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Engineering Industry Developments and Awards
News Release from: Royal Academy of Engineering
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial
Team on 26 May 2004
Four finalists vie for MacRobert Award
The four finalists for the Royal Academy of Engineering's prestigious MacRobert Award this year contain such a wealth of innovation that it is impossible to call the winner.
The four finalists for the Royal Academy of Engineering's prestigious MacRobert Award this year contain such a wealth of innovation that it is impossible to call the winner But in less than three weeks the judging panel must make that decision as HRH the Duke of Edinburgh presents the GBP 50,000 prize at the Academy's Awards Dinner in London on Thursday 10th June
In the running for the 2004 award are Delphi Diesel Systems for the E3 electronic unit injector advanced fuel system.
The E3 will enable diesel engines to meet not only the next European and American emissions standards but also the stringent future emission controls Euro V and US07.
Precise control of fuel injection means reductions in harmful exhaust gases, nitrous oxides and soot plus lower fuel consumption.
Delphi's advances have been made using a two-valve injection system instead of the conventional single valve and it is half the weight of competing products.
The company sold 50,000 units in 2003, mostly to Volvo, and is planning to produce 100,000 systems this year as new customers come on board in the US, Europe and Asia.
IBM UK is in the running for its WebSphere MQ software product set, a little-known yet pioneering middleware IT infrastructure component.
WebSphere MQ software enables applications on any of over 40 separate computer platforms to communicate and handle data transfer seamlessly, enabling businesses to integrate their many IT applications and operate in today's increasingly competitive, 24x7 interconnected world.
WebSphere MQ software saves the expense of custom coding, which was previously the only way to connect such systems.
IBM's endlessly adaptable connection software is used by most of the top global banks (eg.
in providing Internet banking services) and across most industries to ensure that transactions complete without error, even when computers go offline.
Pilkington has been nominated for Pilkington Activ, the world's first self-cleaning glass.
Window-cleaners worldwide will lament the development of this low-maintenance glass but it has the huge environmental benefit of slashing detergent use.
A special coating of microcrystalline titanium dioxide catalyses the breakdown of organic material in sunlight.
The same coating also makes water sheet out all over the surface, so rainwater can just wash away the dirt.
Pilkington has developed a reliable process to apply the coating very precisely when the glass is still at over 650C.
The coating must be only 15nm thick and accurate to within 1nm to avoid distortions in the glass.
The final nominee is Sharp Laboratories of Europe for "Look no glasses!", its electrically switchable 2D-3D displays that can be used in the front line of the "War on Terror".
Airport security staff can now see the realistic 3D images from their X-ray equipment without wearing uncomfortable glasses.
Sharp's technology gave us affordable 3D for the first time last year in the NTT DoCoMo mobile phone - it sold more units in a week than all previous 3D displays combined.
To date, more than 3 million 2D-3D phones have been sold.
The display achieves 3D using the parallax barrier effect to direct discrete images on an LCD screen towards each eye.
The user's brain recombines these images as a 3D picture.
Uniquely, the Parallax Barrier can be switched off leaving a conventional 2D display.
"We have a tough task now to decide which of our fantastic finalists will win the MacRobert Award", says Dr Robin Paul FREng, Chairman of the judging panel.
"We were impressed with the quality of entries this year - these four companies represent the very best of British ingenuity and inventiveness and their early commercial success reflects their vision".
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