Within the remit of the CRAFT European projects, the Departments of Materials and Mecatronics at CIDEMCO, in conjunction with IKERLAN (E) y VTT (FI), have finalised a development project for an on-line system for the measurement and control of the thickness of varnishes. The aim was to develop equipment which would provide information about the quantity of the product applied in the various varnishing processes.
As a rule, the quantity of varnish applied is controlled only at the start of a
Not only can an electronic tongue monitor the prevalence and growth of microorganisms, it can also sense the difference between various forms of fungi and bacteria. This is shown in a dissertation by Charlotte Söderström submitted at Linköping University. An objective of the project as a whole is to be able to make use of an electronic tongue in the future to monitor whether foodstuffs are fit for human consumption.
Today’s monitoring methods involve taking samples from production and analyz
The feasibility of using microwaves to extract minerals from rocks has been demonstrated by UK researchers.
This revolutionary technique could cut mining and mineral processing industry costs, and make it viable to process previously uneconomic mineral reserves. It could also help the environment by saving energy as 3 – 5% of the world’s entire electrical energy output is used for the size reduction of rocks and minerals.
The technique has been developed by engineers at the
Mine-infested land can now be rendered safe by a new tractor that crushes unexploded bombs.
Unexploded anti-personnel landmines litter the border between Croatia and what was once Yugoslavia. The mine-infested area spans more or less half of the country and roughly 1,700 km2 of minefields are left to clear.
EUREKA’s first foray into anti-personnel landmine technology, the ORACLE project has developed a rugged tractor for clearing mines and unexploded shells from agricu
Today there are evermore intelligent objects, i.e., more devices that adapt to our needs. For example, there is intelligent clothing, intelligent computers, and intelligent household devices such as washing machines, music centres, lamps, and so on.
In fact, it is currently possible for a sensor at the entrance to a dwelling to recognise the voice or the odour of the owner and simultaneously open the door. It is also possible, on entering the house and depending on the mood or physical state
Pioneering research carried out by Kingston University is helping to pave the way for a manned mission to Mars. A project team based at the University’s School of Engineering has developed a robotic micro-rover to travel the Martian surface to find out whether humans could live in the Red Planet’s hostile environment.
Named Endurance, the small self-propelled vehicle will be powered by the sun’s rays and equipped to drill beneath the surface to find out if life exists on Mars in the form of
A novel method for the design and manufacture of sensors to measure the temperature and relative humidity of the air, the pH of solutions or the refractive index of liquids based on optic fibre has been devised at the Public University of Navarre.
The sensors are small devices capable of capturing both physical and chemical signals from the surrounding environment and converting them into electrical signals for their subsequent processing. The information thus transformed can be easi
Laying water mains has always been a time-consuming job. Each section must be laid, joints welded, the interior checked for heat damage, and any damage repaired. Then the whole thing has to be encased in concrete if the ground is uneven. Now EUREKA project DRIVE-LOCK is about to make the process quicker and cheaper.
The French and Swiss partners in the DRIVE-LOCK project have developed a new conical interlocking system that joins steel water pipes together quickly and combines the strength o
Technology has moved beyond wireless and pocketable to wearable. Clothes and accessories can serve a wider range of purposes than we’re currently accustomed to. Wearable technology produced by a Finnish smart clothing R&D center and its partners is selling well.
The smart clothing and wearable technology concepts are based on a permanent integration of clothing and technology. Clothes can be made ‘smart’ by adding intelligent features such as information technology and by using special fibre
Photonics and ultrasound engineering researchers from Duke University and The George Washington University have collaborated to design an optical scanner miniaturized enough to be inserted into the body, where its light beams could someday detect abnormalities hidden in the walls of the colon, bladder or esophagus.
The experimental device, called an “electrostatic micromachine scanning mirror for optical coherence tomography,” is described in an article published in the April 15, 2003, issu
Plastics are everywhere these days, but current recycling techniques allow only a very limited portion to be reclaimed after initial use. Researchers in the Department of Chemical Engineering at North Carolina State University, working to change that, have developed a unique recycling process for some of the most common kinds of polymers.
The familiar soda bottle is made of a plastic called polyethylene terephthalate (PET). These bottles are ubiquitous, yet recycling them poses challenges, p
Purdue University researchers have made a discovery that may lead to the development of an innovative liquid-cooling system for future computer chips, which are expected to generate four times more heat than today’s chips.
Researchers had thought that bubbles might block the circulation of liquid forced to flow through “microchannels” only three times the width of a human hair. Engineers also thought that small electric pumps might be needed to push liquid through the narrow channels, incre
A team of Carnegie Mellon University and NASA scientists will travel to the Atacama Desert in northern Chile in April to conduct research that will help them develop and deploy a robot and instruments that may someday enable other robots to find life on Mars. The researchers will be using the Atacama, described as the most arid region on Earth, as a Martian analog.
The group is funded with a $3 million, three-year grant from NASA to the university’s Robotics Institute. They are collabo
Designers at Staffordshire University have come up with a solutions package with the potential to make life a lot easier for everyone.
The University’s Centre for Rehabilitation Robotics has spent more than a year involved in PACKAGE, a £1.5 million European Commission project concerned with making small changes to consumer packaging in a bid to improve “openability”
Now after rigorous trials carried out throughout Europe, the Centre are hoping that the world’s bigg
An effective new approach to preventing sparks when an electrically charged object is earthed could prevent explosions and save lives following a motorway smash involving fuel tankers or other hazardous vehicles. Dr Klaus Schwenzfeuer of the Electrostatic Laboratory at the Swiss Institute for the Promotion of Safety & Security in Basle, will reveal the method at the Institute of Physics Congress at Heriot-Watt University on Monday 24 March.
Earthing a conductive and charged object will almos
Using direct-write assembly of organic ink, researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a technique for fabricating three-dimensional microvascular networks. These tiny networks could function as compact fluidic factories in miniature sensors, chemical reactors, or computers used in applications from biomedicine to information technology.
“The fabrication technique produces a pervasive network of interconnected cylindrical channels, which can range from 10 t
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