Process Engineering

This special field revolves around processes for modifying material properties (milling, cooling), composition (filtration, distillation) and type (oxidation, hydration).

Valuable information is available on a broad range of technologies including material separation, laser processes, measuring techniques and robot engineering in addition to testing methods and coating and materials analysis processes.

Scientists Awarded Grant To Create ’Artificial Rat Whisker’

Scientists at the University of the West of England and the University of Sheffield have won funding to create a robotic system based on the whiskers of a rat.
The system would mimic the biological rat whisker and would provide an entirely new and groundbreaking modality for mobile robots working in confined spaces.

Known as ‘Whiskerbot’ the project will bring together experts in robotics from UWE with experts from Sheffield University who specialise in computer modelling of the brains o

Researchers design system to improve disinfection of water used in food processing

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a better-performing, less costly method of disinfecting water used in food processing.

Like current technologies, the new Advanced Disinfection Technology System relies on ultraviolet (UV) radiation to eliminate molds, viruses and bacteria. But the new system handles water more efficiently and thus improves the overall effectiveness of the disinfection process, researchers reported.

“We’re creating a mixing pattern to e

Artificial skin gets a grip

In order for robots to replace or assist humans in dangerous, delicate, or remote situations, such as military reconnaissance, neural microsurgery, or extra-planetary probes, they must have sensory abilities similar to or superior to humans. The sense of touch has proved particularly difficult to duplicate through artificial sensors due to the harsh environments such artificial ’skins’ would encounter.

In a paper published today in the Institute of Physics’ Journal of Micromec

Aircraft technology helps diagnose artificial hip, knee problems

To assess the wear and tear on jet engine parts, mechanics used an old technology called ferrography to run the aircraft’s lubricating fluid through a magnetic device to separate out metal shavings and other ferrous engine debris. A University of Rhode Island researcher uses a similar process to assess the wear and tear on artificial hip and knee joints so patients can reduce the number of follow-up surgeries they must undergo or reduce the time spent in revision surgery.

Donna Meyer,

A method to counter abrasion in industrial parts and pieces

Gaiker y Santa Ana de Bolueta Abrasión, S. A., have developed a novel, rapid and efficient method to reduce abrasion in industrial parts.

The considerable wear suffered by industrial parts and equipment and by extracting tools that come into contact with abrasive materials forces companies to make periodic maintenance breaks in normal activity, thus causing considerable losses in time and money.

Santa Ana de Bolueta Abrasión, S. A., together with Gaiker, have developed a novel metho

Expendable microphones may help locate building collapse survivors

Data gathered by Penn State engineers in a volunteer effort at the World Trade Center tragedy, suggests that simple, inexpensive microphones dropped into the rubble of a collapsed building may be able to aid search and rescue teams despite ground level noise.

Dr. Thomas B. Gabrielson, associate professor of acoustics and senior research associate at Penn State’s Applied Research Laboratory, says, “In conventional survivor searches, noise generating activities at the surface must be stopped

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