Mereja

Author: Serkadis

  • Senator: GM paid U.S. federal loans with other federal money

    GM Renaissance Center Headquarters

    A Republican senator said that General Motors’ payment of federal loans this week was nothing more than a “money shuffle” and said that the company paid federal loans with other U.S. funds. Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa, a senior Republican on the Finance Committee, cited an auditor’s report that GM payment was coming from U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program funds in an escrow account, rather than from GM earnings.

    “It is unclear how GM and the administration could have accurately announced yesterday that GM repaid its TARP loans in any meaningful way,” Grassley said in a letter to U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. “The taxpayers are still on the hook, and whether TARP funds are ultimately recovered depends entirely on the government’s ability to sell GM stock in the future.”

    GM announced on April 21 that it made its final payment of $5.8 billion to the U.S. Treasury and Export Development Canada, paying back its government loans in full.

    GM received $50 billion of U.S. assistance in its bailout, much of which was converted into stock. The Obama administration holds 61 percent of the common stock in the Detroit automaker.

    – By: Stephen Calogera

    Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)


  • A Second Wave of Brilliant Google Chrome Ads

    Google has traditionally spent very little on advertising. Surprising perhaps for an advertising company, but Google has mostly relied on word-of-mouth and, more recently, on plugging its newer products in its more popular ones. In the early days, Google Chrome was promoted on YouTube with a link and an invitation to ‘try a new browser.’ That thinkin… (read more)

  • AutoblogGreen for 04.23.10

    Beijing 2010: Chevrolet Volt MPV5 crossover revealed
    Tasty.
    		 Officially Official: Japan EV Club Mira sets Guinness distance record
    The little kei car goes 345+ miles on a single charge.
    GM’s R&D head says Voltec powertrain not suitable for vehicles bigger, smaller than Volt
    But it is still good for the Volt, right?    		 Other news:

    AutoblogGreen for 04.23.10 originally appeared on Autoblog on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 05:54:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

  • Missing From ACTA Release: What Each Country Is Pushing For

    We’ve already discussed the (finally) officially released draft of ACTA — which only came out after a ridiculous amount of public pressure, multiple leaks and a total beatdown by the European Parliament. While the official version shows that the leaked versions were quite accurate (this version only has the few changes made at the recent New Zealand negotiations, which came after the leaks), some are noticing what’s missing. Jamie Love is pointing out that the leaked versions clearly showed which countries were pushing for which provisions. But the different country positions have been conveniently deleted from the “official version”:


    “It’s late, very late, and missing a key element of transparency — the country positions. Governments had to be forced by civil society groups to make the ACTA text public. Let’s hope that the precedent for the future is to publish the texts, and to publish them much sooner. Now that the text is out, it will be easier to have public debates about its contents. It is unfortunate that the country positions were eliminated from the published version, but positions as recent as January 2010 are available from the earlier leaked texts…. Clearly the text goes way beyond counterfeiting and copyright piracy, into several categories of intellectual property rights, including patents, semi conductor chip designs, pharmaceutical test data and other topics. Governments should engage with consumer groups, civil rights organizations, educators, libraries, generic drug manufacturers, technology companies and others to re-balance the text, or abandon the negotiation if this is not possible in the current political environment.”

    Once again, it looks like this “transparency” isn’t quite as transparent as ACTA supporters would like you to believe.

    Permalink | Comments | Email This Story





  • Google Loses Significant Paid-Search Market Share in China in Q1

    The effects of the decision to stop censoring results in China are already starting to be felt at Google. According to new studies, Google lost a big slice of the search-ad market in the first quarter of the year, the first decline since the second quarter of 2009. It’s now clear that advertisers are worried that Google may … (read more)

  • Obama Preps VAT

    Strangely enough, I consider this to be excellent macro economic news.  I am not too exercised about the revenue potential as that it will level the import export playing field for the USA and the rest of the world who all use VAT systems.
    So I am not going to oppose it when it is exactly the first thing that I would have done a year ago.  Our trading partners have gamed the VAT system to their interests for half a century.  This ends it.
    The best system would be a ten percent or something close that is split between state and federal.  That way the state has revenue and can take on many programs now been handled at federal level.
    However, it will not start up been right and will take a generation to get sort of right as will health care.
    I have posted here on the topic of VAT and the present dispensation is the worst possible deal for the USA.  The bad news is that it will not be popular and is likely to be a disaster for Obama.  In the event it cannot be launched until after November.
    We had this drill in Canada about twenty years ago and it proved to be one of the wisest things ever done.  That was seen by few at the time.  You will find that any numbers of hidden taxes are getting money while actually damaging competition.  VAT ends all that.
    Obama Calculates VAT Tax
    Monday, 19 Apr 2010 07:56 AM
    By: Grover Norquist
    http://newsmax.com/GroverNorquist/barack-obama-vat-value/2010/04/19/id/356102
    President Barack Obama’s economic team is already calculating government revenues from a possible value added tax (VAT), according toThe New York Times on April 18.

    Article excerpt:

    But since any Social Security plan would probably preserve benefits for those nearing retirement, it would not help the administration achieve its goal of reducing the deficit to 3 percent of gross domestic product, from 10 percent, within a decade.
    One way to reach that 3 percent goal, by the calculations of Mr. Obama’s economic team: a 5 percent value-added tax, which would generate enough revenue to simultaneously permit the reduction in corporate tax rates Republicans favor.
    The reported VAT calculations may explain President Obama’s recent attempts to alter the terms of his central campaign promise — a promise that no family making less than $250,000 per year would see “any form of tax increase.”

    Twice in the past 10 days, Obama has claimed his pledge applied only to income taxes. In his April 10 Weekly Radio Address, Obama said: “And one thing we have not done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000. That’s another promise we’ve kept.”

    In a speech on the evening of April 15, Obama repeated the truncated promise: “And one thing we haven’t done is raise income taxes on families making less than $250,000 a year — another promise that we kept.”


    In the interest of transparency, Americans for Tax Reform respectfully asks President Obama to immediately release the reported VAT calculations or deny such calculations exist.

    © Newsmax. All rights reserved.

  • Graphene Underwrites Moore’s Law




    Yes Moore’s law will not be retired soon. Unbelievably I have lived my entire adult life (say 1967) under the sway of this particular law.  With it in 1970, I understood that the desk top would arrive in the decade of the eighties and that the general access to information would arrive over the next decade.  Mass communication became possible this past decade and we will flow seamlessly into the holodeck inside the next decade.  After that, who really cares?
    The technology itself will soon be applied to the manufacture of magnetic exclusion craft to allow ready access to the solar system.  See my postings on reverse engineering the UFO.  This will likely take about twenty years to produce.
    One neat item here is that lapping two layers of graphene produces what behaves like a wire.  Thus we can fabricate just about any electrical function into graphene structures.
    Big News from the Nano-World of Graphene Means New Life for Moore‘s Law
    April 2, 2010
    http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=big-news-from-the-nano-world-of-gra-2010-04&sc=DD_20100405
    Almost 50 years ago, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore came up with a little idea called Moore’s Law , which basically says that computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability.  So how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go?  Lots, if graphene , the nanomaterial of the new millennium, has anything to say about that.
     By: Tina Casey
    Almost 50 years ago, Intel co-founder Gordon E. Moore came up with a little idea called Moore’s Law, which basically says that computer processors roughly double in efficiency every two years due to advances in technology along with affordability.  So how much smaller, faster and cheaper can computers go?  Lots, if graphene, the nanomaterial of the new millennium, has anything to say about that.
    Discovered just a few years ago, graphene is only the thickness of one atom but it scores on strength and it can function as a conductor.  One difficulty to overcome, though, is manipulating “raw” graphene on an atomic level to create a useful material.   With support from the National Science Foundation, researchers at the University of South Florida have accomplished a breakthrough of sorts by developing a way to form precise graphene “nanowires” that are just a few atoms across.
    Graphene Nanowires And Sustainable Computers
    The ability to construct nanoscale components for electronic devices can’t come a moment too soon.  The world is already awash in e-waste, and energy use by computers and data centers is surging.  That trend will continue as computers become integrated into more aspects of life in the developed world, and as more people in the developing world enter the consumer marketplace — unless electronic devices become significantly smaller, lighter and more energy efficient.
    Graphene – What’s The Catch?
    Yes, there is always a catch.   Although some researchers have developed methods for producing graphene in bulk, the material is difficult to manipulate with precision.  One possible solution has been devised at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where researchers have used nano-sized water droplets as chaperones to coax graphene into complex shapes.  At the University of South Florida, researchers were able to construct nanowires by bonding two half-sheets of graphene edge to edge.  Instead of forming a seamless whole, the two halves are separated by a defect that emerges in the atomic structure of the graphene sheet, forming a continuous line just a few atoms across.  The researchers were able to confirm that this line functions as a nanowire, with its own periodic atomic structure and metallic properties.
    Don’t Forget About Carbon Nanotubes
    With all the excitement over graphene it’s easy to forget that other new-millenium nanomaterial, carbon nanotubes.   Though the two materials handle quite differently, there are some parallels in the emerging developments.  Researchers are finding ways to produce carbon nanotubes of different types in bulk, which could significantly lower the cost of production, and at the University of San Diego researchers have found that defective carbon nanotubes can be more efficient at storing energy than their flawless counterparts.

  • Graphene Hydrogen Storage





    I remember seeing the first items on metal organics when I was a teenager.  It has always been promising but has never come close.  Yet it looks like the advent of graphene may change all that.
    Early work presented here gives us proof of concept.  Ongoing work will focus on hydrogen storage.
    I think that this may actually work out in time.  It is capable of elegantly solving the problem of hydrogen storage once and for all.  Then hydrogen systems can become something other than an engineer’s fantasy.
    It is worth been optimistic about.
    Graphene-oxide framework packs in hydrogen
    Mar 29, 2010
    http://environmentalresearchweb.org/cws/article/news/42181
    Stacked layers of oxidized graphene could be used to store hydrogen fuel for cars and other applications. So say researchers in the US who have made graphene-oxide frameworks (GOFs) that can hold roughly 1% of their weight in hydrogen. This value is 100 times better than graphene oxide itself and compares well with MOF-5 (the most studied metal-organic framework to date for hydrogen storage), which absorbs about 1.3 wt%.
    Vehicles and other systems powered by hydrogen have the advantage of emitting only water as a waste product. An important challenge, however, is storing enough hydrogen on board a car to give it a range comparable to a vehicle powered by fossil-fuels. If hydrogen is stored as a compressed gas, it takes up far too much space – and liquefying hydrogen is expensive in terms of both cost and energy.
    One promising solution to this problem is to exploit the fact that many solid materials will absorb large amounts of hydrogen. Graphene oxide is a sheet of carbon and oxygen just one atom thick, and hydrogen can be stored between the layers in stacks of this lightweight material. The challenge is to get the spacing between layers just right to reach maximum storage capacity.
    Connector molecules
    Now, Taner Yildirim and colleagues at NIST and the University of Pennsylvania have boosted the storage capacity of graphene oxide by using organic “connector molecules” to separate individual layers by 1.1 nm. This is three times more than the inter-plane distance in bare graphite – which comprises stacked layers of graphene.
    “Being able to control this width is important for a number of applications, including hydrogen storage,” explains team member Jacob Burress. He says that the interlayer spacing can be controlled to optimize hydrogen adsorption. The idea is to have pores that are small enough to maximize the interaction between hydrogen and the surface of the frameworks, but at the same time large enough to hold two layers of adsorbed hydrogen.
    The team took its inspiration from work already done on metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), widely studied materials for hydrogen storage. Here, inorganic nodes are connected by organic struts using well established chemistry techniques. In the new work, the metal oxides are replaced with graphene oxide and the struts with diboronic acid “pillars”.
    Future optimization
    The GOFs can store roughly 1 wt% of hydrogen at 77 K and 1 bar. “This is less than one fifth that the ‘ideal’ GOF structure can hold, according to state-of-the-art computer simulations,” says team member Wei Zhou. “Based on our adsorption simulations, the ideal GOF structure can adsorb hydrogen up to 6 wt% at 77 K and atmospheric pressure, suggesting that our GOF materials could be significantly optimized in the future.”
    As important as its hydrogen-storage properties are, the fact that graphene-oxide production can easily be scaled-up to industrial quantities is a big advantage too. What’s more, it is inexpensive and thought to be safe for people and the environment.
    The team also discovered that the hydrogen-adsorption kinetics of GOFs are different compared with other materials. At lower temperatures, there is little adsorption and hardly any hydrogen gas is released either. This means that the material can be loaded with gas at higher temperatures and then cooled below this blocking temperature to hold the hydrogen in place. Gas will not be released until the sample is allowed to warm up. Ideally, this blocking temperature needs to be as close to room temperature as possible for practical applications.
    Drug delievery
    “We expect to see more work on graphene oxide where it is linked by many different connectors for a variety of chemistry and physics applications,” Burress tells physicsworld.com. “We anticipate these materials to be very useful not only for hydrogen storage but for other gases such as ammonia and carbon dioxide as well.” He also hinted at medical applications: “Once the graphene-oxide layers are separated by sufficiently large distances, one could also imagine adding some biomolecules for drug delivery”.
    The researchers now hope to look into possible electronic applications for the GOFs because they may be useful as conducting materials for fuel cells or batteries. Another possibility is to use the GOFs as sensors, where gas adsorption leads to a measurable change in the material’s electronic properties.
    The next immediate step is to optimize hydrogen-storage capacity, says the team. This could be achieved in a number of ways: including removing unreacted hydroxyl groups to increase the useable surface area; and optimizing the linkers in terms of concentrations and chemistry.
    “We also want to understand the nature of hydrogen-adsorption kinetics and how we can use it to our advantage!” says Burress. “This is just the beginning of new research and there are many new experimental avenues to follow.”
    The research was presented last week at the March Meeting of the American Physical Society.
    About the author
    Belle Dumé is a contributing editor to nanotechweb. This article first appeared at physicsworld.com.

  • Thermo Ionic Desalination



    You need to jump to the sub title Salt works and try to figure out what they are saying.  It is a bit of a slog.
    Yet the important claims been made is that they are able to operate with 80% less energy which is no small claim.  My guess though is that the hardware will be much more complex.  The way more compelling claim is that they can produce solid salts.
    Desalination is already a huge capital intensive industry. Operating efficiency matters.  Reducing the energy cost is a huge improvement.  Yet as costly has been the constraints created by the removal of saline water.  It has been in the form of brine and is typically simply released back into the ocean were it has long since been bothersome.
    This approach reduces the removed salt to the form of cake.  That means it can simply be stored on land were its effect can be minimized.
    So though this is another industrial solution and obviously capital heavy, the combination of energy saving and salt saving could make it far more competitive than any present competitor.
    O Canada! Land of Water Innovation!
    Can thermo-ionic desalination reduce the high cost of making seawater drinkable?
    YONI COHEN 04 06 10
    http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/oh-canada-land-of-water-innovation
    Recognizing that water is a rapidly expanding $400 billion global market, many investors pledge a theoretical interest in water innovations. But in practice, window shopping is the norm.  Concerned about the capital intensity of many water projects and the length of water startups’ time to market and sales cycles, numerous American venture firms have made only a single water investment. As a result, many firms are not well prepared to evaluate and embrace the next great water startup. 
    “If you have done just one, you don’t know the 100 different pieces of the value chain and the market segment,” says CMEA Capital’s Rachel Sheinbein, who used to help Intel address wastewater challenges. “Something else comes in and it is totally different. It is like saying ‘energy.’ There are so many pieces of [the water market].” 
    North of the border, in Canada, there is a lot less hesitation.   
    In March, the Government of Ontario announced it would later this year introduce aggressive legislation to promote Ontario as an international leader in clean water entrepreneurship and investment. Last week, the Ontario Centre for Environmental Technology Advancement (OCETA) and XPV Capital followed up on the government’s announcement with a new report. “The Water Opportunity for Ontario” draws attention to Ontario‘s research institutions, water regulations and standards, and water industry, including the region’s “track record in creating world-class water technologies.” Some examples are Zenon Environmental, a wastewater treatment firm purchased by GE, and Trojan Technologies, a leader in ultraviolet water purification purchased by DanaherCorporation.  
    In 2010, Toronto-based XPV Capital will soon close a $150 million fund dedicated exclusively to stage-agnostic investments in emerging water companies. To put the fund in perspective, consider that in 2009 venture capitalists invested about $150 million in water innovation — total.  (Ontario is also making a big push in solar and has attracted big-name partner Samsung.)
    “The rate of adoption is accelerating in water. The primary [reason] is that the value proposition of water technology has shifted from a regulatory value proposition,” said XPV Capital’s David Henderson. “A lot of the technology in the 1980s and 1990s were about bad bugs in drinking water. What is happening now is more economic drivers — the fact that a third of a municipality’s energy bill is moving and treating water. That’s a big bill that you can attack with technology.” 
    XPV Capital is particularly bullish on investment opportunities in four broad water areas: demand destruction, wastewater to product, water reuse, and infrastructure renewal.  Said Henderson:
    ·                        “Demand structuring is all about how we reduce the demand for energy, water, chemicals, [and] other inputs in mission critical water processes without changing the output of the processes.”  
    ·                        “Wastewater to product is taking the valuable resources that are found in wastewater streams and translating them into value-added products.”
    ·                        “Water reuse is taking [wastewater from] industrial, municipal, [and] commercial, buildings, uses and instead of treating it to be discharged back into the environment, treat[ing] it to be discharged for other applications.”
    ·                        “Infrastructure renewal technology can extend the life, expand the capacity, or increase the productivity of [water] infrastructure – a big area for North America.”
    But even water enthusiasts such as Henderson and Sheinbein recognize the sector’s challenges.  
    “There are definitely elements in the [water] industry where venture capital doesn’t make sense, but there are segments in the industry where it does make sense. A technology that can drop the energy equation in a desalination process by fifty to seventy percent is very financeable under any venture capital model,” said Henderson. 
    Trouble is, most of the recent advances, at least in desalination, have been incremental in nature.  
    “I’ve seen membranes [and] I’ve seen changes in distillation.  But they are not really breakthroughs,” said Sheinbein. “They use too much energy or, from a venture capital perspective, they need to build $100 million plants because they only make sense on that scale. I’m looking for things that are not iterative on what I learned in my chemical engineering classes.” 
    Saltworks: Thermo-Ionic Desalination
    In Vancouver, startup Saltworks Technologies claims exactly such a disruptive innovation and value proposition. 
    “Saltworks has developed an energy-efficient desalination technology that reduces electricity costs by up to 80 percent,” said Malcolm Man, Saltworks’ Vice President of Business Development.   
    To appreciate Saltworks’ approach, begin with a refresher course in chemical engineering. Today, desalination takes place primarily through distillation or reverse osmosis.  During distillation, water is heated and vaporized to remove salt, then condensed to produce fresh water. During reverse osmosis, pressure gradients drive water through a semi-permeable membrane through which salt cannot pass.  Both approaches are energy-intensive and thus expensive. 
    To reduce energy costs, NanoH20 is developing a more efficient membrane for reverse osmosis and Oasys Water is using ammonia salts to encourage forward osmosis, i.e. the water is drawn through the membrane due not by pressure but due to its natural attraction to an extremely salty solution on the other side.
    Saltworks is promoting a different approach, using ion bridges to create an electrical circuit that manipulates salt. Similarly, researchers at MIT and in Korea recently announced their successful small-scale testing of desalination based on passage of water through ion-selective materials.  
    To understand Saltworks’ thermo-ionic desalination method, recall that salt is composed of negatively charged chlorine ions and positively charged sodium ions. Saltworks’ process begins with four separate streams of seawater or brackish groundwater. Using either a solar thermal pond or industrial waste heat, the first stream of seawater, for example, is evaporated until its salt concentration rises from its natural 3.5 percent to more than 18 percent. This first high-salinity stream is then pumped at low pressure into Saltworks’ desalting device. 
    Inside the device, the first high-salinity stream is connected using ion bridges to the second and third natural seawater streams, whose salt concentrations are only 3.5 percent.  Made of polystyrene, the ion bridges have been treated so that one allows only negatively charged chlorine ions to pass (from the first stream to the second stream) and the other allows only positively charged sodium ions to pass (from the first stream to the third stream).   
    The second and third streams are also connected to the fourth seawater stream. To maintain its electrical balance, the second stream pulls positively charged sodium ions from the fourth natural stream. Similarly, the third stream pulls negatively charged chlorine ions from the fourth stream.  In the process, the fourth stream is stripped of its ions and desalinated. 
    “Our technology can hybridize with existing [desalination] plants,” said Saltworks’ Man. “For example, a reverse osmosis plant produces a high-brine concentration discharge. We use that as our fuel.  What we can do is take that fuel, recover more water from it and produce a solid salt with zero liquid discharge.” 
    To date, Saltworks has raised about $1.3 million and received about $2 million in government grants.  The company has a one cubic meter per day demonstration plant operating, where it extracts seawater from Vancouver harbor and produces fresh water. Skeptics wonder whether the process will work over time, can clean water to a degree necessary, and address other issues, but it’s definitely an intriguing concept.
    “We’re looking [for] up to $10 million for our Series A financing…to continue operations [and] IP protection, deploy four mobile demonstration plants to key industrial and municipal customers, and start our manufacturing capabilities to reduce costs,” said Man.  
    Yoni Cohen is a JD-MBA student at the Yale Law School and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.  He previously worked as a reporter for Fox Sports, among other jobs.

  • German Officials ‘Horrified’ by Google Street View WiFi Snooping

    German privacy regulators love to get everyone worked up about various, horrible privacy violations companies engage in. But it is their job after all, so maybe there’s nothing to read into it. Their favorite target of late is Google and especially its Street View product, which isn’t even available in Germany yet. The s… (read more)

  • Asking the climate question in the North West

    There’s more to this election than TV debates. Tristan finds out more about the election meetings Oxfam have been organising around the country to “ask the climate question”.

    In an election in which a series of historic leadership debates takes place on TV, it could be easy to think they were the only events that mattered. That’s not the case. On the 21st April Oxfam hosted the hustings (political meetings between candidates and voters) in the South Ribble Banqueting Hall in Lancashire.

    Following its success, next week on the 28th we’re hosting another one, this time in Bury North, at the Fusilier Museum in Bury itself. These debates challenge parliamentary candidates in two of the country’s most closely fought constituencies to explain where they stand on the issue of Climate Change and could potentially prove crucial come May 6th.

    These are just two of a series of events taking place across the country as part of the national ‘Ask the Climate Question’ Campaign. Supported by ten different environmental and development Non Government Organisations (NGOs) and charities, it aims to make climate change an election issue and ensure our next government, whichever party gets into power, is fully committed to UK emissions reductions and a ‘fair’ and ‘adequate’ international agreement on climate change.

    As you might have guessed from the campaign’s name, it asks voters to join in by simply ‘Asking the Climate Question’ to their local candidates, be it on the doorstep, at a local hustings or even in writing. Its both an easy and effective way to raise a crucially important issue and draw attention to what is arguably the greatest threat to the world’s poor.

    As a self-confessed politics geek with a passion for tackling climate change it’s been a joy to be charged with helping organise the debates in the North West and come Wednesday 28th I’ll be there in Bury climate change question to hand and listening carefully.

    Find out more about Oxfam’s work on climate change

  • Cubigel Compressors launches the green cooling ranges

    Cubigel Compressors launches the green cooling ranges

    Cubigel Compressors introduces the new green cooling ranges in accordance to market trends and being in the vanguard of energy saving technology.

    The advanced design of Cubigel Compressors’ Green Cooling ranges allows a remarkable efficiency improvement by becoming the most suitable component for a sustainable refrigeration application.

    The green cooling ranges comprises the High Efficiency Range, Natural Refrigerants Compressors and the Variable Speed Compressors:

    – The High Efficiency ranges have the most extended series working with R134a, R404A and natural refrigerants R290 and R600a for both, HMBP and LBP applications. These ranges get to improve the compressor COP between 20% and 30%.

    – The use of Natural Refrigerants as R290 and R600a – with no direct effect on global warming – increases the compressor’s performance, and reduces the applications’ energy consumption.

    – The Variable Speed Compressors offer the lowest energy consumption by adopting electronically controlled running modes.

    You will have the following benefits and advantages by using the green cooling ranges:

    – Energy savings, therefore a reduction of operative costs for your final clients
    – Reduction of CO2 emissions to the atmosphere
    – Enhanced efficient application
    – Sustainability
    – No specific adaptation on refrigeration systems
    – Extended range of efficient compressors and Natural Refrigerants for any type of applications

    You can easily identify Cubigel Compressors’ green cooling products in our catalogues, as they are marked with a green leaf.

    With the introduction of the best and most complete Green Cooling Range for more sustainable applications, Cubigel Compressors takes care of the environment and contributes to the reduction of the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere.

  • Google Invites ISPs to Use Its Super-Fast Fibre Network

    Google’s plans to offer fiber-to-home Internet connections to as much as 500,000 people probably has ISPs in the US on edge, but the company is trying to show them that it is not the enemy. In fact, it’s welcoming anyone to use the infrastructure once it is deployed and offer Internet services on Google’s fiber.
    read more)

  • YouTube Opens Up Video-Rental Store

    YouTube is plowing ahead with video rentals, despite initial results being less than encouraging. The Google-owned video site has now opened up a rental store to house all of the available material. The range of videos offered has grown considerably since the January tests, but it’s not exactly exhaustive. Videos rent for $0.99 to $3.99 and range from f… (read more)

  • TTN Lubricator

    TTN Lubricators are ideally suited for both on-road transport vehicles and off-road mobile machinery such as loaders, excavators, articulated trucks, graders, etc.

    These lubricators are designed to work in hostile conditions found on remote sections of highways and in industries, such as construction, mining and forestry.

    A unique reservoir design keeps out contamination and prevents condensation from forming, thus assuring reliable automatic lubrication of critical wear points such as bearings, bushings and pins.

    Features:
    Large reservoir capacities allow for extended times between refills
    Low grease level and system monitoring capabilities
    Designed to handle a wide range of lubricants
    Unique reservoir design keeps grease free from contaminants
    Integral controller option facilitates quick install

    Primary industries: Mobile, Wind Power

  • 14th AFC-Holcroft Aluminum Brazing Invitational Seminar -October 27-29, 2010

    AFC-Holcroft of Wixom, Michigan announces the dates for the 14th Aluminum Brazing Invitational Seminar. The dates for the event will be October 27 to 29, 2010, and will be held at the Sheraton in Novi, Michigan (metropolitan Detroit, USA.

    Previous seminars have had up to 185 attendees from 55 locations in 10 countries.

    As in the past, the seminar will focus on controlled atmosphere brazing of aluminum heat exchangers with non-corrosive flux. This invitational seminar is useful for users or prospective users of the non-corrosive flux brazing process.

    Day 1 will teach the fundamentals of each step of controlled atmosphere brazing of aluminum heat exchangers with non-corrosive flux, as well as the basics of aluminum alloy metallurgy and corrosion resistance. Day 1 is ideal for those who need to be trained on controlled atmosphere aluminum brazing or need a refresher course. The course is also useful for those who wish to broaden their knowledge of other aspects of process, equipment or materials. Prior attendees have included process and product engineers, production and maintenance personnel, operations managers and corporate staff.

    Day 2 and 3 will feature invited speakers who will review state-of-the-art technology in their specialized field on materials, processes and equipment.

    More information about the seminar will be posted on the company website, and we invite nterested parties to place their names on a mailing list by sending an email to the organizers at [email protected].

    A full program and agenda is expected to be available mid-Summer 2010, and will be sent by email to those on the mailing list. Updates will be posted to the company website. Cost for the seminar will be $325 for Day 1, $550 for Days 2 and 3, or $550 for the entire 3 days of program.

    About AFC-Holcroft

    AFC-Holcroft has more than 90 years of thermal processing experience. The company manufactures turn-key heat treating systems for applications including commercial heat treating, bearings, automotive, aerospace, military, aluminum heat treatment, gear manufacturing, fastener manufacturing, and alternative energy industries.

    AFC-Holcroft is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of heat treating furnaces. The company has a global reach, with organizations in the United States, Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, India, Korea, Mexico, Poland, Russia, Spain and Turkey, and including manufacturing means in many of these countries.

  • Tanis Custom Abrasive Nylon Brushes

    Custom engineered abrasive nylon brushes are designed to optimize your productivity. Tanis Incorporated technical sales and engineering staff will help design and manufacture the abrasive nylon product best suited to meet your objective. Abrasive nylon products manufactured by Tanis Incorporated will exceed your expectations to enhance production by reducing cycle times and eliminating secondary labor operations.

    Tanis Abrasive Brush Benefits & Uses
    Abrasive nylon brushes for cleaning, deburring and polishing
    Silicon carbide, aluminum oxide and alumina silicate impregnated nylon brushes
    Twisted-in-wire miniature and internal tube brushes
    Disc brushes for deburring, finishing and polishing
    Ferrule End brushes for deburring and finishing.

    Wheel and stem-mounted brushes for industrial deburring and finishing applications Cylinder and metal back coils custom manufactured for internal and external applications Engineered products custom designed

  • CMF Color Analyzer PW0049

    The module PW0049 is a stand-alone measuring device which is conceived for the absolute measurement of self-illuminating objects.

    Its function is to reproduce the CIE 1931 2° CMF’s as precisely as possible. The resulting Tristimulus measuring values X, Y, Z form the basis of most of the common color spaces used today.

    By means of the integrated three-sector color sensor and additional procedures, the visional sensation of the human eye is imitated with an accuracy that can be compared to decidedly more elaborate spectrometric procedures.

    The scope of delivery contains a comfortable and intuitive software tool for setup, parameterization and output of color values in different modes.

    Special optimizations for the following light sources are contained in the scope of delivery:

    CCFL LED white LED colored Rot optimized LED´s
    RGB Backlight White LED Backlight RGB light source RGB and white

  • DRTB Series thermocouple terminal blocks

    Omega Engineering introduces the New DRTB Series thermocouple terminal blocks. They are designed and manufactured by Omega using thermocouple alloys to guarantee accurate readings. The terminal block has a built-in female socket to accept a miniature thermocouple connector. This novel feature enables the user to insert a plug for easy connection to a handheld device allowing installation testing, quality assurance compliance, troubleshooting or repairs without interrupting the signal or circuit.

    The terminal blocks are fully enclosed and require no end plates. The screws and clamps are zinc plated and together they provide an excellent vibration, maintenance free and corrosion resistant connection.

    DRTB terminal blocks mount on standard 35 mm DIN rails or 32 mm G-type rails and are identified with calibration type and positive (+) and negative (-) connections. Wire entry is funnelled to allow quick wire insertion even with stranded wire.

  • FM and CSA Certify Ultrasonic Gas Leak Detector

    General Monitors is pleased to announce that the Gassonic Observer is now FM and CSA certified.

    FM and CSA certification assures customers that the Gassonic Observer has been evaluated through independent scientific testing and found safe and reliable. FM Approvals and CSA International are leading providers of product testing and certification that test products for compliance with hazardous locations and product performance standards.

    Ultrasonic gas leak detection adds an important layer of protection to General Monitors’ gas and flame detectors. The detection technology enhances gas detection efficiency by producing sensors that quickly respond to the ultrasonic noise generated by escaping gas. Ultrasonic gas leak detectors can detect gas leaks regardless of ventilation rate, gas dilution, or the direction of the leak — and without the gas having to make physical contact with a sensor element. The instruments are the ideal choice for rapid detection of pressurized gas leaks in open and ventilated areas.

    The Gassonic Observer features a robust microphone and a detection radius of up to 20 meters at a leak rate of 0.1 kg/s. In addition, the detector offers the Senssonic™ integrated acoustic self-test, which periodically verifies the integrity of the electronic circuitry and the operation of the acoustic sensor. The detector is FM certified to IEC 61508 as SIL 2 suitable and is also approved under ATEX, C-UL and IECEx norms.