Tag Archives: New technology

14 Jul 2017

Hypersonic travel is described as flight through the atmosphere below 90 km at a speed above Mach 5 (5 times the speed of sound). That means traveling from London to New York could only take about 2 hours. The concept has been around for a long time but applying the theory to practice is a different story.

It’s not an impossible task but the problem has always been how to handle the extreme heat at high speeds. Now, thanks to advanced aerospace engineering, a special ceramic has been developed making hypersonic air travel a real possibility.

30 Jun 2017

Medical Technology – The future is now

The world we live in changes every single day. Whether it’s a new breakthrough medical technology, advances in energy storage or space travel. Our future is becoming harder to predict. I mean, who knows where we will be at the end of 2017? What treatments or life altering medicines will be available to us in only a few short months?

Many of the breakthroughs we have today weren’t available 5 years ago; some weren’t even around last year. Scientists, researchers and doctors are working tirelessly to find new ways to treat different diseases, conditions or ailments. Some of the new medical advances will certainly improve your life but others might even save you.

23 Jun 2017

The new Rotorcraft Airbus Racer from CleanSky 2 initiative is a great example of how far we’ve come but did you know that the concept of vertical flight has been around for centuries? In fact, it was first recorded in China, 400 B.C based merely on a children’s toy made from bamboo. This has certainly led to bigger and better things.

What is the CleanSky 2 Initiative? In a nutshell, it’s the largest European research program aimed at the development of innovative, cutting edge technologies to reduce environmental impact from aviation. 

16 Jun 2017

From Tesla’s self-driving cars to an autonomous unmanned underwater vehicle called the Echo Voyager. This is where we are at the moment. Technology, human ingenuity and curiosity are what make these projects a reality.

Early adaptations of what lies beneath the big blue have been around for decades. Our interest and curiosity about ocean life and underwater technology were inspired by movies like 20 000 Leagues under the sea, James Bond’s submarine car to more recent deep sea documentaries.

It is a fact that we’ve only discovered about 5% of the world’s oceans. So why are we so focused on space travel if we haven’t even explored most our own planet? Maybe Boeing has the answer with

12 May 2017

Military Technology: Applications of Autonomous Systems

Whether it’s conspiracy theories, Hollywood or reality; there’s certainly no shortage of newsworthy mentions of new military technology being developed. Autonomous systems, for example, is vital to solve many of the most difficult problems we currently face. These include exploring uncharted oceans, deep space, providing aid in emergency situations and probably more applications in the defense industry.

Already we have Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Microsoft with Cortana. These systems all operate on autonomous technology and the demand

6 Feb 2017

After a year of various design stages the SpaceX Hyperloop competition weekend took place at the end of January.

Hyperloop, the project to revolutionise the future of travel is some way off but the involvement of SpaceX CEO Elon Musk continues to fuel the excitement around the project, keeping it very clearly on the agenda of engineers worldwide. Pods gliding through low pressure tubes delivering people and cargo from A to B at speed and with no turbulence, may seem like something from a sci-fi movie, but with some systems tested last year and more scheduled for this year, that future could become a reality in the next 5 years.

21 Jan 2017

Vehicles from those old sci fi films are increasingly becoming a reality. Driverless cars, autonomous boats and all sorts of drones are regularly in the news. The latest to hit the headlines is the Hoverbike.

The Hoverbike (which is in fact a quad copter) started life way back in 2014 and was funded by a Kickstarter campaign. Development on the Hoverbike, continued into 2015 and following a test flight of their prototype at the Paris air show, UK company Malloy Aeronautics paired up with American engineering company SURVICE to deliver a Hoverbike for the US Department of Defence.

23 Dec 2016

As we approach the year end we thought we’d take a look back at some of the new and innovative engineering stories and reports that came out this year.

There were some astounding breakthroughs in the medical and healthcare sectors as well as enhancements in the more run of the mill procedures.

Osseo integration (the practice of using pins to implant directly into the bone) has been in the news throughout the year. Despite many successful surgeries overseas, growth in the use of the procedure has been relatively slow. A UK pilot of the procedure for military personnel who have lost limbs launched in September this year. If successful it is hoped the use of the procedure can be adopted more widely.

26 Nov 2016

Innovative engineering developments make for good news and when those developments include medical improvements it makes for even happier headlines. In the defence sector, however, the headlines are sometimes more muted, yet there are massive innovations and developments taking place.

Whatever your personal opinion about budgets and spending in the defence sector, the simple fact is that we need military vehicles and equipment on land, in the sea and in the air and they need to be equipped with up to date, modern technology and materials if they are to do their job. And it’s not just vehicles and equipment that matter. Developments in fabrics and communication methods also help personnel to do their jobs as safely as possible. Some of those innovations, while being piloted for military use, may also have huge benefits in other sectors.

1 Jul 2016
There are many advantages of waterjet cutting compared to other methods, but if we had to try and summarise them neatly into a few words we’d say;

The ability to cold cut almost any material in any direction with less waste and a superior finish.

But really that’s not enough of an explanation, so let’s expand a little on that statement and address some of the areas of improvement over more traditional cutting methods.

Omni-directional cutting
Waterjet cutting allows omni-directional cutting – the ability to cut in any direction which gives much greater cutting flexibility. In most cases starting holes are not required as the water jet is able to perforate the material. It is now much easier to cut more complex shapes and designs into all sorts of materials.

Events

November 2024
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930