News - 12 Mar 2008
IMechE recognise Engineers for outstanding work
Two research teams have picked up prestigious awards from the IMechE.
The contribution of academics from the University of Bath's Department of Mechanical Engineering has once again been recognised by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE). Research teams from the Innovative Design and Manufacturing Research Centre (IdMRC) and the Centre for Power Transmission and Motion Control collected two of the IMechE's four annual awards presented at the IMechE's headquarters on Wednesday December 15th 2007.
Dr Hicks (left) and Professor Mullineux (right) receive award from IMechE president John Baxter (centre)
Professor Glen Mullineux, Theme Leader in the IdMRC, and Dr Ben Hicks, Deputy Director of the IdMRC, collected the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Water Arbitration Prize for their paper entitled Simulating the behaviour of folded cartons during complex packaging operations published in 2006.
This paper is one of a series arising from a major study into understanding machine-material interaction for the improved design and operation of packaging machinery. The study has provided the fundamental understanding of the nature of the interactions and the behaviour of cartonboard packaging materials during processing that is necessary to create machinery that better handles thinner, lighter-weight and recycled materials. The tools and methods created by the research team have enabled the optimum material properties to be established for particular processes, the re-engineering of packaging design, the redesign of tooling and matching of tooling to new and emerging materials, and the determination of robust machine settings (less sensitive to material variation). It has been shown that the ability to represent machine-material interaction enables reasoning about material, machinery and product within a single approach, and bridges the link between the three key supply chains: materials, machinery and consumer good manufacturers. The latter of these is critical for consumer goods manufacturers to meet the ever-increasing legislative requirements [European packaging and packaging waste directive 2004/12/EC of 11 February 2004 amending 94/62/EC11, 2004]. The work was supported by a number of companies including Hayssen Sandiacre, Packaging Processing and Machinery Association (PPMA), Pira International and Manor Bakeries.
Dr Matthew Cole (Visiting Research Fellow), Dr Necip Sahinkaya (Reader), IMechE president John Baxter (centre) Professor Patrick Keogh (Head of the Department's Machine Systems sub-group) and Professor Cliff Burrows collected the Institution of Mechanical Engineers' Thomas Bernard Hall Prize for their research paper Wavelet domain control of rotor vibration published by the IMechE in 2006.
This is the second time that Keogh and Cole have received the Thomas Bernard Hall Prize, which was in 2003 for their paper Rotor vibration with auxiliary bearing contact in magnetic bearing systems.