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TECHNOLOGYSPOTLIGHT

Advances in technology across industry

Protecting heritage sites

The village of Olympos, located near the ancient city of Rhodiapolis, in the Antalya region of Turkey, escaped a wild fire, on 2 September 2012. This happened thanks to a network of cameras coupled to an intelligent video-based smoke detection algorithm that raised the alarm. This automatic early warning system is being tested as part of a multi-sensor fire detection network developed by an EU funded project called FIRESENSE. Its aim is to protect ancient heritage sites, such as ancient Olympia in Greece. In the absence of such detection system, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, was only just saved from forest fires, on 26 August 2007, after a three-day fire fight that cost 60 lives.

The automated warning signal generated through the project takes advantage of recent advances in multi-sensor surveillance technologies. It is using wireless sensor networks capable of simultaneously measuring temperature and humidity, collecting information through optical and infrared cameras and local weather stations. Intelligent computer vision and pattern recognition algorithms as well as multi-sensor data fusion techniques automatically analyse the sensor data. Visit: www.youris.com

Feel the Forze

AN astounding 134 teams from universities in 34 countries competed against each other in racing cars they had designed and constructed themselves at the famous Silverstone circuit in last year’s Formula Student Competition. One of the most innovative cars at the starting line was the Forze V from the Delft University of Technology, the lurid coloured racer was green in more ways than one, as it was the only vehicle in the race to be powered by a fuel cell. The hydrogen/electric motive power was made possible by dedicated technology from fluid control specialist Bürkert.

The team had already competed in 2011 with the Forze IV but the new race car needed to be more powerful, faster, lighter and above all, more reliable than its predecessor. Since standard solenoid control valves and controllers from Bürkert were already in use on the car, the decision to contact the fluid technology specialist for fuel cell specific components and technology was a logical next step.

With the exception of the stack, the humidifier, the recirculation pump and the compressor, the rest of the fuel cell technology on the Forze V comes from Bürkert. “Thanks to the Bürkert solutions we were able to double the performance of the fuel cell in the Forze V in comparison with the Forze IV. At the same time, the weight of the vehicle was reduced by about 10% from 312 kg to 280 kg,” Forze team leader Jan Jaap Treurniet explains. “In motor sports, where fractions of seconds make a difference, that is a gigantic step forward.” Visit: www.dmaeuropa.com

Pixy on Track

Rail transport is currently experiencing a tremendous boom. More and more people opt to take the train to save time and money. In addition, trains are an environmentally friendly means of transportation both for passenger and freight traffic. The capacities of the existing transport channels and their carriers can still be expanded considerably with intelligent, networked installations. In the face of increasing passenger numbers and the rise in the transportation of goods by rail, safety and comfort requirements have become more stringent. Pixy AG has addressed this area.

Evolved by a company established in 1988, these robust Swiss products have a firm place in the trains of the world s major rail vehicle manufacturing companies. Today more than 30,000 Pixy displays are in service around the clock all over the world. They are used wherever the need for mobile visualisation and rough industrial environments come together. Whether in the freezing cold or in smouldering heat, users can certainly rely on Screenboards® .

In the range of ETCS Pixy has already enormous experience. On the Level 2 line Rome Naples, witch is frequented with 300km/h, ETCS DMI s from PIXY are put into regular service. Other projects for example are high speed lines in Spain, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, China, Switzerland and Germany. INC-90 belongs to the latest generation. It s a compact low power-display for global application. It’s designed for standard railway applications like ETCS, TCMS, CTCS and especially for digital video applications. Visit: www.pixy.ch

EURO-REPORT

FOCUS ON... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris on more threats to ‘the French way’.

France’s Industry Minister has been left seething after an American tycoon told him what many global business leaders may privately think – that French workers are ‘lazy, overpaid and talk too much’.

Maurice Taylor – chairman of US tyre giant Titan International – issued the slur in a blunt letter to Arnaud Montebourg, explaining why his company would not be buying a Goodyear tyre plant in the northern French town of Amiens that is threatened with closure and the loss of 1170 jobs.

In the letter, which he also sent out to the nation’s newspapers, Mr Taylor told Mr Montebourg: “I have visited the factory several times. The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours.

“They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three hours and work for three. I told the French union workers this to their faces. They told me that’s the French way! Titan is the one with the money and the talent to produce tyres. What does the crazy union have? It has the French government.

“Goodyear tried for over four years to save some of the highest-paid Amiens jobs, but the French unions and the French government did nothing but talk. The French farmer wants cheap tyres. He does not care if the tyres come from India or China and these governments are subsidising them.”

The row erupted after Goodyear said on January 31 that it would be closing its main French plant and cutting its workforce in France by 39 per cent amid labour disputes and plunging car demand in Europe.

A furious Mr Montebourg hit back with his own letter, telling Mr Taylor his comments were ‘extremist and insulting’ and that he knew nothing about France.

But that only prompted Mr Taylor to issue another stinging, and highly public, rebuke in a second letter in which he told the minister his country had ‘beautiful women and fantastic wine’ but ‘no idea how to run a business’.

He wrote: “Your letter shows the extent to which your political class is disconnected from the real world. You call me an extremist, but most businessmen would agree that I would be mad to spend millions buying up a French tyre factory only to pay some of the highest salaries in the world. Your letter did not mention why the French government has not stepped in to rescue this Goodyear tyre factory. The extremists are in your government, who have no idea how to build a business.

“I never said I would lower French salaries. I only said that if I am paying people to do seven hours work, I expect them to do at least six hours.”

Mr Taylor then let rip again on France’s Europe 1 radio a day later, telling the presenter: “Is Montebourg stupid, or what? You want to talk about the Goodyear factory, so why are you talking to me? You should be talking to that imbecile.”

Mr Taylor’s tirades have sparked outrage in France’s socialist media, but they prompted daily paper Le Monde to suggest: “Perhaps he’s right?”

And four years ago, former French finance minister Christine Lagarde – now head of the International Monetary Fund – also branded leisure-loving French workers as ‘lethargic’.

She told French newspapers: “Instead of thinking about their work, people think about their weekends, organising, planning and engineering time off. If you say to a French person, ‘Would you like to be an entrepreneur?’ all they do is run scared.”

International studies on working hours also support claims that the French work the fewest hours of any country on earth.

A report by Swiss bank UBS found the French graft for just 1480 hours a year, with 27 days annual holiday. In contrast, Britons work 1782 hours a year and have 20 days holiday a year.

“I never said I would lower French salaries. I only said that if I am paying people to do seven hours work, I expect them to do at least six hours.”

Factories closing

Just one week after the spat with Mr Taylor, things got even worse for Mr Montebourg when a report published in late February further exposed the extent of the decline of France’s ailing industrial sector, revealing that more than 1000 factories had closed since January 2009.

The study by Paris-based data analyst firm Trendeo found that in 2012 alone, 266 plants with 10 or more employees closed their doors for good, with the loss of 24,000 jobs. That figure represented a 42 per cent increase in the number of closures compared to the previous year.

Trendeo’s David Cousquer said part of the reason for the steep decline was the strength of the euro currency which made French exports very expensive.

Cousquer also pointed out that although most areas of France’s manufacturing industry had been hit, it was the once mighty automobile sector that was suffering most.

Matters are now set to get even worse it seems, with Renault announcing recently that it plans to axe 7500 jobs across France over the next three years, and PSA Peugeot Citroen saying it must cut 8000 jobs as part of a ‘restructuring project’ that includes plans to close down its oldest plant to the north of Paris.

Mr Montebourg tried to persuade PSA Peugeot to reconsider its plans, but eventually even he admitted that the closure of the plant was ultimately ‘unavoidable’ n