Air travellers rarely think about the indoor climate in airport terminals, or about the kitchens where their in-flight meals are prepared. These catering centres are vast, busy facilities, often located in hot, humid climates – posing a challenge to ventilation systems. Air distribution in public areas of airports is another crucial, demanding speciality.

Finnish technology offers indoor climate solutions for two dozen airports as far-flung as Shanghai, New York, Auckland and Brussels. Pic

M+W Zander offers particle measurement cabinet for development of soot particle filters

M+W Zander has developped with partners a special Particle Measurement Cabinet (PMC) for the automobile industry. It prevents measurements of soot particles from being affected by interferences caused by mechanical vibrations as well as fluctuations in temperature and humidity. The PMC has already been sold to a number of automobile manufacturers and suppliers.

Development and qualific

Cars are now able to speak by means of sensors attached to wheel rims and seats. With the new technology a car tells you if the tyre pressures are too low or the driver is falling asleep. Intelligent tyres and seats increase driving comfort.

The Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), Nokian Tyres and Emfit Oy are merging information technology solutions, some of which are already known while others are still being developed, and turning them into something that is an everyday feature

A small ceremony took place yesterday at the site of Snecma Moteurs in Vernon, France, to mark the beginning of industrial production of the Vulcain 2 engine, designed for the new Ariane 5 ECA and Ariane 5 ES ATV launchers.

Present at the ceremony was Patrick Devedjian, the French Minister for Industry and Jean-Paul Béchat, Chairman of the Executive Board of Sagem-Snecma. ESA was represented by Antonio Fabrizi, Director of Launchers and Robert Lainé, Head of the Ariane Department.

Engineers at Purdue University have developed a technique that could result in more accurate “ultra-wideband” radio signals for ground-penetrating radar, radio communications and imaging systems designed to see through walls.

The researchers first create laser pulses with specific “shapes,” which precisely characterize the changing intensity of light from the beginning to end of each pulse. The pulses are then converted into electrical signals for various applications.

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Your car’s engine loses 70 percent of its energy as waste heat — but Australian and Oregon scientists may have figured out an efficient way not only to recover that lost energy, but to at long last capture the power-producing potential of geothermal heat.

The trick is to convert it to electricity — and a promising way to accomplish this, the researchers have discovered, involves using extremely thin nanowires to potentially more than double the efficiency of thermoelectri

Scientists verify critical fabrication properties of gadolinium-nickel alloy

A new alloy developed and patented by researchers at Lehigh University, Sandia National Laboratory and Idaho National Laboratory could help the U.S. dispose more safely of 50,000 tons of spent nuclear energy fuel that are now stored at 125 sites in 39 states.
John DuPont, professor of materials science and engineering at Lehigh and principal investigator on the project, said that a nickel-based

The newest Fraunhofer developments in hydrogen technology can be seen at the Hydrogen + Fuel Cells Stand at the Hanover Trade Fair. The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Sintered Materials IKTS will display durable SOFC stacks with a power of 1 kWel. The fuel cells are intended for application in distributed power supplies and can be operated with either fossil fuels or biogas. In addition, an extremely thin Ag/Zn micro-battery for integration in sensor cards will be presented.

Scientists have been able to follow the flow of excitation energy in both time and space in a molecular complex using a new technique called two-dimensional electronic spectroscopy. While holding great promise for a broad range of applications, this technique has already been used to make a surprise finding about the process of photosynthesis. The technique was developed by a team of researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and the Univ

University of California scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory working with a researcher from Chonnam National University in South Korea have found that magnetic fluctuations appear to be responsible for superconductivity in a compound called plutonium-cobalt-pentagallium (PuCoGa5). The discovery of this “unconventional superconductivity” may lead scientists to a whole new class of superconducting materials and toward the goal of eventually synthesizing “room-temperature” superconductors.

As gasoline prices climb ever higher and the U.S. Senate backs oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the possibility of a hydrogen economy — where drivers tank up on clean-burning hydrogen fuel — gleams more brightly. But two Northwestern University engineers stress the need to get more out of the fuel we are already using.

“A hydrogen economy is not a perfectly clean system,” said Scott A. Barnett, professor of materials science and engineering. “You

Grow grass, not for fun but for fuel. Burning grass for energy has been a well-accepted technology in Europe for decades. But not in the United States.

Yet burning grass pellets as a biofuel is economical, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly and sustainable, says a Cornell University forage crop expert.

This alternative fuel easily could be produced and pelleted by farmers and burned in modified stoves built to burn wood pellets or corn, says Jerry Cherney, the E.V.

Infrared Emitter From Heraeus Noblelight With Quartz Reflector

The benefits of infrared heating can also be enjoyed under vacuum. Heraeus Noblelight a company within the worldwide Heraeus precious metals and technology organisation, is showing infrared emitters for the semi-conductor sector at the Semicon Exhibition, which takes place in Munich from the 12th to 14th April. Thanks to a newly developed reflector, there have been significant improvements in heating processes carrie

Fester, leichter und bereits in der Auto-Serienproduktion nutzbar: Warmumformung mit Nanobeschichtung ist das Ergebnis einer neuartigen Entwicklung. Diese weltweit neue Technologie wird erstmals in der Karosserieproduktion des neuen VW Passat eingesetzt. Die Volkswagen AG und die ThyssenKrupp Stahl AG unterstützten diese Entwicklung des Kasseler Maschinenbau-Fachgebiets Umformtechnik unter Leitung von Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Kurt Steinhoff mit der Saarbrücker Nano-X GmbH. Der Warmumformungsprüfsta

EUREKA project E! 2727 POLCORRIDOR has been selected as the ‘backbone’ trans-European freight transport corridor to explore interoperability in the EU Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) REORIENT project. REORIENT is assessing the process of transforming European railways from nationally fragmented into internationally integrated systems to encourage a move away from total dependence on road transport.

Started in 2002, the EUREKA project set out to deliver Europe’s most advanced tran

A new dielectric material, developed by researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, could facilitate the use of copper circuitry at the chip level. The thermally stable aromatic polymer has a low dielectric constant of 1.85, good mechanical properties and excellent adhesion.

Replacing aluminum with copper as the multilayer interconnect structure in microelectronic devices could enhance both miniaturization and performance. Copper offers much higher electrical and