NPL ANNOUNCES THE LAUNCH OF AN INSTRUMENTS DIVISION
The National Physical Laboratory (NPL) – the UK’s National Measurement Institute – has launched a new Instruments Division. In launching this, NPL furthers
its commitment to ensuring that business and commerce benefit from its expertise. It does this by providing confidence that their products and processes perform as they should and to the highest quality, and by maximising the reliability and efficiency of their systems. Organisations like NASA, the
MOD, Defra and the European Space Agency (ESA) are already benefitting from this expertise. NASA, for example, uses the most accurate machines in the world to
craft the mirrors in its space telescopes. NPL created the laser systems that control and operate these machines. For the European Space Agency, NPL has developed a vibration test facility that underpins the performance of satellite components for European space missions. Defra has made use of new environmental monitoring techniques from NPL that track greenhouse gas emissions in 3D over large areas, allowing it to manage sites such as landfills much more effectively. The Instruments Division will
be putting £1.5m towards new machining centres and state of the art laboratories, as well as the
recruitment of new engineering specialists and advanced engineering apprentices. Dr Peter Thompson, CEO of the
National Physical Laboratory, said: “Today, NPL supplies instruments to industry to give organisations confidence through traceability: from vibration facilities at the ESA which will help test and improve satellite performance, to environmental mobile labs which give confident measurements of greenhouse gases. The launch of our Instruments Division gives industry access to our unrivalled measurement capabilities, underpinning prosperity and productivity.”
www.npl.co.uk/instruments
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SENSOR COULD TURN A RAIL VEHICLE INTO A TRACK MONITOR
As you will be aware, the seventh annual Sensors & Instrumentation exhibition took place at the end of September – and reports are coming in that, once again, the exhibition was a great success. Exhibitors are already booking stands to return next year – make a note in your diary for 26-27 September 2017 – and visitors were very interested in the variety of technologies on show and the informative seminars that took place during the event. Please turn to page 26 for the
full show review! Rachael Morling - Editor
A project is being carried out to develop a sensor that could turn virtually every rail vehicle into a track monitor. This will detect and transmit vital information about the condition of rails and rail bed throughout the network. ‘Tracksure’ has been developed by Siemens in collaboration with the Institute of Railway Research, as part of the Remote Condition Monitoring Competition supported by the Rail Safety and Standards Board (RSSB) and Network Rail. Every train in the UK – and a huge proportion overseas – is fitted with
a GSM-R cab radio system. It is now possible to retrofit an inexpensive Tracksure sensor card to the Siemens cab radios and, by picking up vibrations, transmit information (which is received by a control centre) to detect under-track voids.
Microlease has opened a major extension to its Harrow, London, head office and warehouse. The company has leased an adjoining unit, giving it an additional 1,500sq metres of office, warehouse and laboratory space. Nigel Brown, Microlease CEO,
said: “Extending into the unit adjoining our existing headquarters gives us the headroom to grow further and consolidate the integration of the Livingston team and inventory on to the Harrow site. It also helps accommodate the additional stock needed to support our growing distribution relationships.”
www.microlease.com
Hansford Sensors is celebrating its 10th anniversary. Commenting on the anniversary,
Chris Hansford, founder and managing director, said: “I would like to take this opportunity to collectively thank our distributors, partners, customers and staff for the success that Hansford Sensors has achieved in the last 10 years. As we turn our attention to our second decade in business, the industries we serve can have peace of mind that we’ll continue to deliver the same high quality products and superior level of support that they’ve become accustomed to from Hansford Sensors.”
www.hansfordsensors.com
www.hud.ac.uk/research/researchcentres/irr/
Brüel & Kjær has released Airport Noise Monitoring On Demand, a system that enables airports to temporarily increase noise monitoring. This will help airports measure before and after operational changes, investigate complaints, show compliance and credibly communicate with the community.
MONITORING AIRPORT NOISE ON DEMAND Commenting on the solution,
product marketing manager, Matthew Barry, said: “Airport Noise Monitoring On Demand lets airports respond quickly to operational changes. It’s easily ordered and – when you’ve collected enough data – just send the unit back.”
www.bksv.com
SK Elektronik (SKE), a provider of gas analysers based on Flame Ionisation Detection (FID), has appointed Quantitech as its exclusive UK distributor. MD Ken Roberts said: “We are
delighted to be working with SKE for a number of important reasons. Firstly, SKE enjoys an excellent reputation for quality and reliability, secondly the core FID technology is available in a number of formats to suit a wide variety of applications, and thirdly these instruments have performance certification –MCERTS for all versions and ATEX for certain models.”
www.quantitech.co.uk
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INSTRUMENTATION | NOVEMBER 2016 5
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