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Advances in technology across industry

Robots inspect cables

The bearer cables and tethers of bridges, elevators and cable cars are exposed to high levels of stress. For this reason, their functional reliability must be monitored on a regular basis. A new robot recognises fissures before they pose a danger. Slowly the robot climbs up the wire cable. As it crawls upward with caterpillarlike movements, it scans the steel surface and detects whether it has any defects.

Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing IZFP have named the system FluxCrawler. It is designed to monitor the quality of stay cables and wire ropes on a regular basis. Such cables are common features of bridges, elevators, cranes, cable cars, and ski lifts. And these checks are vital, as the tensioninduced strain, wear and corrosion that affect these steel cables mean that they are under enormous stress. By conducting a magnetic flux leakage test, the robot not only identifies tiny fissures in the cable surface, it also recognises deeper cracks. This process exposes the cable to a magnetic field that is “disrupted” in the event of a defect. A measurable leakage field is created wherever defects are located.

“If such micro-fissures are not discovered in time, the steel can break. This is why material checks are absolutely vital to avoid deadly consequences or even catastrophes,” says Dr Jochen Kurz, an engineer and department head at IZFP in Saarbrücken. Visit: www.fraunhofer.de

New technology for environmentally sustainable syngas production

Dr Harald Ranke, Head of Clean Energy Technology

Intelligent driving

AS part of its ‘Intelligent Drive’ strategy, Mercedes-Benz is set to bring Car-to-X technology to our roads by the end of this year. This will enable the exchange of information between individual vehicles as well as between vehicles and the traffic infrastructure.

Car-to-X technology is able to significantly expand the scope of existing vehicle sensors, such as radar or camera systems for example. It enables motorists to see around corners or beyond obstacles, thereby helping to reduce the blind spots from which existing sensor systems suffer. The technology’s greatest potential lies in this expansion of the telematic horizon.

How does Car-to-X technology work in vehicles? When warning messages are issued in the vicinity of the vehicle, from example by an emergency services vehicle or a broken down vehicle, the driver receives a warning in advance in good time and the hazardous location is marked on the map. With this information he has the option of adjusting his driving style and speed in such a way that a dangerous situation does not even arise in the first place. Thanks to Car-to-X technology, the driver can also be warned at an early stage about wrong-way drivers or dangerous weather conditions. Visit: www.daimler.com BASF, The Linde Group and ThyssenKrupp plan to develop an environmentally friendly and competitive basis for utilising the climate gas carbon dioxide (CO2) on an industrial scale. Together with BASF’s subsidiary hte AG and scientific partners VDEh-Betriebsforschungsinstitut, Düsseldorf, and TU Dortmund University, the companies are developing a two-stage process. In the first step, an innovative high-temperature technology will process natural gas to obtain hydrogen and carbon. Compared to other processes, this technology produces very little CO2. The hydrogen is then reacted with large volumes of CO2, also from other industrial processes, to give syngas.

A mixture of carbon monoxide and hydrogen, syngas is a key raw material for the chemical industry and is also suitable for producing fuels.

“Methane decomposition complements our existing technology portfolio as well as our hydrogen, CO2 and syngas businesses. Compared to standard procedures of hydrogen generation, this new technology stands out for its higher efficiency and for reducing CO2 emissions by half. We figure that customers from both the industrial and the hydrogen mobility sector might benefit from this,” said Dr Harald Ranke, head of Clean Energy Technology at Linde. Visit: www.linde.de

EURO-REPORT

FOCUS ON... France

Ian Sparks reports from Paris on efforts to be more polite to foreigners.

The French have issued a new ‘politeness’ manual to tourist industry workers in a bid to attract higher-spending visitors and persuade the world they are not the rudest people on earth.

France has been the most visited country for every year there are statistics in the World Bank database, welcoming 83 million foreign tourists in 2012. But it has never been top of the list of places where visitors spend the most, lagging behind the US and Spain.

And the new ‘Do you speak Touriste?’ is part of a major new tourist industry drive to make foreigners feel more at ease – and happier to empty their wallets – in a place that repeated international surveys have found is one of the world’s most hostile places for foreign visitors.

France’s socialist government has now vowed to change this, with tourism minister Sylvia Pinel telling reporters this month: “I want to make France number one for spending, and improving France’s ‘welcome’ is part of the plan to create a true tourism policy for the first time.”

Tourists spent €95 billion in the US in 2012, compared to just €41 billion in France, despite the fact that the French welcomed 20 per cent more visitors, Ms Pinel said.

She added: “Tourism accounts for more than seven per cent of of the country’s gross domestic product, which is more than the auto industry. And in a country with 11 per cent unemployment, tourism can be a lever for growth and jobs, both of which France desperately needs.”

Ms Pinel hopes the advice on ‘softening up tourists’ will be followed by bar, restaurant and hotel workers, taxi drivers and those staffing the city’s hundreds of landmarks and attractions.

It states that British visitors like ‘personalised service’ and have breakfast between 7.30am and 8.30am. The Chinese seek out luxury goods and like to be smiled at, while the Americans enjoy quick service and fluency in English. The Spanish try to get things for free and eat dinner at between 9pm and 11pm, according to the guide at the website doyouspeaktouriste.fr

It says the Germans like cleanliness and a handshake, the Belgians prefer budget hotels and Wi-Fi and the Brazilians like physical contact and taxis. The Italians like exploring and welcome attention towards their children, the Japanese are insecure, never complain and bow a lot and the Dutch – like the Spanish – like things for free.

Paris Tourist Board chief Jean-Pierre Blat said: “You don’t welcome a Japanese tourist in the same way as an Italian one. There are codes to take into account, so you have to adapt. If foreigners feel more at ease in bars, restaurants, taxis and visiting our sites and landmarks, they will spend more. It’s common sense.”

Freeze on Mercs

But France’s new policy of courtesy to foreigners may not have the desired effect on the Germans after Paris recently outlawed the sale of thousands of Mercedes cars over parent company Daimler’s use of a refrigerant banned by the European Union.

France has so far halted the import of 4518 A-Class, B-Class and CLA vehicles – 2704 of which have already been sold to waiting customers – because of Daimler’s refusal to stop using the air-conditioning coolant R134a, banned from new vehicles since the start of the year.

The blocked models account for most of the brand’s French business and 2 per cent of global deliveries.

A Brussels administrative court ordered France in July to re-examine its import blockade after Daimler argued that the sales freeze had not followed the correct EU safeguards procedures. But only one day later, France replied that it had no intention of relaxing the sales freeze. Daimler reacted angrily to the announcement, calling it ‘absolutely incomprehensible’ and vowing further legal action.

The dispute centres on a unilateral decision by Germany’s KBA motoring authority to let Daimler continue using R134a – a global warming gas 1400 times more potent than carbon dioxide – because of their own safety concerns about the replacement chemical R1234yf, made by Honeywell and Dupont.

The EU’s ‘mobile air conditioning’ directive has banned R134a in vehicles approved for sale since the start of 2011, but those certified earlier have until 2017 to comply. The auto industry agreed to adopt the Honeywell coolant after extensive testing, but Daimler broke ranks last year and said its own tests had identified unacceptable risks. Both chemicals may ignite when in contact with extremely hot surfaces or engine parts, releasing toxic hydrogen fluoride gas, but the Honeywell coolant can do so at slightly lower temperatures.

German Transport Minister Peter Ramsauer has urged Brussels to let Daimler continue using the banned coolant until the KBA completes further crash-test analysis in coming weeks. However, safeguard procedures allow EU governments to halt sales of the Mercedes cars until Brussels decides whether their KBA certification complies with European law.

Daimler has said it will now return to court to contest the sales freeze on the grounds that the chemical being phased out does not pose a serious environmental threat. The German car giant said in a statement: “With more than three years to go before its elimination, virtually all new and used cars on European roads are equipped with the proven and safe refrigerant R134a. We suspect France may have other motives for blocking the sale of our cars than the safety of this coolant.” n