160 years of innovation theengineer.co.uk March 2019 | £3.70 Deep impact Engineering an expedition to the oceans’ deepest points Advanced Manufacturing News, features and opinion from the world of production engineering Making his marque Conservation innovation Enhancing engagement David Brown on the challenges How technology is helping A more thoughtful approach to of engineering a modern protect species on the STEM is key to inspiring classic »24 brink of extinction »32 the next generation »34 » 45 Ed - front cover_The Engineer - March 2019_The Engineer 1 05/03/2019 15:24 ® NEW ProtoTRAK KMX RMX & RLX n BETTER n FASTER New Hardware, Faster Feeds, Drawing to finished component 24 NEW features. much faster than before. FROM ONLY n EASIER Call now for your Now with 15.6” touch screen. Desk Top Demo. 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NEW XYZ KMX 1500 XYZ KMX 2000 XYZ KMX SLV XYZ RMX 2500 XYZ RMX 3500 XYZ RMX 4000 XYZ RMX 5000 XYZ RLX 1630 XYZ RLX 355 XYZ RLX 425 - 1.25 and 2 metres XYZ RLX 555 - 1, 1.75 and 3 metres The newly updated XYZ 2019 Machine Tool Range, each one the very best in its class. XYZ ProtoTR AK® Mills, 2-OP CNC and XYZ ProTURN® Lathes XYZ VMCs and High Speed VMCs XYZ Robotic automation XYZ 4+1 and 5 axis UMCs XYZ Turning Centres XYZ Extra Large VMCs and Oil Country Lathes with Live Y axis NEW All XYZ CNC machine tools come with free training, full 12 month warranty, extended warranties available, free programming helplines, nationwide service engineers. [email protected] www.xyzmachinetools.com ALL IN UK To learn more please call 01823 674200 STOCK MACHINE TOOL DEMOS ARE AVAILABLE AT ANY OF THE XYZ UK SHOWROOMS DEVON BLACKBURN NUNEATON SHEFFIELD & LONDON NOW 450x300 ProtoTRAK KMX RMX RLX-1.indd 1 Ad - XYZ_13-Mar-2019_The Engineer 3 2/18/1904/03/2019 11:55:36 17:21 AM Temperature Pressure Flow Level Data Acquisition Speak with our experts today [email protected] www.omega.co.uk © COPYRIGHT 2018 OMEGA ENGINEERING,LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED editor comment thisissue ouropinion Volume 299 Issue No. 7906 Established 1856 Deeply fascinating news 06 Rail Project aims for real-time track damage detection or sale: deep-sea manned submarine. Full service history. State-of-the-art 08 Aerospace New UK centrifuge allows titanium pressure hull. One careful owner. Comes with its own ship. Could be yours for just $48m. pilots to experience 9G …But not until it has completed the mission for which it was designed. 10 Transport New cooling technology The world’s first manned expedition to the deepest points of the world’s could make electric vehicles lighter five oceans: an unforgiving environment of perpetual darkness, near- freezing water, bone-crushing pressures and bizarre shrimps. 14 Transport Subterranean roads could The incredible vessel at the heart of this effort has already ticked off its ease congestion and cut emissions first two targets and is expected to complete the remaining dives over the course of the next few months. This will include a trip to the deepest opinion known point of the Earth’s seabed: Challenger Deep in the Pacific 20 Viewpoint Prof Dame Ann Dowling Ocean’s Mariana Trench. 22 Mailbox Your letters to the editor The project is bankrolled by millionaire US Finvestor Victor Vescovo (who is also piloting the “It has pushed 24 Interview David Brown sub). But, as we report in this issue’s cover story (p26), this is much more than a rich man’s ‘hero out the features dive’. It has pushed out the boundaries of 26 Cover story Taking a manned deep-sea engineering, and is expected to boundaries significantly advance our knowledge of the submarine to the deepest parts of deep-sea environment, potentially even helping of deep-sea the world’s five oceans us understand how life evolved on our planet. 32 Environment How science is helping In an age when we tend to rely on robots to engineering” probe our most challenging frontiers, it’s also a to protect endangered wildlife refreshing reminder that having a person in the 34 STEM Engagement A joined-up loop – with all the risk and derring-do that approach to inspiring youngsters entails – has the potential to inspire in a way that unmanned technologies simply don’t. Sticking to the inspiration theme, this issue also features an in-depth report on This is 38 Car of the issue Aston Martin Engineering Engagement (p34), a recent event held at the Royal Academy of Engineering which DB11 Volante brought together some of the UK’s leading STEM practitioners to discuss the challenges of 40 Medical Technology engaging and inspiring the next generation of engineers. As industry often tell us, it can be difficult to know where to start with STEM. The landscape is 42 Automation Amazon in Baltimore bewilderingly fragmented, with as many as 600 different initiatives trying to do their bit with varying 45 Advanced Manufacturing degrees of success, and many still relying on the somewhat old-fashioned notion that all it takes to 54 Show preview Med-Tech 2019 attract kids to engineering is a few explosions. 57 Archive As delegates heard, it’s only by taking a more thoughtful approach to the problem that we will really begin to shift the dial. And while that may not grab the headlines, it’s a challenge every bit as 58 Digest complex and daunting as landing a submarine on the bottom of the ocean. Your number-one website for engineering news, views, jobs and products theengineer.co.uk Jon Excell Editor [email protected] UK subscriptions ISSN 0013-7758. Printed £75 pa UK/£117 pa by Precision Colour Centaur Media Plc, 79 Wells Street, London, W1T 3QN overseas. Order online Printing, Haldane, at www.theengineer. Halesfield 1, Telford, co.uk/subscribe or by TF7 4QQ. Visit www. telephone on +44 (0207) theengineer.co.uk for Direct dial 020 7970 followed by extension listed Advertising fax 020 7970 4190 Editor Jon Excell (4437) [email protected] Features editor 292 3705. All rights constantly updated Stuart Nathan (4125) [email protected] Senior reporter Andrew Wade (4893) [email protected] News editor Jason reserved. 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For more information please email [email protected] NEWS 020 7970 4442 DISPLAY 020 7970 4487 RECRUITMENT 020 7970 4110 SUBSCRIPTIONS/CUSTOMER SERVICES HOTLINE 020 7292 3705 MARCH 2019 | THE ENGINEER 5 Ed - contents and leader_The Engineer - March 2019_The Engineer 5 05/03/2019 15:37 news technology RAIL Readmoreonline “If you are powered by the mains, then you need to run a wire Aerospace RemoveDEBRIS Project aims to get to connect with the power line, and every cable adds cost, as well as consortium captures maintenance issues, so we need to space junk with harpoon real-time damage get rid of this wire,” she said. “On the other hand, if you introduce a IMechE student drone battery, then that battery will have challenge returns to a very limited life, even though the Snowdonia detection on track technology has improved recently.” So instead, the researchers £18m funding for OneWeb Monitoring system to harness energy from decided to harvest locally available global broadband satellite constellation vibrations caused by trains HELEN KNIGHT REPORTS energy to power the system.