N E W S
www.engineeringnews.co.nz 9
UC engineering innovation boosts library’s
quake resilience
Christchurch’s new state-of-the-art
central city library incorporates innovative
New local subsidiary for Lorch
Lorch Schweißtechnik GmbH has established
its new subsidiary Lorch
South Pacific Pty Ltd and appointed
David Wilton as managing director.
Lorch Schweißtechnik has had a long
and successful history of welding
equipment sales in the South Pacific
region (Australia, New Zealand and the
Pacific Islands) under private branding
arrangements. The establishment of
the new subsidiary, Lorch South Pacific
Pty Ltd is in line with the company’s
strategic geographic expansion plans.
The subsidiary opens up the region to
the full Lorch product portfolio and
establishes a long-term commitment
to distribution partners and end-user
customers.
Mr Wilton from Global Welding Technologies
LLC, a co-owner with an extensive
knowledge and history of the
region says: “I have a long history in
the South Pacific region where I started
my career in the welding industry
and began my association with Lorch;
they are an outstanding company
with some of the best engineering
talent in the world. Lorch is a technology
and innovation leader focused on
developing smart welding solutions
that drive customer productivity,
backed with exceptional service and
support.
“Lorch has leading welding solutions
for South Pacific major industry
sectors including mining, general
fabrication, structural steel and ship
building. I am delighted to be partnering
with Lorch and looking forward to
bringing quality, cutting edge German
welding technology to the South Pacific
market,” says Mr Wilton.
University of Canterbury (UC)
engineering solutions designed to
help it endure a large earthquake with
minimal damage.
In March 2016, the Southbase-led
design-and-build team behind the
city’s flagship five-storey library,
named Tūranga, began mapping out
how they would achieve a high level
of earthquake resiliency. They turned
to the acknowledged expert, UC Mechanical
Engineer Associate Professor
Geoffrey Rodgers.
Assoc Prof Rodgers leads the field in
alternative systems that use dampers
to both absorb energy in a big earthquake
and prevent building damage.
Getting the right structural engineering
solution for Tūranga – the largest
public library in the South Island – is
crucial to ensuring its future seismic
resilience.
The conventional approach would
have been to incorporate sacrificial
design features to absorb energy and
prevent building collapse, however,
Assoc Prof Rodgers says: “It’s a solution
that saves lives but still results in
high repair costs”.
As a safer, more cost-effective alternative,
he had previously developed
a low-damage structural engineering
design solution for Forté Health’s new
building in central Christchurch, where
96 extrusion dampers were installed
throughout the building’s structure.
His outstanding work in this area was
recognised last year with the Royal
Society Te Apārangi’s Cooper Award.
Similarly, Tūranga includes extrusion
dampers, larger than those used in the
Forté Health building. They have been
strategically bolted between key base
walls and the foundation to act as motion
restraints in the event of a large
earthquake.
In all, 20 dampers have been used,
following full prototype testing. Each
seismic damper is a metre long and
weighs 185 kilograms.
“Under a low level of shaking, this
building will respond just like a fixed
base structure. Once you get beyond
that low level of shaking, it has been
designed to roll and move at the base
but in a controlled way,” he says.
Assoc Prof Rodgers’ work has also
been recognised internationally. In
addition to design solutions for the
Forté Health and Tūranga buildings in
Christchurch, he recently contributed
his expertise to a housing project for
homeless and low-income people in
San Francisco, in the United States.
For this project, dampers were required
early in the construction phase,
as the design dictated placing them
between the top of the piles and the
foundation.
Assoc Prof Rodgers has also conducted
award-winning research into early
detection of wear and tear of hip-joint
implants in a project called Unique
Acoustic Signatures to Diagnose Impending
DOOM (Dysfunction of Osteo
Mechanics).
Rocketship
Awards take off in
Australia and New
Zealand
The United Kingdom’s Tech
Rocketship Awards offer
Australian and New Zealand
technology scale-ups a new
launch-pad for their expansion to
the UK.
On the hunt for successful
Australasian technology
scale-ups, the UK Department
for International Trade (DIT) has
launched its Tech Rocketship
Awards in Australia and New
Zealand.
The Tech Rocketship Awards are
open to established Australian
and New Zealand scale-ups who
deliver innovative, technology-led
solutions across a wide spectrum
of industries and are ready to
internationalise.
The Awards will help eight winners
gain exposure, expand their global
networks and expedite the set-up
of their UK operations through a
paid-for, personalised trip to the
UK in early 2019.
h t t p s : / / t i n y u r l . c o m /
UKANZTechRocketshipAwards
Nature lends itself
to renewable
hydrogen energy
Scientists from the University
of Cambridge have developed a
new way to capture the power
of the sun and successfully split
water into hydrogen and oxygen
by altering how plants conduct
photosynthesis.
Plants convert sunlight into
energy through photosynthesis,
which releases oxygen into the air
when plants split water molecules
to gain energy. Almost all of the
Earth's oxygen, which animals
need to breathe, is produced via
photosynthesis - and hydrogen is
a potentially unlimited source of
renewable energy.
In the study scientists have used
semi-artificial photosynthesis to
develop new ways to capture the
sun's energy.
The research could revolutionise
renewable energy production.
Professor Geoffrey Rodgers
/www.engineeringnews.co.nz
