The Wakefield House Building in Adelaide, Australia, recently realised an amazing 50 percent reduction in fan energy. The new EC plug fan, which replaced the existing centrifugal belt driven fan, has not only shrunk the energy bill, but also increased airflow and cooling capacity of the air handling unit.

Moving ores, concentrates and residues in slurry form are essential parts of industrial mining processes. In an effort to reduce water, energy and chemical consumption, and improve slurry transportation reliability, more and more mining operators are discovering the simplicity and benefits of peristaltic hose pumps.

If a tree falls in the forest it makes a noise, whether anybody’s there to hear it or not. Just like that fabled tree, machines in trouble provide telltale evidence you can read to diagnose their problems – if you just know how to look and listen.

We have all watched the US troopers with their ‘night-vision’ /infrared capability enjoying an advantage over insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan or firemen able to see through smoke and find victims in a blaze. The spin-off of a US$500-million US Defence Department investment is now also being applied to improve preventive electrical maintenance in New Zealand commercial properties. Kevin Kevany reports.

In this article Dr Murray comments on the performance of storage systems during seismic events, including the recent devastating earthquakes in New Zealand. Designing rack structures to cope with the unpredictable forces generated during an earthquake requires a combination of detailed engineering, sophisticated computer analysis, and a degree of crystal ball gazing on the part of the engineer into how the storage system may be utilised over its lifetime.

Electric control valve actuators eliminate the problems of compressed air as a power medium. Today, a major technological advance is available to help control valve users avoid many of the problems and inefficiencies associated with compressed air. The new solution, using electric power, is appropriate and cost-effective for a wide variety of control valve applications in most process environments, especially where users experience problems with frozen air hoses, lack of process precision and stick-slip.

Thanks to Multivac’s new HPP technology, integrated high-pressure preservation is now available for MAP packed food items to extend their shelf life without heat, radiation or artificial additives. Up to 6000 bar rids the treated food of harmful microorganisms without affecting its nutritional value. Stefan Richter reports. When Sepp Haggenmüller and his friend Artur Vetter built their first vacuum chamber machine in a garage in 1961, they named it Multivac.

Heat treatment is simply a function of ingredients, temperature, and time and therefore the outcome is pretty predictable. But sometimes it’s just not that easy. Barry Robinson shares what happened when he was approached by MOTAT to rectify a minor problem with their new tram wheels. Everyone seems to know that if you heat a piece of steel to “cherry red” and quench it in water it will come out hard.

Mercer Stainless has been well known in the New Zealand food industry for many years as a quality supplier of tanks, silos and pressure vessels. What is less well known is that within the team, there is also a group of experienced engineers capable of designing and building conveying equipment including spiral coolers and freezers. Spiral coolers and freezers are typically used in the food industry for efficient cooling when there is limited floor space and to maximise heat transfer.