Royal Caribbean International’s Harmony of the Seas is now in commercial operation. The ship features Wärtsilä engines, propulsion equipment, navigation and dynamic positioning systems, as well as Wärtsilä CCTV systems and various electrical & automation solutions. With a length of 362 metres the ship, which was built at the STX France shipyard is the world’s largest cruise vessel, and was delivered from the yard on May 12 of this year.
The Harmony of the Seas is powered by four 12-cylinder Wärtsilä 46F engines and two 16-cylinder Wärtsilä 46F engines, featuring best-in-class fuel economy, and outstanding power-to-weight and power-to-space ratios. For effective manoeuvring, the ship has four Wärtsilä CT3500 transverse thrusters.
Wärtsilä has also provided the engines and thrusters to the vessel’s sister ships, the Oasis of the Seas and the Allure of the Seas, thus emphasising the trust and cooperation that exists between the two companies.
1. AutoCad 360
AutoCad, the popular design software is now also available as a mobile app that allows you to view and edit DWG files on your mobile device or tablet.
Platforms: Apple and Android
2. MathPix Problem Solver
The Mathpix app is every engineering student’s dream come true. It is the first app that allows you to take a snapshot of a math problem where the app will then solve it visually. It reads both handwriting or printed text.
Platforms: Apple, soon coming to Android
3. Engineering Professional
Engineering Professional is a handy app that organizes every equation you could ever need to solve engineering problems. The equations are laid out by engineering specialty and it includes over 650 individual formulas for all of your engineering needs.
Platforms: Apple
4. FingerCAD
This application for technical drawing using your fingers can be a useful tool for quickly designing floor plans and getting an idea for how a space will be laid out.
Platforms: Apple
5. Graphing Calculator
There's no need to point out the benefits of a graphing calculator in the form of a mobile app.
Platforms: Apple
6. HVAC Professional
Whether you are a HVAC professional or just someone trying to fix your broken A/C unit, this app including 200 formulas will help walk you through the process.
Platforms: Apple
7. iCircuit
An excellent app for drawing circuits, testing functions, checking voltages and helping troubleshoot on the go.
Platforms: All
8. iEngineer
The most comprehensive database of information about hardware sizes. It has both US and Metric screw sizes and many more intricate features.
Platforms: Apple
9. LuxCalc
If you are a mechanical engineer who needs help with thermodynamics or fluid properties, LuxCalc is for you since the app calculates the thermophysical properties of various fluids within a high degree of accuracy.
Platforms: Apple and Windows PC
10. Truss Me!
Finally, something to relax a bit. Truss Me! is a very fun game that allows you to design and test structures. It offers up challenges to create stronger structures while also teaching you about the engineering process behind everything.
Platforms: Apple and Android
Hybrid Manufacturing Technologies has developed a unique CNC-based hybrid tool control solution that enables virtually any CNC machine or robotic platform to deploy both metal-cutting and metal-adding heads in the spindle and conveniently change between them. Such operations are normally undertaken by discrete machines and require lengthy additional changeovers and programming steps that take a lot of time. The new technology allows for the majority of metal parts made by 3D printing to have post-processing operations. The hybrid approach also allows different compositions of materials to be used in the same component, while in-process inspection can assure quality levels otherwise impractical or impossible to evaluate. After initial issues relating to both the Ethernet communications and the HMI – with its original control solution, in cooperation with Beckhoff these issues were resolved and easier connection at customer sites was facilitated, offering greater capability to expand the solution as the technology and the customers’ needs evolve.
There is a widespread belief that desktop 3D printers are suitable only for prototyping, whereas for "serious" three-dimensional printing you need big investments. However, if you choose the most appropriate printer for your project, you will quickly see the countless application possibilities of desktop 3D printing with clear resource benefits. The retailer Creat3D specializes in this, with clients who use its printers for the production of tools, fixing kit, moulds, casings for delicate technology and much more. Some 3D printers can generate greater power to weight ratio than aluminium. The best example is the new 3D printer Mark Two Composite by the manufacturer MarkForged, which achieves great results by mixing nylon as a base material with the possibility of adding Kevlar, fibreglass or carbon fibre for enhanced functionality. A chain link printed on the Mark One with reinforced Carbon Fibre, created by the Olin College of Engineering, supported approximately 10 tonnes before failing, at a cost less than £20.
The range of materials that can be used in 3D printing could be significantly expanded thanks to the University of Nottingham. The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has awarded the University a £ 3.5 million grant to develop new materials for 3D printing. As part of the project, researchers will establish a series of 3D printing materials libraries. The main objective of the project is to eliminate an important problem in the world of additive manufacturing: the seemingly unbreakable link between materials and their associated printing techniques. Owing to advanced screening technology, researchers will be able to determine very quickly whether a material can be printed and what its properties are. The team plans to investigate the formulation of materials for inkjet printing, paste extrusion and hot melt extrusion (HME).
Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. (MES) announced on 29 June that they have completed the world’s first ME-GIE ethane-operated two-stroke diesel engine. The engines will be for propulsion of three ethylene carriers, which primarily will carry liquid ethane as cargo.
The Mitsui-MAN B&W 7G50ME-C9.5-GIE is the third engine in a series of three for installation in three LEG (liquefied ethylene gas) carriers of 36,000 m3 for Hartmann Schiffahrt of Germany and Ocean Yield of Norway, being built at Sinopacific Offshore Engineering (SOE) in China.
MAN Diesel & Turbo reports that ethane was chosen as fuel, in preference to HFO, due to its more competitive pricing. The ME-GI engine represents the culmination of many years’ work and gives ship-owners and operators the option of utilising fuel or gas depending on relative price and availability, as well as environmental considerations, since the carbon dioxide emissions profile of ethane is considerably lower. Also, the engines will be set up such that they can easily be converted to run on methane as an alternative, as per the owner’s wish.
MAN Diesel & Turbo currently has eight ME-GIE engines on order.