Category: Engineering

 

Engineering is all around us, it’s behind everything from the cars we drive to the mobile phones in our pockets and a world without engineers doesn’t even bear thinking about.

Engineering skills are in demand too, and if you’re looking for a career with a real future, and a chance to shape our world, then engineering could be right choice for you.

Engineering is for everyone and whether you want to earn whilst you learn or study full-time there’s a route into engineering for everyone. To get you inspired, we’ve put together this handy infographic, that takes a look as some of the many routes into engineering. Enjoy!

We hope you’ve enjoyed this quick look at some of the many ways you can engineer your future. As leading spring manufacturers, here at European Springs Ireland we’re passionate about engineering, and understand the importance of inspiring the next generation of engineers.

If you would like to know more about our services, simply contact us today by giving us a call on 028 9083 8605 and a member of our expert team will be happy to help you with your enquiries.

The MacRobert Award is a highly competitive prize offered annually by the Royal Academy of Engineering, named after the great philanthropist Lady Rachel Workman MacRobert. Since the first award was presented in 1969 this has gone on to become the longest-running national engineering award in Britain, and now the finalists for the 2015 prize have been announced. Let’s take a look at the candidates for this year’s gold medal and £50,000 award:

Artemis Intelligent Power

The engineers at Artemis Intelligent Power are responsible for an innovation which will allow far greater amounts of power to be created by off-shore wind-farms. With a history of developing systems to improve turbine efficiency, their latest design is a digital hydraulic power system which will be a cost effective way of improving both the power capacity and the reliability of wind turbines.

Managing director Niall Caldwell says that: “the Artemis team of engineers has made a fundamental advance in the scale and efficiency of mechanical power transmission”.

Endomag

Endomag’s contribution is a tool for diagnosing breast cancer which doesn’t need to use radioactive tracers, instead using a magnetic tracer signal to track the spread of cancerous tissue in the lymphatic system. There procedure, which is more cost-effective than the use of radioisotopes, has already been used to treat over 6000 patients within Europe.

Speaking on the award, chief executive Dr. Eric Mayes has said: ‘Endomag is extremely honoured by this recognition, both for the hard work of our founding team and how we have since translated this engineering innovation to meet the needs of so many patients’.

Victrex

Based in Blackpool, Victrex have been working on a material which may be crucial for the coming flexible electronics revolution – the highest performing ultra-thin polymers in the world. These can be 20 times thinner than a human hair, and have a huge range of applications, including earphones and speakers, and potentially 3D printing.

Technical director John Grasmeder says ‘Victrex is a world leader in high performance polymers and to be in the running for the MacRobert award is a real testament to the capability, innovation focus and performance of our people’.

These are all incredible innovations, and we hope to see more of all the finalists in the future – whether they’re successful with the award or not. For your own engineering designs, you can come to us for essential high quality springs. Contact us at 028 9083 8605 for more information.

In our last post in the ‘Great Feats of Engineering’ series we looked at The Trans-Siberian Railway, which is a network of railways that connect Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. For the next instalment in this fascinating series that looks into some of the most extraordinary accomplishments of engineering, we will be looking at The Great Wall of China.

The Great Wall of China is the world’s longest wall and the biggest ancient architecture. It stretches across North China from east to west for over 5500 miles.

Originally, the wall was built in the fifth century B.C as a defensive structure, to protect against raids and invasions. However, the best known and best preserved section of the wall was built in the 14^th-17^th century A.D.

How it came to be?

Some of the Great Wall was first built by princes and overlords sometime in the 7^th Century BC – as a boarder defence when China was divided into many small states. However, the big changes came later on.

In 221 BC, King Zheng of Qin conquered the last of his enemies and unified China – becoming the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty.

He wanted to prevent the resurgence of feudal lords, so he ordered the destruction of the sections of the walls that divided his empire among former states. However, he still wanted to position the empire against the Xiongnu people from the north, so he ordered the building of new walls to connect the remaining fortifications along the empire’s northern frontier.

How was it constructed?

Builders had to use local resources, as transporting heavy materials was proving to be too difficult. Stones were used from the mountains over mountain ranges, and rammed earth was used for the construction in the plains.

Later on in the Ming era, the construction was stronger and more elaborate due to the use of bricks and stone instead of rammed earth.

Functions of the wall

The Great Wall of China has been used for a number of different purposes over the years. These include:

• Military uses – defensive works such as forts, passes and beacon towers were built across the wall. These were to house auxiliary soldiers and to store weapons.
• Infrastructure and Development – it provided protection to economic development and cultural progress. It was also used to safeguard trading routs such as The Silk Road.
• Tourist – a few sections of the wall have become one of the greatest tourist attractions of all time.

Here at European Springs Ireland, we are passionate about anything to do with engineering, which is why we find these engineering feats so fascinating, and we hope you feel the same!

As leading spring manufacturers, our passion for engineering is something we incorporate into our every day job.

We deliver a professional and bespoke service for the design and manufacture of springs – providing products for customers all over the world.

For any information about what we stock, or if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us. You can call us on 028 9083 8605.

Floating cities, space ports and high rise farms- could these be the future landscapes of Britain?

Engineers have made some pretty remarkable advances in recent years, that have seen what was once thought impossible rendered possible. And now it seems that we are closer than ever before to seeing the world of tomorrow, today.

Many of us dream of the future and what it will have in store for our world. And luckily for us, leading engineers have recently released their predictions for exactly what Britain could look like in 100 years time, providing an irresistible insight into the future of our world.

 

Predicting The Future

All told, these predictions are really rather exciting, though if they come to fruition, they are likely to change the landscape of our planet beyond recognition!

The predictions came from a panel of 4 acclaimed experts from the engineering and architecture fields, including Director of Engineering and Education at the Royal Academy of Engineering, Dr. Rhys Morgan.

The panel envisage that the most likely advances in the next 100 years will include, floating sea cities, 3D printed homes, and buildings equipped with their own, fully functional micro- climates.

And that’s not all, the experts also foresee that in the years to come, buildings will soar to new heights, as engineers develop new techniques for constructing ever taller buildings.

Technological advances will also allow us humans to built a variety of astounding structures both here on earth and beyond too! That’s right, according to the panel we can also expect to see space ports built on Mars and the Moon within 100 years too!

Driving Innovation

According to the team, rapid advances in technology, and factors such as global warming and population increases, will have a significant impact on how we live in the future, and are expected to be one of the major driving forces behind new innovations in the years to come.

This research has been released to mark the launch of a new series titled Impossible Engineering, which will be airing from the 26th of May at 9pm on TV channel Yesterday. The series will explore a variety of exciting engineering feats, once thought to lie outside the realm of the possible.

 

Only time will tell if these predictions prove accurate, and here at European Springs Ireland we cannot wait to see if they do! As leading suppliers of a wide range of high quality springs we’re no strangers to innovation and like to think that all our spring products are an amazing feat of design and engineering in their own right!

If you would like more information about our products and services, simply contact our friendly team today, by giving us a call on 028 9083 8605.

At European Springs, we always like to keep the perspective that we’re just one small part of the great worldwide canvas of engineering, and that means we like looking back over the past as well as the future. Recently, we started thinking about the industrial revolution. Products like our tension springs all have roots in this movement, which set us wondering about what the future may hold.

The industrial revolution is probably one of the most important periods in the history of our world, and its significance and appeal has never really dimmed. Because of that, a good many observers have been wondering when the next ‘revolution’ will strike our industry. Several ideas have been proposed over the years, with the following being some of the most popular suggestions…

3D Printing

This is one of the most common talking points when the next industrial revolution is debated, and it’s definitely worth bearing in mind. In theory, products could simply be downloaded from the internet and then ‘printed’ out in the confines of the home, and there’s even been speculation about 3D printing in the field of medicine (replacement organs and the like). Is it possible? Who knows.

Renewable Energy

Solar power, wind power, wave power, bio fuels… we could literally go on forever. The last industrial revolution revolved around the adoption of steam as an energy source, so why shouldn’t one of our modern day innovations trigger a similar movement? Sure, some work is necessary to refine the efficiency of many renewable energy processes, but we are talking in future terms. There’s still time.

Futuristic Robots

These days, artificial intelligence and robotics are at their peak thus far. From computer programs that arguably match up to the Turing Test, to space age robots with prototype synthetic muscles, there are plenty of reasons to suspect robots and A.I might be the instigators of the next industrial revolution. We just hope it doesn’t follow the whole ‘robot-take-over’ pattern from the movies!

The Verdict…?

So, what do we reckon? Will there ever be another industrial revolution? That’s something that is liable to keep people speculating until it happens, but many analysts think that it could result from the increased connectivity of a range of existing technologies; not necessarily a brand new wonder-concept, but a greater level of integration. That’s certainly our approach, as our own manufacturing facilities combine cutting-edge processes like CAD and CAM solutions to invariably great effect.

You may not yet know when the next industrial revolution will strike, but you definitely should know who to come to when you have a need for quality springs and pressings in the here and now. To find out more about how European Springs Ireland can help you today, call our team on 028 9083 8605.

Engineers are capable of accomplishing extraordinary things, and at European Springs Ireland, we believe that these are worth celebrating. For the next instalment in our series that celebrates the greatest feats in engineering, we will be taking a look at the marvel that is the Trans-Siberian Railway.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is a network of railways connecting the Russian capital of Moscow with the Russian Far East and the Sea of Japan. It was built between 1891 and 1916, and spans 5,772 miles.

The Need for Transportation

Towards the late 1800s, the development of Siberia was hindered by poor transportation links. The region was only accessible by river or by horse-drawn cart, both of which were difficult, unsafe and impractical.

There was a clear need for a railway to connect Siberia with Central Russia, and after a 10 year-long design process, the plans for the Trans-Siberian Railway were born.

Construction

Tsar Nicholas II inaugurated the construction of the Far East segment of the railway in March 1890, with full-time construction beginning in 1891.

Similar to the construction of the First Transcontinental Railway of the United States, the engineers of the project began building the railway at either end and worked towards the centre.

Among the most phenomenal achievements during the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railway were the bridges that were built over the Ural River and the Ob River. These not only signified the entrance of the railway into Asia and Siberia respectively, but were themselves excellent feats of engineering.

War, Revolution and a Railway

The Russians suffered a bitter defeat in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), and the Trans-Siberian Railway was seen as one of the main causes of the loss, as at the time the railway was just a single track that only allowed travel in one direction, and therefore it caused continuous supply difficulties for the Russians.

The railway also served a great purpose in the Russian Revolution, as it was used by White Russian supporters to fight the Bolsheviks on the Ural front. However, after the victory of the Bolsheviks, many parts of the railway were blown up or destroyed.

The Trans-Siberian Railway played a vital role in World War II, where many used the railway to escape Europe and Nazi occupation. It also became the safest connection between the United States and the USSR due to the eagerness of the Japanese to maintain good relations with the latter.

We hope you enjoyed reading about yet another fascinating feat of engineering. At European Springs Ireland, we love to celebrate all feats of engineering, no matter what they are, and that’s why we put such attention to detail into our springs. Engineers pride themselves on their high standards, and we certainly wouldn’t want to let the side down! Therefore, if you require tension or compression springs, we can help to ensure that your project is a success. For more information, contact us today by calling 028 9083 8605.