Items filtered by date: Tuesday, 02 December 2014

We have put together a golf tournament that everyone will enjoy regardless of their golf ability, it’s called the International Golf Week, everyone has a chance to win prizes in the different handicap divisions and for the low handicap players there will also be a scratch competition.

Hong Kong knows how to throw a party, particularly when the Sevens comes to town! From the amazing skyline to the equally amazing fans, your time in Hong Kong will last long in the memory and this is your chance to see all the action, live!

19 January, 2018 - A newly-signed contract discloses key details of Russia’s design goals for the country’s first high-bypass gas turbine engine in the 75,000lb-thrust power class launched on 19 January to support the CRIAC CR929 widebody, Ilyuishin Il-96-400 and several military projects.

The $1.13 billion (₽64.3 billion) contract awarded by the Russian government on 19 January calls on United Engine Corporation-Aviadvigital to develop a demonstrator engine named the PD-35-1 by 2023 featuring several state-of-the-art technologies, including wide-chord composite fan blades and composite fan case, ceramic matrix composites and advanced cooling systems.

The PD-35-1 also will be designed with a compressor pressure ratio measuring 23:1, the contract documents posted on the Russian government’s procurement agency says. That falls a step below the 27:1 ratio planned for the high-pressure compressor section of the GE Aviation GE9X engine now in development testing for the Boeing 777X.

But the documents still reveal a plan for Russian industry to make dramatic progress over the next decade. Building on the advanced metallics now in testing in the 28,000lb-thrust PD-14 turbofan, the PD-35-1 will drive Russia to introduce composite materials pioneered by GE over the last 15 years. The Aviadvigital PD-14 is Russia’s homegrown alternative to the Pratt & Whitney PW1400G on the Irkut MC-21 narrowbody.

In a statement posted on his Facebook page, Russia’s deputy prime minister for defence and space industries Dmitry Rogozin notes that the Soviet Union never produced a turbofan engine over 70,000lb-thrust and the PD-35-1 will become the first in the region’s history.

“We really need it,” he says.

Russia and China have teamed up to develop the CR929 under the CRIAC joint venture beween Comac and United Aircraft Corporiation. CRIAC is expected to select an engine made by GE or R-R to introduce the CR929 into commercial service by the end of the next decade. Separately, China and Russia each plan to develop indigenously-sourced alternatives to the Western powerplants for the CR929. The PD-35-1 also would be used to power several Russian air force development projects, including the Il-476 airlifter, Il-478 tanker and a long-term effort to replace the Antonov An-124.

Mimicking the structural configuration of the Boeing 787’s GEnx-1B engines, the PD-35-1 engine will be designed with widechord composite fan blades and a composite, the contract documents show. The documents don’t specify if Russian industry plans to use a similar process as GE’s 3D woven composite materials.

The turbine of the PD-35-1 will be exposed to temperatures as high as 1,450°C (2,640°F), exceeding the melting point of most advanced metal alloys. To help the turbine survive, the contract documents say Aviadvigital must integrate exotic new materials and advanced cooling systems. Two types of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) – silicon carbide-silicon carbide (SiC-SiC) and carbon-silicon carbide (C-SiC) will be used in the PD-35-1 demonstrator engine, the contract documents say. GE pioneered the use of CMCs in the Leap-1 series of engines that it produces with Safran under the CFM International joint venture.

SOURCE: Flight Dashboard BY: Stephen Trimble Washington DC   ||  January 19, 2018   |||

Is your 2018 business travel schedule making you depressed?  Elizabeth Segranlong writes about those products and accessories that can help make your travel a little easier to handle.

Jan 20, 2018  -  Tetra Pak has pledged to support the European Commission’s Plastics Strategy, announced this week as part of the EU Action Plan for a Circular Economy.  The carton giant said it will work with industry partners to ensure that by 2030, recycling solutions are in place for all components of beverage cartons so they can be fully recycled across Europe.

Jan 20, 2018  -  The concrete contains a fungus that produces calcium carbonate when exposed to water and oxygen.  If cracks in concrete can be fixed when they're still tiny, then they can't become large cracks that ultimately cause structures such as bridges to collapse. It is with this in mind that various experimental types of self-healing concrete have been developed in recent years. One of the latest utilizes a type of fungus to do the healing.

Inspired by the human body's ability to heal itself, the concrete was created by Congrui Jin, Guangwen Zhou and David Davies from New York's Binghamton University, along with Ning Zhang from Rutgers University. It incorporates spores of the fungus Trichoderma reesei, along with nutrients, that are placed within the concrete matrix as it's being mixed.

Once the concrete has hardened, the spores remain dormant until the first micro-cracks appear. When they do, water and oxygen find their way in. This causes the spores to germinate, grow, and precipitate calcium carbonate, which in turn seals the cracks.

"When the cracks are completely filled and ultimately no more water or oxygen can enter inside, the fungi will again form spores," says assistant professor Jin. "As the environmental conditions become favorable in later stages, the spores could be wakened again."

The research is still in the early stages, however, so don't go looking for the fungi concrete in a structure near you anytime soon. In the meantime, however, scientists from both Newcastle University and the University of Bath have been developing self-healing concrete that incorporates calcium carbonate-producing bacteria.

A paper on the Binghamton research was recently published in the journal Construction and Building Materials.

Source: Binghamton University  and New Atlas    ||  January 20, 2019   |||

Jan 20, 2018  -  “This represents a real revolution in the blueberry industry to us. In a couple of years, those without this technology will be left on the sidelines.”  That was the comment from Cristobal Duke, Managing Director of Collipulli (Chile), on UNITEC Blueberry Vision technology back at the end of 2016.

Jan 20, 2018  -  Ingersoll-Rand plc and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation will be partners later this year, in a market that is not the first that comes to mind for either.