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Thin films can be used to modify the optical characteristics of a surface, its electrical conductivity, its hardness or lubricity, its corrosion resistance, and its chemical inertness. It is important to understand how these properties are affected by temperature. Some materials even go through a phase transition at specific temperatures that greatly alters their optical properties. J.A. Woollam’s range of instruments provide accurate thin-film characterisation, which can be further enhanced by studying the material’s temperature dependence.

The knowledge of J.A. Woollam’s dedicated scientists and engineers has been combined with Linkam’s expertise in temperature-controlled stages to form a close partnership. By adapting its market-leading heat stages for J.A. Woollam’s custom ellipsometry instruments, the partnership provides thin-film researchers with tailor-made, temperature-controlled ellipsometers for a broad set of applications.

Read the case study here: https://qd-uki.co.uk/linkam-case-study-breaking-new-ground-in-thin-film-research-with-temperature-controlled-ellipsometry/

Quantum Design represent J A Woollam in the UK and Ireland.  Find out more at https://qd-uki.co.uk/ellipsometers/

BSRIA chairman Tom Smith has announced the appointment of Tom Garrigan BSc (Hons) as the new BSRIA Technical Director.

Tom Garrigan joined BSRIA in 2007 as a test engineer and has gained broad experience in the sector, becoming Business Manager for the BSRIA Test House in 2015. He maintains a distinguished profile in the sector and is well known for his expertise in the UK and Overseas.

Tom Smith said, ‘BSRIA is delighted with Tom’s appointment and looks forward to his continued prominence and impact on the sector.’

Julia Evans, BSRIA CEO, said, ‘Tom will be a welcome member of the team and brings with him not only innate professionalism and knowledge but also insightful views of BSRIA’s future.’

Tom Garrigan said, ‘I am honoured to take on this important role for BSRIA and for the sector. I look forward to taking BSRIA forward into the forthcoming challenges presented by its strategic agenda.’

The UK manufacturing sector is reportedly close to stalling, as the perfect storm of Brexit coinciding with the Covid pandemic continues to disrupt national and international supply chains.

According to Jason Chester, Director of Global Channel Programs at InfinityQS, despite the challenging environment, now is the time that industry leaders should be proactively investing in strategic digital transformation projects that drive technical innovation and prioritise skills training, as this will determine the sector’s competitiveness in the future.

The last twelve months have been unprecedented for manufacturers who have been hit on multiple fronts by the combination of Covid-19 and Brexit, both of which have caused significant disruption and uncertainty on both the supply and demand sides of their value chains. The situation has also been exacerbated by significant internal operational challenges, such as staffing availability and protecting the health and safety of their entire workforce.

Jason comments: “The long-term effects on the sector are unclear and unfortunately, there isn’t a quick-fix that will solve these problems overnight. However, the UK’s manufacturing sector is at the dawn of a new era and what really matters now is how manufacturers react to the current situation, plan for the future, and prepare themselves for the road ahead. This will be vitally important for increasing agility and mitigating any future risks.”

Jason continues: “Covid and Brexit will continue to affect the supply chain as the economy slowly starts to reopen but by taking the right steps now, manufacturers can minimise the disruption to their operations. This means investing in new and emerging technology platforms such as cloud-computing, advanced analytics and intelligent systems, and also nurturing the talent to drive this digital strategy forward.”

Jason looks at the UK’s finance sector for encouragement: “The UK’s financial services post-Brexit outlook is very optimistic, as the industry refuses to be beaten and instead vows to be a world leader in global finance. I believe the UK manufacturing sector needs to have equally lofty aspirations by showing the ingenuity needed to make UK manufacturing the global success it once was in a bygone era.”

Jason concludes: “Although many manufacturers are feeling the mounting pressures of Brexit and Covid, industry leaders need to begin sowing the seeds of digital transformation at this critical time. If they can make practical improvements today, this will ensure they can maintain efficiency, productivity and resilience in an increasingly volatile global market.”

A North West pilot which has helped hundreds of SME manufacturers access technology and digital tools to boost productivity, growth and create jobs, is to continue as part of a £8M government rollout.

The successful initiative becomes part of the government’s Made Smarter Adoption programme, which now expands into the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber, and the West Midlands regions.

It means hundreds of more manufacturers in Cheshire and Warrington, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire, and Liverpool City Region, will be able to learn how digital transformation can help them recover, grow, and create resilience.

Donna Edwards, Made Smarter’s North West Adoption Director, said: “I am delighted that the Government has continued to support the North West Adoption programme.

“Over the last two years we have worked tirelessly to drive digital technology usage among SME makers across the North West with significant success.

“The programme has proven the value technology can bring to the manufacturing sector. We have helped hundreds of North West makers start their digital journey by providing them with specialist advice to help them select the right approach, level of investment and tools for their business.

“With the additional funding, we are able to continue reaching out to the region’s SME manufacturers to connect them to the tools that will make an everyday difference to their businesses.”

Since its launch two years ago, the North West programme has engaged with 1,165 businesses in the region to help them join the Industry 4.0 revolution.

568 have received intensive support including expert, impartial technology advice, digital transformation workshops to help take their first steps to transform their business, a leadership programme, and funded digital technology internships.

145 businesses have secured £3.5M matched funding for 180 projects, leveraging £10M of private sector investment.

These projects are forecast to deliver an additional £138M in gross value added (GVA) for the North West economy over the next three years, create over 800 new jobs, and upskill 1,700 existing roles.

The success of the North West Adoption programme will be celebrated at a free-to-access virtual conference, Made Smarter: The journey to digital manufacturing, on Wednesday, March 10.

Curated by manufacturers for manufacturers, the conference features an impressive line-up of industry heavyweights who will showcase the ‘why?’, ‘what?’ and ‘how?’ of digital manufacturing, including: Juergen Maier, Chair of the Digital Catapult and co-Chair of the Made Smarter Commission; Stephen Phipson, the Chief Executive of Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation; Andrea Hough, Managing Director of ATEC Engineering Solutions; and Glyn Jones, Service Delivery Director at BAE Systems and Chair of the Made Smarter Pilot Steering Group.

They will be joined by a host of SME manufacturers sharing real-life stories of their experience of the North West Adoption programme including world leading puppet-makers MacKinnon and Saunders based in Altrincham, clothing manufacturer Creative Apparel, based in Stockport, and plant-based and vegan nutrition products maker Nutree Life, based in Burscough.

Others include: Fabricon Design (Ashton Under Lyne), Arden Dies (Stockport), Bindatex (Bolton), Crystal Doors (Rochdale), Starlight Bedrooms (Bolton), Beverston Engineering (Knowsley), and DA Techs (Chorley), alongside Envirosystems (Preston), Bloom-in-Box (Burscough), Brainboxes (Liverpool), Parity Medical (The Wirral), Twin Fix (Warrington), Plastic Card Services (Macclesfield), Storth (Holme), Contactless Check Solutions (Maryport), and The Cumbria Clock Company (Penrith).

For more information about the programme and the conference visit https://www.madesmarter.uk

NASA’s Perseverance rover, launched in July 2020, landed on Mars yesterday. The Perseverance is carrying several scientific instruments on board, including Finnish-made humidity and pressure instrumentation.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) has provided Perseverance with measurement instrumentation. Equipped with Vaisala’s sensors, FMI’s instrumentation will be used to provide accurate and reliable pressure and humidity measurements in the extreme conditions of Mars.

On a quest to find answers

Landing on Mars was a thrilling moment. The true test of success, however, will be the entire mission as the rover operates in the Red Planet’s extreme conditions. Perseverance will spend at least one Mars year, equal to around two Earth years, exploring the landing-site area.

The rover successfully landed on the ancient river delta in Jezero Crater, which is the optimal place to find traces of ancient life. To collect data and samples from the Red Planet, NASA is working together with a group of trusted scientific partners.

The FMI’s instrumentation is part of the Spanish-led consortium’s Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA). The MEDA instrumentation kit is basically a Martian weather station that takes a wide range of atmospheric measurements: temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, and the amount and size of dust particles. Vaisala’s pressure and humidity sensors onboard Perseverance are similar, but more advanced, to those sent to Mars on the Curiosity rover in 2012.

“The rover’s equipment needs to operate in the harsh Martian environment, with very low pressure conditions and cold temperatures, and it must be able to resist possible global dust storms. In addition to the environmental aspects and potential dangers of the landing itself, the distance between Mars and Earth makes the mission challenging. There is no one to fix the instrumentation if something goes wrong,” says Maria Genzer, Head of Planetary Research and Space Technology Group at FMI.

Meteorological observation network on another planet

The Perseverance and Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity will operate around 2,000 km from each other. Together they will help create a small-scale atmospheric observation network on Mars. This is the first step towards the wider observation network being planned for Mars in the future.

“Mars and Earth are like rocky sisters. They both have seasonal variation, ice caps, similar declination of axis, length of day, and rocky consistency. Mars offers us a basic model of Earth – without vegetation, water, human life, cities, and other ‘noise’ we encounter on Earth,” says Genzer. “Interplanetary atmospheric research offers us tools to better understand our current habitat, and who knows what other findings there might be.”

“We are excited to provide our world-leading sensor technology to a Mars mission once again. Our accurate and durable HUMICAP and BAROCAP sensors will enable high-quality humidity and pressure data even on the Red Planet and lay the foundations for the atmospheric observation network on Mars,” says Samuli Hänninen,Vice President of Vaisala’s Products and Technologies.

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASA’s Mars Exploration Program. The Perseverance rover is designed to better understand the environmental conditions and geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient life. The mission will collect and store a set of rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth in the future.

Learn more about space-proof technology by visiting vaisala.com/space.

MVTec Software will be presenting its product portfolio at embedded world DIGITAL from March 1 to 5, 2021. Visitors to the virtual industry meeting can learn about the features of current and future releases of HALCON and MERLIC and can discuss with MVTec experts – conveniently from their PC.

Embedded vision and deep learning: demonstrations with application examples

The performance and robustness of the products HALCON and MERLIC will be presented by MVTec experts with the help of several demonstration videos. Especially convenient for visitors: They can ask questions to the experts directly via live chat or via call function.

The presentation of MVTec MERLIC holds a concept feature that was first introduced to visitors of the virtual MVTec Innovation Day on February 3: anomaly detection. Using the example of an inspection of printed circuit boards a demo will demonstrate how the all-in-one software can drastically simplify the use of complex deep learning algorithms.

One of the highlights will also be the new version of the standard software MVTec HALCON. Among other things, HALCON 20.11 includes a unique new deep learning feature: edge extraction. An illustrative demonstration will show how edges that could not be identified with conventional edge detection filters can now be extracted robustly using this method. Edge extraction can be trained with only a few images, which greatly reduces the programming effort.

The Embedded Vision Starterkit, a joint demo with Allied Vision Technologies, will demonstrate how to get started quickly with the development of embedded vision applications.

Live presentations: embedded vision in theory and practice

MVTec will also participate in the supporting program at the virtual trade fair. Christoph Wagner, Product Manager for Embedded Vision and Technical Product Manager MERLIC, will hold a presentation titled “The Best of Both Worlds: Rule-based Systems and AI for Embedded Vision” at the embedded world conference on March 5 from 12:00 to 12:30 p.m. (CET). MVTec will also offer a presentation on “MVTec’s Deep Learning Spectrum” at the accompanying embedded world Exhibitors’ Forum.

The Emitech Group has just acquired Vitesco Technologies’ technical centre in Osny. This new test centre reinforces the Emitech Group’s testing capabilities, in particular for the validation of all vehicle technologies and more specifically its powertrain.

With its development experts, its three engine test benches, its climate chamber and its emission chassis dyno for measuring regulated pollutants up to Euro 6d Full, this new site reinforces and completes the group’s expertise in powertrains, whether thermal, hybrid or electric.

Thus, in the Emitech Group, the Achères, Bosroumois and now Osny sites, all near Paris, concentrate the Group’s powertrain activities under the EMC banner.

This acquisition is only a starting point, as the Emitech Group is investing several million euros to ensure the development of test facilities for testing batteries, electric motors and their electronics, as well as hydrogen fuel technologies. Lastly, the vehicle chassis dyno will be upgraded to enable it to measure vehicles that are compatible with the Euro 7 standard, in advance of the regulations that will be coming into force by 2025.

With an electrical power of 2x800kVA, a technical centre of more than 1,000m² and a 6,000m² ground, the Osny site is an ideal base for the development of the batteries and electric motorisation activities within the Group.

Supporting our customers in their mobility solutions that respect the energy transition is a strategic area of investment for the Emitech Group. This is translated by skills increasingly linked to vehicle synthesis. Thus, the Emitech Group has 4 complementary roller test benches: climatic roller bench, acoustic roller bench, electromagnetic compatibility roller bench, emission roller bench – the latter being located on the Osny site.

These skills and expertise are initially aimed at the automotive industry, but extend to all road vehicles, as well as the railway, marine, energy and aeronautics sectors.

Automation engineers often face a three-way balancing act when designing equipment, trying to maximise speed and accuracy while keeping cost at acceptable levels. Position control is no exception – high-performance systems typically rely on linear or rotary encoders to deliver the required positional accuracy, and these can be expensive, particularly when both coarse and fine positioning is needed.

Using a secondary sensor for coarse-positional control is a commonly used, although inelegant, solution to the problem. It also increases complexity and cost, while reducing the overall reliability of the system. Alternatively, designers maintain accuracy without increasing cost by reducing travel speeds during coarse positioning, increasing the cycle time. Neither approach is optimal.

Equipment manufacturers (OEMs) specifying high-speed assembly equipment with multiple linear transfers between workstations need an alternative solution. Using off-the-shelf linear stages, they require a controlled, fast approach to the critical areas and a slower, high-precision final positioning – without increasing complexity or cost. An affordable single-sensor solution is highly desirable.

Recently, a team of OEM designers specified rugged inductive sensors from the Contrinex SMART Sensor portfolio; a single sensor with IO-Link connectivity and multiple user-configurable outputs performs both the required tasks. Firstly, it initiates a controlled deceleration as the carriage of a linear stage approaches the specified workstation; it then switches to micrometre distance resolution, positioning the stage accurately and precisely.

Contrinex inductive SMART Sensors are designed with the needs of OEMs and system integrators in mind and provide an unobtrusive fit-and-forget solution. A single metal-cased M12 sensor is embedded in one of the guide rails immediately adjacent to each workstation. The sensor detects the presence of the carriage as it begins to pass overhead, triggering the deceleration and changing the sensing mode.

The sensor now operates as a high-precision distance-measurement device; its target is an inclined face on the underside of the carriage. As the carriage moves over the sensor, the distance to the inclined faces changes in direct proportion to the distance moved. With a sensing distance of up to 6mm and a dynamic resolution of ±5.5 micrometres, the sensor delivers a highly accurate 16-bit digital output, enabling the carriage position to be determined in real-time.

Once the initial set-up is completed, each sensor’s configuration is stored automatically on the local IO-Link Master; this allows plug-and-play replacement of sensors should the need arise, without any loss of functionality and without any need for recalibration. These highly versatile sensors meet designers’ needs for a highly reliable, cost-effective and non-complex solution without compromising operational performance.

PLUS Automation aims to help you make sense of sensors, helping solve applications, improve machine performance and reliability, and reduce costs using Contrinex’s exceptional Inductive, Photoelectric, Ultrasonic, RFID and Machine Safety sensors. Find more information and read other application examples go to www.PLUSAx.co.uk

Pickering Interfaces has launched the industry’s highest bandwidth general purpose PXI matrix. Available in 16×8, 2-pole, or high-density 32×8, 2-pole switching configurations, the matrix modules offer bandwidths ranging from 35MHz to 70MHz depending upon path selected and a VSWR <1.5:1 to 85MHz.

The modules are in two-slot PXI (model 40-588) or PXIe (model 42-588) formats and are constructed using telecommunication grade electromechanical relays capable of hot or cold switching up to 2A at 220VDC/250VAC. Every signal has an accompanying analog ground connection on the front panel connectors for interfacing with cabling accessories. Simple matrix expansion is facilitated by two groups of front panel Y-axis connections on the 32×8 variant.

Comments Pickering’s Switching Product Manager, Steve Edwards: “The 40/42-588 modules’ increased bandwidth provides compatibility with higher frequency test signals. With careful matrix design and isolation switching, a high switching capacity can still be offered while maintaining excellent RF performance. These modules also offer electrically compatible replacement of another vendor’s legacy VXI switching product. This compatibility is part of Pickering’s VXI to PXI replacement program.”

The new 40/42-588 high capacity, high bandwidth switching matrix modules are suitable for upgrades to legacy systems or new automated test equipment (ATE) designs in demanding automotive and defence applications. The modules are supported by Pickering’s eBIRST diagnostic test tools. Like all Pickering’s products, the 40/42-588 modules carry a three-year warranty, and come with spare relays that allows customers—with appropriate training—to do repairs on-site, minimizing system downtime. A range of interconnect accessories are also available to support the 40/42-588 family.

Sensirion has launched its new formaldehyde sensor module, the SFA30. The SFA30’s innovative electrochemical cell design, dedicated electronics including an onboard Sensirion humidity and temperature sensor, and advanced algorithms, enables highly reliable and selective formaldehyde detection at very low concentrations. This new sensor thus targets the appliance market focusing on indoor air purification and ventilation systems as well as indoor air quality monitors.

Formaldehyde is typically released slowly and continuously from furniture, building materials, paint and coatings. It is a harmful and carcinogenic gas that causes conditions such as “sick building syndrome”. Caused by inadequate ventilation and chemical contaminants from indoor sources, “sick building syndrome” can lead to various symptoms for building occupants such as acute discomfort, headache, eye, nose, or throat irritation, dizziness and nausea, difficulty in concentrating, fatigue, and sensitivity to odours. Formaldehyde is a background gas known to be relevant in very low concentrations. The World Health Organization (WHO) for example establishes an indoor air quality guideline for exposure to formaldehyde of only 80 ppb as a 30-minute average.

Adding to Sensirion’s environmental sensor portfolio, the new SFA30 formaldehyde sensor module is based on an amperometric electrochemical working principle. It provides unrivalled formaldehyde sensing performance enabled by an ultra-low cross-sensitivity to other VOCs. Relying on Sensirion’s experience in environmental sensing and a patented electrochemical cell with anti-dry technology, the SFA30 offers excellent long-term stability and an outstanding six-year service lifetime. The on-board humidity and temperature sensor provides accurate readings and enables a fully temperature and humidity-compensated and factory-calibrated formaldehyde concentration output in ppb (parts-per-billion). With selectable digital UART and I2C interface options, a standard electrical connector, and versatile mounting options it offers customers the perfect solution for easily integrating a highly reliable sensor into their application.

“By having improved performance, long-term stability and reliability with our new formaldehyde sensor module, we were able to tackle an issue in existing technologies, making formaldehyde sensing easy and truly trustworthy,” says Niculin Saratz, Director Product Management Gas Sensors at Sensirion.

The new SFA30 sensor module is now available worldwide through Sensirion’s distribution network. Additionally, Sensirion offers the SEK-SFA30 evaluation kit for fast and easy prototyping. The SEK-SFA30 comes with a UART-USB cable for a plug-and-play connection to a PC and evaluation with Sensirion’s easy-to-use SEK-ControlCenter viewer software. For connecting the sensor to prototyping platforms such as Arduino or RaspberryPi, a 7-pin jumper wire cable is provided.