Naomi Climer, president of the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET), has announced that she wants to see more engineering employers consider introducing a range of measures to boost the number of female engineers. Climer, who is the first female president in
the IET’s 144 year history, has been an engineer for almost three decades. During this time the proportion of female engineers in the UK has remained at less than one in ten, the lowest level in Europe. She believes the lack of gender diversity in engineering means that the time is now right to encourage employers to ensure they employ more female engineers, with one idea to be by introducing quotas for the number of female engineers in the workforce.
COULD QUOTAS BOOST THE NUMBER OF WOMEN IN ENGINEERING? One of Climer’s first initiatives is to announce
new recommendations from an IET collaboration with Prospect, the trade union for professionals. These include developing user-friendly guidance for employers on how to recruit, promote and retain more experienced women working in science, technology and engineering roles – as well as working with government and employers to establish an all-party parliamentary group for women working in these professions. “Despite the best efforts, there has been little progress in attracting more women into engineering over the past few decades, so I feel that the time is right to force action through the use of quotas,” said Climer. “Diversity is good for the bottom line because mixed teams,
Want to keep up to date? Then follow us on Twitter: @CI_DesignMag and/or ‘Like’ us on Facebook!
INVESTIGATING THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND DRIVERLESS CARS After almost 50 years in the
Mouser has teamed up with celebrity engineer Grant Imahara and a group of visionaries in autonomous vehicle technology to announce a new Driverless Car Series. The series captures insights from companies such as CAVCOE, Mercedes, Cruise, Google, Delphi, AVX, ON Semiconductor and Carnegie Mellon/GM. Glenn Smith, Mouser Electronics’
president and CEO, said: “Moving to full-scale autonomous driving will have
substantial economic, environmental and social impacts that will drastically change the way people live and conduct their everyday lives. The new series is a great opportunity for the engineering community to experience first hand the technology created and still needed for driverless cars to become a reality.” The new Driverless Car Series is part
of the Empowering Innovation Together program and is only available on:
www.mouser.com
AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY
MANUFACTURER WINS IGUS MANUS UK AWARD
In the last few years, the cost of 3D printers has reduced dramatically, bringing the technology within reach of even more companies and individual users. Today, not only are the
machines being used to create components, but they are enabling designers to develop parts that are obsolete, and are even blurring the boundaries between design and prototyping, as RS components explains in our Materials in design & prototyping section this month. It’s an exciting technology,
offering endless possibilities for engineers. It will be interesting to see how the technology develops, and what it is used for, in the coming years.
Rachael Morling - Editor
Agricultural machinery manufacturer, Sly Agri, has received the igus manus UK award for the use of complex technical plastic bearings in the pivoting points on the suspension of its innovative track system. A standalone undercarriage, the
track system can be mounted up to almost any chassis and effectively transfers the weight on the machine onto the ground in a far more controlled manner than tyres. This weight can be up to 50 tonnes on a fully laden grain cart, thus minimising deep soil compaction.
MATERIALS ‘CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE’ OPENED
Morgan Advanced Materials has opened its second Global Materials Centre of Excellence. Located at the company’s facility in Stourport-on-Severn, Worcestershire, the multi-million pound facility will be responsible for the development of new materials technologies for applications in sectors as diverse as aerospace, medical and the environment. Mike Murray, Morgan’s chief technology officer, commented: “We
envisage that the Stourport Centre of Excellence will set the benchmark for innovation in structural ceramics.”
www.morganadvancedmaterials.com
Toby Kilham, head engineer at Sly
Agri, commented: “We are absolutely delighted and honoured to receive this award from igus, particularly given the calibre of the other UK entries. On stripping down the track system after its first harvest season, the condition of the bearings was almost as good as new – that’s after a few hundred hours of constant abuse.”
management of the HARTING Technology Group, Dietmar Harting has handed over the position of chairman of the board to his son Philip Harting. Together with his sister, Maresa Harting-Hertz, president finance and purchasing, Philip Harting represents the 3rd generation of the family-owned company which was founded 70 years ago by his grandparents, Wilhelm and Marie Harting, in Minden.
www.harting.co.uk
Saft has won contracts to supply over 45 million primary lithium batteries for smart meter installations in China. These major successes have been achieved thanks to two of Saft’s distributors, Royalty and Sonic, for key projects to power electricity, gas, water and heat meters deployed by local utilities. Deliveries are scheduled for completion by the end of 2016.
www.saftbatteries.com
www.igus.co.uk/manus
MKE Engineering Group, ABB’s authorised value provider, has doubled the size of its factory devoted to variable-speed drives and automation solutions. The increased space means MKE
can hold stocks for next day delivery of all major ranges of ABB drives, with ratings up to 90kW. It can also expand its repair service.
www.abb.com
Under a new agreement, Acorn Industrial Services will supply Ruland shaft collars and couplings to the UK market. Bill Hewitson, president of Ruland,
said: “Acorn has a strong presence and longstanding reputation for distributing premium products in the UK market. They are an excellent fit for Ruland and we look forward to a long and successful relationship between our companies.”
www.ruland.com
whether of race, gender or age, are naturally more creative and therefore better able to come up with solutions for the problems engineers face. So, it’s frustrating and disappointing that the sector’s glaring gender disparity has not been fixed.” Climer added: “I will be working hard to
highlight just how creative, exciting and diverse an engineering career is. It gives you the opportunity to do something life- or world-changing. But there is a big job to do to increase public understanding of the important role engineering plays in our daily lives and get more young people, particularly girls, excited about the possibilities of an engineering career.”
www.theiet.org
DESIGN SOLUTIONS | NOVEMBER 2015
5
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52