Author: European Springs

Here in the first instalment in our new series on great engineering achievements, we take a closer look at the revolutionary feat of engineering that is the Channel Tunnel.

A proposal to build a tunnel under the English Channel was first put forward back in 1802, by the French mining engineer Albert Mathieu. However it was not until the 1830s that the first geological and hydrographical surveys were conducted on the channel between Calais and Dover.

In the following decades a number of further proposals were put forward, however these ultimately failed to come to fruition due to a variety of factors, such as political discord and financial problems.

Then in 1981, it was agreed between the French president Francois Mitterrand and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that a link across the English Channel would be mutually beneficial, and a working group was established to explore a privately funded project.
In 1985 proposals for the scheme were formally invited. Four proposals made the shortlist and these included a variety of innovative designs, including a suspension bridge and a road tunnel. However it was a proposal consisting of two one way rail tunnels and a service tunnel, presented by a Franco-British Consortium known as the France-Manche-Channel Tunnel Group, that was finally accepted.

Construction

The construction of the Channel Tunnel, which began in 1988, was a monumental task. In total 11 tunnel boring machines (TBM’s), each of which weighed 1,100 tonnes, were required in order to completed the excavation for the tunnel, and many of these were built specially for the project.

Excavation began simultaneously on both the British and French coasts, with the finished tunnel meeting and connecting in the middle.

This tunnelling presented a major engineering challenge, not least because underwater tunnels face the risk of major water inflow due to pressure from the sea above.

Completion

In total, the Channel Tunnel cost a staggering £4.65 billion to build and after years of hard work, was officially opened on the 6th May 1994.

The Channel Tunnel has now been helping passengers traverse the English Channel in only 35 minutes for over twenty years.
Following its completion the Channel Tunnel was also named one of the seven wonders of the modern world by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Here at European Springs we appreciate great engineering and many of our products such as our high quality disc springs are used for a variety of applications within the engineering field. For more information about our range of products and the services we offer, please don’t hesitate to contact us today by giving us a call on +44 (0) 208 663 1800 and a member of our friendly team will be happy to help you with your enquiries.

European Springs

This finding is based on a series of experiments conducted by researchers at the University of Portsmouth, which revealed that the strength of a limpet’s tooth exceeds that of spider silk (the previous reigning champion) and is even equal to the strongest man-made materials, such as high-performance carbon fibres.

Limpets are a type of aquatic snail which can be found in the seas surrounding the British coastline and use their super strong teeth to cling to the surface of rocks and harvest algae for food. These intriguing creatures have been described by some as the bulldozers of the sea and actually excavate rock using their teeth during feeding.

Limpets’ teeth are so hard that the researchers even had to use a diamond saw to cut them into tiny pieces before they were subjected to a battery of tests designed to investigate how much stress could be applied to this material before it reached breaking point.
Based on their investigations the researchers concluded that the secret to the materials strength lies in the thinness of its tightly packed mineral fibres.

Engineering Applications

Significantly, the researchers believe that engineers could learn a lot from the design of this natural material, which could hold great promise for the development of new and improved engineering materials.

For example, the design principles found in limpets’ teeth could help improve man-made materials, such as those used in the construction of cars, aircraft and boats.

The Independent   quotes lead author of the study, Professor Asa Barber, as stating that “Limpet tooth strength is comparable to the fibres used in bullet-proof vests and the carbon fibres commonly used in composites for aerospace structures and Formula 1 cars. The limpet has been able to make something in a biological process that performs as well as man-made materials that are not recyclable and use harmful chemicals”

This latest finding shows once again how the natural world can be a great source of inspiration for engineers.

Here at European Springs we like to keep up-to-date with all the latest discoveries from the engineering field. We’re suppliers of a wide range of high quality spring products including disc springs   which are used for an extensive variety of engineering applications. For more information, please don’t hesitate to hesitate to contact us  today by giving us a call on +44 (0) 208 663 1800, and a member of our expert team will be happy to help you with your enquiries.

European Springs

Today, the common features of the home of the future are things like smart homes that maintain themselves, robot housekeepers and even wardrobes that clean and iron clothes. The home of the future represents a technological ideal that many would want to live in, but do the homes of the future ever come into existence or are they always just out of our grasp? In this blog post we'll be looking at whether you will eventually get your robot butler, or whether you'll just have to settle for science-fiction.

Past Homes of the Future

A good way to start answering this question is to look at how well the future houses of the past represented actual homes. When the Monsanto House of the Future first opened in Disneyland in 1957, it was intended to represent what houses would be like in the 80s. Some key features of the house were light dimmers, an ultrasonic dishwasher and every material being plastic. Light dimmers were available long before the 80s, and plastic was of course a very popular material, but a house being made entirely of the material is not a common occurrence even now, and ultrasonic dishwashers are still only a concept. The Monsanto House of the Future was updated in the 80s to represent the 2010s, and contained gadgets such as home intercoms and voice controls, but again was not an accurate prediction.

Today's Homes of the Future

We now know that the evolution of technology is not something that is easy to predict, and foretelling with complete accuracy what a whole house will look like in 10 years is virtually impossible. This is why the homes of the future that we think about today are usually just one or two years ahead, making them far more accurate than 50s and 60s homes of the future. When we think of future homes, we think of technologies that are currently being developed, such as centralised control, voice activation and self-cleaning appliances, which we know will probably be around in a year or two.

So it seems that predicting what a home will look like in the future is a very difficult task. Hard to predict factors such as politics, the economy, and design trends all contribute to what the future will look like. Even if you could guess exactly what a house will look like in the future, whose house is being predicted? A regular family or a person exceptionally wealthy enough to afford all the gadgets? So even if the house is predicted accurately, unfortunately it probably won't be the house you are living in.

Here at European Springs, we're passionate about technology both in the future and the present. That's how we've become one of the leading providers of quality products for all areas of industry and one of the best “compression spring manufacturers in Europe. If you would like more information about any of our products, contact us today on 0208 663 1800 and a member of our team will be happy to help.

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Proposals
A proposal from design firm Gensler, which recently won Best Conceptual Project at the London Planning Awards, suggests that the London of the future may have another underground for pedestrians and cyclists.

Ground-space at London comes at a very high premium, and this concept could be a solution for not only transport, but local business as well.
The concept contains some very interesting ideas, including the fact that pressure from pedestrians' footsteps could supply the electricity for the tunnels.

Cities of the future?
Other major world cities, including New York, Paris and Amsterdam, are also exploring ways they can utilise underground space in order to accommodate growing demands for inner-city spaces. Meanwhile, other cities, including Helsinki, Toronto and Hong Kong, have already developed the idea of underground passenger networks.

As well as providing a solution to problems of space in the city, building underground pedestrian infrastructure could also be helpful in times of extreme weather, along with being extremely beneficial should urban issues such as pollution get worse.
Although there are no current plans to develop this idea in the near future, could we see an underground city develop in the capital during our lifetimes? Could it be the case that London's roads, which suffer from major congestion issues on a daily basis, will be moved underground at some point in the future?

At European Springs, we believe that the innovation engineers provide us with is worthy of recognition. We use the most innovative technology in our own industry to develop our large range of springs, making us one of Europe's leading compression spring manufacturers . For more information, contact us today by calling 0208 663 1800.

European Springs

The term “virtual reality” typically brings to mind images of large gaming headsets, popular in the 80's and 90's. Whilst to date this technology has been primarily used for video game purposes, the potential of virtual reality is thought to be huge.

Indeed, virtual reality is not just for video games, and in factories across the world virtual reality is helping to manufacture reality by allowing companies to test designs and experience products before they are even made.
Engineers are currently researching how such digital technologies could help streamline manufacturing processes by cutting the time it take to build products. For example, research groups are using technology inspired by video games and special effects such as motion capture to create a unique collaborative environment where problems can be solved quickly and manufacturing processes refined before production even begins.

According to a recent article from The Telegraph the defence and aerospace company BAE Systems is currently employing virtual reality technologies to build Royal Navy warships more cheaply and efficiently. This 3D virtual reality technology is enabling engineers to walk through full size computer generated models of the ships they are working on, allowing them to explore every nook and cranny so that they can identify and eliminate potential issues before construction even begins.

This 3D experience has the benefit of helping the team to discover any potential design problems before the ships are built. In this way, it’s hoped that the technology will be beneficial in cutting the cost of any remedial work. To date BAE has developed five so called visualisation suites, all of which are networked together allowing collaboration between people in different parts of the country.

The automotive industry has also been embracing virtual reality technologies for a number of years to aid in the design of its production processes. Many high end companies in the automotive sector are also using virtual reality to give customers a glimpse of the layout and look of a vehicle.

Advances in the use of virtual reality could open up significant opportunities for engineers within the manufacturing industry and it will be exciting to see what the future will hold for this revolutionary design technology.

Here at European Springs we’re passionate about design and technology and are leading suppliers of a wide range of high quality spring products including disc springs. For more information about our range of products and services, please don’t hesitate to contact us today by giving us a call on 44 (0) 208 663 1800 and a member of our friendly team will be happy to help you with your enquiries.

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Interestingly, recent weeks have seen some good news for the UK’s manufacturing industry, with reports revealing that the manufacturing sector here in the UK expanded at a faster pace in January, largely thanks to a modest recovery in export orders.

This finding is based on the latest Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) , which is an economic indicator derived from monthly surveys of companies in the private sector.

According to this latest survey, the Markit/CIPS manufacturing PMI rose to 53 in January from 52.7 in December – a figure above 50 is taken to indicate growth. Significantly, output has also remained above the level of 50, which divides growth from contraction for the past 23 months.

A key factor which is believed to have aided manufacturing firms is the recent slump in oil prices. According to The Independent, this fed through to the steepest drop in input costs seen for nearly six years.

Modest Increase In Overseas Orders

This latest survey also revealed that manufacturers saw a modest increase in new business from overseas clients, though the main driver of growth remained the domestic market.

As outlined by the BBC, these latest findings also suggest that manufacturing output is rising at a rate of about 0.2% per quarter, which is a slight improvement compared to the 0.1% growth recorded for the last three months of 2014.

Though there were signs of improvement in the overseas market, the article quotes Senior Economist at Markit, Rob Dobson, as stating that “It looks as if lacklustre demand from the eurozone in particular remained a headwind for British manufacturers.”
Overall however, the results of the survey suggest that there is reason for optimism, and that the UK Manufacturing industry is starting 2015 on a firmer footing.

Here at European Springs, we’re leading spring manufacturers and are suppliers of a range of high quality spring products including compressions springs. So if you’re looking for a compression spring manufacturers , then please don’t hesitate to contact us today by giving us a call on +44 (0) 208 663 1800 and a member of our friendly team will be happy to help you with your enquiries.

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