News Comment OCTOBER 2012 Innovation economy to strengthen UK industry
THERE IS MUCH talk of an ‘innovation economy’ as the means of strengthening UK industry. In the document Blueprint for Technology, Prime Minister David Cameron has stated: “This Government believes technology-based innovation will be one of the key drivers of the private sector-led economic growth that Britain so urgently needs”. Meanwhile, Sir James Dyson has commented in his report Ingenious Britain that: “The focus must be spurring enterprise and innovation to develop the next generation of wealth creators – high-tech companies and entrepreneurs, across all sectors”.
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All agree that innovation is urgently required, but how do we achieve it? For government, the responsibility must be not only to support the UK engineering industry but also to provide investment in higher and further education. For academia, the responsibility is to develop a closer engagement with industry and to focus on radical innovation within engineering courses. It is also important to encourage stu- dents to work with those from other disciplines because, more than ever, technologies are now interlinked. For example, electronics and communications technologies continue to converge upon mechani- cal technology to forge powerful innovations.
Sustainability meets those converging worlds of electronics and engineering in the development of online tools that enable engineers to make energy-efficient decisions when repairing or replacing motors. For example, the ERIKS Online TCO Calculator uses data relating to an existing motor to calculate key statistics, such as annual running costs, carbon footprint and energy usage in kilowatt hours. The user can then view the total cost of ownership for the year, or for fifteen years, or any period of years in between. The results provided will list and compare the cost of repairing and running the existing motor, replacing it with a standard IE2 motor, or replacing it with an energy-efficient IE3 motor. In the future, it looks likely that we will see much greater use of such tools. The economic pressure to reduce energy consumption, coupled with our shared human need to believe we are tackling the sustain- ability issue seriously, means that energy efficiency will be a key driver in all current and future technological development. To develop a robust innovation economy, we need to focus on, and invest in, existing strengths and establish centres of excellence to push forward innovation. ERIKS’ Core Competence Centres illustrate how it seeks to innovate, developing new ideas, technologies and designs that can be adapted to meet today’s market trends and needs. Britain clearly has the skills to compete with world-class univer- sities, and an already strong presence in sectors such as aerospace and the digital economy, but we need to plan for long term gain by playing to our strengths.
If we can maximise our advantage by building businesses in industries where we are already strong, we can sell our expertise to the fastest emerging global markets. If we can achieve that, then the innovation economy, which has long been heralded as the key to success for UK industry, will have truly arrived.
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I am going to use my comment this month to say thank you to all those who attended Sensing Technology 2012 at the end of September and made it another great show! Firstly, I would like to thank all those exhibitors that took stands this year, making the exhibition such an interesting and informative place to be; and for all the staff who were on hand to discuss their products with such enthusiasm and knowledge. Not forgetting, of course, the speakers who presented such interesting topics during the seminars. Secondly, my thanks goes out to all those who showed such interest in what was on show. Exhibitors commented that visitors were technically proficient, knowledge- able and eager to discuss applications across a broad spectrum of industries. So on towards the next event, which will take place in September 2013 under the new title ‘Sensors & Instrumentation’. Exhibitors are already starting to book stands for this event, which promises to offer even more to those visiting! Rachael Morling – Editor
OCTOBER 2012 Design Solutions
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