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Following ongoing enquiries, the British Compressed Air Society (BCAS) is reiterating its advice to compressed air users to adhere to air treatment best practice during the Coronavirus pandemic.

Early in the pandemic there were claims that compressed air may be a potential source of Coronavirus COVID-19, requiring the installation of sterile air filters (or more frequent filter sterilisations and element changes) to prevent the contamination of food, beverage or pharmaceutical products. 

At this time, BCAS issued a statement of guidance quoting the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) position that Coronavirus COVID-19 was not an airborne virus. 

Industrial image processing, specifically the analysis of moving objects under demanding environmental conditions, develops as one of the most important factors in automation.

“Vision systems” are the future, in particular in the areas of robotics, traffic control, transport safety, logistics, local traffic and in-line quality control. Video data provides important information for automated actions within numerous further application fields. 

The performance of the hardware used is decisive for all applications. With the new series AVA-5500 AI platform, the German distributor Acceed has incorporated a range of high-performance, robust and fanless industrial controllers, based on Nvidia Quadro GPUs, into its portfolio.

A new mobile tool - SKF Bearing Assist app, simplifies the process of mounting and installing bearings and can be used by everyone in a maintenance organisation.

SKF has developed a new mobile app that simplifies the task of mounting and replacing bearings. SKF Bearing Assist app, developed together with customers, provides detailed mounting instructions for a comprehensive range of SKF bearings. It is suitable for use by all engineering and maintenance teams and will minimise the problems of incorrect mounting, reducing installation time and cost, and helping to extend the operating life of bearings.

With hygiene and cleanliness at the forefront of everyone’s minds, ROCOL is pleased to announce new versatile a QUICK & CLEAN cleaning wipes, designed to clean hands, surfaces and tooling when access to water is difficult.

The alcohol-based formula of the QUICK AND CLEAN wipes makes them ideal for use on hands and non-porous surfaces. The wipes help to maintain cleanliness and hygiene by effectively removing oil, greases, paint, silicones, adhesives, sealants, bitumen, and ink. 

Climate change is a leading concern for the British public. A recent YouGov poll found the environment is the third most important issue in the UK, ahead of both crime and the economy.

This statistic underscores calls from the Manufacturing Technologies Association (MTA) for the UK to go green. Not only would this help protect our planet for future generations, but the MTA estimates a green revolution would also create up to a million jobs for the British manufacturing industry.

We’re used to having data easily accessible and at our fingertips 24/7. From weather forecasts to sport scores, instant connectivity and easily available data ensure we can be proactive as well as reactive.

Ease of data availability in Construction workplaces should be no different, especially when that data is a vital component of site safety and compliance. World-leading environmental monitoring manufacturer Casella is supporting environmental consultants and managers within the construction and demolition sectors with a new initiative to make environmental data more accessible. 

The Gas Safety Trust (GST) today (24 August 2020) launched its 2020 call for grants.

Applications are invited from researchers and academics related to prevention and better understanding of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. Since 2013 GST has awarded almost £3 million to a range of gas safety programmes and projects.

The Trust, set up in 2005, is the UK’s principal CO research charity and has in recent years refocused its strategy on funding several strands of CO related research, to provide the underpinning empirical evidence that supports improved awareness and understanding of the effects of CO.

With fleets of vessels and aircraft forced into cold lay-ups and grounded due to the COVID-19 crisis, companies need to consider the risk of long-term damage due to uncontrolled humidity levels.

With the pandemic having a marked effect on demand for non-commercial shipping and flights, more aircraft and vessels than ever are being grounded or moored for cost-effective preservation. However, without an adequate moisture control strategy to protect their critical components, electrical technology and structures, the condition of these vehicles could soon deteriorate, according to Aggreko.

Field service technicians can benefit from a new app that calculates the liquid level in fire extinguishers. Using knowledge of the fill weight, the app indicates the fill level of liquid CO2 in the cylinder so that technicians can easily locate the exact liquid/gas boundary using a level checking device.

The level checking device could be a temperature sensing strip for example or an ultrasonic liquid level indicator like the Link Instruments’ ULLC2001.

MSC Industrial Supply Co. (MSC) is supporting autonomous manufacturing disruptor CloudNC in its objective to revolutionise the subcontracting market. 

MSC has been appointed by CloudNC on a two-year contract covering vending solutions across metalworking and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) categories. MSC will also provide engineering support to identify and deliver cost down efficiencies for CloudNC. 

Founded in 2015, CloudNC is on a mission to transform subcontract manufacturing activities. The UK-based precision engineering firm has introduced a pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) approach to manufacturing, using highly advanced CNC programming capabilities.