Category: Engineering Design

Nusrat Ghani MP, Minister for Industry and Investment Security, visits SCITEK Consultants Ltd. in Derby

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We were delighted to welcome Nusrat Ghani MP, the Minister for Industry and Investment Security, to our site in Derby on Thursday last week.

During her visit, the Minister toured our facilities, met with our Managing Director Marios Christodoulou and other staff members, and was shown a demonstration of several research and development rigs developed at SCITEK, including a number developed in collaboration with Rolls-Royce.

The visit also showcased SCITEK’s research turbofan engine, which was first established as part of an Aerospace Technology Institute funded project.

The improvements brought by our custom-built new facility, which was finalised in Dec 2019, were also showcased. The increased space has allowed for the company to bid for larger, higher value projects.

In recent years the company has seen rapid growth in renewable energy projects for transport and power generation, with an increasing number of the systems we have made for our customers specifically aimed at helping them reduce the environmental impact of their products, an area that SCITEK is actively participating in.

Minister for Industry and Investment Security Nusrat Ghani said:

“Our aerospace sector is one of the crown jewels of the British economy, and our well-earned reputation as a global centre of excellence for design and production has meant that the world has come to us for some of the most innovative technology.

“The work at SCITEK Consultants, supported through BEIS’s Aerospace Technology Institute, is a prime example of what this means in practice, and of the big impact smaller businesses can have. Their cutting-edge projects are driving growth and supporting jobs in Derby, and beyond.”

Marios Christodoulou, Managing Director of SCITEK Consultants commented:

“For the last 25 years SCITEK has provided innovative solutions in aerospace and we look forward to continuing to support our native industries as the world transitions to a more sustainable future. We feel that our contributions go some way in sustaining and enhancing UK’s reputation as a centre of excellence and innovation in aerospace.”

SCITEK Supports ETI Project to Investigate the Safe use of Hydrogen Base Fuels in Power Generation

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A £2 million project to advance the safe design and operation of gas turbines, reciprocating engines and combined heat & power systems using hydrogen based fuels has been launched by the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI.)  ETI is a public private partnership between six global industrial companies – BP, Caterpillar, EDF, E.ON, Rolls-Royce and Shell – and the UK Government who’s tasked with developing “mass scale” technologies that will help the UK meet its 2020 and 2050 energy targets.

Through new modelling and large-scale experimental work the ETI project is looking to identify the bounds of safe design and operation of high efficiency CCGT (combined cycle gas turbine) and CHP (combined heat and power) systems operating on a range of fuels with high and variable concentrations of hydrogen.

The goals of the project are to increase the range of fuels that can be safely used in power and heat generating plant by:

  • In identifying the boundaries of safe design and operation of power generation systems using hydrogen based fuels; and
  • Identifying improvements in the detailed design and instrumentation of hydrogen fuelled power systems in order to deliver more robust and inherently safer system designs.

SCITEK’s involvement with the ETI project is to assist in the design, manufacture and instrumentation of a scaled down experimental rig that features a small gas turbine engine (RR Viper 201) to provide hot gas flow.

SCITEK has also assessed the mixing characteristics of the proposed gas injection system utilising CFD modelling of high temperature, compressible gas jets in cross flow, with species transport.

SCITEK supplies a Cold Neutron Radiography Machine worth £1.2m

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SCITEK Consultants Ltd, in conjunction with RadSci Consultancy Ltd, have designed and manufactured a complete Cold Neutron Radiography facility for installation on one of the beamlines of a nuclear reactor at a Chinese research centre.

The Cold Neutron Radiography system uses neutrons to build up three-dimensional pictures of the interiors of static objects or of operating machinery , highlighting the presence within them of the hydrogen present in water, oil, fuel or corrosion products. This imaging technique is similar to X-Rays and can be used to identify internal corrosion in aircraft components, to study internal capillary passageways in plants and to identify the make up or the presence of damage due, for example, to corrosion in bronze components of archaeological objects.

 The equipment includes:- the main neutron shutter, an automated neutron aperture selector, an 11m long vacuum flight tube, neutron beam profiler, 3-axis object handling system (up to 300 kg objects), turntable for neutron tomography (up to 25kg objects) and a neutron imaging system based on an Andor iKon-L 4 Mpixel cooled CCD camera and neutron-sensitive scintillation screen.

 Scitek and RadSci have also designed the neutron beam stop for the Chinese customer to manufacture. All components of the system are controlled from one of three PCs by the customised software (based on LabVIEW).  Also included in the system are the programs Octopus for CT reconstruction and VGStudio Max for 3D image display and analysis.

http://www.gtglobaltrader.com/news/chinese-research-contract-helps-derbys-scitek-develop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbXwGB0BmPU