Design & manufacturing
- Design & manufacturing
- Opinion
- Issue 64
Design and technology- averting a crisis
Design and Technology (D&T) lessons give students practical experience of applying technological solutions to solve problems. Richard Green, Chief Executive of the Design and Technology Association, argues that changes to school league table assessment criteria are damaging the supply line of future engineers.
Quick read
- Mechanical
- Design & manufacturing
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 67
Designing and manufacturing world-class engines
Jaguar Land Rover has designed and built from scratch a world-class engine family with the creation of a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility in the UK.
- Sports & leisure
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 98
An engineered adventure
Children's play areas can be interactive, multisensory experiences, designed by engineers, architects and designers to develop key skills. Neil Cumins spoke to Spencer Luckey, the creator of Climbit – an interactive obstacle course spanning four storeys at the heart of Belfast’s W5 science centre.
Quick read
- Design & manufacturing
- Materials
- How does that work?
- Issue 98
How does steelmaking work?
Today, about 1.9 billion metric tonnes of steel are made every year, with China, India and Japan leading the world’s production. Leonie Mercedes examines how we get from iron ore to the steel that makes up our world.
- Design & manufacturing
- Materials
- Issue 98
Greening the UK’s steel industry
Steel has made modern life as we know it possible, but it needs to clean up its act. Leonie Mercedes investigates how engineers are working to decarbonise this important global industry.
- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- Innovation Watch
The manual washing machine for low-income communities
UK-based social enterprise The Washing Machine Project has developed a manual washing machine designed to help people in displaced and off-grid communities do their laundry.
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- Design & manufacturing
- Health & medical
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 95
Making prosthetics without compromise
Prosthetics for upper limb differences often involve a choice between something user-friendly and affordable, or aesthetically pleasing. University of Strathclyde-based startup Metacarpal is trying to bring all three elements together with a new body-powered prosthetic hand.
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- Design & manufacturing
- Environment & sustainability
- Profiles
Q&A: Deborah Meaden
Ahead of this year’s National Engineering Day, green Dragon, Deborah Meaden emerged from the Dragon’s Den to share a few secrets of success with Ingenia.
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- Aerospace
- Design & manufacturing
- Technology & robotics
- Innovation Watch
How AI can help 3D print perfect plane parts
Finding and correcting 3D printing errors is especially tough in the aerospace sector: a part with even a 300-micron defect could be catastrophic.
Quick read
- Design & manufacturing
- How I got here
- Issue 95
Q&A: Laura Tuck
After a stint designing products now sold worldwide for Dyson, design engineer Laura Tuck has been working to empower women worldwide at several startups.
- Design & manufacturing
- Environment & sustainability
- Issue 95
Turning jeans green
The engineering behind the trusty wardrobe staple, and how new technologies are attempting to lessen their well-documented environmental burden.
- Design & manufacturing
- Chemical
- Environment & sustainability
- Materials
- Innovation Watch
Kicking single-use plastics to the curb
This spider-silk inspired plastic alternative produces no plastic alternatives – unlike existing "compostable" plastics.
- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- Transport
- Issue 94
How crashing cars can help us make them safer
When your day job sometimes involves totalling a £100k car in the name of keeping passengers safe.
- Design & manufacturing
- Opinion
- Issue 94
How lessons from COVID-19 could speed up UK tech development
Ian Quest and Dick Elsy CBE FREng reflect on how we can take the learnings from the Ventilator Challenge UK to wider technology development in the UK.
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- Design & manufacturing
- How I got here
Q&A: Nabilah Thagia
Nabilah Thagia is an engineering undergraduate at Dyson and was recently awarded Engineering Apprentice of the Year at the Engineering Talent Awards.
- Materials
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 92
From tree to toilet: engineering loo roll
It takes complex technology to turn trees into toilet rolls. Dr Anna Ploszajski unravels the engineering behind and production of one of life’s essentials.
- Design & manufacturing
- Arts & culture
- Technology & robotics
- Issue 92
The technologies that recreate historic artworks
Did you know Churchill's wife once set a portrait of him on fire because he hated it so much? Factum Arte used modern technology to recreate it, so it lives to see another day – sorry Clementine.
- Design & manufacturing
- Environment & sustainability
- Issue 91
Breathing new life into wind turbine blades
For years, the world’s blade-makers have been looking to save composite decommissioned blades from landfill but significant progress has been made in the breakthrough development of RecyclableBlades, which has found a way to repurpose retired blades.
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 91
Metamaterials, metalenses and beyond
Manufacturing techniques borrowed from the semiconductor industry are now being used to make ultrathin ‘metalenses’, which could slim down cameras still further, and even allow handheld devices to sense all kinds of things beyond the visible spectrum.
Quick read
- Design & manufacturing
- Aerospace
- How I got here
- Issue 90
Q&A: Kate Todd-Davis
Apprentice Kate Todd-Davis followed her passion for aerospace and automotive engineering to Rolls-Royce – and gained a degree in manufacturing technology from the University of Sheffield along the way.
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- Design & manufacturing
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 90
The afro hair comb inspired by printing
Swansea-based engineer Dr Youmna Mouhamad is using her R&D experience to invent a hair comb designed to make looking after textured hair easier and less painful.
Quick read
- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 89
Machining titanium components
Titanium has a high tensile strength and is light in weight but notoriously difficult to work with. Ed Mason has developed a way to machine the metal and has built a reputation for producing high-end custom-made parts for titanium bicycles.
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- Health & medical
- Design & manufacturing
- How does that work?
- Issue 87
Lateral flow tests
During the pandemic, millions of people took lateral flow tests every week to detect COVID-19, enabling them to get a result in just 15 minutes.
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- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- How I got here
- Issue 86
Q&A: Felicity Milton
Felicity Milton is a mechanical engineer and Senior Manager, Strategy and Innovation at adidas, where she is responsible for digital strategy and business model innovation.
- Design & manufacturing
- Profiles
- Issue 86
Facing engineering’s ultimate challenge
Dr Luisa Freitas dos Santos FREng – with teams to manage in Singapore, the UK and the US – was one of the first people in the UK to experience how the pandemic would affect engineering operations
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- Design & manufacturing
- Sports & leisure
- How does that work?
- Issue 85
Electric hairdryers
Invented in the 1920s, the electric hairdryer is an everyday household object that has changed significantly over the past century – and is likely to continue developing as technology evolves.
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- Design & manufacturing
- Civil & structural
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 83
Another brick in the wall
With natural resources running low, Scottish engineers have created a brick that uses more than 90% recycled building materials.
- Arts & culture
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 82
From brass to recyclable plastic - the reinvention of musical instruments
The brightly coloured trombones made of recyclable ABS plastic, pBone, weighs less than a kilogram and costs a tenth of its metal cousin. It's driven a demand for a range of polymer-made instruments, including a trumpet.
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- Food & agriculture
- Design & manufacturing
- How I got here
- Issue 81
Q&A: Mamta Singhal
Mamta Singhal is a Commercialisation Manager for Coca-Cola European Partners, GB Supply Chain. Before this, she worked for two large toy manufacturers as a design engineer with Hasbro and as a project quality engineer for Mattel.
- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- Issue 79
A centre fit for future transport
As focus in the automotive industry turns to vehicles that are greener, safer and smarter, a new centre at the University of Warwick – a collaboration between WMG, Jaguar Land Rover and Tata Motors European Technical Centre – is addressing the challenges that are posed by their development.
- Electricals & electronics
- Design & manufacturing
- Profiles
- Issue 79
Driven to an electrifying future
From apprentice to Executive Director of Product Engineering at Jaguar Land Rover, Nick Rogers FREng takes a special interest in young engineers. His career has included managing the transition to electric vehicles while simultaneously developing new car models.
- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- Issue 79
Wheelchairs that access all areas
Surprised by how little change there had been in wheelchair development over the years, former toolmaker Mike Spindle challenged himself to design and build a high-tech, lightweight wheelchair that could be created bespoke for each user.
- Design & manufacturing
- Opinion
- Issue 78
Is engineering productive?
Professor Will Stewart FREng argues that engineers also have a part to play in promoting engineering’s role in greater productivity, as the way in which productivity is measured in the UK does not account for advances in engineering and what these have added to GDP.
- Design & manufacturing
- Energy
- Issue 77
Warm response to fluid dynamics
Technology that makes racing cars go faster is now saving energy in supermarkets and reducing the ‘frozen aisle’ effect often found near the chiller cabinets. An established engineering company and a startup business worked together to bring this new engineering to the market.
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 76
Tailor-made inventions
Engineers can design and create equipment to help disabled people live more independently. UK charity Remap matches up volunteer engineers with disabled people who need bespoke solutions. Three engineers spoke about what attracted them to the charity and how their innovations had made a difference.
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 75
3D printing with a bite
Dentistry is a new frontier for the application of additive manufacturing or 3D printing. The technology is able to produce components with complex geometry, such as those evident in dental frameworks. Find out how it was introduced in the traditional, artisan-based industry of dental laboratories.
- Design & manufacturing
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 75
A tough lock to break
A successful online Kickstarter campaign helped to launch an award-winning, lightweight cycle lock that is now sold in over 70 countries and is the only bike lock on the market that closes without a key.
- Design & manufacturing
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 74
A more convenient way to camp
In 2004, a small British manufacturer produced a tent that weighed less than a kilogram. Since then, Terra Nova Equipment has continued to push camping technology boundaries, holding the world record for producing a 500-gram tent – the lightest that is commercially available.
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 74
Measure to make better
Metrology, the science and technology behind measuring things, underpins all manufacturing. To keep up with the rapid rate of production process development, engineers have developed new techniques, backed up by mathematical analysis and artificial intelligence.
- Design & manufacturing
- Environment & sustainability
- Issue 70
Future-proofing the next generation of wind turbine blades
Before deploying new equipment in an offshore environment, testing is vital and can reduce the time and cost of manufacturing longer blades. Replicating the harsh conditions within the confines of a test hall requires access to specialist, purpose-built facilities.
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 69
Research with impact
The UK invests billions of pounds of public money each year in engineering research and development through universities. Professor Philip Nelson FREng, Chief Executive of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), discusses the influence of this research.
- Health & medical
- Design & manufacturing
- Issue 68
Intelligent prosthetics
Prosthetic limbs can help many amputees regain independence and mobility. The Linx limb system, winner of the 2016 MacRobert Award, developed by Blatchford, has smart robotics that constantly monitor and adapt to movement, making walking and movement more natural for lower-leg amputees.
- Design & manufacturing
- Opinion
- Issue 66
Steel can arise from the ashes of coal
Thousands of people were laid off in the UK steel industry in 2015 and there are pessimistic future forecasts. Professor Sridhar Seetharaman of the Warwick Manufacturing Group argues that smaller, flexible steel mills implementing new technology would better cope with fluctuating global trends.
- Design & manufacturing
- Profiles
- Issue 66
Integrating metrology in business and academe
Professor Jane Jiang’s interest in measuring began when she worked on a bus production line in China. She found that the best way to improve quality, consistency and productivity was through metrology, the science of measurement. Today, she runs the UK’s largest metrology research group.
- Design & manufacturing
- Mechanical
- Profiles
- Issue 63
R&D investment makes good business sense
In just five years, Dr Ralf Speth FREng has presided over a revolution in design and manufacturing that has helped create a new family of engines and has overhauled Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) production facilities.
Quick read
- Design & manufacturing
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 62
Super cool(er)
Welsh startup Sure Chill has developed a cooler that uses the properties of water to keep its contents cool for around 10 days without electricity. This is ideal for storing items such as vaccines where electricity sources are unreliable.