off the road and onto the rails. It is estimated that more than a million lorry loads of freight will move from road to rail.

Whilst the tunnels have been officially opened scheduled services will not begin until December 2016 when up to 265 freight trains and 65 passenger trains a day are expected to run.

3 Jun 2016

At the end of April the Bloodhound Education team, combined with the BBC micro:bit project launched a huge competition for secondary school children; The Model Rocket Car Challenge.

Supported by the army and Microsoft among others, and forming part of the Guinness World record rocket car challenge, school teams are challenged to make foam rocket cars and race them through approved tracks; the aim of course, to be the fastest!

The races are being organised through the network of Bloodhound hubs and will see a series of regional heats that will lead up to a final at the end of June at the Santa Pod Raceway in Northamptonshire. The winners will spend a day watching Bloodhound test runs as well as securing a financial prize for their school.

27 May 2016

Developments in engineering and manufacturing are moving on at a pace. Continuing research into materials and their capabilities results in demand for more complex work requirements and those requirements mean more advanced machinery.

Whether you provide one service or many, older outdated machinery may eventually lead to less efficient production and an increase in costs. There probably are some areas of manufacturing that have remained unchanged for years and so the older machinery may well still be able to work effectively, but can it compete with more modern machinery that is more efficient and technically capable? A regular review of the machinery and equipment you use should identify if your business can be improved by investing in new machinery – and it should be seen as an investment, not a cost. Newer more advanced machines may open up markets and opportunities that you previously hadn’t been able to consider, ensuring your businesses longevity.

20 May 2016

Steel pipe and tube manufacturing will restart at Tredegar from next month. The decision from Liberty House, who rescued the site when it went into administration in 2015 forms part of their ‘Greensteel’ strategy and is the seventh steelworks re-opened in as many months.

In its drive the reform the British steel industry the reopened plant will form the latest link in a supply value chain using green energy to upcycle scrap steel from the melting through to the engineering of advanced products.

Hot rolled coil for the plant will come from the rolling mill at Liberty Steel Newport, itself restarted as part of the same plan in October last year.

The UK has one of the highest dependencies on imports of the core product in the developed world and it is hoped that Tredegar’s output will replace some of that one million tonnes of steel currently imported.

14 May 2016

Hot on the heels of the reported success of the Crossrail project comes the news that Crossrail 2 has been awarded £80m to develop the project. The project has been identified as a priority and has been endorsed by the National Infrastructure Commission.

What is Crossrail 2?

Crossrail 2 is a proposed new railway serving London and the South East. Its proposed route will serve stations throughout the South East linking South West and North East London as well as brining benefit to other towns and cities across the South East. Many places across the region will benefit from faster or more frequent journeys into London on Crossrail 2 trains and also the National Rail Services on mainline stations.

9 May 2016

Subcon 2016 is only a few weeks away now and with that in mind the organisers have asked some of their speakers their views and opinions on some key areas of manufacturing.

Not surprisingly, when asked about the biggest challenge facing the industry this year, 4 of the 7 said that they saw political and economic uncertainty as a major challenge in the coming months. The debate about staying or leaving the EU means that people are reconsidering longer term commitments and may even be delaying projects as they are unsure as to how they will be affected. Things will be clearer after the referendum in June, but there still may be longer term issues to consider depending on the outcome. It would be prudent for any business to consider the impact on them should the result be that the UK exits the EU. Of course it will take time for any exit policies and agreements to be put into place, but there’s likely to be some sort of immediate impact on existing contracts and projects. Should the vote be to stay in, then of course, things will settle back down, but it still may take a little time for that uncertainty to settle completely.

29 Apr 2016

“Investment is essential to the future of PRV Engineering” says CEO Simon Jones.

Over the past two years there have been huge investments in equipment and premises to ensure that PRV Engineering can provide the best customer service possible.

1.5 million pounds worth of state of the art CNC Multi Axis/Multi Discipline machining centres have been installed, a new temperature controlled inspection facility and an 8000 sq ft extension with have also been completed.

Finishing is one of the most important areas in the engineering sector. Components that have been carefully machined to the highest standards and tightest specifications can still be scrapped if the finishing is not up to standard. To ensure the best finishes are provided to clients, PRV Engineering decided not to rely on external companies for their plating requirements and instead, bought their own plating facility, ensuring that they could supply a full One Stop Shop service to clients.

21 Apr 2016

Events

December 2024
M T W T F S S
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031