Industrial vending – vote or veto
Industrial vending machines can be used to stock a range of items and tools, but would they work on your site? Adam Offord explores the options
May the force be with you
Would hydraulics and pneumatics feature in a futuristic Star Wars setting? Either way, innovations are ensuring that more of the force is with you, as Dr Tom Shelley explains
Sellafield special seal
Novel wet pipeline sealing and deployment techniques, successfully trialled for the now redundant first-generation nuclear waste treatment and storage plant at Sellafield, will not only prevent hazardous conditions arising on plant, but significantly reduce operator exposure to radiation during their implementation.
Don’t be misled by IP ratings, warns Schneider Electric
A lack of understanding of IP ratings is leading to inappropriate specification of enclosures, according to Schneider Electric.
Get your bearings
Selecting the right bearings for plant and equipment is a nicety that plant engineers under pressure often sidestep in favour of personal preference. Steed Webzell provides advice
Turning the tide
While wind farms, for most of us, are the iconic, if not entirely friendly, face of renewable energy, there's a quiet revolution readying itself for launch on an unsuspecting public. The new talking point will be marine turbines. Not only could they challenge wind, but also nuclear plants - and soon. As we go to press, a full-scale commercial marine turbine, designed to harness tidal energy, has been installed and commissioned on the Irish coast, and is undergoing final tests before running up initially to 1.2MW electricity generation.
Unreasonable engineering
So how do you fancy a bit of unreasonable engineering? How about building a variable speed electric motor, rated at 2.5MW for pumping operations 3,000 metres down on the sea bed? Oh, and, for good measure, let's have it driven by an 11kV supply 30km away, and plan for a design life of 15 years, with minimum time between interventions of five years.