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Interesting engineering news and general interest to get you through the week.

Health & Safety

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Health & Safety
Always an important factor to consider. You can never understate the need to prevent injury to your workforce. Like all other things, we're constantly finding out new products and ways to improve health and safety.


How safe is this bridge? 30-foot-long braces falling off; state says it's safe

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Susan Decker  
AMESBURY — A long, rusty metal beam has fallen from the Interstate 95 bridge, and a review of the structure shows at least three other spots where beams on the 57-year-old span are missing and may have fallen into the Merrimack River.

Rusted and bent metal plates on the underside of the bridge indicate where the T-shaped beam — about a half-inch thick, 6 inches wide and 30 feet long — was once attached to the bridge. The beam now sits on a grassy patch alongside the river, about 80 feet below where it once was.
Monday 30 June, 2008 06:05 PM
 

US Army Center Develops Partnerships to Create Cutting-Edge Medical Technologies

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan  
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command's Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center is dedicated to advancing the discovery of new and novel medical technologies and research and following them through to implementation, said the center's director.

Col. (Dr.) Karl Friedl, who leads the center on Fort Detrick, Md., discussed the center's mission during an interview on the "Dot Mil Docs" program on BlogTalkRadio.com on Thursday.
Tuesday 24 June, 2008 10:47 AM
 

Volkswagen Group Relies on ESI Group's Virtual Performance Solution

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Dave Ellery  
The Volkswagen Group has taken on the Virtual Performance Solution software suite developed by ESI Group (ESIN FR0004110310)(Paris: ESI) for the simulation of vehicle crash, safety and structural load cases. Virtual Performance Solution includes PAM-CRASH, PAM-SAFE products and FPM (Finite Point Method) technology for all vehicle crash and safety simulations, as well as the latest developments in implicit technology for linear and nonlinear structural load cases. The most recent software release - Virtual Performance Solution version 2008 - opens the way to a considerable acceleration in the development process. Impact scenarios and structural load cases as designed, as analysed, as built and as destroyed can now be simulated much more efficiently. This results from ESI Group's close cooperation with the Volkswagen Group, Europe's largest automobile manufacturer: Both have jointly pioneered crash simulations successfully since 1986.
Thursday 29 May, 2008 01:06 PM
 

Rational approach to health and safety laws

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ali Hamoud  
Did you know Trivia - CHIEF Executive at the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) Dr David Brown says lives are put at risk by nonsensical interpretations of health and safety laws.
According to Brown, the misguided approach to health and safety has led to their misrepresentation and stunts like the banning of Christmas lights and practical science lessons.
click the links to read more
Sunday 18 May, 2008 04:21 PM
 

Taser guns not tested by police: CTV finds

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan  
Even though they are often used as restraining devices on members of the public, police do not carry out routine tests on Taser guns , a CTV News investigation has found.

It means that police officers are unaware of the true electrical output of what has proven to be a lethal weapon.

This information has come to light in the wake of the death  in 2004 of Robert Bagnell, who was killed almost instantly after being shocked by a Vancouver police Taser.
....click the link to read more
Thursday 8 May, 2008 02:06 PM
 

British Sugar stirred by the challenges of ATEX/DSEAR

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Peter Wu  
British Sugar plc operates four sugar beet processing plants in the UK producing more than one million tonnes of sugar a year — around half the UK's sugar demand. Reflecting the potential for sugar dust to create explosions, the company has long been proactive in the area of factory safety, operating in compliance with the Health and Safety at Work Act and associated legislation to ensure a safe working environment.

Well before the arrival of ATEX/DSEAR legislation, each British Sugar site produced detailed, site-specific risk assessments of all product handling, screening and storage plant, including the buildings within which the equipment was stored. These covered general zone classification, plant identification, a Basis of Safety review for each plant item, the existing equipment explosion protection measures and devices. Likewise, arrangements for earth bonding, maintenance schedules and records and housekeeping procedures were continually monitored and developed.
....click the link to read more
Friday 2 May, 2008 02:21 AM
 

If you want a robot to react, test the brain

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Sean  
Robots are nothing new. Even bionics has become a bit passe. But imagine building a robot that can not only use sensory perception but also learn from its environment and adjust its actions to suit.

Australian researchers are not just imagining it - they are taking the first steps to create it, through a unique collaboration of scientific disciplines, universities and ideas.

The Thinking Systems Group was founded in March 2005, but it has only been in the past six months that work has really begun on its first project - creating an autonomous robotic hand that uses sensory feedback to mimic the connection between our own hands and brain.
....click the link to read more
Tuesday 29 April, 2008 02:08 PM
 

Will organic vodka save the planet?

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Yan Chu  
Worried about pesticides in the food chain? Concerned about your carbon footprint? Just pondering the planet's fate is enough to drive some of us to drink.

Fortunately, that's one activity we don't have to feel so guilty about any more. The latest cocktail craze? Ethical booze.

It started with Rain organic vodka, which landed in B.C. stores two years ago, and Juniper Green Organic London Dry Gin from England, available in British Columbia, Ontario and Alberta. Engineered to make you feel good.
....click the link to read more
Thursday 17 April, 2008 08:07 PM
 

Safety fears over French nuclear technology

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

Nuclear reactors of the kind France wants to sell to Britain suffer from "potentially catastrophic" engineering problems, it was claimed yesterday.

News of the structural flaws came days after President Nicolas Sarkozy used a state visit to Britain to boast about his nation's nuclear engineering expertise.

He made it clear that devices such as the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) being built at Flamanville, in Normandy, should be on Gordon Brown's shopping list as part of the "entente formidable" between the two countries.

....click the link to read more 

Tuesday 1 April, 2008 02:06 AM
 

Engineers society accused of disaster probe cover-ups

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Ryan  

The professional organization for engineers who build the nation's roads, dams and bridges has been accused by fellow engineers of covering up catastrophic design flaws while investigating national disasters.

After the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center and the levee failures caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the federal government paid the American Society of Civil Engineers to investigate what went wrong.

....click the link to read more 

Sunday 30 March, 2008 06:06 PM
 

Tragedy revisits Alberta company as plane crash kills five

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

WAINWRIGHT, Alta. — Exactly five months after an Edmonton engineering company lost its founder in an airplane crash, a tragedy in the skies over eastern Alberta on Friday claimed five more lives, including those of his son and two other senior staffers.

....click the link to read more 

Saturday 29 March, 2008 10:00 PM
 

Crane Inspection & Certification Bureau Partners With N4 Systems

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

Crane Inspection & Certification Bureau (CICB) has partnered with N4 Systems' to bring electronic, paperless inspections to the crane industry. CICB will work with N4 Systems to tailor Field ID, N4 System's flagship inspection and safety compliance system, for the crane industry.

....click the link to read more 

Saturday 22 March, 2008 06:03 AM
 

Inspector arrested in crane collapse case

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

NEW YORK -- A building inspector has been arrested after allegedly filing a false inspection of the crane that collapsed last week in Manhattan, city officials said Thursday.

....click the link to read more 

Friday 21 March, 2008 06:08 PM
 

New York City Crane Collapse - Updated News and Information

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

An investigation is underway to determine whether it was human or mechanical error that caused this accident - or, presumably, a more systematic pattern of negligence relating to the construction practices at the site, as has been suggested by a few residents

....click the link to read more 

Thursday 20 March, 2008 06:02 AM
 

Surgeon uses DIY drill to remove brain tumour

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

A leading brain surgeon used a £30 DIY drill to carry out a successful operation on a fully conscious patient.
Henry Marsh used a Bosch PSR960 cordless drill because he did not have his normal equipment on him.

The engineers do-it-yourself 9.6 volt drill cost one thousand times less the price of his preferred tool - a £30,000 compressed air medical drill.

....click the link to read more 

Thursday 20 March, 2008 02:09 AM
 

Airline Maintenance Questioned

Clipped to the Drawing Board by jackson Browne  

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) needs to be more aggressive about policing critical airline maintenance work performed by noncertified shops, a report by the Transportation Department's Inspector General concludes.

....click the link to read more 

Tuesday 18 March, 2008 06:01 AM
 

Will Presidential Candidates Help Manufacturers Crippled by Health Costs?

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

Rising health care costs are one of the biggest challenges manufacturers and their employees face. According to a 2006 survey of small- and medium-sized manufacturers conducted by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM, Washington, DC), 87 percent of respondents ranked escalating health care costs as their most pressing problem.

....click the link to read more 

Friday 14 March, 2008 02:16 AM
 

Flying past mandatory inspection deadlines

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Adam Crighton  
Did you know Trivia - Claims of lax enforcement by the  Federal Aviation Administration have resulted in Southwest Airlines Co. being allowed to fly at least 117 aircraft past mandatory inspection deadlines -  that is  according to Rep. James Oberstar, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee chairman.
Oberstar claims that similar violations are rife within the industry but are being deliberately covered up due to to a climate of fear.
Friday 14 March, 2008 12:00 AM
 

UZBEKISTAN: COTTON INDUSTRY TARGETED BY CHILD-LABOR ACTIVISTS

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

In an open letter on January 17, some 100 Uzbek dissidents and activists abroad and 40 in the country say the forced use of child labor in the Uzbek cotton industry has become a "deliberate state policy" aimed at "acquiring extra profits."

....click the link to read more 

Monday 21 January, 2008 08:09 PM
 

Power failure: What Britain should learn from Finland's nuclear saga

Clipped to the Drawing Board by George Tan  

The island of Olkiluoto , off Finland's west coast, seems like the perfect picture of Nordic serenity. Surrounded by the still, idyllic waters of the Gulf of Bothnia, it looks like an ideal spot for a peaceful retreat away from it all. Anyone wanting to visit the island has to travel down a long, lonely road, hugged tightly on each side by a thick forest of spruce and birch, and avoid the many elk that roam freely.

However  the island is home to the problem-plagued construction of Olkiluoto 3, the first nuclear reactor built in Western Europe for more than a decade.

...click the link to read more 

Sunday 20 January, 2008 10:22 PM
 

Assembly for Dummies

Clipped to the Drawing Board by Administrator  

Cars, trucks and airplanes are designed by very smart engineers. But, they wouldn’t be nearly as safe as they are today without help from a bunch of dummies. Crash test dummies , that is

....click the link to read more 

Wednesday 16 January, 2008 10:33 PM
 
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