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MAY 2013
Man made
Biology and engineering combine to create the cyborgan 22
Quick learner
Supercar engineer Neil Patterson talks about his new role as an educator 30
Careers feature
Exciting engineering opportunities in the offshore renewables sector 34
High beam
Experts answer your questions on directed energy weapon technology 26
For more news, jobs and products visit www.theengineer.co.uk
contents
News
10 Business Mid-sized firms could return more manufacturing to the UK 14 Digest How the worlds first gas turbine-powered car marked a revolution in good fuel economy
06
06 Technology Research points to mini particle accelerators harpoon 07 Technology Space could tackle satellite debris 08 Design Morphing materials promise shape-changing mobiles
Features
32 3D Printing Integrated electronics are heralding a much smarter future for multi-material 3D printers
26
12 Preview The Engineer Conference will highlight the unique diversity of UK Industry
22 Cover feature Scientists are combining biological and artificial 34 Careers feature The seas tissue to create cyborgans surrounding the UK offer engineers diverse opportunities 26 Q&A feature Our expert panel in the marine-renewables sector answers your questions on the emerging field of directed energy weapons
Opinion
21 Iain Gray The TSBs Mission programmes can help UK companies get a foothold in Indias growing economy 30 Interview Ex-McLaren designer Neil Patterson is relishing the opportunity to put young engineers on the road to success
30
05 Comment How engineers are breathing life into the staples of science fiction 16 Mailbox Your letters to the editor and views from theengineer.co.uk 20 Paul Jackson The initiative thats highlighting opportunities for young people in engineering
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MAY 2013 | theEnGineeR | 3
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Space tourism
The benefits of creating a technology that allows us to go to space at such a relative low cost really does pave the way to the future.
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Organs on demand, lasers at the ready
This is the best we can hope for when large organisations dont seem capable of taking a risk.
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According to the NHS, there are more than 10,000 people in Britain waiting for an organ transplant and around 1,000 will die before a suitable replacement organ becomes available. Its a shocking statistic, and with the UK population ageing many have suggested that the gap between demand and supply is only going to become wider. In the longer term, however, technology could offer a solution and this issues cover story (p22) takes a fascinating look at the world of artificial organs. There are already are a small number of examples of artificial organs in use but its a nascent area and existing devices dont tend to work very well. Whats intriguing and different about the technology described in our feature is the way in which its melding synthetic and biological artificial organs. The results of this collaboration between the worlds of biology and engineering are perhaps many years away from having an impact. None of the devices covered have gone into clinical trials, and they certainly wont be much help Artificial organs to patients on organ replacement waiting lists. But the researchers involved have made could play a major role huge technical leaps, and its conceivable in addressing that the technology could one day play a transplant shortages major role in addressing the shortage of replacement organs. From bionic people to another staple of science-fiction, and the subject of this issues Q and A feature: the laser cannon! The past couple of years have seen a number of high-profile trials of so-called directed energy weapons and the technology appears to be moving ever-closer to deployment on the battlefield. Weve put your technical questions on this advanced area of weapons technology to leading experts in the field. As usual, the answers make fascinating reading. Finally. If you havent already registered, Id like to encourage you to take a look at the programme for The Engineers brand new conference. Taking place in June at the NEC, Birmingham this exciting - and free - event features speakers from some of the biggest and most innovative UK engineering companies. Find out more - including registration details - on page 12.
Jon Excell Editor jon.excell@centaur.co.uk
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Direct dial 020 7970 followed by extension listed Advertising fax 020 7970 4190 Editor Jon Excell (4437) jon.excell@centaur.co.uk Features editor Stuart Nathan (4125) stuart.nathan@centaur.co.uk News editor Jason Ford (4442) jason.ford@centaur.co.uk Senior reporter Stephen Harris (4893) stephen.harris@centaur.co.uk Chief sub-editor Lyndon White Deputy chief sub-editor Andrea Harper Senior sub-editor Sarah Potts Art editor Steven Lillywhite steven.lillywhite@cre8designstudios.co.uk Publisher Daniel Brill (4849) daniel.brill@centaur.co.uk Recruitment advertisement manager Mauro Marenghi (4187) mauro.marenghi@centaur.co.uk Senior sales executive Dean Wylie (4160) dean.wylie@centaur.co.uk Senior sales executive Devraj Ray (4426) devraj.ray@centaur.co.uk Display advertisement manager Sonal Patel (4487) sonal.patel@centaur.co.uk Business development manager Peter York (4942)
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Stealthy buildings prevent aircraft landing interference

Automotive
Laser research lights way to mini acclerators

Mini particle accelerators could advance wider scientific knowledge
by Stephen Harris
PHYSICS
UK team boosts hydrogen fuel cell engine performance

Civil & Stuctural
Call for action over infrastructure

Electronics
Robots given more accurate sense of touch

Energy & Environment
ITER nuclear fusion reactor design receives approval

Medical & Healthcare
Gripper microbots help perform live biopsy

Military & Defence
Sensory helmet could help firefighters feel their way

Rail & marine
Underwater robot can search for missing black boxes

Medical & Healthcare
Swedish research comes closer to breathalyser for illegal drugs

Electronics
Laser-illuminated microscopy could see 10nm objects

For news and jobs visit us at theengineer.co.uk
6 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
New research could help cut the size of powerful particle accelerators from kilometres to metres in length, paving the way for their wider use in science, energy and medicine. An international group of scientists is hoping that a powerful new type of accelerator, in which particles surf in the wake of pulses of energy created by optical fibre lasers, could be small enough to fit within a typical lab and they are drawing up plans of how to build one. Such small accelerators could be used to conduct scientific research with cheaper facilities than is currently possible. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), for example, sits in a 27km-long circular tunnel. The proposed technology could also produce more practical equipment for generating proton beams for cancer treatment, or for running accelerator-driven nuclear reactors that would use nuclear waste or thorium for fuel. The problem with accelerators at the moment is that to accelerate electrons you need a big electric field, said Dr Bill Brocklesby, a researcher at the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at Southampton University, which is part of the EU-funded International Coherent Amplification Network (ICAN) running the project. RF accelerators based on radio frequency electric fields are limited to how big those fields can be before you get breakdown (sparks). That means if you can only have a certain amount of electric field then to get the electrons to higher energies you need to make then go further, and thats why the LHC is 27km long. The accelerator proposed by ICAN would use a different principle known as laser wakefield acceleration whereby a laser pulse is fired into a tube of gas or plasma to create a wake of electric potential that can accelerate particles to very
high speeds over very short distances. To produce the short, intense pulses at sufficient frequencies and efficiencies, the ICAN team want to use thousands of optical fibres to split, amplify and then recombine the laser beam, giving it the high average and high peak power. Existing laser accelerators can only fire the pulses needed at a rate of one per second (1Hz) not fast enough for practical scientific use. They are also very inefficient. The ICAN team believe that optical fibre lasers could be the answer. As well as working at up to 90 per cent efficiency, these very long, thin lasers have a stable glass structure and high surface area that makes them much better at heat
management, and so better at coping with the high average power needed. But the fibres size also limits the peak power they can handle without the pulse distorting. This is where the idea comes in of splitting the laser beam into thousands of fibre channels, amplifying the signals and then adjusting their phases so they can be precisely recombined. The ICAN group has nearly concluded a design and manufacture feasibility study for a demonstration laser, for which Southampton has provided the expertise in fibre manufacturing, and is hoping to secure funding to continue the research.
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Shoot for the stars

Space harpoon could help capture debris and protect satellites
by STEPHEN HARRIS
space
inbrief
More news daily at
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Money over matter The government is failing to promote UK manufacturing and remains more committed to the financial sector than UK industry, according to a poll commissioned by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). The survey of 1,000 manufacturers reveals that 61 per cent of respondents believe the government is performing badly on manufacturing policy. A further 35 per cent said they are less confident about the future of the sector. Bland designs Proposed changes to the National Curriculum in England for Design & Technology lack the ambition needed to foster a future generation of engineers and technicians. The warning, from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), comes in a submission to the Department for Educations National Curriculum consultation. Compared with the existing programme of study, the draft proposals appear to set lower expectations, said IET. Racing green A prototype Aston Martin will become the first hydrogenpowered car to compete in an international motorsport event when it takes to the track in this months Nrburgring 24-hour race. The modified Aston Martin Rapide S twinturbo 6l V12 engine will use a hybrid system that enables the car to run on pure gasoline or hydrogen or a blend of both. Backing for fracking Hydraulic fracking does not cause earthquakes that can be felt on the surface in the vast majority of cases, claims new research. A study of operations used to extract shale gas in underground rocks found three examples where the process has caused surface tremors. It also found the number and size of detected earthquakes caused by fracking was low compared with those caused by other man-made triggers. MAY 2013 | theEnGineeR | 7
UK engineers have developed a space harpoon that could help tackle the growing problem of space debris orbiting Earth. The Astrium team wanted to create a relatively simple and therefore reliable way to capture some of the larger pieces of junk from among the thousands currently in orbit, which pose a serious risk to satellites. The pneumatic launcher would fire a harpoon into its target and use a tether to drag it out of orbit and down into the atmosphere where it would burn up, thereby preventing it from colliding with other objects. It makes sense to target bigger objects, said Jaime Reed, project leader and specialist mission systems engineer at Astrium, because they have a higher chance of causing collisions and any impacts would produce a large increase in the number of smaller fragments. Its more cost effective to go for the big objects, unless you can come up with a way of sweeping up lots of small ones, he said. He added that NASA studies suggested that around 10 to 15
health & safety
large objects of more than one tonne in mass needed to be removed from orbit in the next five to 10 years, otherwise collisions would cause the number of small fragments to increase exponentially, making the problem harder to deal with. The idea of the harpoon came from the mechanism that will be used by the Rosetta space probe that is currently en route to intercept and attach itself to a comet between Earth and Mars. The point of the spear is under 10cm in length to prevent it from travelling through its
target and piercing a fuel tank or damaging internal mechanisms that could create more debris. There are around 22,000 trackable objects larger than 10cm in diameter in orbit, 94 per cent of which are debris: disused rocket stages, old satellites and fragments of collisions between these items. Authorities also estimate there are around 700,000 objects larger than 1cm and 170 million objects larger than 1mm, all of which can damage working satellites and spacecraft. Numerous ideas for tackling the space-debris problem have been put forward in recent years, including robotic arms, nets and sweepers. But Astrium missions systems engineer Andrew Ratcliffe pointed out that the cost of developing complicated solutions could be higher than the cost of doing nothing. The problem with nets is that the gauze could create smaller particles and break bits off, he said. One of the big requirements is not creating more debris than you remove.
Something in the water

Project to provide utility companies with virus-detection technology
BY JASON FORD
Researchers across 13 countries are participating in a five-year, EU-funded project to improve the safety of European drinking water. Led by the University of East Anglia, the 9m Aquavalens project aims to give large water utilities, small private supplies and the food industry the technology to quickly detect viruses, bacteria and parasites before they can make people ill. Were looking at the use of these technologies at any point in the water or food chain where using those technologies could improve safety, said project leader Prof Paul Hunter from
UEAs Norwich Medical School. Funded through the EUs Framework Programme 7, the project will be executed in four parts. Cluster one will look at detecting the specificity, infectivity and virulence of pathogens in water using molecular methods, while Cluster Two will integrate sampling and filtration, and the detection of pathogens using this molecular method. Hunter explained that small water supplies could include a well that supplies a handful of households and that interest in the food industry stems from water used to irrigate crops, wash foodstuffs and cook food.
Regardless of the source, testing water for anomalies is time consuming and laborious, with results taking at least a day to be returned. He said, You could have a biosensor that you put in the water and it measures e.coli as it passes by the sensor. In the bigger settings you could [have] online sensors that continually monitor water leaving a water-treatment works. The ultimate goal is to get a result in half an hour, especially in small water systems.
news: design

Morphing phones could add an extra dimension to game playing
Microbial boost for greener bioplastics

New method offers processing efficiencies
by STEPHEN HARRIS
materials
Folding phones 4U
Materials advance heralds new functionality
by STEPHEN HARRIS
Communications
Future smartphones could change shape to fit their users hands or purpose, according to new research. Scientists at Bristol University have proposed developing shape-changing mobile computing devices - morphees - that could, for example, transform when a game is started to make it easier to play, or feature a three-dimensional keyboard that disappears when unused. The group have created six prototype shape-changing devices to test different materials and actuation systems that could be used to develop morphees, including dielectric electro active polymers, or DEAPs, and shape memory alloys (SMAs). In everyday life we interact with lots of different shapes that tell us how it is to be used, for example a door handle mobiles are just rectangular, they dont fit to their functionality, said research leader Dr Anne Roudaut. There are a lot of different interesting materials that are growing in research labs that we are not especially aware of. We investigated how materials that change shape, expand or shrink when you apply a voltage. DEAPs are plastic materials that change shape when they are effectively squeezed by an electric field created between two electrodes, while SMAs are metallic materials that can be 8 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
worked into a shape and then return to their original shape when heated. The researchers identified ten properties that could be used to describe the shape resolution of devices, just as mobiles also have screen and touch resolutions, including curvature, stretchability and granularity (the density of points where movement occurs). One prototype device made from a piece of paper covered in a DEAP had high granularity and flexibility but limited strength and curvature. Another, made from pieces of wood sewn together with SMA wires, was found to be particularly successful because of its varied curvature and fast speed. Roudaut said that the next challenges involved in developing morphees would include identifying which shapes were good for users and working on creating flexible component such as batteries. The project is part of the EU-funded GHOST (generic, highly-organic shape-changing interfaces) programme that aims to design, develop, and evaluate prototype shape-changing computer interfaces. Roudaut and her research co-leader Prof Sriram Subramanian presented their research last month to the CHI 2013 conference.
UK researchers are hoping to make cheaper, stronger, more environmentally friendly bioplastics by using microbes to extract chemicals from paper industry waste products. Most bioplastics are made with some oil-derived chemicals as well as ones from renewable biomass, and they tend to be more expensive and less useful than traditional polymers. Now a team from Warwick University and Southamptonbased Biome Bioplastics is launching a study of how 100 per cent renewable bioplastics could be made using chemicals derived from the breakdown of the paper manufacturing waste product lignin, which could also improve the bioplastics cost and performance. The key element of it is [asking] can we use bugs to do things that chemical plants do?, said Biome CEO Paul Mines. And in doing so can we do it in a less capital-intensive way than a chemical plant with a very low cost for material? Lignin, a key component of plant structures and an
Aerospace
abundant organic compounds on Earth, is formed from aromatic rings of carbon atoms that are chemically very useful because they can be bonded with different functional molecular groups. Aromatic chemicals tend to provide higher functionality than long, straight chains in polymer, said Mines. But lignin is a horrendous molecule to get things out of. Scientists at Warwicks Centre for Biotechnology and Biorefining led by Prof Tim Bugg have identified an enzyme produced by certain bacteria that can break down lignin more cost-effectively than traditional methods. They now plan to work with Biome Bioplastics, supported by a 150,000 grant from the Technology Strategy Board, to study the feasibility of scaling up this process to a commercial level by examining the different pathways by which the enzyme breaks down the lignin.
Herschel bows out

ESA space observatory ceases operations
After more than three years of probing the secrets of the universe, ESAs Herschel space observatory - the largest astronomical telescope ever launched - has exhausted its supply of liquid helium coolant and ceased operating. Essential for cooling the observatorys instruments to around absolute zero, the telescopes supply of over 2,300 litres of liquid helium has been slowly evaporating since its launch aboard an Ariane5 rocket in 2009. Confirmation that the coolant had run out came on Monday 29th April, when the spacecraft reported a rise in temperature to its ground station in Western Australia. Named after the astronomer William Herschel,the observatory is equipped with a 3.5m diameter primary mirror and was designed to study the formation of stars and galaxies and the relationship between the two. The telescope has given astronomers the best view yet of the universe at far-infrared and submillimetre wavelengths. JE
news: business
inbrief
More business news daily at
Stuck in the middle

Mid-sized firms need more support to avoid UK production decline
by STEPHEN HARRIS
manufacturing
theengineer.co.uk/ policy-and-business
Breathing easy Cambridge Consultants has helped Catalent make the final decision on a $20m investment in inhalation-drug development and supply facilities. New Jersey-based Catalent is a global company engaged in drug development and delivery solutions. The investment, at its Inhalation Center of Excellence in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, will include the expansion of its pressurised metered dose inhaler clinical and commercial supply capabilities. Revved up for success Ford has announced a 24m investment programme at its Bridgend plant to produce a new 1.5-litre EcoBoost petrol engine. The announcement includes Welsh government support of 12m. Production will start in 2014 and ramp up over the following two years to ensure that Bridgend output is maintained at optimum capacity during this period. It will be built alongside the 1.6-litre EcoBoost engine, which was introduced in 2011. High voltage Haidian Nexans has been awarded an 11m contract by the State Grid Corporation of China to supply a high-voltage powercable system in Beijing. The new powerlink in Beijings Haidian district will be the citys first intra-city installation of 500kV cables using XLPE (cross-linked polyethylene) insulation. Nexans will design, manufacture and install a 7km circuit laid in an underground tunnel, including the supply of all the related high-voltage power accessories. Turbine optimisation Researchers at Strathclyde University are working with engineers at Gaia-Wind to develop technology to maximise the performance and availability of Gaias current and future windturbine range. 10 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
Britain could miss out on the chance to return more offshore manufacturing to the UK without greater support for mid-sized firms, new research says. Increasing fuel costs, new technology and growing environmental concerns are fuelling a growing trend for manufacturing goods closer to the countries where they are sold. According to a report from the Royal Society of Arts (RSA), this trend could reduce the UKs trade deficit by a third. But without action particularly to support those medium-sized firms that are small enough to adapt quickly but large enough to make significant investment that production could go to France or Germany, leaving Britains long-term manufacturing decline to continue, the study said. Mid-sized firms havent been focused on enough over the last 30 years, report co-author and Cambridge University public policy lecturer Dr Finbarr Livesey told The Engineer. We tend to talk about small companies or multinationals and so a lot of our focus and support tends to go to either end. The kind of changes that are coming imply a need for agility, to be close to the customer and still have available funds to invest in new production technology. Mid-sized companies have those criteria to a larger extent than the smaller or larger ones. The report argues that manufacturers are facing increased oil prices, rising labour costs in countries such as China, a growing emphasis on sustainability and reducing emissions and the development of technology such as 3D printing that can make complex and low-volume production cheaper and more efficient This combination of factors, it says, is creating tipping points in industries including electronics, fabricated metals, machinery, plastics and
rubber, and furniture,which will see more manufacturing carried out locally over the next 10 to 15 years. The impact of successful onshoring could be to increase the UKs domestic production by 30bn, reducing the trade deficit by a third, although the number of jobs created would be limited to between 100,000 and 200,000 because of the nature of the manufacturing and the need for high
Mid-sized firms havent been focused on enough over the last 30 years
productivity and automation technology. The report points to the recent return of companies such as Apple and GE to manufacturing facilities in the US, and the success of the Raspberry Pi Foundation in building its miniature computer in the UK as examples of the growing trend for so-called onshoring. In response, the government needs to make sure it is providing enough tailored support to the
companies best positioned to take advantage of this opportunity, which the report identifies as firms with those with a turnover between 25m and 500m and with between 100 and 2000 employees. This includes not only creating a stable tax policy to encourage firms to invest and addressing skills shortages, but also ensuring schemes such as the Catapult Centres and the Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) cater for mid-sized firms needs. Livesey said that, although countries such as China were also using new technology and emissions regulations in developed countries could place extra burdens on companies, the combined advantages of manufacturing closer to consumers at a time of rising costs meant there was still an opportunity to increase onshoring. The report, Making at home, owning abroad, was written by Livesey and Julian Thompson, director of enterprise at the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (RSA), and supported by Lloyds Banking Group.
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preview: The Engineer conference
Engineer conference will celebrate UK innovation

Held from 4 - 5 June at the NEC, Birmingham, The Engineer conference will feature some of the sectors most exciting names
n exciting new conference organised by The Engineer will feature some of the biggest names in UK manufacturing and highlight excellence in innovation and technology. The Engineer Conference will include high-level speakers from blue chip engineering organisations including Jaguar Land Rover, Astrium, BAE Systems and Airbus and pioneers and innovators in fields ranging from additive manufacturing and plastic electronics to manufacturing in space and the creation of Team GBs Olympic-medal-winning carbon fibre bikes. The Conference runs alongside the Subcon and Advanced Manufacturing Shows on 4 & 5 June at the NEC, Birmingham. It will provide a unique snapshot of the diversity of UK industry and give visitors valuable insight into the manufacturing and innovation strategies of some of the UKs most exciting engineering organisations. Each day starts with a keynote address setting the scene for the following sessions. On Tuesday 4 June proceedings will be opened by Bob Joyce, Group Engineering Director, Jaguar Land Rover who will examine the role innovation in engineering and technology has played in JLRs success. Following him will be Patrick Wood, Head of Engineering & Industrial Operations, Astrium Satellites, who will look at the particular challenges faced when manufacturing for space 12 | theEnGiweR | MAY 2013
applications, and Dimitris Katsanis, the composites specialist and designer who has helped make British cycling success the envy of the work. The morning will end with a panel discussion that looks at how all these strands come together in the drive for energy-saving lightweight structures. The afternoon session starts with a look outside mainstream mechanical engineering to the world of buildings and structures, when leading academic expert Robert Hairstans explains how principles such as lean are being applied to the
Proceedings will be opened by Bob Joyce, engineering director, Jaguar Land Rover
off-site construction of buildings. He is followed by Prof Richard Hague, one of the UKs leading figures in the research into additive manufacturing. Rounding off a full and stimulating day will be Colin Sirett, Head of Research and Technology at Airbus. The second day is equally packed full of insight and expertise. The keynote speaker, Dick Elsy, CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult, the UKs seven world-class advanced manufacturing research centres, will talk about bridging the gap between innovation and
commercial reality. The innovation theme continues with Mike Banach of Plastic Logic looking at the future of smart display technology and Geoff McFarland, Group Engineering Director of Renishaw, showing how the company embraces both conventional and additive manufacturing to get the best of both worlds. A panel discussion follows on the way we will be working in the future. Bringing the theme back to excellence in applied technology, Mark Whelan, F35 Programme Manager at BAE Systems, will talk about the companys ground-breaking titanium machining facility. The final two sessions focus on innovation and excellence in SMEs, with Andrew Bowyer of Magna Parva talking about how his company is investigating how we might make structures in space, and Chris Bladon of Bladon Jets explaining the innovative EDM methods that make micro gas turbine engines a possible power source for low-carbon vehicles. Places at the Conference are limited but can be requested free of charge by anyone registered for the Subcon or Advanced Manufacturing Shows. Places can be booked for the whole Conference, for individual days and for individual morning and afternoon sessions. Demand for the tickets is expected to be high, so early booking is strongly recommended.
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news: digest
thismonthin1965
The worlds first gas turbine-powered car marked a revolution in good fuel economy
Back in 1950, the Rover Company unveiled JET1, the worlds first gas-turbine powered car: a strange-looking vehicle that can now be found in the Making of the Modern World Gallery at Londons Science Museum. But though the jet-powered car remains something of a museum curiosity, its an idea that manufacturers have revisited numerous times over the intervening years. This article from April 1965 reports on the progress of JET1s immediate descendent, the Rover BRM Gas Turbine car, which was poised to become the first gas-turbine powered vehicle to officially compete in the Le Mans 24 Hours race. The vehicle actually ran in the 1963 race and would have come eighth, but as an experimental car was unplaced.In 1965, however, it was officially classified as a two-litre vehicle and driven by Jackie Stewart and Graham Hill, who reportedly said, it sounds as if youve got a 707 just behind you, about to suck you up and devour you like an enormous monster. Reporting on the specifications of this unusual automotive power-train, The Engineer wrote: The engine... is designated 2S/150/R and represents a stage in the evolution of a small simple gas turbine engine of good fuel economy. The nominal power of the engine is 145shp at 150C. The engine had three main sections: a gas generator, a work-turbine and a main casing that houses ducting, the combustion chamber and two regenerative heat-exchanger disks. According to the report, these It sounds as if you regenerative heat have a 707 about to suck exchangers were the novel feature of you up and devour you most this version of the car. like a monster These discs consist of a large number of thin-walled parallel holes and are driven from the gas-generator shaft at about 20rpm. As they rotate, they extract heat from the power-turbine exhaust gas, passing most of it onto the compressor to deliver air before it enters the combustion chamber. It is understood that gases leave the power turbine at about 700C before entering the heat-exchanger matrix, wrote The Engineer, while on the cold side, air from the compressor delivery ducting enters the matrix at 200C. It has been predicted that... it will be possible to achieve a thermal ratio of 0.9, although, of course, even higher values than this would be desirable The car finished 10th overall at Le Mans in 1965, where it averaged 98.8mph. It was finally retired in 1974 and can now be found at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon. The concept of gas-turbine powered cars remains an area of interest for the automotive industry. Most recently, at the 2010 Paris motor show, Jaguar Land Rover unveiled The C-X75 hybrid-electric concept car, which, instead of a conventional four-stroke engine, used two diesel-fed micro gas turbines developed by UK engineering firm Bladon Jets.
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ACROSS
1 Small Japanese box (4) 3 Lodging place with self- catering (10) 9 A logarithmic unit of sound intensity (7) 11 Small dynamo with a secondary winding (7) 12 Person trained to design and construct public works (5,8) 14 Make a highpitched whining noise (9) 16 Mechanical devices that move fluid by pressure or suction (5) 17 Minute hairlike projection on mucous membrane (5) 19 Entertainer in front of an audience (9) 21 The voice of the people (6,7) 24 Discharge of a fluid from some container (7) 25 Something that is given gratis (7) 26 Dry geographical area (10) 27 Opening that permits escape (4)
DOWN
1 Not definitely settling something (10) 2 Reuse materials from waste products (7) 4 Large vertical steel tower (5) 5 The number that is left after subtraction (9) 6 TNT or dynamite, for example (4,9) 7 An idea accepted as a demonstrable truth (7) 8 Textile machine for weaving yarn (4) 10 A display of important announcements (8,5) 13 Sour or bitter in taste (10) 15 State of wellbeing (9) 18 Salve applied to the mouth (3,4) 20 Container for items of post (7) 22 Put forward for consideration (5) 23 The arithmetic operation of summing (4)
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Practical approach builds the best engineers

Warnings from James Dyson and the IET that proposed changes to the National Curriculum will be bad for engineering in the UK generated lively debate among readers of The Engineer. James Dyson is spot on here. Doing practical stuff makes better professional engineers and scientists because they grow up with a real feel for things. I regularly interview high-powered students with very poor engineering judgement because they havent taken stuff apart, repaired old cars or tried building their own inventions. We need to give anyone doing physics & chemistry at school a soldering iron, a Meccano set and access to a school science/engineering club if possible maybe with a Dyson Ideas box too. Britains kids need sheds and Meccano, not puff pastry and topiary. Neil A Downie Meccano yes! Lego too to start with. You cant dismantle modern toys in the same way you could with tin plate and clockwork, and the inside of a plastic moulding will just be a nondescript PCB and a chip or two: nothing to learn from there by simple observation. Thats where Lego and Meccano come into their own. Im happy to see how my two sons built on their Lego experience and entered engineering careers. Graham Field In the 1950s the junior library was stuffed with books that explained how factories understand and be enthusiastic about engineering and eliminate puff pastry. Steve Todays youngsters have little incentive or opportunity to meddle with all things mechanical, and the experience meddling brings is an essential foundation for innovation.Schools have become adept at achieving academic results and could usefully widen the curriculum to include how-its-made subjects. There must also be more focus on vocational skills and incentives for schools offering out-of-hours, hands-on projects. Teachers produced by the usual route are mostly ill-qualified for this and scrapheap challengers are mostly ill-qualified to safely supervise kids.Come on, Mr Gove, wheres the solution? Galathumpian Dyson speaks with the zeal of the convert. I understand he entered engineering by the mature candidate route, having already established his reputation as a productdesign artist who successfully evolved a cyclone by a process of repeatedly building physical models.Recruitment to art school product-design programmes is buoyant, but this excess of supply is not filling engineering vacancies. Our problem is getting students to take Maths and Physics at A-Level, and to follow through to analytic engineering degree programmes. Fred
made things and how trains, ships and planes worked, etc. Technical things were what most schoolboys thrived on. In the 1960s my student apprenticeship taught me to file square plates to fit square holes, and design and tune electro-hydraulic servos for missiles. My BSA Bantam taught me how to change the gearbox return spring in a small shed. With a slip-stick and log tables as my only tools I became adept at university control-engineering calculations and assimilated a gut-feel for when an answer was wrong.Subsequently I worked in many sectors of industry. However well-grounded a student may be in the theoretical aspects of a subject, without a relevant range of direct experience there will be far fewer sparks of memory to trigger the connections that make the creative burst. Today society is different and there is insufficient interest in technical things or direct grass-roots experience. The UK engineering malaise is societal: focus on making parents and teachers really
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inyouropinion
Slowstart
Our report on the slow UK take-up of electric vehicles poured fresh fuel on an everemotive subject. The last I heard was that there was a bit of an issue with the storage of the fuel cell into the vehicle. Has the technology been bought up by governments around the world and kept under wraps?
Graeme Chapman Dean Newton

the overall solution to the truly emissions-free vehicle.
How are we to control this
Another aspect thats often
Weve known for a long
time that the production and therefore the purchase of the electric car is going to be high.Even with the technology for producing smaller and more efficient electronic fuel cells, the price wont come down for a very long time. Surely this has something to do with government taxes. The tax on fossil fuels is extremely high compared with that of battery power.Anyway, what happened to the Hydrogen Fuel Cell? This was produced a few
Id be a willing EV driver if I
could afford one, but they are simply too expensive, and things such as range anxiety, location of charging facilities, battery life and the styling of the vehicle are all turn-offs. Also dont forget that these are not truly zero-emissions vehicles, as we still need the electricity to charge them, much of which comes from burning coal or gas. Green electricity is also part of
overlooked in debates such as these is the potential of battery cars being used as a storage medium for electricity generated by renewable means. Apart from this, battery technology needs a breakthrough before I even consider buying one of these cars.Of course, if I had more money than sense, I would buy one of these toys today.
ban? If say China or Iran choose to build, then who is going to stop them? Just like the cluster bomb, we may not know who actually has been squirrelling them away until they use it, and it may then be too late.
Robert E. Bebbington
Too late to ban these devices
Ricky Nastrovaloski
Headinghere
Prof Noel Sharkeys call for a ban on killer robots provoked some interesting debate.
that assumes a common global morality. As an arms race this is probably better than concentrating on nuclear or chemical weapons, so lets leave them to evolve. Who knows, it just may be the weapon to end all wars or at least drive some interesting spin-off technologies. I also think its a reasonable assumption that fewer civilians
thesecretengineer
Our anonymous blogger reflects on the danger of assuming that those in other disciplines share the engineers approach to problem solving
I recently had a very special day planned. There were two or three things that were happening in the same locale, at slightly different and convenient times, each one having the possibility of making a great difference to my life. In fact I couldnt believe that for once all my planetary influences seemed to be aligning and the gods were smiling benignly upon my schemes. Of course I should have known better. The night before was spent being rather ill in a non-decorous manner and there was no way I could venture from the house the following morning. I could not possibly relay the thoughts that went through my head for fear of your blushes gentle reader, or even come close to expressing how disappointed I was. However within a couple of hours I had metaphorically brushed myself down and could face the world again if not exactly with a spring in my step. I wondered if my life skills gained as an engineer had
Click here to comment on the secret engineer
The culture of the engineer gives us a particular slant on life and allows us to see what others miss
helped me as, for someone who is naturally an impassioned sort of fellow, the turn around was fairly rapid. Specifically we are always looking to improve existing products or processes, sometimes even inventing new ones. We have a few thousand years of rather clever bods doing exactly this behind us and consequently the search for the novel tends to be, for a large part, both futile and frustrating. The phlegmatic approach is the only one we can take and I think this must colour our whole outlook on life. Taking this further, I remember chatting to Mr Secret Engineer Senior (himself an engineer) a few years back when he told me of his experience during some proto team-building exercise. Three people were selected from each of his companys departments and dispatched to a soulless hotel room. In their departmental
teams they were given an exercise to create a plan for producing a hypothetical product, after which various problematic influences were introduced. All struggled except the engineers who were told by the organiser theres nothing I can teach you. The only thing the engineers were surprised about was that none of the other teams saw the solutions that were blindingly obvious to them. The approach and culture of the engineer gives us a particular slant on life and allows us to see what others miss. It is seemingly a common mistake not to point this out in situations where we are with people from other disciplines, purely because we do not even entertain the idea that they have not seen it for themselves. This is something that we really should seek to change as it will improve the effectiveness of the companies we work for and lead to a greater appreciation of our profession. I still bitterly regret my missed opportunities but I looked at my misfortune, saw an opportunity to turn it to my advantage and used it as the basis for a magazine article. Every dark cloud and all that...
inyouropinion
would be killed by using these devices than by conventional ground warfare for the same objectives.
JohnK
Click here to join the debate Fuellingdebate

Our poll on EU biofuels targets elicited a strong response from readers.
Raising energy crops to make
There will be autonomous
Mr Diesel designed his
weapons whether or not engineers choose to ban them: someone, somewhere will make it happen.For those doing the what if at Hiroshima and Nagasaki: if the weapon had not been used at the end of WWII then it would have been used at some point later, and the later the scarier.Maybe it was better to use the relatively low-yield devices of that time than those available as the technology was developed?
engine to run on vegetable oil. In South Africa they run their cars on sunflower oil. Why arent we planting millions of acres of sunflowers in the deserts, which would be irrigated by desalinated sea water and create thousands of jobs where there arent any, reducing the rising sea levels and pollution by a huge amount. All diesel vehicles could run on this cheap fuel. Why arent we? Because the bloody oil companies wouldnt like it!
Jonathan Dawkins
Chris Roberts
fuel is self-defeating nonsense because it takes more energy to raise a crop than is produced from the resultant harvest. This is humanitys greatest challenge and one we must resolve or there will be no more humanity. Conversion consumes even more energy so that the balance will be always negative, made up with new fossil-fuel extraction. Add to that the loss of primary food production and the balance gets even worse.Biofuels are viable where they are secondary products from raw stock such as crop and forestry waste, and algae, all of which must be the no-cost by-product won as secondary value from free CO2 and sunshine. Conversion can
use external energy so long as it is non-fossil and the only plausible mass source is nuclear. Growing sunflowers in the desert with desalinated water? That one is for The Beano. Just because North Africa was the granary of the Roman Empire doesnt mean the Sahara Desert can be switched back on to massive arable production any century soon. Just regenerating viable topsoil cover will probably require the early decades of cultivation, although we may be able to accelerate it with imported biomass. But quality control would be everything.Topsoil is key and the least-noticed component of our increasingly unstable predicament.
John Douglas
talking point
For more news, views and information visit www.theengineer.co.uk
inouropinion
Energy and Thatcher: a tangled legacy

Both sides of the environmental debate are keen to claim Thatcher as one of their own. She was, its said, the first major politician to bring climate change to prominence as a global issue; she made speeches on the subject to the Royal Society in 1988 and to the United Nations General Assembly the following year. Its been said that Thatchers opinions on this were shaped by her background as an industrial chemist and her ability to read research papers, but frankly this seems to be a myth. Climate sceptics point out that Thatcher later changed her mind and in her 2002 autobiography said that she now doubted global warming. But by that point her influence on policy had waned altogether. Thatcher dominated her party so much that its difficult to separate her opinions and policies from Thatcher those of her government. But famously valued she did take some action on competition far the environmental front. At the time, ozone depletion above cooperation was seen as a more pressing concern than emissions-induced climate change, and Thatcher signed the UK up to the treaty that eventually banned ozone-depleting compounds. She also created the Hadley Centre for Climate Change, which opened in 1990. But she doesnt appear to have made any policy specifically to tackle climate change. The 1986 energy act brought in a commitment to reduce the amount of fossil fuels burned, but this was presented in terms of energy efficiency. She brought in the Non-Fossil Fuel Energy Obligation, which forced electricity distributors to buy power from non-carbon-emitting sources. This later became the Renewables Obligation, but its original intention was to subsidise the nuclear sector. Moreover, the economy in the 1980s was heavily underpinned by North Sea oil and gas. Energy politics was of course extremely significant during the Thatcher era, but the miners strike had nothing to do with the carbon emissions
from coal, even though it contributed to the later dash for gas. Thatcher was a strong proponent of nuclear power, proposing early in her premiership to build a nuclear station every year for 10 years; but in the event, only Sizewell B was built. The nuclear sector had to be separated from the rest of the Central Electricity Generating Board before it could be privatised, because of the costs of decommissioning older nuclear plants. The subsequent privatisation led to all of the UKs electricity-generation capacity now being owned by European companies; I doubt whether Thatcher would approve of that. The non-appearance of a new nuclear-generating fleet in the 1980s might give us a clue as to what Thatchers energy legacy actually was. It was cost that scuppered new nuclear plants they were in competition with cheaper generation, using gas. Energy policy today regards price competition as less important than limiting of carbon emissions and diversity of supply, but the feeling that all energy sources are in competition still persists, as we can see from comments that the government is putting all its faith in nuclear when it should be building renewables or is building useless windmills when it should be looking to nuclear. Margaret Thatcher famously valued competition far above cooperation its the defining aspect of her politics. Its not a huge leap, I think, to see the foreign ownership of UK energy and the continuing scrap over energy generation technologies as a continuing manifestation of that outlook.
Stuart Nathan Features Editor stuart.nathan@centaur.co.uk
yourcomments
Although she didnt plan it that way, Mrs Thatcher did more to gut the huge planned nuclear programme than any other politician. Her decision to privatise electricity was an amazing step. Sure enough it flushed out the true costs of nuclear 8p/kWh rather than the 2.145p/kWh pretence argued for at the Sizewell Public Enquiry. History has shown us that, on energy, Labour talks a good talk but always ends up supporting nuclear, while the Tories actually expose (sometimes inadvertently) the hidden costs of big public-sector schemes that then get cancelled. Right now all thoughts of good value seem to be going out of the window. The thought of EDF demanding 10p/kWh for 40 years is shocking but true. Dont talk of expensive wind power when a supposedly mature technology needs subsidies at this level.
Stewart Boyle
theengineerpoll
turbines. Of course it is hurting less than the costs we would face if we stayed with our coal/gas addiction, but none the less we would be in an even more positive state if we were harvesting our own energy with UK-made machines. So what can we learn from history? To me it clearly points to the need to not make the same mistakes with our present marine-energy industry. There are jobs being created and investments made to bring this technology to market, but it is just at the moment that there are big calls on the public purse to underwrite the long-term costs of a new nuclear fleet. There does not seem to be a real choice to be made here, but the legacy of some seeing renewables as a threat to nuclear seems to remain. Hopefully the openness at the cost of the nuclear investment underwriting will bring the entire energy system into sharp and informed focus and show that renewables are not expensive. Having no energy is the really expensive option. We must not fritter away our world lead in marine energy because of comparatively short-term cash problems. This is the moment to dig deep and decide we are going to make a new industry the UK can be proud of.
Anon
Last weeks poll: Thatchers industrial legacy biggest effect?

Revered and reviled in equal measure, Margaret Thatcher, who died last month, had a profound impact on the UKs engineering sector. Your responses to our poll on the subject showed a readership divided on whether she changed British industry for better or for worse. More than a quarter of the polls respondents felt that Thatchers industrial policy disposed of inefficient and unproductive industries and helped Britain become more competitive. A similar amount however, claimed that lack of investment in industry on the former Tory leaders watch led to the collapse of manufacturing. Meanwhile, 10 per cent of respondents agreed with the suggestion that privatisation, another hallmark of the Thatcher years, helped foster competition and innovation. However, the largest group of respondents (38 per cent) agreed with the statement that deregulation of the financial markets led to an over-emphasis on the financial markets.
I would like to thank Margaret Thatcher for the efforts she put into getting the Nissan factory into the North East, which now makes upwards of 500,000 cars a year.Other aspects of the manufacturing strategy that subsequent governments have followed of promoting high-technology industries foremost is very short-sighted in my opinion. This country needs lots of low-technology industry as well and this requires a very carefully planned strategy to ensure a proper industrial sector. Tax revenues have suffered with the collapse of much of our older industries and these are very difficult to replace. I welcome that the current coalition government has recognised that a financially strong nation like Britain also needs a very strong industrial base. When Ford workers at Dagenham gave up their jobs for huge redundancy payments that were offered by Ford at the time, the country also gave up and lost income tax revenue and National Insurance contributions. Government has a role to play to ensure the greater good of the nation state is served on these important issues.
Mark Roberts
Maggie thought competition was the answer but she had no idea about the way the market works. Once shares were issued there was no stopping the overseas companies grabbing what is effectively a monopoly. It clearly showed she hadnt really thought it through.
Roger Newnham
Deregulation led to overemphasis on finance sector Lack of investment led to collapse of manufacturing The closure of inefficient and unproductive industries helped Britain become more competitive Privatisation of former monopolies fostered competition and innovation
What is missed in this article is the sad fact that the UK squandered its lead in many renewables through the ill-judged lack of coherence when it came to energy and industrial policies. One did not feed the other as it should have.The nascent wave industry was effectively knifed in the back at a critical moment (1982) in favour of more established technologies and in doing so put the entire marine-energy project back a generation. There were jobs in this and we gave them up. It seems incomprehensible now that wave energy could be seen as a threat to the Prime Ministers nuclear dreams; however that is how it came over and the funding was withdrawn from alternative energy research in favour of more nuclear, which we then didnt build either.But it was not just wave energy; we also lost our way with wind and as a result our balance of payments is now hurting from the import of foreign wind
All this criticism of Mrs T is just not right. Without the reforms in industrial relations, privatisation and energy policy we would be in a far worse position than we are now. Coal, steel and the other nationalised industries were not and never should have been there to mop up unemployment and to be an endless soak of taxpayers money. If an industry doesnt pay and the debts are increasing year on year then why should they be treated differently just because the government owned them? And why should the workers within them consider endless strikes for more and more pay to be a good use of public money? Her methods may have been blunt, but the logic is inescapable. If a factory or a pit doesnt make money, it should be shut. It is not a public service like the NHS (even there we could do with some Thatcherite medicine), it is a business and should be treated as such.And as for her support for nuclear, this no more or less than any other renewable energy. The answer is to control the market by regulation to ensure open-book pricing when selling to the public, not public ownership and bloated management and manning.
Steve
10%
27% 56%
24%

the Paul Jackson column
Tomorrows world
Engineers are being urged to involve themselves in an initiative highlighting the opportunities for young people in engineering
This week Ive been speaking to the Transformation Trust and the Princes Trust, charities doing great things to improve the lives of young people through education. Its reassuring that others plugged into the social agenda can see the value of science, technology, engineering and maths Tomorrows (STEM) and of joining up with Engineers has existing STEM engagements. This is where Tomorrows engaged with Engineers comes in. By nearly 42,000 partnering with Tomorrows Engineers, a collaborative students programme of school activities and careers resources, organisations like these can tap into an already existing and effective model of engagement to achieve shared goals to promote the opportunities that science, technology, engineering and maths can offer young people. In the past year Tomorrows Engineers has worked with a range of businesses, including E.ON, GKN, Goodrich, Jaguar Land Rover, Motorola Solutions, National Grid, Rolls-Royce and Severn Trent, and a carefully selected number of delivery partners, to engage with nearly 42,000 students and almost 3,000 teachers. And by joining up more, we can do more. By working together we can achieve more, reach further and embed important careers messaging. Tomorrows Engineers ensures that all engagements are robustly evaluated across the board, so we can measure the impact of our joined-up efforts, what is working and where the challenges and opportunities lie. The programme is led by EngineeringUK and the Royal Academy of Engineering and is underpinned by quality, consistent careers resources for young people and teachers, developed by EngineeringUK, the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Institution of Engineering and Technology, the Institution of Mechanical Engineers and the Institute of Physics. This is important, of course, because to achieve sustainable growth, our economy vitally needs engineers and engineering - a message that I hope to see reflected in the Queens Speech on 8 May. We are more than half way through the current Parliamentary term and only two years away from the next general election - there is no better time for the speech to lay out plans for the future with a focus on opportunities for growth. For me, the priorities have to be: 1) Investing in infrastructure 2) Increasing the number of young people and adults with STEM skills ready to enter the engineering profession 3) Reconnecting business and education Id also issue a fourth call to action, this time to the engineering community get involved! Work with EngineeringUK to ensure we have the joined up approach in place that will ensure we can deliver growth for the UK. My colleague, John Halton, is on hand if youd like to find out more: jhalton@engineeringuk.com or 020 3206 0436.
Paul Jackson is chief executive of EngineeringUK Picture: Rolls-Royce offers its 40,000 employees opportunities in the 50 countries in which it operates
the Iain Gray column
Passage to India
The Technology Strategy Boards Mission programmes can help UK companies get a foothold in Indias growing economy
India is currently the worlds tenth largest economy, but with a population of over 1.2bn it is expected to grow to become the fifth largest by 2020. As a result, India is experiencing social and business change at a rate unseen anywhere else in the world. This landscape offers huge 83 per cent of opportunities for UK companies said businesses that can provide affordable, scalable and the Mission will innovative solutions to meet help their business the needs of this rapidly growing market. The grow faster emerging middle classes are demanding a whole set of new services, products and infrastructure ranging from affordable healthcare through to education, energy and finance. To benefit from these changes, UK businesses must understand how India integrates and applies new technology, building on its own strengths and using business models and principles that may be unfamiliar to UK entrepreneurs and investors. It was the challenges associated with entering an unfamiliar market that the Technology Strategy Board addressed through its recent Web Mission to India. The Mission brought together a unique blend of private and public sector partners to provide insights, networking and customer opportunities. Sixteen of the UKs most promising digital, wireless and mobile software technology companies were selected to take part. Among them was uMotif, a digital health company with a B2B2C software platform which helps to improve
Picture: Ambient Technical Solutions flood risk mapping has market potential in India
patient adherence to medication regimes and health programmes. The software engages patients and health professionals in such as way as to enhance treatment outcomes and reduce healthcare costs At the other end of the spectrum was Ambiental Technical Solutions, a specialist flood risk mapping specialist with a fast and easy-tounderstand solution for predicting the depth, duration and extent of flood risk. Deployed in India, the technology could create high-resolution digital flood maps and models at a city-wide or national scale. We are now three months on. The deals done, both during the mission week and after reinforce the important role of the Mission in driving innovation. Some participants have already returned to India to continue developing new business leads. Overall, 83 per cent of mission companies said the Mission will help their business grow faster. When put into context, since the very first Mission in 2009, over 250m worth of investment has been secured by companies and over one hundred significant partnerships or customers acquired. With the Web Mission successfully completed and the companies involved growing their businesses; I look forward to the Clean and Cool Missions later this year. These are designed to help pioneering early-stage UK clean technology companies grow their businesses overseas. Clean technology is integral to the future growth of economies around the world that are facing challenges such as urbanisation, resource efficiency and climate change adaptation. The competition opens on 20th May for Brazil and 3rd June for Colorado. You can find more details at: www. cleanandcool.com.
Iain Gray is chief executive of the Technology Strategy Board
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Body builders
Scientists are combining biological tissue with synthetic materials to create a new class of cyborgans. Stephen Harris reports
artificialpancreas
Researchers have created a self-contained implant that automatically manages insulin release
The need to more carefully regulate type 1 diabetics insulin intake has led to several attempts to create an artificial pancreas that removes the need for sufferers to perform their own injections. Most designs include an implanted insulin pump and electronic glucose sensor regulated by an external device, but researchers led by Prof Joan Taylor at De Montfort University in Leicester have developed a self-contained implant that manages insulin release automatically and more precisely. Insulin is stored behind a polymer gel that softens in the presence of glucose molecules, releasing insulin to the liver in the right amount until the glucose levels drop. Although the researchers have yet to incorporate living 22 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
Image credit: De Montfort University
tissue to improve the devices biocompatibility, the design represents how functional materials performing a more natural process can operate better than mechanical and electronic components alone. It has dose-related activity just by virtue of the fact that it works on a molecular level, said Taylor. So you dont have to build this in digitally; it responds naturally as an absolute function of glucose content.
hen Barney Clark went into hospital, he didnt expect to survive more than a few days. But after receiving the worlds first permanent artificial heart transplant in December 1982, the Seattle dentist went on to live for almost four more months. The second patient to receive the Jarvik-7, developed by US doctor and engineer Robert Jarvik, astounded his doctors even further by living for more than a year and a half after his operation. Of the more than 10,000 people in the UK who are currently waiting for an organ transplant, three die every day because of a lack of donors. The development of the artificial heart means that those on the six-month NHS waiting list have an option if their situation deteriorates while they are holding out for a transplant. Technology has improved hugely since the Jarvik-7, which was powered by a large console that made it impossible for patients to leave the hospital. Earlier this year, a TV documentary even brought together the latest developments across the spectrum of artificial organs to create a bionic man, which was until recently on display at the Science Museum in London. But doctors have yet to develop a true replacement for the real thing. And with the worldwide number of patients in need of a transplant far exceeding the small number of available donors, the need for a longer-lasting alternative certainly hasnt gone away. One of the key problems with artificial organs is ensuring biocompatibility, the ability of materials to provide a good environment for living cells to grow and function around them. Artificial hearts, for example, need to be haemocompatible otherwise they can destroy red blood cells or create life-threatening clots. As scientists have become better at growing human cells in a lab, the idea has taken hold that we might be able to produce entire biological organs based on a patients own cells. This could not only bypass the problem of biocompatibility but also reduce the likelihood of the body rejecting the organ as a foreign body, as can happen with transplants, and of causing an infection by providing a welcome surface for bacteria. However, growing an organ for use in a patient has not proven simple. In the late 1990s, people started working on developing organs using a tissueengineering approach, and everybody
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Picture: French firm Carmat has begun animal trials on its artificial heart, which works by pumping hydraulic fluid in and out of two chambers via a biomembrane
Image credits: Carmat
thought in the next 10 years we would be growing all organs, said Dr Alex Seifalian, professor of nanotechnology and regenerative medicine at University College London (UCL), who was the scientific lead on the bionic man project. They were trying to simulate what nature is; trying to grow, for example, a nose or ear; trying to make exactly the same cartilage and grow cells on some bio-absorbable material that disappears to leave the cartilage, and that will be placed in the patient. But scientists, including Seifalian, have encountered problems with this approach. In 1997 we had a grant to develop artificial arteries with tissue engineering, he said. In animals it worked very well and then when we went to humans it just didnt work very well because the people who needed arteries were over 50 years old, their cells werent growing, theyd get infections. The other problem was making the technology commercially viable: growing organs in a lab is a costly, time-consuming process and Seifalians collaborator company pulled out. Proponents of biological organ replacements have recently been encouraged by the development of 3D tissue printing, which offers the tantalising possibility that we might build organs mechanically, layer by layer a much faster process than growing them in the lab. But printing complex internal organs like the liver or heart is still some way off, and the technology will face similar issues to traditional tissue engineering when it comes to implanting. In the meantime, some scientists are pursuing a different approach, combining biological tissue with
In the late 1990s everybody thought in the next 10 years we would be growing all organs Dr Alex Seifalian, UCL
synthetic materials and/or mechanical and electronic components to create what could be called hybrid or even cyborg organs (cyborgans, if you will), which are more easily manufactured, longer lasting and more successful once implanted into the body. On one level this means incorporating some biological material into a largely man-made device. French firm Carmat, which is owned by aerospace and defence company EADS, has begun animal trials on one of the worlds most advanced designs for an artificial heart, which includes some biological elements. The two chambers inside the Carmat heart are each divided by a biomembrane that separates blood on side from hydraulic fluid on the other. Tiny motors controlled by an electronic sensor system pump the hydraulic fluid in and out of the chambers, in turn causing the membrane to pump the blood. To increase haemocompatiblity, the membrane is made from animal tissue that helps move the blood without damaging cells. Microporous biological and synthetic biomaterials also cover every other surface that comes in contact with the blood, in order to prevent material from sticking to them. If trials are successful, Carmat hopes its heart could achieve a lifespan of at least five years, and potentially up to the nine years of extra life reached by 50 per cent of transplant patients. -> MAY 2013 | theEnGineeR | 23
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Image credit: UCLB Image credit: Tal Dvir
Picture: The UCL-developed artificial windpipe includes both biological and synthetic tissue But scientists are also combining biological and synthetic materials in a more fundamental way, creating permanent artificial structures or scaffolds and then growing living cells around them. Seifalian is already preparing to clinically trial blood vessels and tracheae (windpipes) made in this way, and is also developing urethrae, bladders and cardiac patches for healing hearts. Although Seifalians organs are grown along similar lines to those based on temporary moulds and scaffolds that gradually disappear, providing the same increased biocompatibility and reduced the risk of infection, he argues that permanent internal structures provide several additional advantages. The nondegradable material is more reliable, he said. If you make a tube you can make it mechanically similar and sometimes better than a real trachea, so if you squash it, it goes back to its original shape [etc.] Also the surgeon knows the material is going to be there forever. If you put in an artery and the polymer disappears after three months, if the body doesnt take over then the patient will die. But if you know the artery is going to be there forever then you will feel much better. The material is a nanocomposite polymer that goes by the name polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane-poly 24 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
If you have a material scaffold it can be tailored to patients or just made in different sizes and you can sell it
(carbonate-urea) urethane, or the much more manageable POSS-PCU for short. Its strong, relatively cheap to synthesise and easy to manipulate into a range of complex structures. The silicon in it helps make it biocompatible, although scientists arent exactly sure why. And the materials nanostructure, which was inspired by butterfly wings Seifalian studied at the Natural History Museum in London, also makes it hydrophobic, meaning it repels water and therefore prevents bacteria from growing and causing infections. The other benefit is commercial, he added: having a physical product to sell is a more attractive proposition for manufacturers. If you have a material scaffold it can be tailored to patients or just made in different sizes and you can sell it. You can then add cells and put it into the patient. This biological tissue can be grown either in a lab or, in some cases, after the artificial structure is implanted into the body. Seifalians blood vessels, for example, contain molecules that take stem cells from the blood and convert them into the endothelial cells that line the bodys own vessels. As well as reducing the risk of rejection, this also means the structure can be implanted as soon as it is needed, rather than having to wait several months for the cells to be grown in the lab.
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Image credit: MIT
Above: A 3D fluorescent image showing a tissue scaffold, which could be used to build organs Left: A Tel Aviv University researcher studies an electronic sensor before it is implanted in the scaffold Right: The Bionic Man showcased new developments in artificial organs, including De Montforts pancreas
Image credit: Science Museum
The researchers also demonstrated the technology with The next big challenge is to build one of the bodys more blood-vessel cells and neurons, and Dvir believes arteries that complex organs such as a liver, by creating a synthetic scaffold monitor blood flow or patches that could help heal or stimulate and culturing stem cells around it that then turn into hepatic the brain could also be possible, and perhaps one day even (liver) tissue. This could prove even more difficult than building cyborg eyes or muscles. an entire working heart, said Seifalian. A liver stores vitamins, The development of hybrid organs raises the question of takes poisons out of the blood and so on, so a liver virtually is whether theyre merely a stopgap until we can produce better factory. To make the whole organ to become functional is biological replacements, perhaps with 3D printers as the quite complex. enabling technology, or whether synthetic materials and Several other research teams are studying the use of electronics will allow us to enhance what nature has given us. scaffolds to build organs, but one group in particular has Dvir thinks additive manufacturing could actually be what managed to produce tissues that most closely fit the label delivers the full possibility of cyborgans, rather than making them cyborgan. The team, which comprised researchers based at redundant. When I think about 3D printers I immediately think Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), about the opportunity to combine electronics with engineered was able to add electronic sensors to a tissue scaffold that tissue, he said. So in my opinion, I think there is great potential could be used to monitor electrical activity or other changes in for these cyborg tissues. If it works with patches it will work the cells around it. with fully engineered organs. Previous work had led to flat layers of Seifalian goes a step further. He sees cells grown on electrodes or transistors, but A liver is virtually the future as fully synthesised organs that the MIT/Harvard researchers were able to work even better than the real thing, based build a porous epoxy scaffold embedded a factory, so to make on biocompatible, functional materials, with silicon nanowires that carry electrical perhaps with embedded electronics. With signals to and from the tissue grown around the whole organ growing organs we will move forward but it, and detect activity of less than onebecome functional I dont think thats the future. Why cant we thousandth of a watt about the level of make a heart from functionalised material electricity that might bee seen in a cell. is quite complex that works very well and doesnt break, They demonstrated the sensors could detect doesnt get calcification and so on? electrical activity related to cell contraction Were actually already seeing similar ideas become reality, and changes in pH. for example De Montfort University has developed an artificial One of the researchers, Dr Tal Dvir, is now based at Tel Aviv pancreas that releases insulin via a glucose-sensitive material University in Israel and working on making the sensors operate (see box). And Seifalian is playing around with the idea of a wirelessly without being attached to a semiconductor base so synthetic heart made from ionic polymers that contract when they can be incorporated into a cardiac patch. The idea is that an electrical signal is applied. the patch would help regenerate the heart after an attack, Unfortunately its not as strong, its not fast enough to while the sensors monitor its progress by detecting electrical replace the heart muscle so were still working on it, he said, activity as the heart contracts to ensure the cells were acting adding: I dont think were very far away from it. I think in synchronously. Eventually it could also operate as a pacemaker 10 years time somebody will come up with such a thing. If by using the nanowires to emit electrical signals or control a thats the case we could find ourselves going full circle and drug-delivery system. jettisoning biological replacements altogether. Perhaps the In cardiac tissue engineering you want to see that the tissue future isnt cyborg organs but android ones. you engineer is doing what you want it to do, said Dvir. We put sensors within the scaffold and were able to record from each of these spots. It was like having a map of the For more on this story visit www.theengineer.co.uk contractions or the beating of the cells in three dimensions.
Q&A: Laser weapons Will directed energy weapons change the face of modern warfare? Stephen Harris puts your questions to an expert panel
Master blasters
L
aser weapons are about to become reality, with the US Navy recently demonstrating such a system that can shoot drones out of the sky, and announcing plans to deploy a laser onboard a ship in 2014. Weve seen lasers used previously as an anti-piracy measure to dazzle would-be attackers, but now so-called directed energy weapons are likely to become a more familiar sight in warfare as defence companies around the world prepare to introduce their own versions. Directed energy weapons (DEWs) are systems that emit energy without the means of a projectile, and can use visible light, infra-red or microwave radiation, with both lethal and non-lethal effects. The weapons are said to be particularly useful for targeting 26 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013 large numbers of small, low-cost targets with high precision, and some estimates put the cost of each shot of directed energy at just $1. Companies developing DEWs include US defence firm Raytheon, which began publicly demonstrating their weapons in conjunction with the US Navy back in 2010, and Europes MBDA, which last year demonstrated a 40kW laser that successfully hit airborne targets at a range of over 2,000m. We put questions from Engineer readers to two experts in the field of directed energy weapons. n Dr Mike Cathcart, a senior research scientist at Georgia Tech Research Institute in the US who specialises in directed energy technology and recently chaired the Directed Energy Conference in London.
Q&A: Laser weapons

High beam: Raytheon hopes its laser weapons will operate alongside traditional US Navy equipment to take down airborne targets Another advantage touted for these systems is that the output power level can be controlled so that the same system can be used for a variety of applications and/or to create a range of effects on the target (e.g. dazzling a sensor to destroying the target). Doug Beason: DEWs are being designed for use in situations where other weapons do not work well. Since DEWs cost more than standard kinetic energy or legacy weapons (such as rifles, guns and bombs), and are more complex, it doesnt make economic sense to use DEWs unless other weapons simply cant do the job. DEWs have several key attributes: they deliver energy at the speed of light (near instantaneously: 186,000 miles/second); they deliver energy at an exact line-of-sight (you dont have to correct for wind, and lasers are unaffected by gravity); and they have an infinite magazine (you dont have to re-load bullets). These attributes may overwhelm cost considerations if nothing else can do the job but again, they may not. n What effects do DEWs have on their targets? How would they affect living tissue? DB: DEWs transmit photons packets of energy in the electromagnetic spectrum [at wavelengths that] typically interact with a target from the outside in. A lasers energy is absorbed on the targets surface, and depending on the level of absorption and reflection, the laser burns through a target, layer-by-atomic layer. Thus, when a laser interacts with a target, there is not an instantaneous Buck Rogers-like explosion, but rather (depending on the energy) a burn through. MC: Laser radiation, as with any radiation source, can be harmful to living tissue. Eye tissue represents the most sensitive areas relative to laser exposure. Laser safety has been an inherent part of laser development since the invention of the laser. As a result, there is a well-established set of protocols relative to operating lasers in a safe manner. That said, high-energy lasers used in a weaponeering application present a challenging operational issue. At high energy levels, terms such as eye-safe region have no meaning or application. High-energy laser systems typically refer to lasers with several tens to several hundreds of kilowatts of power (or higher). At these power levels, even a very small percentage of absorption will result in a substantial amount of energy being deposited into the tissue and thus damaging the tissue, even if the laser wavelength is one traditionally deemed as eye safe. Nonetheless, contractors and government agencies have developed procedures to enable the safe and controlled application of these systems. n What are the engineering challenges involved in developing this technology for use in warfare? DB: The primary challenge in developing a high-power laser is to produce the large amount of energy needed to efficiently power the laser. For example, a strategic laser needed to shoot down ballistic missiles has to deliver on the order of 1MW of power to the target. -> MAY 2013 | theEnGineeR | 27
Image credit: Raytheon
n Dr J Doug Beason, author of The E-Bomb: How Americas new directed energy weapons will change the way future wars are fought and a former associate laboratory director of La Alamos National Lab. Cathcart and Beason (who is also chief scientist and technology adviser for the US Air Force Space Command) were keen to stress their answers represented their personal views and not those of their respective institutes or the US government. n What advantages do DEWs they have over conventional weapons, and what disadvantages? Mike Cathcart: Directed energy weapons are often described as electromagnetic weapons as they do not employ some form of projectile motion. As such, directed energy weapons do not require the computation of ballistic trajectories to direct the beam at the target. This simplifies the aiming process for directed energy weapons. Also, re-directing the beam to new targets can be rapid. In addition, the energy for the DEWs is ultimately derived from the conversion of electrical energy into the electromagnetic beam thus no additional shells, powder, etc are needed to make the system operational. On target: MBDA has demonstrated a 40kW laser that successfully hit airborne targets at a range of over 2,000m.
Q&A: Laser weapons

Image credit: MBDA
Laser focus: Directed energy weapons work by transferring many joules of energy to their targets causing a burn-through effect
covered in a specially built metallic or ceramic case to reflect laser radiation, it would partially reflect laser weapons, but it would also dramatically reduce the range of the missile, and that would defeat why the missile might be used (because of Because of atmospheric absorption, scattering, and other losses the additional weight). Also, if a different laser wavelength is that occur when the laser energy propagates from the laser used against the target than what the armour or coating is source to the target, the laser source may have to transmit up designed to protect against, it may or may not reflect the laser to 10 times that amount of power (10 MW); and since lasers are as intended. typically 10% efficient then it could take as much as 100 MW to These trade-offs might work or they might backfire. Even ultimately deliver 1MW to a target. In practice, this worst-case polishing a target to have a highly reflective surface may or scenario does not happen because of advances in adaptive may not work nothing is 100% reflective, and even if a optics, beam control, cooling technology, and frequencyreflectivity of 99.99% is obtained, then a 0.01% absorption of a 1 tailoring techniques megawatt laser still results in 100 joules of absorbed energy per square MC: The early challenges related to the From a technology centimeter per second enough to first development of higher energy sources as damage sensors, then to buckle metal if well as the total size, weight, and power perspective development it was held onto the target for a longrequirements of these systems. Many of enough time. these issues have been overcome in the of more efficient sources last several years, though efficient remains a high priority n The usage cost of directed energy thermal management remains a critical weapons has been projected as being as system component issue (directed energy Dr Mike Cathcart low as $1 per shot, but how do the weapons typically have low electrical development and manufacturing costs efficiency). Current critical issues reside compare to more conventional weapons and how far will this in the areas of system integration and component improvement. limit their use? For example, fitting the DEW system on a particular vehicle DB: The costs of $1 per shot does not take into account the cost may generate platform integration challenges. From a of the NRE (non-recurring engineering or sunk costs that will technology perspective, development of more efficient sources not occur again), but conventional weapons also do not take remains a high priority as well as efficient beam handling NRE into account when comparing costs. Its tough to do a systems. one-to-one comparison, and I suspect that you can come up with a favourable cost estimate for whichever weapon system n How effective would metallic/ceramic armour or specially you prefer. designed surfaces that reflect certain light wavelengths be against a laser weapon? What other countermeasures could n What range do current systems have and, if they were to be used e.g. jamming? miss their target, how far would the beam travel before it DB: There are certain materials and coatings that may be used loses its destructive power? to reflect laser energy, but these are typically only good for a MC: DEW systems have been proposed and are in development certain set laser wavelength. These countermeasures also add for a wide range of defence-related scenarios covering strategic weight to the target: for example, if a missile were to be
Q&A: Laser weapons
Shot down: Raytheon has successfully conducted tests of its laser weapons against unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) targets using its Phalanx Close-In Weapon System scenarios such as ballistic missile defence to tactical scenarios such as ground-based air defence. The range at which the system loses its destructive power will be highly dependent on the actual system. DB: Strategic lasers such as that demonstrated on the Boeing Airborne Laser testbed aircraft [which successfully] have a destructive range greater than 100 kilometres; tactical lasers, such as those projected for use on Navy ships, have less range. n Are particular wavelengths of light favoured and why? DB: Typically lasers that are not absorbed by water vapor and not absorbed nor scattered by atmospheric molecules are favoured. These include lasers in the near-infrared (approximately a micron or a millionth of a meter in wavelength), among others. For example, the Airborne Lasers COIL Continuous Oxygen-Iodine Laser wavelength is 1.315 microns.
n How scalable, both up and down, is the technology, and how will this affect its potential usage? MC: Inherently, the power output of a directed energy system n What risks would laser weapons carry in terms of collateral can be controlled to a specific level. That has been one of the damage of buildings or civilians by continuing through or primary advantages touted for these past their targets? systems. Several, current high-energy laser DB: Because lasers are unaffected by wind Laser weapons are architectures allow a wide range of power and gravity, they travel in a perfectly outputs to be generated from the same laser straight path and do not spread out much extremely accurate, weapon system. A weapon system with the the technical term is that they undergo and are no classed as ability to cover a range of applications diffraction-limited propagation along a would offer great potential in defense and geodesic. Thus, laser weapons are indiscriminate area security applications. extremely accurate, and are therefore not classed as indiscriminate area weapons weapons n What would be the engineering (such as HG Wells Martian War of the Dr J Doug Beason challenges in developing handheld laser Worlds DEW weapons) as such, they are weapons and how likely is this to happen inherently defensive weapons. based on current technology? Furthermore, they are most effective when shooting up (from a MC: Handheld laser weapons have been developed in the plane to a missile, or from a ship to a drone), further limiting past but proved unwieldy. Current technology developments in collateral damage. This is because the atmospheric density laser sources make the development of newer handheld decreases in altitude, lessening the effects of scattering, systems more practical. I am not aware of any program of absorption and refection. record that is developing such systems though. n Do current systems fire continuous waveform beams or DB: The biggest challenge to producing a handheld laser is single pulses? packaging enough energy in a small enough volume so that it DB: Most lasers are pulsed, and many that appear to be produces a useful weapon. Another problem is making that laser continuous wave (CW) lasers are actually pulsed lasers with highly efficient so that it doesnt dissipate too much waste heat. the pulses occurring up to several million times a second. An advantage to having a pulsed laser is that it may impart more impulse (force per unit time) than a comparable CW laser.
interview: neil patterson
Fast lane to chalkface

neil patterson
Principal, Silverstone UTC
In a dramatic career change, the ex-McLaren designer is relishing the opportunity to put young engineers on the road to success. Stuart Nathan reports
Education
1990 Patterson studied for an HNC in mechanical engineering at a technical college in Worthing while working for a company manufacturing components for the petrochemical industry
Career
1990 Joins International Automotive Design as a design engineer 1993 Spends a year at Geodetic Machines 1994 Joins NedCar in the Netherlands as a design engineer 1996 Returns to the UK as principal engineer for closures at Daewoo 1999 Joins McLaren as a body engineer, working on Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 2006 Chief engineer on Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren Roadster 2008 Chief engineer on McLaren MP4-12C
s senior designer for McLaren Automotive, Neil Patterson was used to projects with a steep learning curve. But his latest career puts him on the steepest of all. Patterson is taking on the role of principal at Silverstone University Training College, taking students from age 1419 through GSCEs and A-levels aimed at preparing them for careers in high-performance engineering. Its quite a change for Patterson, whose previous position saw him working as body engineering manager on the Mercedes SLR Coupe and chief engineer on the SLR Roadster, MP4-12C and 12C Spider. Lots of great cars to be involved with, stretching the technical boundaries in each case, he said. Nearly 14 years of relentless development has taught me how to develop high-performing teams and how to get things done efficiently. While at McLaren, Patterson became interested in engineering education; speaking to The Engineer in 2011, he talked about engaging with young people at that years Big Bang Fair and judging the Senior Young Engineer of the Year Award. Taking on the Silverstone UTC position develops that interest. This represented an opportunity to encourage young people into engineering and really make a difference in the way they are educated, with nearly half of the learning being developed with and for the engineering firms in the region including F2 teams, he said. It really was too big a pull to resist. UTCs, of which Silverstone is one of the first, are Academy
institutions teaching only GSCE and A-level courses (or their equivalents), so applicants will have already attended a conventional secondary school for three years. The [hard] thing is for those who want to do something different and know where they want to go and focus on the subjects that the UTC specialises in, is to move schools and kick it up a gear, so to speak. There is little data regarding the performance of UTCs in the UK, although they are established parts of the education system in Germany and Italy. The JCB Academy in Staffordshire has achieved results that suggest its students are performing well. Combing hand and mind had the effect of switching people on to learning, Patterson said. Students can see
why they need to know what theyre being taught, and they can see the success in the projects they work on. Being based at Silverstone itself overlooking the Pit Straight and Copse Corner, to be precise the UTC is situated in the middle one of the UKs primary regions for highperformance engineering, with many of the Formula 1 teams as well as performance automotive manufacturers, aerospace companies and other high-value engineering organisations close by. The UTCs primary role, Patterson said, is to supply those companies with highly employable, work-ready young people who have learned according to a curriculum devised in partnership with those very companies.
interview
interviews, he said. I dont want interviewers to think theyve made a mistake in inviting a candidate whos attended our establishment. Were doing a lot on employability, putting our students in front of people who have been successful in business so that they can see what it takes to be in that position. Northampton County Council and Northampton University are both playing a part in attracting students, with open evenings and information events wellsubscribed. Patterson said that the intake of 136 Year 10 students for the UTCs first academic yearis now almost full, while the 150 year 12 student intake is about twothirds complete. Im already going into primary schools to talk about STEM subjects, he added. Theres a massive interest... in what were doing. One factor of which Patterson is keenly aware is the gender balance. At the moment, the engineering course is attracting more male candidates than female, although the technical events side is helping to even the balance overall, he said. But Id like to do something about that. Im trying to produce marketing material which appeals to both genders, and were considering some femalespecific marketing and events. This isnt a matter of diversity targets, he added. You get a much better environment [with mixed genders], he said. My experience of working in engineering is that when women are involved, people are much more respectful. Its important for the working environment, and it helps get better results in the projects: its a really, really important and good thing for industry to have that balance. The UTCs building is taking shape and will be handed over from the contractors in a first phase in August; the second phase of building will be completed by October. The UTC will have sporting facilities, though no Karting track. We do have a world-standard Formula 1 circuit on our doorstep, Patterson said, and well be involved with the Greenpower schools motorsport series: we might use the full circuit or the smaller Stowe circuit to develop and test our Greenpower cars.
Picture: UTC offers the benefit of a world-standard Formula 1 circuit on its doorstep look at the countless businessto-business events that are run around the country, and a lot of the performance-engineering businesses in the region wouldnt exist if they didnt run events as well. Technical event management will use a business-based curriculum with elements such as management accounting, logistics, sales and marketing, he added. As a school, the UTC will teach a balanced curriculum, with students taking GSCEs in English, Maths, Geography, German and a science, as well as a Level 2 diploma in engineering or NVQ2 in Performing Engineering Operations, or the Technical Events Manager diploma. Year 12 students will be offered a choice of A levels along with a Level 3 diploma in engineering or TEM. Geography was chosen as the sole humanities subject as its easy to see how it can be contextualised to engineering and events; its less easy to see how history could, for example, Patterson explained. Similarly, German is the sole modern foreign language, because it is the language of engineering in Europe, he added. That allows us time to focus on our specialities. The UTC wont offer arts subjects as part of its teaching, but they will be offered extracurricularly. Were polling our students to see what theyd like us to offer there, Patterson said. The UTC has a close relationship with industrial sponsors, such as Force India, who are working with it to develop industrial challenges for the students. These are projects that might last eight weeks and will require the students to use their learning from across the curriculum, Patterson explained. Therell be some physics and maths, they might need to converse with a supplier in German. It meets the curriculum, but the great thing is its completely contextualised; the students will be learning without necessarily realising theyre learning, and theyll never have to ask the question Why am I doing this?. Working on projects with clear goals such as this is a key part of the McLaren philosophy
Picture: Silverstone UTC will prepare students for careers in high-performance engineering Patterson has no educational qualifications and not much experience, but his deputy principal, Vanessa Stanley, is from a more solid educational background. A physicist from Imperial Colleges aeronautical engineering department, Stanley has taught the 1419 group before and has also set up a school herself, the Hazeley Academy in Milton Keynes. As well as performance engineering, Silverstone UTC will be teaching a course in technical events management. Silverstone is nothing if not an events venue, Patterson said, and events management is the second-biggest sector employer in the Northamptonshire region. UTCs exist to support regional industries and this is something were very good at in the UK
I want to see young people in employment in the industry of their choosing
that Patterson hopes to bring to the UTC. Putting together teams of people and getting them working well together is something McLaren is very strong at; that business-like culture thats focused on success, collaboration and building success from success by focusing on the goal rather than the task, he said. Success for the UTC will be measured in the same way as for any other educational establishment, by the number of pupils who achieve grade A*C at GSCE, and A-level and diploma results. But for Patterson, theres another key indicator. I want to see young people in sustained employment in the industry of their choosing, and also getting a job soon and not having to go through several

feature: news
Picture: Multi-material printing allows a functional product to be created with different properties without the need to bring together components
Its all material

Integrated electronics and morphing structures are heralding a much smarter future for multi-material 3D printers. Ellie Zolfagharifard reports
hen architect Skylar Tibbits announced a project to develop morphing materials earlier this year, he rekindled public imagination about 3D printing. In collaboration with Minneapolis-based group Stratasys, Tibbits has set up a radical lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to create materials that self-assemble. Central to his work is the use of multi-material 3D printing to programme different properties into various parts of a products geometry. The idea is that these parts will have varying waterabsorbing characteristics that activate a change in shape when they come into contact with moisture. The process could lead to structures such as self-assembling furniture, or water pipes that know when to expand and contract. Theres an unprecedented revolution happening, said Tibbits. This is the ability to programme physical and biological materials to change shape, change properties and even compute outside of silicon-based matter. But if we look at the human scale, there are massive problems that arent being addressed by those nanoscale technologies. If we look at construction and manufacturing, there are major inefficiencies, energy consumption and excessive labour techniques. Aside from developments in self-assembly, multi-material 3D printing aims to address inefficiencies by reducing the number of manufacturing steps for one object. Compared with single material 3D printing, it allows a functional product to be created with different properties without the need to bring together components. It increases speed to market by allowing 32 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
organisations to prototype increasingly complex parts and reduces waste products by using exactly the right amount of material required. But as the hype around multi-material printing gathers pace, researchers are keen to highlight that, in reality, the industry is yet to develop a true multi-material printer than can compete with traditional manufacturing techniques. Were very careful when we talk to people about multimaterial 3D printing, said James Bradbury, research and application engineer at Exeter Universitys Centre for Additive Layer Manufacturing (CALM). There is nothing out there that can do true multi-material manufacturing. Currently the only commercial printers marketed as multimaterial are the Objet Connex range, now owned by Stratasys. The systems work by using the companys group of 120 3D printing materials, all of which are based on acrylic-based photopolymer resins. These materials are jetted as a liquid from sealed cartridges at a rate of seven-million pixels per second. Once a layer of material is deposited, it is immediately cured by a UV light to turn each liquid layer into a solid. The material is then built upon with successive layers to create the final design. Rather than using different raw materials, the Connex systems are based on blends of similar materials that provide different properties. We are simulating material, explained John Jones, EMEA consumables business manager at Stratasys. In many cases we get very close to the characteristics of some materials but we are not reproducing that material. Whats
feature: news
Youre probably looking at a 510 year timescale to see real multi-material integration James Bradbury, Exeter University
standing between us using other raw materials is ensuring it has the viscosity to pass through the print jet heads and at the same time be able to cure fast enough. Bradbury notes that these simulated materials often lack the resistance, flexibility and lifespan of their natural counterparts. For this reason, multi-material 3D printing has largely remained in the realm of prototyping. The benefits here, however, are significant. For instance, Jaguar Land Rover is using an Objet Connex500 to broaden its resin-based prototyping capabilities. The system has allowed the group to produce a complete facia air vent using rigid materials for the housing and air-deflection blades, and rubber-like materials for the control knobs and air seal. Elsewhere, the aerospace industry is hoping to move away from prototyping and towards developing an end product. Airbus, for instance, has been exploring the application of titanium powder-based additive-layer manufacturing for constructing large-scale complex components. The group, which is optimistic in its expectations for the market, believes that it will be able to build a plane from a multi-material 3D printer the size of an aircraft hanger by 2050. According to reports, the 3D printer would have to be around 80x80m in size. While existing 3D printers are far from achieving this, groups such as MIT and CALM share Airbuss ambitious vision for the future. They believe it is only a matter of time before the technology enables true multi-material printing. Commercial solutions have largely stabilised to the point that the
Picture: The Objet Connex range are currently the only multi-material commercial printers
architecture is the same, the competitors are the same, said Bradbury. The real innovations will happen in the research world. Multi-material is the next evolution in the technology... youre probably looking at a 510 year timescale to see real multi-material integration. Integration of electronics is a key area of focus for UK researchers. Warwick University, for example, has a conductive plastic composite that can be used to produce electronic devices. The material, dubbed carbomorph, enables engineers to lay down electronic tracks and sensors as part of a 3D-printed structure. According to the research team, it allows the printer to create touch-sensitive areas that can then be connected to a simple electronic circuit board. So far the group has used the material to print objects with embedded flex sensors or with touch-sensitive buttons such as computer-game controllers or a mug that can tell how full it is. The next step is to work on printing much more complex structures and electronic components, such as wires and cables required to connect the devices to computers. Along with self-assembly, and the development of stronger, lighter and more flexible materials, its easy to see why there is so much excitement around the potential for multi-material 3D printing. Ultimately, multi-material 3D printing could produce a radical shift in the way we experience our material world.
For more on this story visit www.theengineer.co.uk

feature: careers
Lifes a beach
The seas surrounding the UK offer engineers a range of diverse opportunities in the marine renewables sector. George Coupe reports
Picture: Advances in composite and lightweight materials technology are crucialto improving efficiency
he fair winds and strong currents that have borne the UK offshore renewable energy sector along in recent years have become a little conflicted of late. Growing uncertainty arising from the long-awaited Energy Bill has interrupted growth, and a persistent shortage of engineering skills still threatens to hamper future progress. The industry remains confident of its potential; 2012 was a record breaking year. The last of 175 turbines in the worlds largest operational offshore wind farm, the London Array, came online last month (April). Other large-scale developments are also coming to fruition in UK waters, such as Teesside, Gwynt y Mor off the coast of North Wales and Gunfleet Sands off the Essex coast, where the next generation of more powerful offshore turbines is being tested for the first time anywhere in the world. Government figures showed in March that 11.3 per cent of the nations electricity came from renewable sources in 2012, an increase of two per cent on the previous year. The largest absolute increase in electricity generation from renewables came from offshore wind, which increased by 46 per 34 | theEnGineeR | MAY 2013
The wind and marine sectors employment needs will be 88,000 fulltime posts by 2021
cent in 2012 compared to the year before. A record 1.2GW of new onshore and offshore wind was installed last year in the UK. But we have the potential to do much more, said Jennifer Webber, director of external affairs at industry body RenewableUK. This is a crucial year for the entire energy sector, as the Energy Bill is going through Parliament. There is a concern that the Bill, intended to unlock a further 110bn of private investment in renewables, will drive many independent generators out of the market. The sticking point is the proposed new system of long-term supply agreements between the generators and the utility companies. Under the scheme, generators claim they would not be offered viable terms, and without a bankable agreement to buy their power, its impossible to raise the
finance for their projects. Herts-based RES Group, which operates onshore wind farms around the world and is a consultant to some of the big utilities on offshore wind projects, said a lack of commitment to the long term future of offshore renewables in the UK was already beginning to bite. HR director Gary Robinson said that while their company was handling a healthy flow of onshore projects, progress in the much less mature offshore market had slowed to a crawl. He said the company had expected to see an increase in business of up to 30 per cent. We certainly wont be seeing that, he said. What we want is a proper long term committed strategy to offshore power generation. Last month energy secretary Ed Davey agreed to reconsider the new contracts for difference contained in the Bill, and the industry hopes that if the right framework for investment can be established the sector will continue to expand. But this will in turn require a smart response from the industry to secure and train the people it needs. Research by RenewablesUK predicts that the wind and marine energy sectors employment needs will be 88,000 full-time
feature: careers
into offshore renewables. He said businesses were always on the look out for engineers with transferrable skills, particularly on the research and development side. Research and development is still the main focus in the much less established wave and tidal sector. Neil Kermode, managing director of the European Marine Energy Centre, said that while the Energy Bill was responsible for a good deal of nervousness in the industry, there was no slowdown in the rate of wave and tidal research projects using their open sea test facilities in Orkney. As with wind power, he said, much of this was now being driven by the larger players who see the potential. There is now a significant amount of realism among the big industrial majors, who have decided to get involved in this space. Alstom, ABB, DCNS and Kawasaki are all involved in projects with us. These kinds of businesses can bring greater firepower to bear on solving the technological challenges and they also bring a maturity, that is good, durable engineering. However, Kermode also forecast that the skills shortage would bite as these new technologies moved from testbed to fullscale installation. There would be a particular need for electrical design and grid engineers. I have absolutely no doubt that there is going to be a shortage. There is such an epic amount of work to do in
Picture: Energy contained within waves has the potential to produce up to 80,000TWh of electricity per year, enough to satisfy global demand five times over
Picture: Aquamarines Oyster captures energy in nearshore waves and converts it into electricity. Its pump pushes high pressure water to drive an onshore turbine posts by 2021 if the medium energy generation projections are met. The rapid growth of the sector means we are already facing skills shortages throughout the supply chain which is based on a broad range of activities, said Patricia Knightley, head of the Renewables Training Network (RTN), which was set up to coordinate and provide training for people wanting to get into the industry. The RTN was set up to act as the bridge for the projected skills gap envisaged in technical, engineering and business roles and to develop and facilitate training courses that meet the transitional skilled entrant path into renewables. So far the RTN has offered over 100 training places since the autumn of last year. According to figures from the Renewable Energy Association the sector as a whole employs 110,000 in the UK and is worth 12.5bn per year to the economy. Adrian Adair, operations director at the engineering recruitment specialist Morson International, said if the industry was allowed to grow, finding enough engineers to support it would be a significant challenge. By 2020, it is reported, job opportunities could increase to around 400,000. The skills shortage is widely reported across the engineering industry, and the offshore renewable sector is no exception. If the above figures become a reality, then we face a significant challenge in this sector to attract, upskill and fill these roles. Skills that are in highest demand at the moment include process, electrical and mechanical engineers, especially at senior and chartered level. Many of these skills can be found in other sectors such as oil and gas, marine or general energy engineering in this sector. Accessing these skills will be vital to the success of the offshore industry, even though sectors across the engineering industry are experiencing a significant shortage. The scale and risk associated with offshore projects lead those businesses who want a slice of the pie, including the big six utilities, to form consortia, thus creating large internal pools of engineering skills which can be drawn upon. However, according to William Godfrey, a senior consultant at the specialist recruitment agency Austin Fraser, there is a strong flow of engineers from other areas
Wind turbine development lends itself well to engineers from the aerospace industries, motorsport and Formula 1 William Godfrey, Austin Fraser
reconfiguring the UK grid for offshore power generation, getting those connections to offshore locations. Among the new technologies being tested at EMEC is a 1MW underwater turbine, which has been developed as part of a joint venture between Scottish Power Renewables (SPR) and Andritz Hydro Hammerfest. SPR plan to use 10 of the turbines in the worlds first tidal turbine array, which will be installed in the Sound of Islay. The turbine was put into the water at EMEC at the end of 2011, and now, said Michael Betschart, the chief engineer on the project, his team is in the process of finalising the design of the commercial product. He said the project had required a very broad set of engineering skills, including electrical, mechanical, application engineers, turbine design engineers, control and instrumentation engineers. However, these skills were generally difficult to attract. These engineers are available, but I think it is the perceived job security that is the problem. Tidal is not an established business yet, and I think they would rather move to jobs in established industries. MAY 2013 | theEnGineeR | 35
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Find the latest jobs at www.theengineerjobs.co.uk To advertise, contact Mauro Marenghi t:020 7970 4187 e: mauro.marenghi@centaur.co.uk
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Kinetic Search and Selection are specialists in the recruitment of Permanent and Contract personnel on a national basis covering the entire Engineering Design & Build process within key markets such as Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Renewables, Precision Engineering, Marine, Aerospace, Electronics and Materials Engineering We are currently seeking candidates with a background in Mechanical Engineering to ll the following positions.
Pressure Vessel Design Engineer 50-55K (Yorkshire) PV Design Engineer with in-depth knowledge of PED, PD5500 and ASME VIII Div 1 & 2 codes is sought by an international pipeline services company. Will be working in a specialist team mentoring other design engineers working on specialist projects for the Oil & Gas industry. (87820AJ) Inventor Design Engineer c40K (Yorkshire) Experienced Design Engineer with good FEA skills is sought by a company that manufacture specialist spooling and winding machinery for the Oil & Gas industry. Key skills are AutoDesk Inventor and MathCAD. (88529SH) Senior Design Engineer c45-50K (Newcastle upon Tyne) Will be mentoring a team of Design Engineers for a company in the Oil & Gas / Marine industries. Will need good 3D CAD and FEA skills. Good leadership skills and an in-depth mechanical engineering knowledge (including Structural Design & Analysis skills) needed. (88197AJ) Special Purpose Machinery Design Engineer 25-30K (Newcastle upon Tyne) Factory Automation design exp using 3D CAD tools is essential. Will have full design lifecycle experience from concept to commissioning. (88556SH) Design Engineer 35-40K (Middlesbrough) Good 3D Mechanical Designer sought to work on specialist projects for the Oil & Gas industry. Good CAD design skills needed preferably using Solidworks. Also need good FEA skills using ANSYS (88063AJ) Solidworks Design Engineer 30-35 per hour (3-6 month contract) Will need a background in Oil & Gas with good 3D CAD and FEA skills (88306AJ)
To apply or for information about any of our other vacancies please email Adam Jones (adam.jones@kinetic-selection.co.uk) or Sarah Heeler (sarah.heeler@kinetic-selection.co.uk) or call 0191 4823777 for an informal discussion. Kinetic Search and Selection provide a high-quality and professional recruitment service that is accredited to ISO9001:2008 covering the full range of Technical, Engineering and Commercial disciplines including Design & Development, Projects, Process Engineering, Quality & HSE, Purchasing & Logistics, Sales & Tendering and Production / Operational Management professionals. To register with Kinetic for Engineering opportunities or to place an assignment with us please call or email using the above contact details.
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Super precision bearings manufacturer The Barden Corporation, has published a fully revised and redesigned product catalogue, featuring highly detailed information on its angular contact and deep groove type ball bearings. The catalogue, which is a user-friendly and essential reference guide for design engineers, OEMs and end users, can be viewed on the Barden website.
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TERPS technology from GE Measurement and Control

Trench-etched resonant pressure sensor (TERPS) silicon-sensing technology from GE Measurement and Control is claimed to deliver high levels of accuracy and stability. TERPS is designed to transform pressure accuracy to improve safety, enhance performance and provide more sensitive solutions, even in challenging environments. Please click here to download the brochure
FIRST and NI develop Athena embedded robotics control platform for students
National Instruments (NI) and FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) are extending their technology partnership through 2019, with the latest phase centring on the creation of Athena, an embedded robotics control platform that is designed to be used with NIs Labview system design software.
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Mobil DTE 932 GT from Exxonmobil is a scientically engineered gas turbine oil that is targeted at oil and gas operators. The industrial lubricant can help increase productivity, reduce unscheduled downtime and support safety and environmental care objectives.
CRP Technology has worked with Flying-Cam to construct an unmanned aerial system called SARAH (Special Aerial Response Automatic Helicopter) using additive manufacturing techniques and Windform composite materials. The use of SLS technology helped to accelerate iteration generation, improve manufacturing time and facilitate series production. Click here to download the brochure MAY 2013 | theEnGineeR | 43
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