Author: European Springs

This is why we believe that engineering accomplishments – big or small – deserve the chance to be recognised and acknowledged. The Cambridge Science Festival is something that works to make this happen.

The Festival

The Cambridge Science Festival was founded back in 1994 by scientists who worked within the University of Cambridge. Inspired by the National Science Week, the scientists wanted to bring science and engineering accomplishments to the forefront, giving the sectors some much deserved recognition. By showcasing science and engineering projects and research that takes place within the university, they hoped that it would inspire a new generation of scientists and engineers.

Today, it's the largest FREE science festival. Attracting over 30,000 visitors each year, researchers and students within the university open their doors to the general public. There are a number of talks, demonstrations and exhibitions over the two weeks that the festival goes on for.

2016 Festival

This year's Science Festival will take place on the 7th March. It will be celebrating engineering accomplishments of the past and present, as well as showcasing some of the most exciting developments within the science and engineering industry.

One of the participants in this year's festival is a professor within the university. Professor Zoubin Ghahramani, who teaches Information Engineering, is excited to talk about his current research into Machine Learning. This focuses around a plan to develop an automatic statistician – artificial intelligence for data science. His hope is to design a system that could be used for a lot of different industries, including finance and medicine.

Other Events to Look Out For?

There are lots planned during the two week festival – plenty of things to do and see! The events listing in full can be found over on their website.

We think the workshop on visual illusions sounds fascinating. The public are invited to try out a series of tests that looks to work out what we see and what we don't see! We're also interested in checking out the exhibition on how dogs can help sniff out diseases.

All of the events are free of charge but the festival does get extremely busy! We recommend that you get there as early as possible on the day and be patient with those running the events! Apart from that, we urge you to open your mind and get ready to learn lots of exciting new stuff!

European Springs

The engineering industry really has come leaps and bounds in technology, creating machinery which has been marvelled at in the medical industry as well as pieces of engineering which could aid in search and rescue missions, but the latest innovation will now help quench even the most insatiable thirst!

A robot that brews beer, named the 'Brewbot', is the newest prototype to reach its target total when it was released on Kickstarter, the crowd-funding website.

Despite its obvious appeal towards the masses, the Brewbot took two years to get enough people involved before it eventually hit the market at a remarkable £6900. The founders behind the beer-brewing bot are from Cargo, a Belfast based internet technology company.

How does it work?

The whole unit measures four by two foot wide, with the ability to produce 25 litres of beer in one go. The unit acts as a mini-brewery and takes approximately four and a half hours to successfully brew one batch, then the beer must sit and ferment for a week before being consumed. All the technical processes such as temperature and measurement monitoring are carried out by the system, whilst notifications of ingredient additions and other actions are sent to a wifi connected Smartphone.

Beer brewing is usually a very manual process, so the creation of the Brewbot eliminates that factor. Khamis, chief scientific officer of the project, says, “By and large, brewing has always been a process that hasn't been reproducible. It's a very manual process. We are taking the manual part out of it.”

Who can use it?

People can use the bot either commercially or as their own personal brewing system, making it easy for anyone to brew their own brand of beer straight from their homes! For beer fans, you can use it to try and re-create beers you've tasted abroad or out and about, instead of purchasing expensive exports.

With the use of the Brewbot mobile app, you can replicate certain beers with in-built recipes either from other beer companies which have partnered with the Brewbot team, or if you want to create your own recipe to brew yourself.  

At present, the first few hundred Brewbots are being made in Belfast, but will eventually be manufactured locally in the future. The bot could actually have the potential to have detrimental effects on the brewing industry as the brew tech is making the process available to everyone and the beer produced is considerably cheaper than current beer prices.

At European Springs, we love the chance to marvel at the way engineering changes industries and finding new approaches to life through the possibilities of technology. For any enquiries about our services and products, get in touch at 0208 663 1800, otherwise find us on our social media pages, Twitter and Facebook.

European Springs

European Springs

In previous years, the Academy has handed out the prestigious Sir George Macfarlane Medal, an award that as the name suggests, was introduced in memory of Sir George Macfarlane. Sir George was widely regarded as one of the best British engineers, praised for his contribution to research on radar during WW11. This medal is awarded every year to an engineer who has shown promise early on in their career.

New Beginnings

Instead of just handing out the medal to one person, the Royal Academy of Engineering has changed the rules for this year. They have announced that they will be awarding 5 awards to gifted young UK engineers, whether still in full time higher education, or in research and industrial employment in any engineering discipline – as long as they graduated within the last 10 years.  

The winners will each receive a cash reward of £3000 and a certificate. In addition to this, one of the 5 winners will also be selected to receive the Sir George Macfarlane medal. This will be for the individual that the Academy believes has shown outstanding leadership attributes and technical achievement within their workplace.

The Aim?

The aim behind the awards is to give thanks to the young engineers who are already showing signs of being world leaders in their profession, whichever field of UK engineering they are working in.

Nominations should be made by the 17th February and the winners will be announced in June!

We're looking forward to following the awards – we can't wait to see the nominations. Keep checking back on our blog, as we will be discussing the winners once they have been announced.

As a company who specialises in supplying springs and pressings to companies within the engineering sector, we very much consider ourselves as being a part of industry. For this reason, we're really excited to learn about the new generation of gifted young UK engineers.

If you're interesting purchasing any of our products, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Give us a call on 0208 663 1800 and a member of our team will be happy to help. You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter .

European Springs

These clocks can also be called 400-day or anniversary clocks because they can run for a very long time without needing to be wound (usually a year). Although some can even go a thousand days without winding, it's best to do it at least once a month to make sure the time is accurate.

The reason why they're capable of this is that the torsion pendulum rotates very slowly, which takes little energy. They can be difficult to work with, however, and might not be as accurate as normal pendulum clocks, since it's possible for the oscillation to be altered when the temperature changes – this change mainly affects the spring mechanism. One oscillation can take between 10 to 20 seconds.

Setting the Clock
Even though the torsion clock has an extremely delicate mechanism, this makes it an example of fine engineering. Setting the time is proof of that. To do it, it's necessary to avoid moving the torsion clock after locking the pendulum balls or taking them off, because even a slight jolt can damage the spring mechanism. Once the clock is in a safe and levelled place, the pendulum balls can be centred with the clock base and given a small push to let them swing 180 degrees.

You should wait at least fifteen minutes before setting the time, so you can be sure of the swinging speed of the pendulum and then set the correct time by moving the minute hand to the number you desire. So it might seem like the mechanism is too fiddly, when in reality it's these small and fine components that come together to create a clock that can go months without ever needing to be winded.

The Spring
The suspension spring is, perhaps, the most delicate of all the components in this clock: if it's bent or distorted, then the clock is no longer functioning as it should. The purpose of this spring is to suspend the pendulum in the air and allow it to swing back and forth. It's usually attached to the clock with a screw and, while putting in a new one, you need to be careful not to bend it. If you don't know where this spring goes, holding the suspension up to the clock should give you an idea of the height and, consequently, the place where the new spring will need to be put.

If you want to know more about springs and everything they can do, or if you're interested in our other services and products, contact us or give us a call on 0208 663 1800. We're also present on social media, so keep up to date with our latest news via Facebook and Twitter.

European Springs

Introducing the Namib Desert Beetle- the latest animal to have inspired the engineering world with its incredible water repellent shell surface. Although water repellent surfaces aren't a brand new concept, the way that the shell is designed provides a new insight into possibly reducing the presence of condensation related frost on some of the most important components, such as critical parts of an aircraft, including the windscreen.

How Does the Surface Work?

Being a desert dweller, it is probably quite confusing at first as to why a beetle would need a water repellent shell- there's just not that much water around!

However, instead of trying to keep itself dry, the beetle's shell allows the animal to collect any water that is present in the air and move it towards the mouth to keep it hydrated.

This is due to a series of bumps- or hydrophilic dots-which are present on the shell that attract water droplets from the air and push them down channels in the shell towards the mouth of the beetle. These channels are coated with a water repellent coating which keeps the water moving rather than pooling on the surface.

It is this movement which has impressed scientists and engineers to use a similar system to resist frost.

How Does This Help Engineers With Frost Resistance?

According to the Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics department at Virginia Tech College of Engineering, this surface technology is essential in the battle against frost, especially when it comes to essential machine components.

Jonathan Boreyko is one of the assistant professors within the department and thinks that this tiny beetle and its evolutionary beneficial shell are the key to combating frost created with condensation; something that can be hazardous when the temperatures start to drop.

According to Boreyko, only a single droplet of water needs to freeze to start the frost process, which requires a chain of connected droplets to be able to spread. The engineers realised this and set out to create a dry area around each droplet, breaking the chain so that the spread of frost was contained.

Commenting on the experiment, Boreyko said “We made a single dry zone around a piece of ice,” “Dew drops preferentially grow on the array of hydrophilic dots. When the dots are spaced far enough apart and one of the drops freezes into ice, the ice is no longer able to spread frost to the neighbouring drops because they are too far away. Instead, the drops actually evaporate completely, creating a dry zone around the ice.”

This means that if this technology is applied to essential areas of machinery such as plane windscreens and wings, we could see the reduction of frost spreading on the parts, which could make the machines dangerous to operate.

We can't wait to see how this new knowledge is applied to the engineering world! Who knows how our range of springs and bespoke pressings will be affected by it in the future!

Speaking of springs and pressings, if you require any further information on any of the products that we supply here at European Springs, don't hesitate to get in touch with us by calling 0208 663 1800 and a member of our team will be happy to help you.

European Springs