Author: Serkadis

Wasn’t expecting such a lopsided result, but EU Parliament voted 663 to 13 against ACTA, saying that “it flouts agreed EU laws on counterfeiting and piracy online.” Beyond that, apparently the Parliament is ready to go to court to stop EU negotiators from continuing down the path they’re on:

MEPs will go to the Court of Justice if the EU does not reject ACTA rules, including cutting off users from the Internet “gradually” if caught stealing content.

Some Members of Parliament are also pointing out that the EU negotiators are violating the Lisbon Treaty, which says that EU Parliament Members should have “full and immediate access at all stages of international negotiations.”

This is pretty big — and a massive setback for ACTA supporters. The MEPs didn’t just reject the lack of transparency, they were blatantly rejecting some of the proposals that were in the leaked documents.

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Para quem estava esperando mais imagens do novo Mercedes Classe E, aqui estão elas! Essa é a primeira série especial que a Mercedes faz em seu último lançamento no mercado. O design do carro, possui características da marca e rodas de liga leve de 18 polegadas, assinadas como AMG.

Seu interior, muito bem trabalhado por sinal, possui contraste com preto e branco em couro perfumado. Os bancos são aquecidos e ajustáveis eletronicamente. Descrito pelos executivos da marca como “o conversível para todas as estações do ano”, ele possui uma capota que leva 20 segundos para se transformar em um cupê, e pode ser acionada com o carro em até 40Km/h.

Imagens do novo modelo Classe E

Via | Autoblog.it

KNOXVILLE — The Student Academy of Audiology (SAA) is seeking participants for its golf tournament, a fundraiser for the club’s community service work.

The tournament begins at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, March 20, at Three Ridges Golf Course. The event raises money for the Sertoma Center, a facility that serves adults with developmental disabilities, and also helps fund the SAA’s annual open house that provides free hearing and speech screenings for the community.

“We want to be able to give money away, but we also want to be able to do the things we need to,” said Alison Ward, second-year doctoral student and president of SAA. Many SAA members are from the audiology program, which is housed in Knoxville, but is now administered by the UT Health Science Center in Memphis.

Ward wants to make the golf tournament an annual event to help raise money for SAA’s volunteer efforts throughout the year.

“It’s a great fundraiser,” Ward said. “We do a fundraiser every year, but this year we’re going all out, making T-shirts and publicizing. Everyone is excited. Now that we know what we need to do, we’re hoping to do it again next year bigger and better.”

SAA members volunteer at the Sertoma Center conducting craft days and doing general yard work. Sertoma uses UT’s Hearing Services to fulfill the Tennessee mandate for yearly hearing evaluations of its residents. Ward said the money raised at the golf tournament also will help support SAA’s open house for free hearing screenings for the campus and the community.

“We usually have anywhere from 75 to 200 people, but we would like to continue to reach out to a bigger crowd,” Ward said. “We want to use some of our money raised to get the word out about this really great and fun opportunity for the community.”

The open house, along with free hearing and speech screenings, provides education on hearing loss and ear disorders. Anyone with hearing abnormalities is referred to a specialist or given information about working with the audiology department.

Sponsors for the tournament include Krispy Kreme, Regal Cinemas and Bonefish Grill, among others. Each sponsor has donated a prize package that participants can win.

So far, the tournament has 10 registered teams. The last day to register is Saturday, March 13. The entry fee is $250 per team or $65 per person. All are invited to sign up for the tournament.

For more information or inquiries about participating in the tournament, contact Alison Ward at 865-661-8182 or [email protected].

—

C O N T A C T :

Bridget Hardy (865-974-2225, [email protected])

For more UT news, visit http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/

Check out our faculty experts guide at http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/media/experts-guide/

See UT faculty, staff and students making news at http://www.utk.edu/tntoday/category/in-the-news/

Filed under: Classics, Marketing/Advertising, Videos, Mercury

“It’s peppy,” the salesman said as an enticement to buy… It’s not that the Mazda 323/Ford Laser-based first-generation Tracer was a bad car, but the Escort apparently called stronger for our own hard-earned dollar, so we drove home in a brand new 1989 wagon. Ford apparently figured this out with the second-generation Tracer, which was joined with the Escort as part of a comprehensive redesign in the early 1990s.

Must have been a step in the right direction – that car managed to make it onto Car & Driver’s 10Best list. A preponderance of Tracers seem to have been painted metallic teal, one of the hottest colors of the time, but even in its second iteration the Tracer was nothing more than someone else’s hardware with a badge/grille job.

Out of all the shelved model names it could choose from, Mercury is apparently going to dust off the Tracer name for an interplanetary version of the new Focus. Since the next-gen Focus appears to be so good, the new Tracer ought to follow suit, but why not take this opportunity to remember a time when power mirrors and a tachometer were “features?” On to the videos, then, after the jump.

Continue reading Video: Memory Jog – Revisiting the Mercury Tracer

Video: Memory Jog – Revisiting the Mercury Tracer originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Congressional intimidation is the main story, and former congressman Eric Massa’s vacillation on why exactly he’s resigning. But, I can’t seem to get past the curtain-less showers in the Congressional gym locker room. Am I the only one?

Of course the MSM (as will be evidenced by the AP story to follow) is running with a falsehood claiming that Conservatives are embracing this lunatic. WRONG.

“New York congressman Eric Massa resigned his House seat this week under a sexual harassment cloud, claiming fellow Democrats forced his ouster to keep him from voting against their health care bill.

It’s the latest claim in a changing stream of explanations that have propelled him from a relatively obscure Democratic lawmaker to darling of conservative talk show hosts.” (source)

I specifically listed to the top dogs yesterday to ensure that they didn’t and Sean, Rush and Glenn all were of the same mind…the guy’s a bit of a kook. Of course they wanted to talk to him –he’s been scorned and cast aside by his party so he may be ripe with the need for revenge…and some juicy tidbits could be gleaned. That hardly makes him a Conservative darling. It makes him a willing patsy.

But back to the showers, seriously. Why in the world would the curtains have been removed?

“I was a congressman in my first eight weeks and I was in the congressional gym. And I went down and I worked out. I went into the showers, which, by the way, I for the life of me can’t figure out why they took all the shower curtains off the shower stalls in the congressional shower.

I mean the last thing I want to look is my fellow colleagues naked. But they don’t have any shower curtains down in the gym. And I’m sitting there showering, naked as a jay bird, and here comes Rahm Emanuel, not even with a towel wrapped around his tush, poking his finger at my chest, yelling at me because I wasn’t going to vote for the president’s budget.

Do you know how awkward it is to have a political argument with a naked man? By the way, what the heck is he doing in the congressional gym? He goes there to intimidate members of Congress…” (source)

And was it a deliberate move that Fox had a Democrat named Dick (Harpootlian) there to comment on nude Rahm…?

Cycling lovers in the US have something to cheer about: Google is adding bike routes to Google Maps directions to help cyclists find their way in crowded cities while avoiding some of the common problems specific to moving by bike rather than car like steep hills, or very crowded streets. Areas with unfriendly dogs haven’t been included yet. The feature… (read more)

Yesterday I received the letter alerting me to the fact that the 2010 census will be arriving shortly. Tangible government waste sitting in my hand… A letter alerting me to an impending letter?

…But that’s not my reason for posting. I’m in a quandary over whether to complete the census. Apparently if I don’t fill it out (they can’t prove I got it) they’ll send a stalker to the house until they get me. And any question I don’t fill out is $100 (max fine of $500).

I have no problem with the census itself. A count of our household. That’s Constitutional:
“Article I, Sec. 9: “No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.” And, from Article I, Sec. 2: “The actual Enumeration shall be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct.”

But all the additional stuff is disturbing.

The feds now have the GPS coordinates of our front doors like we’re trapped in a bad Will Smith movie…and somehow their assurances that their workers took a privacy oath isn’t doing much to reassure me. How about you?

“To the other questions, Dr. Paul tells us, we are constitutionally justified in telling the U.S. Census Bureau, “None of your business.” Not returning the form, however, or returning it incomplete, will exact the following consequence: a census bureaucrat will pay you a visit to get the answers in person. Continued refusal to cooperate can result in a fine of up to $5,000. No law-abiding U.S. citizens would give compliance with the census a second thought, of course, were it limited to, “How many people reside at this address?” (source“)

Am I overreacting…is Big Brother just looking out for me…

 

 

To Our Clients, Colleagues and Friends,

 

• California’s General Obligation bonds yield about the same as bonds from Greece , but anyway, 30-year California G.O.’s are paying 6%.  Because they’re exempt from state and federal taxes, higher-income Californians in a 40% combined federal and state tax rate get the equivalent of a 10% yield. Not bad.
  
• Audited financials are starting to come in, and they’re confirming what we saw all year.  Top performing mortgage bankers made 90-100 bps per loan.  That means that for every $100 million you closed, you should have (and could have) earned $900,000 to $1 million.  If you didn’t make this much, you need to look carefully at why you didn’t.  Or call us for a FOCIS-plus diagnostic to see what you can do to boost earnings per loan.
  
• The top quintile of companies we saw during the year all made over 100 bps per loan, with the top performer making 121 bps. For every $100 million they closed, they made $1.21 million.
  
• We got a tidal wave of Cult Movie nominations.  These were the top vote getters:

Rocky Horror Picture Show	Repo Man
The Big Lebowski	Clockwork Orange
Napoleon Dynamite	The T.A.M.I. Show
Fletch	Rock ‘n Roll High School
Ed Wood	True Romance
Repo Man	Neighbors
Baghdad Cafe	Easy Rider
Faster Pussycat, Kill Kill	The Wanderers
Freaks	Little Shop of Horrors

Rocky Horror Picture Show was the runaway favorite, but the rest are not listed in any particular order.  The Great Lebowski was a big favorite, and Night of the Living Dead just barely missed. For those of you new to this newsletter, Rocky Horror is a musical about an innocent couple that stumbles upon a castle filled with transvestite vampires.  This was one of Susan Sarandon’s first movies.

• What most mortgage company Boards are somewhat clueless about is their earnings broken down into bps per loan.  We see companies that did, say, $1 billion last year and earned 35 bps per loan.  Although that makes the company a big underperformer, Directors or outside investors go “Gee, how about that, we made $3.5 million. Hot damn!”  The reality is that they could have made at least 90 bps, which translates into $9 million! 
  
• Last week we noted that there are 200 billion stars in our own galaxy, and we asked just how many galaxies there are.  In response, someone sent us this fascinating video clip .    Watching it makes you wonder about all those things like just how big the universe is, does it have an end, if it ends, what’s on the other side, and, hey, aren’t there some Love Boat re-runs on TV right now?
  

• What do you think of mortgage companies that use the word Bancorp in their name?   It’s illegal to use the word bank unless you’re a real bank, but using the word Bancorp is legal.  We know some very decent people that have Bancorp in their name, but we think it’s deceptive. If you’re not a bank, you shouldn’t use language to imply that you are one.

• This is depressing: We just read Time magazine, the one with Tom Hanks on the cover, and it has only 60 pages.  We still have the November 6, 1989 Time which featured the breaking apart of the Soviet Union , and that issue was 119 pages. The latest issue of People magazine is 164 pages.  We don’t even want to know what this says about our culture.
• We knew Marion Berry was a crack head, but we didn’t know what a comedian he is.  He was recently stripped of his committee chairmanship on the Washington , D.C. City Council for illegallly funneling city money to his girlfriend.  Anyway, his response was “You can take away my committee Chairmanship, but you can’t take away my dignity.”  What?   His dignity? This is the mayor who was caught on tape snorting crack, and he’s defending his dignity? This guy should do stand-up comedy. 
  
• If you worry that there will be no one left to refinance soon, you should know that about 37% of all people with a mortgage have loans at 6% or higher.  That’s $1.2 trillion sitting out there, and yes, many can’t be refinanced, but many can.
• And how about good old Suburban Federal Savings ( Crofton , Maryland ) with a 614% Texas Ratio?  Does their President ever get a good night’s sleep?
• A year ago, everyone thought the world was coming to an end and that stocks were going to zero, but that was precisely when things bottomed out and started to turn around.  Here are the top performs of the past 12 months.

345%   Bank of America	119%   Boeing
277%   American Express	116%   DuPont
169%   JP Morgan Chase	113%   Walt Disney
156%   Alcoa	103%   Hewlett Packard
147%   Caterpillar	96%   3M
120%   General Electric	89%   United Technologies

A few others: Microsoft (88%), IBM (52%), Coca-Cola (38%), McDonalds (63%) and Wal-Mart (47%).

• When you look at how Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have changed things, one of the biggest changes is making refinancing much, much easier.  Pre-1986, there was no premium pricing, and thus, there was no such thing as a no-points or no-cost loan.  In about 1986, the two agencies started buying loans at prices above par, and the 1-2 point rebate allowed lenders to pay the loan officer’s commission and some of all of the closing costs.  Prior to this, a refinance would cost the borrower points plus costs, and as a result, it didn’t make sense to refinance unless you could lower your rate by 2.0 points!  Overnight, borrowers could refinance to save an eighth.

• The New Jersey Nets of the NBA are 7-56 for a .111 winning percentage.  If you extrapolate that onto a baseball over a full season, their record would be 18-144.  Even the Washington Nationals aren’t that bad.
• We were talking to a friend at lunch recently and somehow the topic came up of how much safer the world used to be. We’d read that crime rates have been dropping dramatically, so we looked up some FBI data on murder.  
  

This chart shows that the homicide rate is about where it was in 1950.  Here’s a graph going all the way back to 1910.  Look at how close 2008 and 1950 are.

1910	1930	1940	1950	1960	1970	1980	2008
4.6	8.8	6.3	5.4	4.7	8.3	10.7	5.9

A lot of why we think crime is higher is that the media plays up violent crimes more than in the past. The 24-hour news cycle means that editors are constantly looking for items to fill the hour, so even smaller crimes of violence get bigger play.

• We had a good response to the Steve Dalkowski item, so here’s one more tidbit.  At the end of his career he had a season with a really low ERA.  Manager Earl Weaver had his IQ tested, and when he learned that Dalkowski had an extremely low IQ, he figured out the problem.  Dalkowski just got too mentally flustered trying to handle a fastball low and inside followed by a curve low and away. Weaver told him to only throw one pitch the whole game, all fastballs right down the middle. His theory was that it didn’t matter if the hitter knew what was coming.  At 110 mph, no one was going to hit the ball anyway. See the attached article for more.
• With so many banks re-capitalizing, we remember what Allan Garrett (1917-1992) told us.  He said you should never invest when a company does a recap.  “Always wait for their second offering.”  His view was that most companies underestimate how bad things are and will have to come back to the market at least once more. The guys in the first recap will get diluted, so wait till the second one.

• Have you ever wondered which members get to vote for the Academy awards?  There are 5,777 people who get to vote, broken down per the following.

,205   Actors	340   Animation
452   Producers	279   Visual effects
437   Executives	245   Members-at-large
405   Sound	234   Music
382   Writers	221   Film editors
374   Art directors	200   Cinematographers
368   Public relations	151   Documentary makers
366   Directors	118   Makeup/hair

Can you actually get an Oscar for hair?

• Mike Abdelaaty of Islamic-oriented Bank of Whittier sent us a copy of the Qur’an (Koran) and we finally got around to reading it. It seems very respectful of the Jewish and Christian Bibles, and in some ways, it seems a continuation of both. Prophets such as Moses and John the Baptist are treated with great respect, and it seems to believe in the God of Abraham as well as of Jesus.  There is a popular belief that the Koran preaches violence and intolerance, and we have to tell you, we didn’t see any of that.
• From micro-cap bank newsletter The Vulture’s Roost: “When the FDIC has gotten rid of all its nasty little banks, and the banks that have struggled but didn’t get closed are cleaned up, we think there will be more banks for sale than you can shake a stick at. The Directors and management will be sick of banking. Directors join Boards of banks to hang with their buddies, eat lunch, and fall asleep while management recites its boring litany. They join Boards to be big shots in their communities, but the Directors of problem banks end up being worthless dogs who have lost money for their shareholders and who have to call in the loans of friends. Therefore, we predict that there will be a ton of banks that are ready to sell….”  What’-his-name at the Vulture’s Roost is a sharp bank analyst and a great writer.
• And three cheers for tiny Saint’s Mary’s College here in California .  They finished the season at 26-5 and are headed for the NCAA championships.  Go Gaels!

• The Combined Ratio is a good way to measure insurance companies, and it seems to be just as meaningful for mortgage insurers.  If the number is under 100, you’re making money. If you’re over 100, you’re losing money.

	Genworth	MGIC	OldRepublic	PMI	Radian
Loss ratio	186%	288%	195%	325%	242%
Expense ratio	26%	18%	15%	21%	18%
Combined ratio	212%	306%	210%	346%	260%

The M.I. companies are going through very difficult times, but the mortgage industry needs them more than ever, and they’ll come back strong.                           
                                                        *     *

Garrett, Watts & Co.

Helping lenders increase revenues, control costs, and better manage risk.

• Mike McAuley   ([email protected] )
• Corky Watts      ([email protected]) 
• Joe Garrett      ([email protected] )

Os fãs do lendário Corvette sabem que para um carro como esse, não é necessário muitas modificações para que ele seja mais um sucesso. Mas mesmo assim, a Chevrolet decidiu incrementar um pouco mais o seu xodó, com um conjunto de pneus Michellin Pilot Sport PS2.

Com a apresentação da versão 2011 em carbono do Z06 e um possível pacote opcional de perfornance, chamado de Z07, o carro irá ganhar um visual muito mais agressivo do que o de antes. Serão construídas 500 unidades dessa edição especial do Z06, e juntamente com o conjunto de pneus PS2, o carro também terá um conjunto de freios Brembo, os mesmos utilizados no Corvette ZR1 e um jogo de rodas pretas de 20 polegadas.

O interior do Z06 terá detalhes em camurça e os emblemas, que são características fortes do modelo. E os assuntos em couro e camurça, e costura laranja ou azul (variando de acordo com a cor do carro). Para quem gosta deste carro, as modificações prometem agradar e muito. Vejam algumas imagens a seguir.

Imagens da nova versão do Corvette Z06

Via | Inside Line

Perhaps unsurprising, Facebook is apparently looking to launch its own location features and services to the site and will unveil it at the f8, Facebook’s developers conference to be held in late April. Location has been one of the most hyped, new opportunities online and it looks like it is going mainstream, and fast. On Facebook, users will be a… (read more)

Superstars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have a super smart  in the family — their eight-year-old son Maddox.

Not only does the Cambodian-born cutie have the arguably the best-looking pair of parents on the Planet, the oldest member of the Jolie-Pitt 6 (Brangelina has three biological kids: Shiloh, 3, and Knox and Vivienne, 19 months; and two other adopted children, Pax, 6, and Zahara, 5.) also has the brains of a pint-sized Einstein.

“Maddox is beyond smart — he’s amazingly brilliant. Brad and Angie say his IQ is off the charts.”

Yep, now we feel completely inadequate!

Angelina adopted Maddox in 2002. Brad adopted him in 2005 after falling for Angie. Now the superstar couple can’t stop raving to pals about their Golden Boy, who they claim is intellectually-gifted and has a astronomical IQ, a tipster divulged in the March 15 issue of The National Enquirer.

After all, the jet-setting tot has been educated as some of the world’s most exclusive schools, including the prestigious Lycee Francais. Maddox takes piano lessons, is an avid soccer player, and speaks fluent English, Spanish, and Khmer — the language of his native Cambodia.

“Maddox loves books and tinkering with scientific gadgets. He whizzed through the Diary of a Wimpy Kid book series at a rate of one book per day, and he’s also a gifted painter and sketch artist.”

Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan believes that the problem for the recording industry is one of demographics. Mulligan uses the fact that the billionth application purchaser on iTunes, 13 year-old Connor Mulcahey, was much younger than the 10 billionth iTunes music purchaser, 71 year-old Louie Sulcer, to highlight the issue: older users may still pay for music tracks, but younger users are more likely to “part with their cash” for apps than for music. To Mulligan, the problem is with the current digital-music product itself. Thus, he prescribes a feature-rich app as the savior — and the future — of the music industry. He proposes a music application that wraps digital tracks with social networking, live on-demand footage, song lyrics, games, and forums. This sounds like an interesting idea, which could see some success (if well-executed), but if the music industry is seeking a “silver bullet” business model, this is not likely to be it.

It’s pretty well understood that what has driven the recording industry for decades now is “format change,” where the record companies have continually asked their customers to essentially re-buy their recordings each time a new format is adopted — from records, to cassettes, to CDs. With each new technology, customers were compelled to buy the products not by legislature or law, but rather, by a continual desire to have their music be more accessible. First, the phonograph made music more affordable and accessible, as compared to hiring a band of musicians to come and play in your living room. In the 80s, the cassette tape made listening more portable, albeit with a loss in audio quality. Then, in the 90s, the CD combined both portability and high audio quality into one small package, leading to a huge up-swell in recording purchases. For years, the recording industry has had a fantastic, well-defined business model: Record music that people want to hear on physical media. Sell that media. Repeat. Then, the 00s brought the latest maturation of the recording format, the mp3, with its near-infinite portability and an audio quality that can only really be contested by audio snobs. Since it could be easily copied and used in many different devices, it had the opportunity to become the most widely used music format ever. But, because of its near-infinite portability, the recording industry’s old tried-and-true business model of selling physical media was no longer as viable.

The evolution of recording formats shows that what has really driven the industry has been a hunger for increased accessibility and portability, not necessarily the introduction of new features. So, while Mulligan’s music application idea may drive some interest in recoded music, by empowering the audience to do more with it, it is very unlikely to drive the type of purchasing behavior that, in the past, came with each new recording format — and it certainly won’t “save recorded music.” The problem is that the user is no longer locked into the recording industry’s physical product for the distribution of music. There is no “one thing” they can sell that the audience will have no alternative but to buy. To be successful, the recording industry is going to have to experiment and figure out how make revenue from many different sources, which requires creativity that the labels have so far been unable or unwilling to muster. While the industry is out there looking for the “silver bullet” of a business model, the reality is that the answer is more like a whole clip full of silver bullets, coupled with some garlic, and finished off with a wooden stake or two.

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Oranmore, Co. Galway – A global seabed mapping contractor provides ocean engineering, surveying, project risk and construction support services for oil and gas field development. Depending on project needs, various configurations of data collection and processing equipment must be installed on vessels – in this case, for surface and underwater positioning. This typically requires the installation of hundreds of meters of cabling to collect and transfer data aboard the ship. Vlinx™ WiFi Ethernet serial servers, from B&B Electronics Manufacturing Company, Inc., are a “seaworthy” alternative to the cost and time required to string cable through the often tight quarters of ocean-going vessels.

Vlinx™ ESR41xW series Ethernet serial servers are reputed for simple yet reliable wireless Ethernet connectivity to remotely located serial devices – with no additional cabling expenditure. Connect any RS-232, RS-422, or RS-485 device to IEEE 802.11b/g networks with TCP server and TCP client modes.

The wireless serial servers also offer exceptional data security with WEP/WPA/WPA2 security and TKIP/AES data encryption. Dual AC/DC power inputs ensure power supply redundancy. Remote or local programming is easy with included web server configuration software. Terminal block power connectors, DB-9 serial connectors, IP30 metal case, flexible mounting options (DIN rail, panel, or desktop) help streamline installations in a variety of settings.

Other applications include industrial and factory automation devices (PLCs, motor controls, process analyzers, and instrumentation), plus automation and control for warehouses, hospitals and laboratories.

Designing, customising, and manufacturing products since 1981, B&B Electronics Manufacturing Co., Inc. provides customers with industrial automation and device networking solutions. The company is known globally as a one-stop source for rugged and reliable data communication products, full technical support, reputable customer service, and same-day shipping. For more information, call +353 91 792444 , +44-1926 851500 or visit www.bb-europe.com

Electrostatic ReCyclone Systems are composed by batteries of Hurricane Cyclones and by groups of electrostatic separators which are denominated as “recirculators”, placed downstream of the cyclones, Adoption of electrostatic recirculation has successfully proven to further reduce particle emissions, even in the [1;5] µm particle size range, assuring future regulation compliance, particularly where legal limits are very tight, with the objective of bag filter redundancy.

A DC high voltage is applied to the concentrator, allowing the recirculation of very fine particles, more resistant to centrifugal forces, to the cyclone collector. After having been separated in the recirculator and concentrated in the recirculation flow, electrically charged fine particles are attracted by the cyclone walls, while agglomerating with larger particles entering the system, both promoting their easier capture.

Features
– Very high efficiencies
– Pressure drop:[100-150] mm H20
– Low gas velocities
– Electrical field power consumption equals 5 % of blowers.
– Very low operation costs
– Near zero maintenance and downtime costs
– Reasonable investment costs
– Modular design
Powder Recovery in:
– Pharmaceutical / Biopharmaceutical Industry
– Fine chemicals
– Food ingredients
– Mineral processing
– Nanoparticles
– Catalysts recovery
Emission Control & Air Dedusting in:
– Biomass boilers
– Fuel oil boilers
– Cement industry
– Calcination processes
– Glass and ceramic furnaces
– Pyrolysis and incineration
– Mining industry
– High temperature separation processes

The BaleTainer® by Strautmann Umwelttechnik GmbH is an innovative and unique machine concept for compaction of paper, cardboard and PET bottles. With the filling comfort of a press container and a bale result of an 180t channel baler a new generation of disposal technology has started.

The huge filling opening enables the input of large cardboards or great quantities of PET bottles. Not only feeding the press chamber but also the output of bales and wire binding is fully automatically.

The innovative press concept allows for extremely compact construction .The BaleTainer® presses one bale by three slices and not by one piece as usual. Therefore less pressure, less energy and less space are required.

The bales in industrial format are qualified for direct marketing. Trailers and sea containers are fully loaded with 24t

Vacuum controller for passive sensors in rough industrial and research applications (incl. radioactive environments)

The new three-channel vacuum display and controller COMBIVAC CM 51 for industrial and research applications monitors and controls the complete vacuum range from atmospheric pressure (1000 mbar) down to the ultra high vacuum range (10-9 mbar). All channels can be operated simultaneously and absolutely independently.

The vacuum gauge is designed for Pirani and Penning passive (passive, as there are no electronic parts inside the sensor) sensors, which are radiation resistant and bakeable.
The COMBIVAC CM 51 operates in harsh and highly corrosive industrial applications. It is also suitable for use in areas with high levels of radiation and systems requiring high temperature bake out where only passive sensors can be operated.

Typical Applications

• Process Industry
– Vacuum Furnaces
– Electron Beam Welding
– Coating
– Lighting
• Research and Development
– Accelerators
– MBE (Molecular Beam Epitaxy)
– STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscope)
• Analytical Instruments
– Surface analysis

Additional advantages

• Compact bench top enclosure, also for racks (1/4 19-in., 3 HU)
• High sensor reliability and lifetime
• 3- channel-measurement and display simultaneously
• Cable length up to 100 meters
• RS 232 C and profibus interface for communication and remote control
• Connection of aligned and temperature compensated THERMOVAC sensors
• Connection of compact, bakeable and rugged PENNINGVAC sensors
• Automatic switchover and high voltage control from THERMOVAC to PENNING (cold cathode) operation
• Error message for each channel, for example in the case of broken filament, defective sensor line or failed plasma discharge

For further information contact:

Oerlikon Leybold Vacuum GmbH
Bonner Strasse 498
D-50968 Köln
Phone: +49 (0) 221 347-1578
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The new robot-palletizer installed at SGD Kipfenberg GmbH in Germany, the leading specialist for pharmaceutic hollow glass, combines great capacity increase and highest flexibility with a compact design. This new MSK system has been fitted with an efficient “control center” by the manufacturer of packaging machines.

New demands in production

When producing pharmaceutic hollow glass at the plant in Kipfenberg, both clean packs – according to different packaging patterns – and whole layers of bottles are handled and packed onto pallets. There were certain demands which the new palletizing machine had to satisfy: a clear increase in capacity with simultaneous, highly efficient job change. Furthermore, the use up until that point of a different palletizing robot for clean packs and that of a traditional glass palletizer for loose bottles was to be replaced by a more efficient and space saving universal solution for economic reasons.

High flexibility thanks to robot-palletizer

MSK’s robot-palletizing-system is a real all-rounder. It is fitted with three different heads which can be exchanged extremely fast and comfortably with a unique changing device during job change. This way, the robot is able to palletize clean packs according to different packaging patterns, while it can also pick up different bottle types with a suction plate or with tubes which grip the bottles alternatively. In addition, the robot can put up cardbox trays and plastic plates as interlayers. “Thanks to this new solution, the effort during job change has been decreased and double the packaging capacity could be achieved. The reliability is more than 99%, which means it is highly efficient”, says Michael Bouwmann, Key Account Manager for glass at MSK.

A minimum of space

The palletizing robot offers highest flexibility in a minimum of space. “We have even been able to deal with the confined space towards the ceiling at our plant in Kipfenberg due to the robot’s fine programming technology”, Michael Bouwmann explains. Since the robot features integrated supplementary functions such as the application of interlayers, additional modules are not necessary and consequently, machine equipment and its associated space requirement could be reduced for the cold end. “MSK has come up with competent and reliable project engineering”, says Rainer Becker, Technical Director at SGD Kipfenberg GmbH. “The compact design of the machine and the possibility of handling all the customers’ packaging demands with flexibility in the future tipped the scales for the new palletizing system”.

Complete solution

Apart from the new palletizing robot, MSK has also delivered a centering frame with film sheet applicator used to equip pallets with bottom sheets and loose bottles with interlayers. The cardboard trays are prepared by an MSK Traytech and are then applied by the robot. All of these MSK modules are easily controlled via MSK EMSY, the centrally integrated visualization software.

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