N E W S Business leaders seek better ‘ditch’ relations 10 November 2016 Hanson Medal awarded for Christchurch earthquake article The Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) has presented the Hanson Medal to Professor Peter Gostomski, for his thought-provoking article published in The Chemical Engineer. Gostomski, Head of the chemical engineering department at University of Canterbury, New Zealand, received the medal at Chemeca 2016, the biggest chemical engineering conference in Australasia. The Hanson Medal is awarded annually to an outstanding contributor to IChemE’s magazine, The Chemical Engineer. It is named after a past chairman of the Editorial Advisory Board. Mr Gostomski’s article, Down but not out, was published in October 2014. It describes the efforts of the University of Canterbury to keep its facilities running following the two earthquakes that hit Christchurch, New Zealand. The first incident hit headlines in September 2010, but the second earthquake struck at the start of a new academic year in February 2011, and affected Canterbury’s chemical engineering department significantly. On being awarded the Hanson medal he says: “It was quite a surprise and honour to win the Hanson medal. It was a privilege for me to describe the tremendous efforts by my colleagues and students during a very trying time.” Adam Duckett, editor of The Chemical Engineer says, “It is a remarkable story of perseverance, and cooperation among university departments and the wider community in the face of what was clearly an incredibly traumatic time. While Peter notes that it’s not clear whether a significant amount of planning would have helped the department deal any better with the situation, he offers valuable lessons around safety processes and communication that I expect others will find relevant for their own business continuity plans.” The medal was presented by IChemE’s president Jonathan Seville, at the Chemeca conference held in Adelaide, Australia in late September. The annual conference is the biggest gathering of chemical and process engineers in Australia and New Zealand. More than 200 senior Australian and New Zealand business leaders and nine Government Ministers met in Sydney to identify ways to further improve the trans-Tasman relationship. Adrian Littlewood, New Zealand co-chair of the Australian New Zealand Leadership Forum, says, “While much cooperation has been achieved between our two countries over the years, the 2016 Forum meeting intends to look ahead at the forces that will shape our trans-Tasman relationship in years to come. We will be identifying and then pursuing policy goals and initiatives that would benefit both countries.” “Since the Forum last met in February 2015, five sectors have been identified in which there are significant opportunities for closer trans-Tasman collaboration. The five sectors are: infrastructure; tourism; agri-business; health technology; and innovation.” “Trans-Tasman business leaders have been working together in the lead-up to this year’s Forum, identifying what can be achieved on three levels: business to business; business to government; and government to government.” “We have also been busy identifying the best timeframes for those achievements what’s realistically possible within a year, within one to three years, and within three to five years. “In so far as the agri-business sector, our efforts are very much focused on achieving a common trans-Tasman approach to non-tariff barriers which impact on Australian and New Zealand agricultural exports to overseas markets.” The group also discussed potential new areas for trans-Tasman collaboration, such as in the indigenous business sector. “It’s time to once-again further deepen the trans-Tasman relationship and business leaders on both sides of the Tasman are stepping forward to help lead this change.,” says Mr Littlewood. The Australian New Zealand Leadership Forum in Sydney coincided with the Australian and New Zealand Government’s annual CER/Single Economic Market meeting. Faro continues metrology offerings with acquisition Cordless power boosts worker safety When a manufacturer boosts production to cope with burgeoning demand, efficiency-minded operations staff keenly seek out technologies to help them minimise costs and manual labour while maximising safety and ongoing returns. That is what happened recently to the leading Australasian carpet and textiles producer Cavalier Bremworth, which has doubled its production over the last year of its quality wool carpets for domestic and commercial markets throughout the Asia-Pacific. The highly safety conscious company found exactly what it had been looking for when it replaced time-consuming manual pumping of hydraulic spool lifting machinery in its Auckland manufacturing operation with an Enerpac XC cordless electric pump that does the job in less than half the time with minimal physical effort. “We have more than 300 spools – each weighing about 400 kg – that have to be continuously and precisely lifted from inventory and lowered into production positons,” says Cavalier Bremworth plant engineer Chris Young. “The hydraulic hand pumps we were using previously were excellent gear in themselves, but even strong men had to use 35-40 strokes to get the required lift and some of our ladies required up to 70 to do it comfortably and safely. “We thought, ‘there has got to be a better way’ and that’s when we saw the XC Cordless pump at an EMEX engineering show where it was being presented by Jonel Hydraulics. It was perfect.” Through its network of distributor and Faro, a worldwide source for 3D measurement and imaging solutions for factory metrology, product design, construction BIM/CIM, public safety forensics and 3D solutions and services applications, announced the acquisition of Laser Projection Technologies, Inc, a leader in high-speed, long-range 3D laser projection and measurement systems designed for use in manufacturing applications requiring precise component alignment. Located in Londonderry, New Hampshire, LPT’s line of laser projection and measurement systems are used throughout manufacturing environments around the globe to maximise productivity and efficiency. “The acquisition of LPT enhances FARO’s robust portfolio of 3D measurement solutions,” says Dr Simon Raab, Faro’s president and ceo. “In addition to LPT’s leading laser projection solutions, we believe LPT’s proprietary imaging laser photogrammetry and imaging laser radar technologies have tremendous potential to disrupt the market by establishing a new class of high-speed laser measurement with advanced 3D imaging capabilities and we will focus our integration efforts on rapidly leveraging this potential. This technology is thousands of times faster than currently available Lidar products and has proprietary imaging features, which provide extraordinary qualitative and quantitative inspection capabilities in every area of manufacturing. In addition, this promising technology incorporates a well-developed laser projection capability to guide assembly, making it a fully robotic, high-speed collaborative tool for manual or automated assembly and verification. In this case, ‘seeing’ is truly measuring.”
EN-Nov16
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