Web Page sponsor Oxley Developments
www.oxleygroup.com
————————————————————————
29 Aug 14. Oxley Shortlisted for Prestigious Business Award. Oxley Group has been shortlisted as a finalist for Exporter of the Year in the prestigious CN Group Business Awards. The ‘Exporter of the Year’ category is aimed at companies that have developed new markets. The judges were looking for entrants who could demonstrate significant export sales in relation to their size and success in developing new overseas markets to sustain business growth. For Oxley, international development began in the 1970s with the establishment of a US office & manufacturing facility. Over the last 4 decades, the team have established partnerships and customer relationships throughout many parts of the world, leading to success in winning large scale contracts with some of the world’s biggest aerospace and defence companies, including Saab in Sweden, Boeing in the US and the Australian Navy. In 2013 Oxley Developments did business in 34 different countries, covering 5 continents. The CN Business Awards celebrate the success and enterprise of Cumbrian businesses, the winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony in October. Marie Whitehead, director of CN Events, who chaired the judging panel, said: “The number and calibre of entries across all categories this year showcase the fantastic business offer we have in this fabulous county. We were spoilt for choice and are delighted with our winners.”
21 Aug 14. Work is underway at BAE Systems to give aircraft human-like ‘skin’, enabling the detection of injury or damage and the ability to ‘feel’ the world around them. Engineers at the Company’s Advanced Technology Centre are investigating a ‘smart skin’ concept which could be embedded with tens of thousands of micro-sensors. When applied to an aircraft, this will enable it to sense wind speed, temperature, physical strain and movement, far more accurately than current sensor technology allows. The revolutionary ‘smart skin’ concept will enable aircraft to continually monitor their health, reporting back on potential problems before they become significant. This would reduce the need for regular check-ups on the ground and parts could be replaced in a timely manner, increasing the efficiency of aircraft maintenance, the availability of the plane and improving safety. These tiny sensors or ‘motes’ can be as small as grains of rice and even as small as dust particles at less than 1mm squared. Collectively, the sensors would have their own power source and when paired with the appropriate software, be able to communicate in much the same way that human skin sends signals to the brain. The sensors are so small that BAE Systems is exploring the possibility of retrofitting them to existing aircraft and even spraying them on like paint. Leading the research and development is Senior Research Scientist Lydia Hyde whose ‘eureka’ moment came when she was doing her washing and observed that her tumble dryer uses a sensor to prevent it from overheating. Lydia said: “Observing how a simple sensor can be used to stop a domestic appliance overheating, got me thinking about how this could be applied to my work and how we could replace bulky, expensive sensors with cheap, miniature, multi-functional ones. This in turn led to the idea that aircraft, or indeed cars and ships, could be covered by thousands of these motes creating a ‘smart skin’ that can sense the world around them and monitor their condition by detecting stress, heat or damage. The idea is to make platforms ‘feel’ using a skin of sensors in the same way humans or animals do. “By combining the outputs of thousands of sensors with big data analysis, the technology has the potential to be a game-changer for the UK industry. In the future we could see more robust defence platforms that are capable of more complex missions whilst reducing the need for routine maintenan