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As the world’s leading trade fair for electronics development and production, Productronica is making a welcome return since the start of the pandemic. Altus group, a leading distributor of capital equipment, is ready to support their principals and reconnect with the industry when they attend their first exhibition since the Coronavirus hit.

Taking place in Munich, Germany from 16-19 November 2021, the team at Altus are looking forward to meeting with customers face-to-face and presenting the newest equipment on the market.

Saietta Group Ltd is a UK based research and development company which designs motors for light-weight electric vehicle (EV) propulsion. The company’s latest innovation is the ‘S-AC’ which is an ultra-efficient brushless axial-flux AC motor. It boasts extreme efficiency levels at high torques from low speed onwards.

S-AC is designed for mass manufacture and is optimised for light-weight electric vehicles such as scooters, motorbikes, quadbikes, rickshaws, small cars and marine applications. The primary target market is Asia where Governments are mandating the rapid transition for all forms of transport to electric propulsion to combat chronic pollution.

The unique motor architecture was designed by Saietta’s engineering team, based on Saietta’s DC axial-flux motor, which was originally developed by Cedric Lynch (Saietta’s Chief Scientist) who is internationally recognised as a pioneer in electric motor design. Saietta motors have been used to achieve multiple world-firsts on land, sea and air, including winning the first Isle of Man TT Zero all electric motorcycle race.

Saietta works with vehicle manufacturers to firstly understand in detail the specific motor requirements for individual EV applications and then engineers the S-AC technology to deliver tailored solutions. Saietta also provides engineering and integration consultancy for entire electric drivetrains.  

Saietta’s Applications Engineering team is heavily reliant upon a set of test rigs that it has developed in conjunction with its Oxfordshire neighbour Sensor Technology Ltd.

A lot of Saietta’s work is based on constantly refining and testing motor designs, moving toward an optimum solution for each application field. As engineer Chris Lines explains: “The switch from DC motors to AC means we are able to improve efficiency still further and reduce maintenance requirements because there will be zero brush-wear.”

The test rigs at the heart of Saietta’s development work are based on the principle of running two motors back to back, adding power to counter the losses and measuring efficiency. For this the engineers selected a TorqSense transducer from Sensor Technology, which operates wirelessly so that setting up between test runs is minimal because there is no need to reset delicate slip rings.

 
Unite, the UK’s leading union, which represents tens of thousands of lorry drivers, has warned that the government’s announcement that it intends to relax the cabotage rules will result in misery and exploitation.
 
Under the present rules foreign haulage companies from Europe can send lorry drivers to make just two deliveries before they have to leave the UK. The government intends to change this rule so that European haulage companies can require their drivers to make unlimited collections and deliveries during a two week period.
 
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Poor pay and terrible conditions have forced UK drivers to leave the haulage industry and helped create this crisis.  

"The government now proposes to allow overseas companies to force their drivers to stay in the UK making deliveries for two weeks without guaranteed safeguards like decent accommodation. This will do nothing to address the chronic problems we face. 
 
"Instead of tackling low pay and poor conditions the government is instead sponsoring the exploitation of drivers and the undercutting of terms and conditions on Britain's roads."
 
Due to the way the driving regulations for lorry drivers are currently applied it will be entirely legal for the foreign drivers who are forced to operate in this way to spend the entire fortnight they are in the UK living in their lorry cab.
 
Unite believes that the decision to change the cabotage rules is a direct result of the government’s failure to attract foreign drivers to voluntarily come to work in the UK on a temporary visa scheme. By relaxing the cabotage rules it will be European employers who can force their drivers to operate in the UK.
  
Unite national officer Adrian Jones said: “This is the latest in a long line of panic measures by the government to try to cope with the lorry driver shortage. Yet again they have ignored the long–term solutions of vastly improving pay and conditions needed to resolve the shortages.
 
“The bottom line is that unless European hauliers are prepared to invest in proper accommodation for their drivers they will be forced to live in their cabs for an entire fortnight. This will be a miserable, exhausting existence for them and once again raises safety issues for all UK road users.”

Joblogic and Refcom have collaborated to launch a software module in the UK that ensures F-Gas compliance.  It also makes it simpler and faster for HVAC engineers to comply since they can now input the data directly into a compliant logbook via a mobile app.

Legislation demands that an engineer must track and record any movement of refrigerant gas in an official logbook.  There also needs to be a back-office system that shows all the work completed on equipment.

Says Greg Hill, Principal Consultant at Joblogic: “While it is possible to record work completed on paper-based systems this can be time consuming and lead to errors when a second person inputs the data into the back-office system. With each piece of equipment and all the cylinders having their own logbooks, it can take time to find all the necessary paperwork, discover what needs completing on an asset, do the work and then fill in each of the logbooks with all the correct information.

“Using the Refcom F-Gas Tracking Module, the engineer will know what work they need to do before they arrive to ensure that they have the right tools and equipment to get it right first time.  Having completed the work they simply input the relevant information into the Joblogic Refcom App on their phone or tablet which will then automatically populate the online logbooks and the back-office systems to save time and avoid any errors.”

Further time savings are possible if a company decides to use QR codes to identify individual assets within an HVAC system since the engineer can then simply scan the equipment to find out about its service history and the work that needs doing.  This will also automatically find the form for that asset to make it easier and faster to complete and record the job. With each asset in a system having its own logbook, automating the track and trace system will save hours of time so that the engineer can complete more work.

Says Graeme Fox, Head of Technical for Refcom: “We wanted a software system that would report data straight into the correct forms to ensure compliance.  We also wanted to make the task simpler and faster for our members and take advantage of all the technology that is available to ensure accurate track and trace, such as for example using QR codes.

“It is vital that HVAC engineers are fully compliant with F-Gas legislation and there have been occasions where data has been missed or the logbook has been incorrectly filled in so that a job was not compliant.  This is generally an honest mistake and people may not even realise that they have not met the legislative needs.”

All Refcom members will receive a free user licence for the new software module which includes a back-office reporting system, logbooks and the facility to add the mobile app for an engineer.  This allows an organisation to plan and schedule future maintenance work and customise and produce reports in whatever format they want.

For a free demonstration of the Joblogic Refcom F-Gas tracking and compliance software visit www.joblogic.com/features/fgas-compliance-software/

EMS or Engineering Maintenance Solutions; is a specialist magazine distributed to inform and educate Directors, Managers and Engineers responsible for the Maintenance, Asset Management and Production within Engineering plants.

EMS is a bi-monthly magazine that examines how to improve plant and machinery lifetimes, buildings infrastructure, strategic maintenance management, how to reduce costs and downtime and increase overall equipment effectiveness. All editorial is independently researched and commissioned and written by qualified experts in the field of maintenance & engineering

With a worldwide circulation of 100,000 of Directors, Managers and Engineers responsible for the Maintenance, Asset Management and Production within Engineering plants - EMS is the perfect platform from which to promote your product or service

for more indepth information pleasse follow the link below.

Registration now open for virtual automation event, showcasing cutting-edge innovations, technical education opportunities, and more

Rockwell Automation, Inc. (NYSE: ROK), the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and digital transformation, has announced the opening of registration for its 30^th annual Automation Fair event, to be held virtually, November 10-11, 2021.

The Automation Fair event showcases the newest products, solutions, and services in industrial automation and digital transformation. Virtual attendees can experience innovations firsthand and talk to solution specialists from Rockwell Automation and members of its PartnerNetwork™ companies.