Mechanical
- Mechanical
- How does that work?
- Issue 99
How do hydraulic presses work?
Whether it's squashing crayons, an anvil or ball bearings, the hydraulic press is governed by a few simple physical principles. Leonie Mercedes explores the engineering behind this enduring viral sensation, and how we can create these obscenely large forces with relatively little input.
Quick read
- Mechanical
- How I got here
- Issue 99
Q&A: Cara Fox, QMUL Formula Student Principal
As team principal of Queen Mary University of London’s Formula Student team, Cara Fox has laid the foundations for an exciting career in motorsport.
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- Opinion
The road to Silverstone: preparing for Formula Student 2024
Cara Fox, Team Principal at Queen Mary University of London’s Formula Student team, writes about the importance of building a diverse team and how she and her teammates are preparing for this year’s competition.
- Mechanical
- Sports & leisure
- Issue 66
What makes an exciting roller coaster?
Alton Towers has a new roller coaster, Galactica, that requires virtual reality headsets and participants experiencing a level of G-force acceleration greater than a rocket launch. Engineers, designers and enthusiasts describe elements of roller coasters and what makes some rides scarier than others.
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.
- Mechanical
- Sports & leisure
- Profiles
- Issue 98
On the fast track to green hydrogen
Dr Caroline Hargrove CBE FREng's career has taken her from pioneering research in computer modelling of particle interactions, into racing car simulators, and onto medical technology and the production of green hydrogen.
- 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.
- Mechanical
- Transport
- Profiles
- Issue 96
Keeping complex systems on track
Kuldeep Gharatya FREng has been a key advocate for systems thinking at TfL – to the advantage of all London Tube users.
- Civil & structural
- Mechanical
- Issue 96
Bridging the Eurasian gap
The world’s longest suspension bridge (for now) spans about 5 km. Just how did they build it, and what was the secret to it being a year ahead of schedule?
- 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.
Quick read
- Transport
- Mechanical
- How I got here
Electrifying trains and STEMAZING outreach
Alex Keeler, a railway overhead line design engineer at Amey, won this year’s Baroness Platt of Writtle Award for the most outstanding incorporated engineering application nationwide.
- Aerospace
- Mechanical
- Profiles
- Issue 92
The helicopter flight fixer
When Philip Dunford FREng started his career, flight test engineers flew alongside pilots. As his career progressed, flying time gave way to developing new aircraft.
Quick read
- Arts & culture
- Mechanical
- Issue 92
Reimagining the zoetrope
An installation from the 2022 Greenwich+Docklands International Festival is a life-sized, vertical zoetrope that uses time-honoured engineering principles to display a stunning three-dimensional short animation.
Quick read
- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- Opinion
Winning Formula Student
In July 2022, the University of Glasgow’s UGRacing team was the overall winner of university motorsports championship, Formula Student. It was the first Scottish team to do so and only the third UK team ever to lift the crown since the competition started in 1998.
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- Health & medical
- Mechanical
- Innovation Watch
Building a portable vaccine fridge for Kenyans in rural areas
In remote and off-grid areas in Kenya, a lack of suitable medical refrigeration solutions has left many children with a gap in their vaccination records. Now, a portable solar-powered fridge, the Vaccibox, can be taken to where it’s needed via bike or boat, and keeps vaccines cold even when there is no electricity supply.
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- Sports & leisure
- Mechanical
- How I got here
Q&A: George Imafidon, electric racing performance engineer
George Imafidon wears many hats. He’s a performance engineer at X44, Sir Lewis Hamilton MBE HonFREng’s electric motorsports team; CEO and Co-Founder of Motivez, improving access to STEM careers; and is on the Hamilton Commission board, investigating the representation of Black people in motorsport.
- Mechanical
- Profiles
- Issue 91
Inventing a communication revolution
Professor Lucy Rogers FREng’s career is not typical of many engineers: starting with engineering bubbles for firefighting, it has taken in television, animated dinosaurs, along with inventions and stand-up comedy.
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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- Mechanical
- How I got here
- Issue 87
Q&A: Josh Oldham
Josh Oldham, an Aston Martin apprentice and student at the University of Warwick, shares his experience in making a video shared by both Aston Martin’s COO and a Minister from the Department of Education and offers insights as to what it’s like to work on the Vantage F1 edition.
- Mechanical
- Issue 87
Tunnelling below trains
An innovative construction technique has been used to create a ‘dive-under’ tunnel beneath the East Coast Main Line railway, creating the world’s longest single underground jacked structure, and the first ever in the UK to be jacked round a curve.
- Mechanical
- Issue 86
All hands to the pumps
When COVID-19 filled hospitals with patients, the UK’s engineering community rose to the challenge. In record time, they created production lines to make ventilators for intensive care units, redesigning equipment, negotiating unfamiliar certification processes, and building supply chains almost overnight.
Quick read
- 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.
- Environment & sustainability
- Mechanical
- Issue 84
Groundbreaking digging
The world’s first electric mini digger showcases a leap towards fossil fuel-free construction machinery. JCB's Chief Innovation and Growth Officer Tim Burnhope FREng and Director of Advanced Engineering Bob Womersley speak about the engineering behind this award-winning achievement.
- Electricals & electronics
- Mechanical
- Issue 83
Replacing the batteries
Electrification of transport, the largest source of CO2, is a key part of the UK's approach to commit to net zero. The UK's Faraday Battery Challenge supports R&D at all stages of the electrification of transport, from new battery technologies through to disposal and recycling.
- Mechanical
- Health & medical
- Issue 83
Responding to a global pandemic with ventilators and PPE
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Rachel Jones highlights examples around ventilators and PPE to showcase the different ways the engineering community has responded to the crisis.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mechanical
- Sports & leisure
- Profiles
- Issue 74
A formula for success
Over the past 30 years, Paddy Lowe FREng has seen Formula One motor racing grow from small teams to a billion pound enterprise at the forefront of technology. He has introduced active suspension, hybrid engines and other key technologies that have changed the profile of motor racing.
- Mechanical
- Aerospace
- Issue 73
Ready to break records
In October 2017, almost a decade of engineering development finally came to fruition when the Bloodhound Supersonic Car embarked upon its first tests at Newquay Airport. Mark Chapman, Bloodhound’s Engineering Director, spoke about how it will attempt to break the world land speed record in South Africa.
- Mechanical
- Profiles
- Issue 71
Thinking about the revolutions
An interest in engines first drew Professor Neville Jackson FREng into engineering and, over the years, his work has covered almost everything related to transport. As Chief Technology Officer at Ricardo. he considers the future of car manufacturers and modern mobility engineering.
- Mechanical
- Electricals & electronics
- Profiles
- Issue 69
Taking engineering to industry
Becoming CEO of Rolls-Royce has taken Warren East CBE FREng from electronic chips to jet engines. This change in industries isn’t as dramatic as it might seem as, after all, they both operate at the cutting edge of engineering.
- Mechanical
- Innovation Watch
- Issue 68
Delivering clean cold and power
Global technology company Dearman has developed a family of engines that uses liquid air to deliver zero-emission power and cooling, with Sainsbury’s becoming the first company in the world to introduce a refrigerated delivery truck cooled by this novel engine.
- Materials
- Mechanical
- Issue 66
A lot more than lubrication
The control of friction and wear in mechanical systems by lubrication and surface engineering has led to safer, faster transport as well as medical innovations. Ian Hutchings FREng, GKN Professor of Manufacturing Engineering at the University of Cambridge, highlights the progress and some failures of the important discipline of tribology.
- Mechanical
- Issue 64
Bikes help improve skills and attitude
The Archway Project is an independently-funded scheme that is expanding its engineering-based programmes by providing BTEC certificates and diplomas. John Milton, the director of the project, explains what the charity does to help reduce anti-social behaviour and improve employment prospects.
- Electricals & electronics
- Mechanical
- Issue 64
High speed evolution
In December 2010, Eurostar International Ltd awarded a contract for 10 new high speed trains to Siemens. The company has used a system developed over decades to maximise the performance and passenger-carrying ability of its 320km/h trains.
- 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.
- Technology & robotics
- Mechanical
- Issue 61
When will cars drive themselves?
There are many claims made about the progress of autonomous vehicles and their imminent arrival on UK roads. What progress has been made and how have measures that have already been implemented increased automation?