News

To give students and their parents/guardians the opportunity to find out more about careers in engineering, global engineering technologies company, Renishaw, is hosting a #Girls4Engineering virtual event on December 16th.

The one hour webinar, aimed at students in secondary school and above, will include an introduction to Renishaw and potential careers in engineering. Participants will then have the opportunity to listen to three female engineers at Renishaw speak about their personal career journeys and ask any questions in a Q&A session.

“We want to show students that working in engineering can be both exciting and rewarding,” explained Siobhan Denniff, Education Outreach Executive at Renishaw. “This virtual event gives students the opportunity to find out more about why engineering is a fulfilling career choice for girls, women, transgender and non-binary people.”

Denniff continues, “Having a more diverse workforce in the engineering sector will mean stronger, better teams that are more effective at solving all kinds of complex problems and will help to reach the best solutions faster.”

According to the EngineeringUK 2020 report, in the nine years leading up to the academic year 2018 to 2019, the proportion of engineering and technology entrants in higher education who were female increased by five per cent. However, there is still gender disparity — only one in five of all engineering and technology entrants in 2018 to 2019 were women. Renishaw regularly hosts sessions to change perceptions about the sector and encourage more girls to study science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects in higher education.

Renishaw’s education outreach programme supports STEM curriculums in schools and colleges across Bristol, Gloucestershire and South Wales. Before the pandemic Renishaw hosted talks, hands-on workshops and events to encourage students to pursue engineering as a career. To maintain its engagement levels it now hosts virtual assemblies as well as 3D printing and coding workshops to teach students new engineering skills.

 Sign up to the #Girls4Engineering webinar here. For further information about events run by Renishaw’s education outreach programme, visit https://www.renishaw.com/education-outreach/

Electrocomponents has announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Synovos, a leading player in integrated supply solutions in the Americas, for a total consideration of $145 million on a debt-free, cash-free basis. The Synovos acquisition is subject to customary closing conditions, including US anti-trust, and is expected to complete in Q1 calendar year 2021.

Electrocomponents has the building blocks in place and is accelerating the execution of its growth strategy from strong foundations. There is continued momentum across the business as customer and industry trends fast track towards the Group’s proposition.

Synovos will accelerate delivery of a global integrated supply proposition and significantly strengthen the Americas business:

• Synovos and IESA create a global integrated supply proposition in the growing market for value-added solutions
• Synovos is a leading player in integrated supply solutions: managing procurement spend, inventory, strategic sourcing
• Strong position in North America with blue-chip customers in resilient sectors e.g. pharmaceuticals, consumer health
• Targeting revenue synergies from enhanced Americas customer proposition of RS PRO, Allied and Synovos

Lindsley Ruth, Electrocomponents’ Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Synovos is a very good business, aligned to our strategy of selectively adding high-quality, value-creating bolt-on acquisitions to the Group. Synovos enables us to expand our value-added solutions offer in the Americas, significantly enhancing our proposition for corporate customers. It is an excellent fit with our existing IESA business and will increase our ability to support clients in managing their procurement, inventory and maintenance needs globally.

“In the past five years we have transformed Electrocomponents into a strong, focused, customer-centric organisation on a clear growth trajectory. We are now taking the business to the next level. Whilst driving organic growth will always be our primary focus, Synovos demonstrates how our disciplined approach to acquisitions can bring valuable capabilities and products into the Group.”

Almost without exception, industrial environments are hostile spaces for electrical equipment; their components don’t react well to high levels of moisture, dust, and heat in the atmosphere. This sensitivity, in turn, affects plant efficiency and will ultimately lower output and profitability.

But moisture, dust and heat don’t need to be a concern provided you implement an effective climate control solution for your equipment.

The first step is to consider what constitutes suitable cooling to meet your needs, bearing in mind that your cooling needs may alter with any future changes to applications within your facility.

It’s common for managers, when choosing a cooling solution, to default to air cooling using fans and filters because it’s familiar.

While air cooling can be a viable solution, it also has its limitations which must be understood before it’s installed, otherwise you risk creating further problems further down the line. Karl Lycett, Rittal UK’s Product Manager for Climate Control, investigates…

Air Cooling

Air cooling is relatively self-explanatory.  The cooling is achieved by passing cooler, outside air across the enclosure’s warmer internal components. However, this simplicity has its shortcomings which should be kept in mind.

If at any point the temperature within the facility exceeds the maximum allowable temperature (setpoint) inside of the enclosure, then no cooling will be possible. A good example of this is during the height of summer when the combination of lots of machinery and high ambient temperatures can cause severe temperature spikes within the factory.  These will quickly lead to overheating componentry and unexpected tripping of critical equipment. But this is only an issue if your factory is prone to surges in temperature. For many organisations, there is an acceptable level of general HVAC installed to ‘take the edge’ off the temperature, allowing air cooling to create a protective environment for the equipment within the enclosures.

Dust is a constant irritant within a factory and realistically it can never be fully removed. Even ‘cleanest’ industrial space will have a base level of detritus within the air which will then be drawn into enclosures if fans are employed. Unfortunately, this dust can get into wire connections or internal component fans and cause havoc over time, either preventing thermal exchange or blocking up and shorting wiring connections.

The best way to prevent dust issues arising is to add a suitable filter medium to your air cooling.  Filter mediums (or mats) ‘catch’ particulates before they enter the enclosure. The mats should be replaced on a regular basis to prevent a build-up of dirt which can then ‘choke’ the fan, preventing it from pulling sufficient cooling air into the enclosure.

Liquid Cooling

As mentioned earlier, it’s common to find traditional air-cooling methods are unviable or simply not especially effective in industrial spaces.  This can be due to factors such as the location or amount of the equipment involved, or it can be down to physical space restrictions,

Liquid cooling, however, is an option open to all, and one that is much more effective than air at removing waste heat and reducing the temperature within the enclosure.

Liquid cooling, as the name suggests, uses chilled water to perform the cooling of the enclosure. An ‘Air to Air Heat Exchanger’ is mounted on the enclosure and connected to an industrial chiller. The chiller cools down heated water from the enclosure to a reasonable temperature before delivering it back to the heat exchanger.

The beauty of liquid cooling is that it is ‘active’ which means that you can make the internal temperature lower than that of the local environment. So even in the height of summer, with the factory in full swing, your electrical equipment will be protected. Many industrial sites already have an operational chilled water supply to service other procedures and equipment. Where this is the case, it can be tapped off and used for enclosure cooling.

Liquid cooling requires hydraulic hoses (cold water in, hot water out) to be connected between the heat exchanger and the chiller. It’s therefore worth giving prior thought to both the enclosure placement and where to run the hoses to ensure the smooth commissioning and operation of the whole system.

Much like the air cooling, regular maintenance of the system is strongly recommended to ensure the cooling equipment can provide years of uninterrupted service.

In summary, both solutions are valid in the right scenario.  However, choosing a cooling solution without first considering its operating environment is setting yourself up for less than perfect result. This in turn will have an impact on the overall effectiveness of your chosen cooling solution and the ongoing protection of your critical electrical equipment.

Further information at www.rittal.co.uk.

The AS200706 is a small compact board for 3-wire systems providing a 4mA – 20mA current output with adjustable linearity correction. The unit has individual multi-turn potentiometers for the precise setting of Zero, Span and Linearity without the need of a computer. This unit is also available with mid. zero output (12mA for example) for compression / tension transducers. The inputs provide EMI-/RF-suppression. Transducer wires can be easily connected to board via soldering or SIL sockets (standard).

Features

• Wide range power supply 16-30V
• 5V stabilised bridge excitation voltage
• Bridge resistance 240 Ohm (or greater)
• Bridge sensitivity 0.6mV/V – 3mV/V
• Size 29mm x 29mm, 7.5mm height
• Fast calibration procedure
• Reverse-polarity protection
• Easy linearity correction procedure

Applications

• Load-Cell Industrial Weighing
• Strain-gauge Load Testing & Monitoring
• Overload Protection Systems

Contact

Tel. + 44 (0)7763 740906

Email: info@aieng.co.uk

Website: www.aieng.co.uk

Marvell and Analog Devices have announced an advanced 4G/5G radio unit (RU) design that supports high antenna counts and multi-gigabit per second throughput for both integrated RAN and Open RAN deployments. Leveraging the companies’ complementary radio silicon and RU software suite, the next-generation massive MIMO RU design that results from this collaboration will deliver power, weight and performance improvements inherent with ASIC solutions for both integrated RAN and Open RAN deployments.

As 5G deployments continue to ramp, network operators are increasingly seeking higher capacity RU systems to deliver the performance expected by their customers. The ADI-Marvell solution will enable a growing number of OEMs to bring competitive solutions to the market, enabling additional capacity for existing radio sites. With an ongoing shift toward Open RAN, the newly launched solutions will provide native support for O-RAN split 7.2x functionality.

“Our goal in joining with ADI in this effort was to provide a complete, open standards-based RU platform, one that leverages what each company does best,” said Raj Singh, Executive Vice President and General Manager of Marvell’s Processor Business Group. “We wanted to minimise the amount of silicon required to deliver massive MIMO RU solutions capable of supporting 32T32R performance, along with beamforming and DFE functions. ADI’s transceiver solutions align perfectly with our RU and digital unit baseband offerings – it’s exactly what the industry has been seeking in next generation RU designs.”

“The demand for much higher capacity radio units is exploding,” said Joe Barry, Vice President of the Wireless Communications Business Unit at ADI. “Together with Marvell, we are able to get ahead of the curve and help the industry transition to 32T32R – or even higher capacity – radio units. At the same time, by providing differentiated radio architectures and algorithms we are allowing the operators to effectively manage both their capital and operating expenses.”

The 5G massive MIMO RU solutions will incorporate ADI’s next-generation transceiver technology, including an advanced, programmable digital front-end. Marvell is providing its baseband silicon, which offers beamforming and a lower L1 software supporting O-RAN split 7.2. The solutions provide complete system-level hardware reference designs developed in collaboration with Benetel, a leading innovator in RU solutions. Initial prototypes are expected in latter half of 2021.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has selected Emerson to modernise and optimise its Magnolia power plant that delivers reliable, cleaner electricity to customers. The Magnolia project is part of TVA’s five-year, $110 million investment to install digital technologies across its power generating fleet. Emerson’s software and technologies will support TVA’s efforts to digitally transform the Mississippi plant through advanced operations, enhanced cybersecurity and digital twin-enabled training.

TVA is the United States’ largest public power provider, supplying electricity to companies that serve 10 million people in the seven-state Tennessee Valley region. The 980-megawatt Magnolia plant, in operation since 2003, uses combined cycle technology, generating up to 50% more electricity from natural gas while producing less emissions than other sources.

Reliable, responsible operations are critical to meet the region’s growing power needs, and legacy technologies – which are more expensive and difficult to maintain – present a challenge. Emerson will replace existing systems at the combined-cycle plant with its Ovation automation system and software. Digital twin technologies will provide advanced training to operators, enabling them to respond quickly and safely to power generation demands. Robust cybersecurity technologies are integral to Emerson’s comprehensive solution that is designed to enhance and secure operations at the Magnolia facility.

“These upgrades are part of a larger long-term asset strategy to maintain our existing fleet in such a way that we can depend on their operation for years to come,” said Allen Clare, TVA vice president for gas & hydro operations.

Emerson and TVA are using virtual technologies in place of face-to-face interaction to keep the project moving forward during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“TVA is committed to digitally transforming its fleet so it can provide more reliable and cleaner electricity to its customers,” said Bob Yeager, president of Emerson’s power and water business. “Our technologies have allowed us to keep this critical project on schedule and prioritise the safety of communities and operations.”

The Magnolia project is expected to be completed in 2022. TVA provides power to most of Tennessee and portions of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.

Farnell, an Avnet Company and global distributor of electronic components, products and solutions, has signed a global franchise with XinaBox to broaden its market leading range of educational devices and kits. The XinaBox range provides a low-cost entry into the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and automation and helps educators combine Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) learning with the experience of physical computing for students from a young age. Although targeted at education, XinaBox also provides solutions to easily scale beta testing for prototyping new applications.

XinaBox is widely used in secondary schools and colleges across the world due to its ease of use, and suitability for first-time users right through to more advanced secondary students and makers. The XinaBox kits include a selection of xChips, designed to fast track a user’s understanding of the IoT. Specialist knowledge of soldering or hardware components is not required as xChips are simply clipped together without wires, soldering or breadboards, meaning experiments can be setup quickly.

The range of over 80 modular hardware xChips includes cores/CPUs, sensors, power, communication, output and storage. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and LoRaWAN cores have been designed to make it easy to connect projects to the IoT, and other components such as the BBC micro:bit and Raspberry Pi can be easily integrated to supercharge projects. xChips can operate with pre-compiled code or can be programmed from scratch using leading platforms such as MakeCode, Arduino and Python.

The range of XinaBox kits now available from Farnell include:

• XK01 STEM Starter Kit: Suitable for secondary school classrooms, the XK01 STEM Starter Kit enables students to build a simple project and connect to an IoT platform, using the quick start guide. The kit features a Wi-Fi Core, xChip (ESP8266) and includes sensors for temperature, humidity, and pressure, UV index, a mini-OLED display, a spacer chip and connectors. The starter kit can be used to collect and investigate the relationship between data sets such as temperature and atmospheric pressure, temperature and light, temperature and humidity, and visible light and ultraviolet light.
• XK05 micro:bit IoT Kit: An ideal entry-level product, the XK05 IoT kit for micro:bit is designed to introduce young people to IoT technology. The kit enables the analysis of large data sets in the classroom with no previous experience required. Users can learn how to connect the micro:bit to the cloud and build a smart IoT device with the coding extension, MakeCode.

Professional users and makers can also use XinaBox to progress their ideas to prototypes much faster, rapidly improving time to market whilst reducing cost of prototyping and facilitating scaled beta testing:

• XK12 IoT Starter Kit: Powered by Zerynth, the XK12 IoT Starter Kit combines modular electronics with an ecosystem of software tools in Python. The kit contains everything required to build a smart IoT edge device that collects environmental data. An actuator can also be attached to create automation projects such as automated electric gates, garage doors or fans.

Lee Turner, Global Head of Semiconductors and SBC at Farnell, said: “Easy to use tools are key to supporting teachers as they help students develop the computational thinking and complex problem-solving skills needed for a career in a digital economy. XinaBox provides schools and colleges with accessible tools to introduce STEM and IoT while providing inspiration for hands-on learning in the classroom, enabling students to learn about new technologies in a highly creative and collaborative way. For more advanced students, and even professional engineers, XinaBox provides new options to scale beta testing and reduce time to market through its simple, modular, non-solder structure.”

Farnell has worked with multiple educational organisations and governments to support strategic rollouts of STEM learning solutions into the classroom, and stocks a broad range of education devices that can be supplied in classes, schools and multiple-school quantities. Farnell can also offer support with provision and bundling of equipment for bespoke large-scale programmes similar to the Super:bit programme in Norway.

The complete XinaBox range is available from Farnell in EMEA, Newark in North America and element14 in APAC.

More and more measurement instruments are being ordered online from Endress+Hauser. In the first five months of 2020, incoming orders via endress.com nearly doubled. With the introduction of the new FLEX product segmentation structure, integration of the global E-direct portal into the website and further optimisation of the e-commerce area on endress.com, finding and ordering the right products online will be even faster and easier for customers.

“By merging both shops and introducing several innovations on endress.com, we are making it even easier for customers to do business with us digitally,” says Nikolaus Krüger, Chief Sales Officer at the Endress+Hauser Group. While the global E-direct portal was designed for simple products that serve basic measurement needs, endress.com offers the entire Endress+Hauser portfolio. With the migration on course to be completed by the end of the year, everything will be available at a glance and from a single source online, thus eliminating the need to switch shops and accounts.

To do that the FLEX product segmentation was introduced on endress.com. This new feature supplements the existing selection options and divides the Endress+Hauser measurement instrument portfolio into four areas according to the needs of the customer. The ‘Fundamental’ segment contains basic products that are easy to select, install and operate. ‘Lean’ features reliable and robust instruments designed for the efficient management of core processes. ‘Extended’ shows all innovative process optimisation technologies, while the ‘Xpert’ segment combines specialised products for demanding applications. “FLEX makes it even easier for our customers to locate the right product for their individual needs,” says Nikolaus Krüger.

Newly revamped e-commerce section to provide the best possible user experience

In addition, the endress.com e-commerce area was expanded with useful functions to improve the user experience. After signing in, customers can now use their ‘My Endress+Hauser’ account to more easily manage all of their activities, such as product offers and orders. The account structure, shopping cart and checkout have been optimised as well. Enhanced order tracking provides full transparency, which now gives customers the ability to call up the status of their orders at any time and from any device.

ABB has been granted membership into the European Clean Hydrogen Alliance (ECH2A), the official EU body focused on an ambitious deployment of hydrogen (H2) technologies by 2030, as a means to reduce carbon emissions and help achieve European carbon neutrality by 2050. Peter Terwiesch will be ABB’s executive sponsor in the Alliance and will be actively working with governments and other Alliance members to scale up the hydrogen value chain across Europe.

The use of hydrogen has been identified as crucial to achieve the objectives of the European Green Deal and Europe’s clean energy transition. It has several uses, from storing renewable energy to fuelling heavy transport, and as energy and feedstock in energy-intensive industry, such as in the steel or chemical sectors.

Most importantly, hydrogen only emits water and heat when used, no carbon. In fact, if H2 is produced from renewable sources, the whole hydrogen value chain is carbon-free. Hydrogen thereby is an excellent complement to electricity and offers a solution to decarbonise industrial processes and economic sectors where reducing carbon emissions is both urgent and hard to achieve.

“Europe’s opportunity to reduce carbon emissions by scaling up the production, transport and use of hydrogen is significant. Automation, electrification and digitalisation will play an important role in unlocking this potential. At ABB we are proud to be joining the ECH2A, to continue our collaborations with governments, industries, regulators and academia to further accelerate the implementation of hydrogen,” said Peter Terwiesch, President of ABB Industrial Automation. “We have a unique mix of relevant domain expertise and solutions to support industry and make a real difference in deploying new clean hydrogen technologies.”

ABB enables the transition from carbon-based fuels to hydrogen through its expertise and portfolio of systems, products, services and digital solutions. The company is collaborating with customers, partners and legislators to build the hydrogen ecosystem – from key technology collaborations to explore large-scale green production systems, to a new hydrogen production facility in France, and the development of megawatt-scale fuel cells to power large ocean-going ships.

“This membership further strengthens our commitment to the UN’s sustainable development goals for 2050, as well as our own commitment to reduce our customers’ carbon footprint by more than 100 Megatonnes per annum through ABB technologies. ECH2A is one of many associations we are part of to actively drive this agenda forward,” Peter Terwiesch continued.

Security personnel must be able to quickly detect unauthorised vehicles and individuals at critical infrastructure sites. Without intrusion detection, entities like electrical substations can be subject to physical attacks. 88 percent of substations experience at least one break-in every year and 10 percent see more than 20 intrusions in the same time frame, according to CIGRE, a global electricity industry organisation. To safeguard remote substations from external threats, electric utilities are relying on durable thermal cameras for superior monitoring and protection.

Top pain points for remote substation security

The failure of a key substation caused by a security breach would have a debilitating effect for homeowners, businesses, and mission-critical infrastructure. While physical security is a top priority for utilities, designing, installing and operating a perimeter system requires skill. Remote location, limited network connectivity, minimal lighting, internal security audits, and compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation are some of the challenges that both substation security directors and system integrators face.

Thermal for your perimeter intrusion detection system (pids)

Since their arrival on the mainstream security scene a few decades ago, thermal security cameras have quickly become the optimal solution for remote substation perimeter security, due to their ability to monitor perimeters day and night in adverse weather conditions as well as in harsh environments.

Thermal cameras measure the minute differences in heat signatures emitted by objects and people to produce high-contrast images and reliable intrusion detection. They enable security personnel to detect an intruder before they ever reach the perimeter for early intervention.

As the industry leader in advanced thermal technology, FLIR provides the best sensor quality available. FLIR’s total security solution featuring a diverse suite of perimeter cameras offers the widest selection of lenses and detection ranges, adaptable to both large and small deployments. FLIR’s track record of success is just one of the reasons why utilities choose FLIR cameras time and again.

Design recommendations

When deploying thermal cameras at substations, there are several factors to consider to optimise performance. Here are some tips from our FLIR experts.

Identify What You Need to Protect: Assess your substation’s unique needs, define your threats, and determine which area you need to monitor. For rural or small substations miles away from the nearest city, position your cameras so you have a solid view of the outside perimeter. If anyone approaches, you want to have ample warning. For substations in urban areas that are next to public lands and walkways, it may not be cost-effective to “look out” as pedestrians can easily generate nuisance alerts. In these scenarios, thermal cameras that surveil the interior of the substation may be the better option.

Make the Most of Existing Infrastructure: Thermal cameras must be mounted at a minimum of 12-15 feet above the ground. However, some substation fences are only 6-8 feet tall. In this case, consider mounting cameras on telephone poles or tower structures. Utilising these existing structures instead of digging new trenches can save you both time and money.

Select the right Camera for your Application: For small substations that are less than an acre, deploying a couple of FLIR Elara FC-Series ID cameras, which feature onboard analytics, along the fence line will often do the trick. For short to mid-range needs, the FLIR Elara FB-Series is a great, economical option. Install a visible camera or a camera that provides both thermal and optical imagers, like FLIR Saros DH-390 Dome at the gate, to monitor general traffic. For larger substations (around two acres) that are high-value sites, consider deploying a mix of FLIR FC-Series ID cameras with the FLIR Saros DM-Series to cover the fence line. Additionally, mount a pan-tilt camera with both visible and thermal streams, such as the FLIR Elara DX-Series or FLIR Triton PT-Series, to look around the perimeter for superior monitoring and threat assessment.

As a final consideration, choose the right software to streamline management, operations, and functionality. For large applications where customers need to manage surveillance, access control, radar, and other disparate systems on one platform, consider command and control software. For enterprise-level surveillance operations, a video management system is optimal and for small applications using just a few cameras, a network video recorder is sufficient. Regardless of the size of the project, partner with an expert team that can help assess, design, install, and program the right system for your application.