Where Innovation and Collaboration Unite

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Seco Tools’ innovation partnership manager explains how a collaborative partnership between Seco and CGTech provides a resultant force.

A collaborative partnership between cutting tool technologies specialist, Seco Tools, and leading independent CNC simulation and optimisation software provider, CGTech, is harnessing exceptional results for even the most demanding of customers.

David Magnall, Seco Tools’ innovation partnership manager, recalls: “At the time there was no true collaboration. However, we started to recognise that customers wanted more. As engineering departments have been whittled down and down, large businesses expect their suppliers to provide technical support”.

“As a tooling supplier we can usually make an incremental change, but if we interact with other companies that are part of that manufacturing process, we can deliver improvements as a collective which is more of a holistic solution. For our event we started to engage partners to focus on actual customers issues and components. It allowed us to demonstrate what we and our partners believe to be best practice manufacturing solutions. From there the idea grew and we thought we do this once a year why can’t we do this every day?”

CGTech in partnership with Seco Tools can provide turnkey solutions for businesses looking for high efficiency gains. As Magnall points out: “Customers are looking to take at least 40% and up to 60% or more out of the manufacturing process, in terms of cycle times and therefore cost, and we need partners to achieve this. These are partnerships where we sit down at the beginning of the year and say what we want to achieve together, what can we do that is proactive rather than wait for projects to come in and highlight what we recognise in the market that needs to be addressed.”

Today’s collaborative approach builds on the history between the two businesses so they have created a method of providing more holistic process improvements for customers’ manufacturing operations.
Environmental sustainability is a huge topic within the manufacturing industry, and although people have talked about it for a long time there is now pressure to start making good and deliver.

“There are targets being set that people are working towards. Also, it’s not just the products, it is the whole manufacturing operation that needs to be more sustainable and more environmentally aware. We are certainly seeing it more and more with customers, they increasingly want to only do business with other companies that have some sort of sustainability plan in place.

Summing up the collaborative partnership, Magnall concludes: “We have a great team at Seco, and our business model is always to try to provide a one-stop shop. But we only have a finite resource and by partnering it helps us achieve the customers’ goals. We understand the collaborative approach as a proactive way of working and addressing the issues faced by industry.”

 

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Automated Chemistry Combines Chemical Robotics and AI to Accelerate Pace for Advancing Solar Energy Technologies

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Researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the University of Tennessee are automating the search for new materials to advance solar energy technologies.

A new workflow combines robotics and machine learning to study metal halide perovskites, or MHPs — thin, lightweight, flexible materials with outstanding properties for harnessing light that can be used to make solar cells, energy-efficient lighting and sensors.

The study, aims to identify the most stable MHP materials for device integration. The enormous potential for perovskites presents an inherent obstacle for materials discovery. Scientists face a vast design space in their efforts to develop more robust models. More than a thousand MHPs have been predicted, and each of these can be chemically modified to generate a near limitless library of possible compositions.

The synthesis step employed a programmable pipetting robot designed to work with standard 96-well micro plates. The machine saves time over manually dispensing many different compositions; and it minimizes error in replicating a tedious process that needs to be performed in exactly the same ambient conditions, a variable that is difficult to control over extended periods.

Next, researchers exposed samples to air and measured their photo luminescent properties using a standard optical plate reader. Repeating the process over several hours captured complex phase diagrams in which wavelengths of light vary across compositions and evolve over time.

The team developed a machine-learning algorithm to analyse the data and home in on regions with high stability.  While the study focuses on materials discovery to identify the most stable compositions, the workflow could also be used to optimize material properties for specific optoelectronic applications.

The automated process can be applied to any solution-processable material for time and cost savings over traditional synthesis methods.

 

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Recording of PAeC Webinar on “Energy Crisis in Pakistan: A Myth or Reality”

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Pakistan Aerospace Council has been introducing new process concepts to benefit Pakistani Hi-Tech Sector.  Arranged a webinar on 18 March, 2021 on a very importat topic “Enery Crisis in Pakistan: A Myth or Reality”.   Recording of the same is presented, please;

Combat Drones Made in China

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Nigeria is getting AVIC’s second generation of Wing Loongs—the name means “pterodactyl”—which can fly as fast as 230 mph and as high as 30,000 feet, carrying a payload of a dozen missiles. Since 2015, when AVIC introduced the newer model, it’s produced 50 for export and an unknown number for China’s People’s Liberation Army. And it’s working on even more advanced aircraft, such as a stealth combat drone with a flying-wing design similar to that of the U.S. B-2 bomber.

AVIC’s drones have two big selling points: They’re cheaper than comparable aircraft from producers in the U.S. or Israel—the other primary manufacturers—and China doesn’t much care how they’re used, says Ulrike Franke, policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. “China is willing to export armed drones to almost anyone,” she says.

Over the past decade, China has delivered 220 drones to 16 countries, according to Sipri. That’s prompted other nations to boost their capabilities in the field, says Michael Horowitz, a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania. Japan, South Korea, and Belarus are developing drone technology. Serbia and Pakistan say they intend to use purchases from China to seed their own programs. “Armed drone proliferation is inevitable because of Chinese exports,” Horowitz says.

AVIC is at the heart of a broader push by China to develop its aerospace industry, both civilian and military. China Aerospace Science & Technology Corp. has sold combat drones to Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Serbia—the first time a European country has deployed Chinese unmanned aircraft.  AVIC has joint ventures with about 10 multinationals in China-focused civilian businesses such as aircraft components and avionics.

AVIC’s growing expertise is paying off in improved quality, says Pawel Paszak, director of the China Monitor program at the Warsaw Institute, a think tank in the Polish capital. Although its drones don’t match the best offerings from American and Israeli companies, they’re increasingly competitive—and the price differential is significant: AVIC’s top drones run $1 million to $2 million apiece, vs. more than $15 million for a comparable American model. “Maybe Chinese drones aren’t as good as American drones,” Paszak says. “But 15 drones instead of one, and without any fuss about human rights? This is a good offer.”

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Significant Rise in Plastic Prices Affects Auto Parts Makers

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Prices of plastic granule increased more than 50 percent during three months, jacking up cost of auto parts production and eroding margins of mainly small and medium vending companies, industry officials said.

Talking to The News, Mashood Khan, Director Exports Mehran Commercial Enterprises (MCE) and former chairman of Pakistan Association of Automotive Parts and Accessories Manufacturers revealed that plastic granule is their major raw material, whose prices increased by more than 50 percent during last three months.

It comes with various rates, he said. Due to an increase in the prices, the spare parts industry is suffering, as their orders are declining at higher rates and affordability becomes the issue. Small and medium enterprises were going through the period of survival during the lockdown related to Covid-19, but the situation is not coming to normal for them as price of the major raw material is increasing.

“When lockdown was over, there were issues of shipping and logistics. The material was not available but we faced it. However, now prices of raw material are being increased by three to four times in a month,” he said. “From February 1 till mid of March, prices have increased thrice.”

Prices of imported and the locally produced raw materials are increasing. The small and medium enterprise sector mostly purchases the raw material from the local market and very few of them are imported. During the issues related to shipping line when ships were not arriving, raw material supply for plastic granule also got affected. Talking about the auto policy, Khan said the government had given licences to new 20 companies. Of which, around four big players have arrived. “Government objective was achieved successfully with their arrival, whereas, the local parts manufacturers yet to get benefit from it.”

“The new entrants are enjoying tax incentives while local industry has to wait and show patience for some time,” he said. They will have to move towards the local industry for the localisation of parts once the tax incentive period is over. “Ultimately, you have to come towards localisation”, he added.

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Researchers Introduce a New Generation of Tiny, Agile Drones

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The technology could boost aerial robots’ repertoire, allowing them to operate in cramped spaces and withstand collisions.

Insects can be remarkably acrobatic and resilient in flight. Those traits help them navigate the aerial world, with all of its wind gusts, obstacles, and general uncertainty. Such traits are also hard to build into flying robots, but MIT Assistant Professor Kevin Yufeng Chen has built a system that approaches insects’ agility.

Chen, a member of the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and the Research Laboratory of Electronics, has developed insect-sized drones with unprecedented agility and resilience. The aerial robots are powered by a new class of soft actuator, which allows them to withstand the physical travails of real-world flight. Chen hopes the robots could one day aid humans by pollinating crops or performing machinery inspections in cramped spaces.

According to Chen, “The challenge of building small aerial robots is immense.” Pint-sized drones require a fundamentally different construction from larger ones. Large drones are usually powered by motors, but motors lose efficiency as you shrink them. So, Chen says, for insect-like robots “you need to look for alternatives.”

The principal alternative until now has been employing a small, rigid actuator built from piezoelectric ceramic materials. While piezoelectric ceramics allowed the first generation of tiny robots to take flight, they’re quite fragile. And that’s a problem when you’re building a robot to mimic an insect — foraging bumblebees endure a collision about once every second.

Chen designed a more resilient tiny drone using soft actuators instead of hard, fragile ones. The soft actuators are made of thin rubber cylinders coated in carbon nanotubes. When voltage is applied to the carbon nanotubes, they produce an electrostatic force that squeezes and elongates the rubber cylinder. Repeated elongation and contraction causes the drone’s wings to beat — fast.

Chen’s actuators can flap nearly 500 times per second, giving the drone insect-like resilience. “You can hit it when it’s flying, and it can recover,” says Chen. “It can also do aggressive manoeuvres like somersaults in the air.” And it weighs in at just 0.6 grams, approximately the mass of a large bumble bee.

Because of the soft actuators’ inherent compliance, the robot can safely run into obstacles without greatly inhibiting flight. This feature is well-suited for flight in cluttered, dynamic environments and could be very useful for any number of real-world applications.

Building insect-like robots can provide a window into the biology and physics of insect flight, a longstanding avenue of inquiry for researchers. Chen’s work addresses these questions through a kind of reverse engineering. His drones can also be useful in industry and agriculture.

Chen says his mini-aerialists could navigate complex machinery to ensure safety and functionality. “Think about the inspection of a turbine engine. You’d want a drone to move around with a small camera to check for cracks on the turbine plates.”

Other potential applications include artificial pollination of crops or completing search-and-rescue missions following a disaster.

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Energy Crisis in Pakistan: A myth or Reality!!

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Pakistan is one of the 6th most populous, geographically and strategically important countries located in South Asia. A generic statement that Pakistan is suffering from energy crises has been used since last four decades. Pakistan produces about 81% of its electricity through oil and gas, which costs us about 9.4 billion dollars.
In other words, these costs make 53 per cent of our total exports and are a significant cost burden on the products which we purchase from other countries. Reliance heavily on single source of energy which is currently fossil fuel, or depending on imported resources, both of which are getting more expensive and have volatile international prices, we as an economy just can’t rely on it. We need to have a longer and sustainable diversified energy mix.
The webinar is focused to reveal some realistic facts to give an enlighten view point for future.

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