Operational Excellence

Carver One

2009-09-29T22:41:00.000+02:00

To be able to take a corner in a slender vehicle without tipping over, Carver Engineering developed the Dynamic Vehicle Control (DVC™) system. This system causes a vehicle to shift its weight by tilting its body while cornering, ensuring an optimal balance at all times. It enables slender vehicles to corner fast and safely.

Using the DVC™ technology Carver Engineering developed an enclosed tilting three-wheel vehicle with the comfort and safety of a car, yet only 130 cm (4′ 4″ feet) wide. Years of research and development went into the improvement and fine-tuning of the technology resulting in 2002 in this vehicle obtaining road certification and full EU type approval.

In 2003 Vandenbrink manufactured the first exclusive series of 20 vehicles under the name “Carver One”, the first-ever commercially available tilting three-wheel vehicle with an enclosed and comfortable passenger compartment. Receiving rave reviews from the press and industry watchers worldwide, these first Carvers sold out in record time and were shipped to various enthusiastic owners throughout the world.

To be able to take a corner in a slender vehicle without tipping over, Carver Engineering developed the Dynamic Vehicle Control (DVC™) system. This system causes a vehicle to shift its weight by tilting its body while cornering, ensuring an optimal balance at all times. It enables slender vehicles to corner fast and safely.

Using the DVC™ technology Carver Engineering developed an enclosed tilting three-wheel vehicle with the comfort and safety of a car, yet only 130 cm (4′ 4″ feet) wide. Years of research and development went into the improvement and fine-tuning of the technology resulting in 2002 in this vehicle obtaining road certification and full EU type approval.

In 2003 Vandenbrink manufactured the first exclusive series of 20 vehicles under the name “Carver One”, the first-ever commercially available tilting three-wheel vehicle with an enclosed and comfortable passenger compartment. Receiving rave reviews from the press and industry watchers worldwide, these first Carvers sold out in record time and were shipped to various enthusiastic owners throughout the world.

Source : Carver Engineering (http://www.brinkdynamics.nl/)

Wind Sail Vertical Axis 3kW

2009-09-10T15:53:00.000+02:00

Wind Sail is a new company formed to commercialize a ten year Vertical Axis Wind Turbine (VAWT) development effort by a group of former USSR weapons (submarine launched ICBMs) scientists and engineers employed at the Makeyev State Rocket Center (MSRC), Miass, Russia. MSRC was formerly chartered with submarine launched ICBM development. The Russian engineers are currently funded by the Department of Energy under the Initiative for Proliferation Prevention (IPP). The overall objective of the IPP program is to aid former USSR weapons scientists and engineers to find permanent non-weaponry related employment. Wind Sail’s success will not only accomplish this objective, but also contribute to wider use of clean energy, reducing dependence on imported fossil fuel with consequent positive impact on the environment and world peace.

The IPP funds these efforts through a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA). In this case, the CRADA is between Wind Sail (Empire Magnetics), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories (LBNL) and MSRC. The agreement is now in its fourth year.

Source : Empire Magnetics

ErockIT - CNN

2009-08-20T13:34:00.000+02:00

ErockIT - BBC News

2009-08-20T13:30:00.000+02:00

GDP (adjusted for PPP) World Rankings 2009 according to the IMF

2009-06-26T12:25:00.000+02:00

According to the International Monetary Fund's latest figures(April 2009), China is in the second spot after the USA, India is in the 4th spot just after Japan, Russia is in the 6th spot just after Germany and Brazil is in the 9th spot, just after the UK and France.

China is still in the third spot in terms of nominal GDP, but how long before it surpasses Japan, perhaps during the next year or will it take another 2 years?

Source : International Monetary fund

Latest Global Fortune 500 list

2009-06-26T10:17:00.000+02:00

In terms of Revenue, Royal Dutch Shell became the largest company, with turnover of $ 458,4 billion, followed by Exxon Mobil with $ 442,9 billion, Wal-Mart with $ 405,6 Bp with $ 367,1 and Chevron with $263,2 billion

In terms of absolute Nett Profit, Exxon Mobil was most profitable in 2008, with profits of $45,2 billion, followed by Gazprom with $29,9 billion, Royal Dutch Shell with $ 26,3, Chevron with $23,9 billion and BP with $21,2 billion. The most profitable non-oil company was Microsoft in 7th position with $ 17,7 billion. For many companies, even if it just had the digit after the company would make them very happy. To put this in perspective, the Nett Profit of the 6th most profitable company, Petrobras, is more than the revenue of the company that is 500th on the list in terms of revenue. The magic number to be on the Global Fortune 500 list in terms of revenue was $ 18,6 billion.

In terms of Return on Revenues for companies, CVRD was most most profitable in 2008, with a percentage of 35,3, followed by Merck with 32,7 , Microsoft with 29,3 , Occidental Petroleum with 2 and Philips Morris with 26,8.

In terms of Return on Revenues for industries, Mining and Crude0-Oil Production, with an industry average percentage of 19,8, followed by Pharmaceuticals with 19,1 , Tobacco with 12,3 , Food Consumer products with 11,9 and Household and Personal products with 9,9

To put Exxon Mobil's profits in perspective, that is more than the GDP of the country in the world that is ranked 77th in terms of nominal GDP(according to the IMF's rankings). To be in the top 50, a company's profits has to be larger than than the GDP of the country in the world that is ranked 148th in terms of nominal GDP.

In reverse order, Fannie Mae was the least profitable with a loss of $58,7 billion, followed by RBS with a loss of $43,2, followed by GM with a loss of $30,9 billion, and Citibank with a loss of $27,7 billion. No-one would be surprised about which companies had the highest losses, but it does show the magnitude of the problem they were having.

To put those losses in perspective, GM's loss is larger than the GDP of the country in the world that is ranked 58th in terms of nominal GDP(according to the IMF's rankings)

Source : Fortune Global 500 list and International Monetary Fund

World Solar Challenge: The Nuna 5 is launched

2009-06-26T00:41:00.000+02:00

On 25 June 2009 Nuna5 was unveiled by the new 14-strong Nuon Solar Team. The team members, all students at Delft University of Technology, have worked on the construction of their solar car for almost a year. During this period they have set everything else aside to ensure that Nuna5 is even faster and more beautiful, aerodynamic and economical than ever. The Nuon Solar Team are looking forward to the moment when the World Solar Challenge starts in Australia.

The World Solar Challenge is a biennial race for solar-powered cars. Teams from some thirty countries take part. The race crosses right across Australia from north to south over a distance of more than 3,000 kilometres. It starts in Darwin on 25 October 2009 and ends in Adelaide on 31 October. If the Nuon Solar Team wins this year, it will be the fifth time in succession that students from Delft have taken the title for the fastest purely solar-powered car.

Source : TU Delft & World Solar Challenge

If Design Awards 2009

2009-06-24T16:26:00.000+02:00

The clean and striking MODE is aimed at commuters that may have not considered cycling or folding bikes as an option. MODE avoids oily chains, complex tubes with hidden dirt traps, and the clutter of traditional bike features. Commuters, who do not want to change their appearance into “bicycle warriors”, can use it. MODE features IF (Integrated Folding) technology that offers a single-action, automatic fold that requires no tools or removal of parts. IF technology is based on a patented 3-dimensional 4-Bar linkage that automatically guides the wheels together when folding. Once folded, MODE rolls along in a convenient wheelable package

Source : International Forum Design

World Economic Forum's latest Global Competitive Index list

2009-06-24T10:42:00.000+02:00

The USA still takes the top spot, followed by Switzerland, Denmark, Sweden, Singapore, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Japan and Canada to round off the top 10. The country listed as last in position # 134 is Chad, preceded by Zimbabwe, Burundi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Timor-Leste, Uganda, Burkina Faso and Nepal

The BRIC countries are positioned respectively in the 64th position(Brazil), 51st (Russian Federation), 50th(India) and 30th (China).

The member countries that most recently joined the EU, Bulgaria and Romania are in the 76th and 68th position respectively

The candidate countries to the join the EU, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Turkey are in the 61st, 89th and 63rd position respectively. This means that Croatia and Turkey are actually already more competitive that Bulgaria and Romania who have joined the EU.

The Netherlands moves up two spots to 8th place.The country’s companies are highly sophisticated and are the most aggressive internationally in absorbing
new technologies (ranked 1st for its technological readiness), buttressed by an excellent educational system and extremely efficient factor markets.The labor market in the Netherlands is notably efficient compared with the situation in many other European economies, and its goods market is ranked 3rd for its excellent functioning.

Source : The Global Competitiveness Report 2008-2009 © 2008 World Economic Forum

The latest Top500 list for the world's most powerful computers

2009-06-24T10:02:00.000+02:00

HAMBURG, Germany—The 33rd edition of the TOP500 list of the world’s most powerful supercomputers is still led by Roadrunner from IBM and Jaguar from Cray, but shows that two of the top 10 positions are now claimed by new systems in Germany. The latest listing, to be announced Tuesday, June 23, at the 2009 International Supercomputing Conference, also includes a brand-new player, an IBM BlueGene/P system at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, ranked at No. 14.

The fastest computer has a performance of 1105 Teraflops or 1,1 Petaflop, costs about a $ 100 million, it was the first computer to break the Petaflop milestone,
while the slowest on the top500 list has a performance of 17 Teraflops. To put that in perspective, the fastest Personal Computer can run up to 0,07 Teraflops at the moment, so you will have to cluster about 243 such very powerful Personal Computers to reach the Top500.

Source: www.top500.org , www.ibm.com & www.intel.com

New world record by developing a solar cell which converts 25.8% of light energy

2009-01-13T17:04:00.001+01:00

Researchers at Radboud University in Nijmegen have set a new world record by developing a solar cell which converts 25.8% of light energy it receives into electricity, the university says on its website.

The previous record was 24.5%. Normal solar cells use about 15%. The researchers made their cell using a compound called gallium arsenide, rather than silicon.

Source : DutchNews.nl

JAXA Kizuna Broadband Satellite: The fastest Internet, from space

2009-01-02T16:06:00.001+01:00

Kizuna, launched by the Japanese space agency JAXA in February, will deliver to remote areas of Japan and Southeast Asia the fastest satellite Internet connections ever—up to 1.2 gigabits per second, or 500 times the average American consumer connection. Unlike previous satellites, Kizuna is powerful enough to supply industrial-speed signals to small, inexpensive antennas on the ground. Another first: It tracks the weather and adjusts signal strength for specific regions accordingly; for example, it will send a stronger signal to an area where it’s raining in order to penetrate the storm.

Source: Popular Science

Bahrain World Trade Center: The wind-power towers

2009-01-02T16:04:00.003+01:00

The first skyscraper to integrate large-scale wind turbines suspends three 1,200-megawatt units between its matching 787-foot office towers. The turbines, which were completed in April, supply 15 percent of the electricity for the two buildings—roughly the same amount used by 300 homes.
To maximize energy output, the tapered towers funnel wind between them, creating a negative pressure zone behind the buildings that draws more air through the gap. This suction effect increases wind speeds by up to 30 percent at each of the 95-foot-long rotors to boost electricity production. It also redirects wind gusts hitting the tower by up to 45 degrees off center so that they hit the turbines at a nearly perpendicular angle for optimal electricity generation.

Source: Popular Science

Hillman Composite Beam: A super-strong bridge beam

2009-01-02T16:03:00.002+01:00

When John Hillman subjected his bridge beam to load tests, it handled a hydraulic press’s 145 tons of maximum force with ease. The Hillman Composite Beam (a winner of our 2008 Invention Awards) weighs one third as much as concrete competitors—saving 20 percent on shipping and installation costs—and can hold 50 percent more weight. The beam gets its strength from within. A concrete arch supports the weight above it, and a steel plate running lengthwise prevents the arch from collapsing. A plastic shell wards off corrosion. The first bridge built with the beams opened in August in Illinois. Next up: a 540-foot bridge in Maine, and licensing deals in Canada and Europe.

Source: Popular Science

Serious Materials EcoRock: The cleanest walls

2009-01-02T16:01:00.002+01:00

Drywall, plasterboard, wallboard—whatever you call it, the substance that covers billions of square feet of American homes hasn’t changed since its invention in 1917. Drywall factories still roast ground-up gypsum rock in 500°F kilns, spewing out 20 billion pounds of greenhouse gases a year. So Serious Materials created EcoRock: a drywall that congeals without heat, uses recycled materials that don’t require mining, and holds up even better.
The company’s chemists tested 5,000 recipes before they came up with EcoRock’s stew of 20 materials. The fly ash, slag, kiln dust and fillers—85 percent of which are industrial by-products—react chemically when mixed with water and bind together into a paste that’s poured into sheets. The oven-free process uses just 20 percent of the energy of the typical method. And without the starch and cellulose that’s mixed into ordinary gypsum boards, EcoRock is impervious to termites and mold. It costs about the same as high-end drywall, so it may find a home in houses both green and mainstream.

Source : Popular Science

Icon A5: A seaplane for beginners

2009-01-02T15:58:00.002+01:00

Intended for novice fliers who have received the FAA’s new, more accessible sport-pilot license, the A5 is a low-cost, seaworthy, easy-to-fly, easy-to-store aircraft that aims to bring personal flight to the masses. This sleek floatplane has folding wings that make it compact enough to tow home and stow in your garage. To make it simple for even the greenest pilots to fly, the A5 uses a sports-car-like instrument panel with GPS navigation and minimal instrumentation. The 100-horsepower engine can run on unleaded gas, so it can refuel at most marinas. The plane took its first flight in July, and Icon expects to begin delivering them to customers by late 2010.

Source : Popular Science

Large Binocular Telescope: The farthest-seeing telescope ever built

2009-01-02T15:56:00.002+01:00

With 10 times the light-collecting power of Hubble, the world’s highest-resolution optical telescope exposed its twin 27.6-foot mirrors for the first time last January. Those mirrors, made of a compound called borosilicate that collects more light in less space than previous materials, should allow the scope to see planets orbiting distant stars.

Source : Popular Science

NASA Mars Lander: Life on Mars within reach

2009-01-02T15:54:00.001+01:00

Aside from actual living things, the ultimate find for planetary science is the stuff that makes life possible: water. That’s exactly what NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander found in July, when its scooping device uncovered clumps of ice buried just beneath the surface of the Martian arctic plain. Guided by a team of scientists at the University of Arizona, the Lockheed Martin–built spacecraft has been up there since May, gathering soil samples using its robotic arm and capturing the highest-resolution images of another planet ever taken. Phoenix analyzes Martian soil and ice samples using the most advanced onboard microscopes, electro-chemistry analyzers, high-temperature furnaces, and mass spectrometers ever sent to another planet, breaking down the raw material of the Red Planet into its most basic components. The lander stores that data on a one-terabyte solid-state hard drive and then beams it—along with meteorological data captured by its weather-monitoring tools—back to Earth. But all things must pass: Any day now, as the Martian winter brings on months of nonstop darkness, the solar-powered lander will shut down, most likely for good.

Source: Popular Science

GluBam Construction: The sustainable bridge

2009-01-02T15:51:00.002+01:00

The bridge Yan Xiao built in Leiyang with GluBam was the town’s first. Each beam that spans the brick columns was created using Xiao’s novel process of transforming irregular bamboo into a practical building material. First he tore strips of bamboo from the stalk and arranged them in such a way as to provide the most strength. He then coated the strips with glue and compressed them in a self-built hydraulic press into beams, 33 feet long and up to three feet wide, each capable of supporting eight tons. Xiao says that the beams cost just 20 percent as much as imported lumber. Better still, rural China has a constantly replenishing supply of bamboo.

Source: Popular Science

Laser Surface Authentication System: Knocks off knockoffs

2009-01-02T15:48:00.001+01:00

Despite our niftiest holograms and watermarks, counterfeiters still manage to sneak billions of dollars of fake goods onto store shelves. Instead of slapping on authenticity seals, which can be copied, Ingenia Technology’s anti-counterfeit scanner reads the nanoscopic variations that occur naturally on the surface of every object, from documents to a perfume bottle, and no two are ever the same. To do this, laser light strikes the object, and detectors measure the random scattering of photons that bounce back. The system still recognizes the original nanostructures on a sheet of paper even after it has been baked, soaked, scrubbed, crumpled, and scribbled on with a pen.

Source : Popular Science

Kajima Demolition Tech: Destroying one floor at a time

2009-01-02T15:15:00.001+01:00

In congested cities like Tokyo, there’s barely room to swing a wrecking ball, and neighbors hate the caustic dust that implosions kick up. So the Japanese construction company Kajima developed a tidier technique, which it first used this past spring to take down a 17-story and a 20-story office tower: Knock out the ground floor, lower the building on computer-controlled hydraulic jacks, and repeat. Keeping deconstruction on the ground is safer for workers, and the orderly disassembly makes it easier to contain asbestos and other toxic materials. Kajima recycled 99 percent of the steel and concrete and 92 percent of the interior materials—55 percent is standard—and cut demolition time by a fifth.

Source : Popular Science

Hubble Telescope is back in business

2008-10-31T10:35:00.000+01:00

The Hubble Space Telescope is back in business after a month of problems, but preparing spare equipment to keep the orbital observatory running will force NASA to delay its final servicing mission beyond February, officials said on Thursday

The agency released an image taken by the telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera showing a pair of gravitationally locked galaxies, located more than 400 million light years away in the constellation Cetus.

The picture was the first taken by Hubble since a computer problem shut down science operations in September.

During the attempt to switch over to a backup system earlier this month, a problem with another computer again shut down the observatory.

But engineers were finally able to sort out the glitches this week, allowing astronomers to train Hubble's eye on the pair of galaxies known as Arp 147, which remain gravitationally interacting long after a suspected collision between the two.

Hubble's problems prompted NASA to delay the October launch of space shuttle Atlantis and seven astronauts on a final house call to upgrade Hubble.

The mission had been rescheduled for February, but NASA said Thursday replacement equipment won't be ready in time to make that date.

Because it orbits outside the Earth's atmosphere, Hubble's cameras can take extremely sharp images.

NASA at one point was planning to abandon the telescope, which is hugely popular among astronomers. But the U.S. space agency relented after a public outcry.

In 2013, the James Webb Space Telescope is scheduled to replace Hubble.

Source : Reuters

Hooray for the engineers who managed to sort this problem out

Sony recalls PC Batteries

2008-10-31T10:28:00.002+01:00

Sony Corp said five PC makers including Hewlett-Packard Co and Toshiba Corp will recall 100,000 computer battery packs made by the Japanese electronics maker due to a fire hazard.

Sony said the recall is expected to have limited impact on its earnings, and its shares outperformed a falling Tokyo stock market on Friday.

The recall is a fraction of a much bigger recall of 9.6 million Sony PC batteries in 2006, which cost the company around 35.5 billion yen ($360 million).

The U.S. government issued on Thursday a recall of 35,000 Sony batteries and the Tokyo-based company said it would recall a further 65,000 batteries worldwide.

PC makers have reported 40 cases of overheating, including four cases where users suffered minor burns, and 21 cases of minor damage from fires and overheating, a Sony spokeswoman said.

The recall affects around 74,000 notebook PCs sold by HP and 14,400 from Toshiba.

The faulty batteries are also used in laptop PCs from Dell Inc, Acer Inc and Lenovo Group Ltd, Sony said.

Sony blamed the faulty batteries on factory changes dating back up to four years, which it believes may have affected the quality of some battery cells.

Other incidents of overheating may have involved a problem with raw materials, the company said.

Sony recalled last month 438,000 of its Vaio laptops due to concerns about overheating batteries.

Source : Reuters

Hats off to Sony for having made this decision

Annual study by Consumer Reports shows Japanese cars lead

2008-10-24T14:42:00.000+02:00

An annual study, besides its influence with car shoppers, is used by major automakers as a proxy for their performance in improving and maintaining vehicle quality.

Japanese cars were the most reliable overall, leading 15 of 16 categories in its ratings, the study said.

Source: Reuters

Dell Factory Tour(Courtesy of Dell on YouTube)

2008-10-10T15:45:00.000+02:00

Inside UPS(Courtesy of National Geographic Channel on Youtube)

2008-10-10T15:42:00.001+02:00

World's soundest Bank System

2008-10-10T14:59:00.001+02:00

According to an article published by Reuters- Canada has the world's soundest banking system, closely followed by Sweden, Luxembourg and Australia, a survey by the World Economic Forum has found as financial crisis and bank failures shake world markets.

Netherlands ranks 6th and South Africa 15th.

Source: Reuters

Undergraduate Worldwide University rankings

2008-10-10T14:38:00.003+02:00

This week marks an important point in the calendar for the leading global universities with the publication of the latest THE/QS World University Rankings. In only four years, the rankings have established themselves as an accepted benchmark of quality. Thursday’s publication in Times Higher Education and subsequently on this website will be scrutinised by students, employers and academics on every continent.

http://www.topuniversities.com/worlduniversityrankings/

Harvard keeps the top spot, followed by Yale, Cambridge and Oxford.

The top Dutch university that appears in the top 200 is the University of Amsterdam, followed by Leiden University and the University of Utrecht.

Latest Global Fortune 500 list

2008-07-22T18:01:00.003+02:00

The latest Global Fortune 500 list shows that the company with the highest Nett profit as percentage of revenue, Akzo Nobel reached 69.1%. They also had the highest percentage of Return on Assets, 45.4%.

In terms of absolute value of Nett Profit, Exxon Mobil kept the #1 position, with a value of USD 40.6 billion.