Product News

‘There’s Brass in Muck’

This expression has never been more apt as more companies are realising that there really is hidden value in wastes. Recovering solids or liquids from your waste stream is no longer the domain of the “environmental greenies’ – it actually makes a great deal of financial sense! By assessing the opportunities within your processes to recover valuable solids and liquids, not only can it lead to major cost reductions in chemical and water usage, it can significantly reduce your overall waste disposal costs. Quarries, mines, concrete products, metal processing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, beverage production and a host of other industries have the potential to better manage their wastewater to protect the environment and reduce operating costs. However, selecting the right dewatering equipment for your process can be a complex decision, and depends on several factors, including waste volume, solids content and particle size, chemical composition, ultimate disposal or reuse, and liquid quality. Jonassen Industrial Projects Ltd (JIPL) are experienced Wastewater Treatment engineers and can evaluate the technical issues and costs to determine the optimum sludge dewatering process for your specific needs. Tradewaste Consent limitations and charges offer up a whole raft of challenges to many industrial operations, but the modern versions of one of the oldest dewatering technologies, the filter press, now offers a truly cost effective and highly efficient option for most operations. JIPL has successfully completed a number of wastewater treatment systems utilising quality filter presses, not only solve particular wastewater discharge problems, but also allow for substantial recycling, removal of solids and reductions in chemical treatment to meet Discharge Consent limits. The filter press provides the highest solids contents and the cleanest filtrate of any wastewater treatment system available. A filter press will reduce operating costs by: – Removing solids into solid cakes for re-use, or landfill – Recovering valuable […]

CADCAM gives racing supplier power and precision

‘Power Through Precision’ is the company motto at MBE Cylinder Heads and Manifolds. MBE achieves both precision and power by using Delcam’s PowerSHAPE design software and its PowerMILL machining program. To see how, watch the Delcam TV video on https://www.delcam.tv/delcam-video.asp?VideoId=79. Founded in 1997 by Matt Bieneman, MBE is located in the heart of America’s racing country in Mooresville, North Carolina. Mr. Bienenman created a team of specialists hand-picked from the best in the industry and was equally particular about his selection of equipment and software. The resulting levels of quality and technical innovation have made MBE a trusted choice for leading race teams and engine builders throughout the United States, Australia and Canada. Customers include teams from dirt racing and drag racing, as well as competitors in tractor- and truck-pulling events. Just like the race cars, trucks and other custom vehicles he helps build, MBE’s head programmer Mark Olson says what makes the company’s Delcam products winners is their power. “It amazes me what the Delcam programs can do,” he admitted. “I’ve used a lot of programs in my career (which began in 1970) and this is the smartest software that I’ve ever used.” “We do a lot of manual work to develop the shape of the manifold,” explained Mr. Olson. “Once we are happy with the design, we digitize the ports, chambers and whatever else needs to be machined, and we import the data into PowerSHAPE.” “PowerSHAPE has a great, powerful surfacing engine,” said Mr. Olson. “I haven’t yet found anything as good as PowerSHAPE to manipulate surface data into exactly the shapes that I need.” After perfecting the model in PowerSHAPE, Mr. Olson moves his design easily and flawlessly into PowerMILL. The transparent interface between PowerMILL and PowerSHAPE is a big benefit. “You can cut and paste geometry […]

PlanetSolar Superyacht Designed by Kiwi Firm

When a German businessman set his sights on building a solar-powered boat to circumnavigate the globe, he called on Kiwi design company LOMOcean to make it happen. PlanetSolar Auckland-based LOMOcean naval architects and yacht designers drew up plans for the radical $NZ36 million PlanetSolar superyacht, which is due to set off on a world-first, solar-powered, global circumnavigation attempt in April 2011. LOMOcean director Craig Loomes didn’t know much about solar-power when his Auckland design company was approached to build a catamaran capable of circling the globe on no more than the sun’s rays. Now he’s well aware of the cutting-edge solar technology that will propel his company LOMOcean’s design around the equator from April next year. LOMOcean started work two years ago on the design of the PlanetSolar superyacht, unveiled in Germany in February. The catamaran’s German owner and French and Swiss skippers say, at 31m long, 15m wide and weighing 75 tonnes, PlanetSolar is the largest solar-powered boat in the world. Construction began in January 2009 at Knierim Yachtbau boatbuilders in Kiel, northern Germany, necessitating more than 100,000 man hours. The catamaran features more than 500sqm of solar panels, but the design was not only about creating the first vessel to circle the globe on solar power. After the circumnavigation challenge, PlanetSolar will be kitted out as a luxury vessel for use as an air-conditioned superyacht capable of hosting 50 guests and sleeping 12. The boat has a price tag of around $NZ36 million. A variety of challenges PlanetSolar presented a variety of challenges for LOMOcean, not least of them creating a boat that was both technologically-advanced and luxurious enough for a second life as a luxury pleasurecraft. LOMOcean is owned by former boat builder-turned-designer Craig Loomes, his wife Kirsty, who is the company’s financial controller, and composite structural […]

High quality plastic welding systems from Techspan

Techspan Group’s is range of high quality plastic welding systems for New Zealand and Australia includes hand-held welders, automatic welders, wedge welders, and extruder welders. Made in Switzerland, the heavy duty welders are designed for optimal performance and reliability under extreme working conditions. A number of technically advanced innovative features are incorporated into the welders, including ultra-reliable plug-in ceramic heating elements and very high performance materials, in a fully self-contained ergonomic design. Geomembrane welders For welding geomembranes in the field, the Techspan Comon wedge welder uses two knurled pressure rollers and a patented ceramic heating ‘wedge’ to produce two continuous welds, each 15mm wide, with a central 15mm un-welded test channel. PVC materials can also be welded, without the necessity to change the wedge. The Techspan Mion is a compact and lightweight wedge welder. It is believed to be the most compact wedge welder in the world, and is designed for vertical and overhead welding of tunnel liners. The Techspan Mion also features two knurled pressure rollers to produce two continuous 15mm welds with a central test channel. The Mion also incorporates a patented ceramic wedge to enable different geomembranes to be welded without changing the wedge. Hand-held plastic welders Techspan “hand-held” plastic welding tools are designed for fabrication and repair of rigid plastics up to 8mm thick and thermoplastic fabrics and liners. The integrated precision electronic temperature control allows virtually all types of thermoplastics to be welded. Extruder welders Extruder welders, with welding capacities up to 6kg/hr are used for welding geomembranes for landfills and reservoirs and also for welding rigid plastics over 8mm thick. Extruder welding shoes are interchangeable for fillet, V, X, and overlap welds. They are designed for welding PE and PP, and several models will also weld PVDF and PVC materials, without changing the plasticising […]

Super clear cordless work light enhances maintenance safety

Clear and reliable portable light is essential to safety and precision in confined spaces. Inside pipes, tanks, pressure vessels and silos, the last thing any maintenance worker needs is bulb or battery failure. GO Distribution has introduced rugged portable LED worklights designed to provide 10 years or more of optimum clarity and reliability, or 50,000 hours of outstanding illumination. The cordless Hemipro high power worklights incorporate the first use of high power LEDs in work lights originally designed for the professional automotive repair market, making them ideal also for use in a broad range of resources, industrial, construction, energy, engineering, water, waste water and safety tasks. Using either two or three High Power LEDS, the Hemipro 2 LED and 3 LED work lights provide exceptionally powerful beams which, respectively, equal or exceed the light area intensity of a 60W or 75W beam. What really sets the Hemipro lights apart, however, is the uniquely engineered hemispherical lens design, which refracts the LEDs into an exceptionally clean, bright and wide beam. The highly modified lens design captures and transfers the powerful LED light into a super-wide 70 deg beam, while also eliminating hot spots, dull areas or irritating halo rings. Designed to provide high performance for 10 years or more of normal use, Hemipro incorporates a super strong NiMH 2500 milliAmp hour battery with a life expectancy of three years under normal use. It can be used up to five hours between charges. The 3 LED is good for three hours between charges. Both feature non-slip grip and shockproof housing. Further enhancing service life, the battery, lens shield and 360¡ swivel hook can be replaced. Designed by the international Cliplight Manufacturing Company, which is now in its fourth decade of producing top quality worklights, HEMIPRO complements an innovative range of HVAC products […]

Developing sustainable products more efficiently

Product development can – and should – benefit from the same efficiency and productivity gains that we see in manufacturing and production. The product development process is often very wasteful and expensive, complex and multi-faceted, and information does not flow in one direction, but goes back and forward many times. How then, can you apply the Lean approach to business, which has traditionally been used for manufacturing, to product development? The key is to recognise that product development is not really that unique – it is still a business process with inputs and outputs and adding value is a key objective. Not only does Lean thinking help to identify and minimise waste, the resulting efficiency and quality improvements should be more than noticeable. Eliminate waste There is usually a lot of ‘waste’ in the product development, it is just not always as visible as in manufacturing processes or we’ve conditioned ourselves to accept it. By applying Lean, companies can reduce the waste of unnecessary errors, redoing work, doing too much work and endless waiting. The trick is to take a pre-emptive approach rather than a reactionary one. Preventing product failures at the beginning and then at every step of the design process means you do not have to fix them later. Maintaining a comprehensive database of product failures ‘in the field’ and analysing them to find the root causes will prevent future mistakes. It is a mistake to assume that product failure is always the fault of the manufacturing process: what if the design is faulty? But eliminating waste in design, the beginning of the process, makes the manufacturing process much easier and cheaper. If you build in ‘error proofing’ and quality into every step of the design process, you avoid passing on defects. More speed, less time and effort […]

SEW Great News

Patented innovation for installation & maintenance teams from SEW (say it like BMW). The TorqLOC mounting system is quick, robust, and simple and tolerance forgiving, PLUS has built-in long term cost and labour saving advantages. Innovative connection system for hollow shaft mounted gear units. Great news for installation and maintenance teams is this timely reminder from SEW-Eurodrive. The patented TorqLOC hollow shaft mounting system available ex-stock from both SEW’s Auckland and Christchurch plants. Designed to allow mounting on to standard bright steel shafting without the necessity of machining or cutting keyways, TorqLOC provides an easy method of assembly and disassembly to machinery. The TorqLOC keyless coupling system is quick, robust, simple and tolerance forgiving and has built-in long term cost and labour saving advantages. TorqLOC can be used for mounting helical, helical-bevel and helical-worm geared motors and gear units. TorqLOC is a huge breakthrough for drives operating in wet and wash-down environments, providing dramatic improvements in drive removal, even after lengthy periods of operation. Cost reductions: The conical bushings at both ends of the TorqLOC hollow shaft, allow a diameter tolerance of the customers shaft of up to 0.19mm. This makes possible the use of plain drawn bar stock to a machining quality level of just H11 (previous requirement H6). This reduces both the processing costs of the input shaft and manufacturing costs for the installation. Quick, simple assembly and disassembly. Customers no longer have to overcome tight fitting tolerances. Disassembly has been improved even more with the use of slotted clamping bushes. The sum total of faster assembly and reduced maintenance work and reduced downtime, adds up to real cost savings. Available ex-stock for gear sizes from 37 to 107 the TorqLOC system is suitable for most drive applications up to 8.0kNm of driving torque. nextSTEP Phone SEW-Eurodrive (NZ) […]