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  • 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.

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A woman with curly hear, wearing a crown and holding a trophy topped with a large sphere, that is positioned in front of the sun so there is the halo of light around it.
  • 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.

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  • 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.

Children on the Bandit Bomber rollercoaster in Abu Dhabi.
  • 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.

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The Ingenium engine assembly line inside the Wolverhampton factory.
  • 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.

A woman in glasses looking relaxed and smiling in an office
  • 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.

A photo taken from a drone or helicopter showing most of the Canakkale Bridge's central section, with the middle third of the deck mostly in place.
  • 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?

A BMW i4 crashing into a pole on its right hand side. The glass in the windows is shattering and the airbags have inflated.
  • 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.

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  • 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.

A black and white photograph of a young man sitting in a helicopter.
  • 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.

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The Charon Zoetrope is pictured against a red sky, with all of its skeletons around the edge visible in silhouette form.
  • 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.

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  • Sports & leisure
  • Mechanical

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. The team principal, Jamie Clarke, wrote about the team’s experiences for Ingenia.

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A woman crouches, smiling, next to a portable metal fridge with "Vaccibox" written on the front.
  • 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.

A photo of Lucy Rogers holding an engineered metal bubble maker, surrounded by bubbles
  • 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.

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A photograph of individual bike parts.
  • 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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Josh Oldham smiling and standing behind an open door of a red Aston Martin.
  • 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.

Aerial shot of multiple rail tracks with the construction of a tunnel between them.
  • 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.

Guru Krishnamoorthy (left), CEO of Penlon, and Dick Elsy CBE FREng (right), Chairman of the VCUK Consortium and CEO of the High Value Manufacturing Catapult with the Penlon ESO 2 ventilator.
  • 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.

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A portrait of Felicity Milton performing a rock on hand gesture.
  • 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.

An electric JCB placed inside of a house, with two people reading books around it to demonstrate it's quietness.
  • 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.

An electric car being charged.
  • 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.

An illustration of floating circular virus particles with long spikes on the outside.
  • 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.

New cars lined up inside of the National Automotive Innovation Centre in Warwick.
  • 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.

A lady sitting in a Trekinetic wheelchair at Death Valley National Park in California.
  • 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.

The bloodhound supersonic car on the Cornwall Airport Newquay runway.
  • 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.

Professor Neville Jackson FREng.
  • 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.

A headshot of Warren East CBE FREng.
  • 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.

The Dearman engine with gears and chains.
  • 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.

Coloured optical interference fringes around a ball.
  • 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.

Adolescents being taught the mechanics of a bike.
  • 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.

The Eurostar at St Pancreas International station.
  • 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.

Ralf Speth, crouching next to an old Jaguar at a formal event in Germany.
  • 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.

A man sitting in a moving car autonomous vehicle, with his hands on his lap.
  • 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?