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09 Sep 10. Bath University has been awarded a grant from the European Regional Development Fund, the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) and industry to set up a business technology centre. The Laboratory for Integrated Metrology Applications (LIMA), based at the university’s department of mechanical engineering, collaborates with industrial partners to improve processes of metrology for measuring large objects such as aircraft wings to within a fraction of a millimetre.
The £2.2m LIMA Business Technology Centre (LIMA BTC) now aims to enable SMEs in the South West to collaborate with the research team at the university and introduce the technologies to their own engineering businesses. LIMA, which opened in November 2009, has industrial partnerships with Renishaw, the National Physical Laboratory (NPL), Airbus and Rolls-Royce, with participation from 15 other companies and organisations. It is further supported by the university’s research development and support office. Prof Paul Maropoulos, chairman of LIMA and head of the department of mechanical engineering at the university, said: ’The work now starts to develop and implement, in partnership with industry and NPL, metrology methods that will improve product and process design, and reduce quality problems and environmental waste.’
Geoff McFarland, group engineering director for Renishaw, said: ’The very demanding requirements of the aerospace and other high-value-added sectors has always been a strong factor shaping advancements in metrology. The LIMA BTC is well placed to make an important contribution in sharing the benefits of these developments with the wider South West engineering community.’ (Source: The Engineer Online)
09 Sep 10. Sperry Marine has opened a new ship navigation training center in Charlottesville, Va. The new facility will provide a wide range of navigation courses, including computer-controlled classroom training and a full ship’s bridge simulator, giving students hands-on training under realistic scenarios. Courses include operation, maintenance, trouble-shooting and repair of shipboard systems for both civilian and military navigation systems. The facility is expected to serve approximately 750 students per year. The navigation courses are designed to meet International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards and U.S. Coast Guard Standards for Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) certification, including Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS). They are taught by a staff of experienced certified instructors. Extensive maintenance and repair classes are also taught. In addition to the new facility in Charlottesville, Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine operates similar training centers in the United Kingdom and Germany.
13 Sep 10. Savi Technology announced that the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency (NAMSA) has launched a network exchange hub that allows NATO and coalition forces to share information on supply shipments more efficiently and effectively. The Routing Hub will foster greater multinational collaboration by facilitating the exchange of information using Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)-tracked consignments moving through military supply chains. Deployed at the NAMSA headquarters in Luxembourg, the Routing Hub transmits data from Savi’s interoperable RFID-based logistics network, which automatically locates, tracks and manages in-transit NATO material. Nations connected to the Routing Hub at NAMSA can directly transmit logistics data to other users, providing enhanced levels of real-time asset visibility. The Danish Armed Forces realized that the sharing of RFID data would require users to establish new nation-to-nation connections through which the data could be routed. Because such a system would have been costly and time consuming, Denmark requested NAMSA to establish a routing capability. The Routing Hub utilizes NAMSA’s existing NATO mailbox server system, a similar