East Midlands Network Events Gallery

Retired Members Go Underground

Twelve Members of the East Midlands Region Retired Members Section were recently granted a most enviable opportunity to visit the Gypsum Mining and Production Facility at Barrow-on-Soar, Leicestershire.Due to the difficulty of moving around the site, the visit was restricted to two groups of six, a week apart.   

Greeted

On being greeted by the Shift Manager and had any spark inducing “contraband” (down to battery operated car keys and watches) put safely in an office drawer, we were checked that our clothes, overalls and boots met requirements before being issued with helmets and headlamps (no lights down below!) and set off in the Landrover down a 1 in 6 adit into the mine.  

Machine's great drum

There we drove along roads left by the stall and pillar method of extraction to the work face, to see the machine’s great drum with tungsten steel spikes ripping out the gypsum and feeding it into a hopper which was regularly emptied by a mobile “skip” and taken to the beginning of  the conveyor belt for onward transmission to the production facility.

The forces involved in digging out the ore was shown by the “spike” which had been torn out of the drum and had to be removed from the conveyor by a large magnet to prevent it getting into the crusher.

Crushing plant

On to the crushing plant and the careful blending with waste material from the de-sulphurisation of power station chimneys, followed by packaging. 

From there it was a relentless procession of bags on conveyor lines to palletisation before going to storage in the most impressive High Bay Warehouse where a completely automated system stacked pallets in randomly selected storage bins reaching from floor to ceiling along the whole length of the building.   

Pallets were then removed as necessary to meet despatch requirement and sent to the Despatch Bays.   And all this was done with hardly a man in sight!

Thanks

It was an eye opening visit which vividly demonstrated the forethought, design and care which had gone into the installation and operation of a modern extraction, processing and packaging plant and we are most grateful to Mr. Easter, the Plant Manager for allowing the visit, the Shift Managers for their guidance and explanations, and Mike Gilbert for making all the arrangements (not forgetting the tea!) for a most successful Meeting.

Damage Restoration After Hurricanes 

Leicester Network Lecture (joint with CIPHE} on 15th. October, 2009.   

It wasn't quite what we expected, but, at least, Nik Day of Munters gave us a good introduction to all the aids available to help recovery from a simple washing machine flood to a full scale domestic disaster when the rain swelled local river comes pouring into your house. 

Munters international

Explaining that Munters International is a Scandinavian Family Company operating world wide, with UK Headquarters at Huntingdon, Nik said that their work covered leak detection using non-destructive methods employing acoustics, tracer gas and even a radio signal down a pipe to find its whereabouts. 

Another aspect of their work was the carrying out of Dampness Surveys using infra-red devices and, say, when cavity filling is suspect, an endoscope to detect voids in that filling.

Infra-red detection

They, also, used infra-red to detect differences in heat emissions from electric circuitry and switchgear to indicate components running in excess of specification and give notice of possible failure. Additionally, they provide a service to restore documents damaged by flooding, in which the documents are frozen to -18 degrees C and ozone dried to return them to "as new" condition. 

De-humidification

Finally they oversee the process of de-humidification, determining the rate at which moisture is being removed and adjusting the rate to ensure that no further damage is caused during the drying out process. It was a very good evening, introducing equipment and assistance we hope we will never need and our thanks go to Richard Grant for making all the arrangements.

The Big Bang Machine and its Data Processing Needs

On the 7th of October 2009, over 60 members from the IET and IOP have attended Professor David Britton's lecture on Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The LHC will allow scientists to penetrate further into the structure of mater and recreate the conditions prevailing in the early universe, just after the “Big Bang”. 

But in the search for answers to questions such as why particles have mass, the LHC’s detector will produce more than 10Petabytes (10 Million Billion Bytes) of data each year –equivalent to a stack of CDs twice the height of Mount Everest. The lecture is organised by IET Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire Local Network Panel with collaboration from the Institute of Physics (IOP).

 

 

 

 

 

IET golf competition 2009

Some might say that the weather was variable, and I suppose it was – it varied from bright sunshine to pouring rain in a great thunderstorm, (IET Members playing golf in a thunderstorm? You really would have thought they would have known better!), but it did not deter the eight contestants in the IET East Midlands Golf Competition at Bedales Lake Golf Course on Friday, 15^th May, 2009.

In addition to The Brush and Ericsson Trophies, prizes were available for the Longest Drive, Nearest the Pin and Highest Overall Score.  Having started the day with bacon butties and coffee the Competition finished with refreshments in the Clubhouse, a Prize Giving Ceremony and a short meeting to determine the future of the event.

            Results:-

            Brush Trophy                           Fraser Greenwood

            Ericsson Trophy                       Geoff Wass

            Longest Drive                           Simon Tunstall

            Nearest the pin             Simon Tunstall

            Best Overall Score                   Geoff Wass

 

            Fortunately, the weather relented for long enough for a photographic record of the occasion to be made, so it was a good day made even better by the excellent Course and pleasant Company, though it was a pity that more Members could not join us.  It would be nice if we could have, at least, double our numbers next year.   Put a note in your diary now.

 

 

The Twentieth Annual Joint Institutions Prestige Lecture: The Aston Martin DB9 – “Under the Skin of the Bond Car”

British Engineering Excellence

The car was definitely the star of this year’s sold-out Twentieth Annual Prestige Lecture, “‘Under the skin of the Bond car’ - The Development of the Aston Martin”. Steve Young, Andy Syvret and Roland Snell from the Aston Martin team concentrated on their specific roles in making one of Aston Martin’s latest vehicle designs, the DB9, so special. Later in the evening, they spoke of the design challenges of the recently released DBS. They demonstrated that beneath the innovative body design lie truly exceptional products, such as the V12 engine, a result of intensive development work by engineers.

Speakers (centre, forefront) from left to right Andy, Steve and Roland

Aston Martin, famous as the marque of choice of successive James Bond characters, has recently been voted the UK’s coolest brand. The DB9 uses an aerospace-specification bonded aluminum structure together with a unique Vertical/Horizontal (VH) platform and Production V12 engine which allows the DB9 to go from 0-60 mph in 4.9 seconds. 

Through the course of the lecture, they illustrated in detail how the unique Powertrain and Body Structure have been developed. The audience was told that a team of 300 people had been involved in the development of the vehicle which had been tested across the world from Dubai to Northern Sweden.

A short video was shown, which included the famous roll in Casino Royale - a real stunt, not “computer generated imagery”. The whole lecture demonstrated the enthusiasm and enjoyment of the Aston Martin engineers when testing and seeing the results of their work, beating the design criteria for the car in every field - acceleration, speed, power etc.

This year’s event was held at East Midlands Conference Centre, Nottingham, on 21st November 2007 at 7.30pm. It was attended by over 850 people from twenty institutions and organisations. For those not fortunate enough to be able to drive their own Aston Martin home afterwards, a DBS and cut-away model of the DB9 were available at the centre to view on the night.

Background:

The Prestige Lecture in the East Midlands is an annual event run by a combined panel of Professional Engineering & Science Institutions

The Prestige Lecture is unique in bringing together members from Professional Institutions in a combined event with wide technical, commercial and current interest.

This year’s Prestige Lecture was organised by The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) as part of their centenary year and The Institute of Measurement & Control (InstMC)

For more information on the EMESP and the Prestige Lecture, visit www.emesp.org.uk

 

Retired Members visit to Burghley House

As part of their sequence of Meetings for 2007,  19 Members and Partners arrived at Burghley House recently, to enjoy a tour of one of England’s most beautiful houses. Having renewed acquaintances over a welcome cup of coffee, the Party moved on to join our guide and pose for the obligatory photograph.

Ready for the tour!

Then it was straight into the Old Kitchen and on to the delights of the huge collection of works of art as we were guided through the elegant rooms.   But why were the chimneys so tall?   Have you never realised that they didn’t want a lot of smoke interfering with their “night on the tiles”?

See those chimneys!

But there was more to come, after lunch, when, free to stroll in the grounds and gardens, we were treated to a series of surprises in the Water Garden (water up the leg of your trousers!) and enjoyed the wide variety of sculptures in the Sculpture Garden, formed from the reclaimed lower gardens of Capability Brown. 

 The Water Garden

 

The Sculpture Garden

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That the whole day seemed to flow effortlessly along was a tribute to Searle Clark’s meticulous planning and we are grateful to him for, yet again, organising an excellent meeting.

 

Signal House visit

 
The Leicester District joined with the Derby Railway Engineering Society recently, to enjoy a visit to Signal House, Leighton Buzzard. It was a follow-up to the talk, given by the Company, at Leicester, last year, on "Light Sources for Railway Signalling", which told of the advantages of using LED's in light signals for railway control. 

Members were given a history of the Company and a description of the work done at Signal House before Senior Management took them on a tour of the manufacturing facilities, and shown the flexibility of the workforce in a small Company which produced its product almost completely "in house", from welding and painting boxes to final assembly and test.

It was a most enjoyable and informative visit for which we are indebted to Signal House for their time and to Peter Holmes for making all the arrangements. 

 Peter Hobbs, Managing Director, explains a point.    Bill Gregory, Technical Director, describes a detail of the Route Indicator shown in foreground. 

New lamps for old! Railways still rely on traditional lamps under certain circumstances.

 

IET golf competition 2007

 
It should have been eight, but due to a last minute cancellation there were only seven Members who met at Beedles Lake Golf Centre, at East Goscote, on Friday, 18th. May for coffee and a bacon roll before splitting into two groups to do battle for the Brush Challenge Bowl and the Ericsson Trophy. These Trophies were presented to the East Midland Branch in 1962 and the Competition was restarted last year after a lapse of five years. The Beedles Course is very pleasant and level, but with a lot of water hazards!

Outline of the day

We played a Stapleford off ¾ handicap which enabled minnows like me to pick up my ball when I had no hope of scoring and, so, keep the game moving. We all got round in time for a (latish) lunch and an opportunity to discuss the course and our game before totting up scores to discover that last year’s winners had done it again! 

Winners

So Peter Cowley took the Brush Challenge Bowl and Bob Gibbs the Ericsson Trophy. It was then time to discuss next year’s event. First and foremost, it was agreed that Beedles was an excellent venue and that we should return there next year on Friday, 16th. May, 2008. 

Publicity for the event

It was also agreed that we should seek extra publicity to bring the event to the notice of more Members, so that they may enjoy a day in the open air, in excellent company. 

We will do this through the Programme Booklet and the IET Monthly e-mail, though it was recognised that some Members may not receive the latter. Finally it was decided to allow Members to bring guests who would have a separate competition, but IET Members to retain priority for a place on the day.

Thanks

In conclusion Peter Cowley was heartily thanked for his excellent organisation of the day, a process he will have to repeat next year, as a reward for winning!

Good course, good food, good weather, good company. Why not join us next year?

Retired members experience the grind and relax in the splendour of a Derbyshire home

 
Retired Members visited Caudwell's Mill at Rowsley on 16th. May and had a very interesting guided tour of the water turbine driven mill, which takes advantage of its "green" generator to be paid for the electricity it uses. It is a good job we didn't follow the path of the wheat being milled, or we would have been up and down three times!

 We then went to Haddon Hall and another very interesting guided tour which gave an insight into local history and the customs of the times, with time left at the end to explore and enjoy the well maintained gardens.

 Our thanks go to Martin Foggo for his excellent organisation of both visits.

 An introduction by our guide  Our first sight of the Hall