Belfast firm makes light of airline's problems

AQUAWATCH

CARBON FIBRE is light and strong so it is used in all sorts of products, from bicycles and fishing rods to racquet frames and sailing boats. The aviation industry is also a big user of carbon fibre and up to 80 per cent of next generation aircraft will be made from it.

Axis Composites in Belfast has developed a new technology for forming 3D woven carbon fibre that it hopes will have companies such as Boeing and Airbus queuing up outside its doors.

Its product is stronger and lighter than those that are on the market. It is also faster to use and has the potential to cut manufacturing costs in the industry by up to 60 per cent.

“Traditionally carbon fibre is laid down single layer by single layer and resin is injected onto the layers to make a rigid component,” explains Steven Kirby, the managing director.

“Each layer has to be placed in the correct orientation by hand so it is very labour intensive. Our technology produces a fibre preform in one component.”

The company’s product has applications in the aerospace, automotive, military, energy and ballistics sectors.

Axis Composites is a spin-out company from the University of Ulster. The two academics behind it, Dr Justin Quinn and Dr Alistair McIlhagger, have been managing the Engineering Composites Research Centre at the university for the past 10 years.

“3D weaving is based on the traditional technique of Jacquard weaving,” says Kirby. “However the application to carbon fibre is distinctively new and we have the added knowledge to integrate this into aviation manufacturing.”

Axis Composites is a minnow in the world of materials technology so what is to stop its bright idea being replicated by a much bigger organisation?

“There are perhaps four companies that have the capability to do it,” Kirby says. “What they lack is the advanced research to design and model 3D woven composites. It would take them five or six years just to do the basic research.”

Credibility is a big challenge for small companies trying to break into the world of international aviation but Kirby says years of research collaboration between Axis’s founders and companies such as Rolls-Royce and Bombardier means it is already well known in its niche market.

The company is looking to raise about €600,000 to fund the development of a manufacturing plant.

Intelligent system takes steps to improve safety

IF LIGHTSTEP TECHNOLOGIES gets its way, the little green man who shows escape routes from public buildings will soon be redundant. In his place will be a high-tech lighting system that creates a pattern of bright green arrows on the floor or lower part of the wall to guide people to safety outside using the quickest route.

Existing devices, such as fire alarms and sprinklers, alert people to danger but do little to help them to choose the safest escape route. Signs can become obscured by smoke and the green man doesn’t know whether the route he is indicating leads into the path of danger or not.

Lightstep is different from conventional life safety systems because it is “smart” and is powered by a complex integrated software system that has taken years to perfect. Key to the system are strategically located sensors that continually monitor the situation in real time. If an escape route becomes unsafe for any reason, the green arrows change to red crosses. The system works in all buildings no matter how high or how complex their design. All components are designed to meet a certain “life span” in the event of a fire.

“This is the world’s first situation-sensitive, intelligent evacuation system, which elevates evacuation from merely guided signage to an intelligently controlled system,” explains Kieran Patterson, the creator of the system. “There is a global market and global demand covering every aspect of egress management. None of the major companies specialising in life safety have anything that compares with Lightstep. Current systems offer little more than has been available in the field for many years.”

It took almost six years to develop the system that went live in October 2009. Since then the company has been on the road pitching its idea to developers and property management companies worldwide.

Production of the system will begin in Asia in a few months’ time and the company hopes to sign its first paying customers shortly. Even the most sophisticated new buildings still have old-fashioned low-cost safety signage. The challenge will be to convince the construction industry to spend more money making buildings safer.

Aid for English teachers

GOOD NEWS for teachers of English as a second language. A new online tool called Lingle can cut lesson preparation time and make classes more enjoyable for students, according to Dr Brian McNamee of the school of computing at Dublin Institute of Technology, who is co-founder of the firm.

“Language teachers like to use authentic texts from newspapers and magazines to make the learning process more interesting and relevant for students,” says McNamee. “The problem for teachers is finding material that’s at the right level for a particular class and of interest to them. Teachers do this manually and it takes a lot of time. Lingle is a sophisticated search engine that will do it for them and give them access to more material and to each day’s news.”

Lingle allows teachers to specify key words and specific vocabulary or grammar points they want to teach. It then searches for material that fulfils their criteria. Once the teacher is satisfied with the article, he or she can tap into a range of online tools that use the article as the basis for developing language exercises such as a glossary or a crossword.

McNamee’s associates on the project are Dr John Kelleher, also of the school of computing, and Dr Noel Fitzpatrick of the school of art, design and printing, assisted by the National Digital Research Centre.

The system has been piloted in France and Spain and a version was launched at the Expolangue trade show in Paris. The full production version of the system will be available from April. The company is looking for roughly €600,000 in follow-on funding. It will cost teachers about €40 per year to subscribe to the system.

Lingle is waiting for a patent on the technology but McNamee says anyone trying to copy it would need considerable skill. “The technology is built using state-of-the-art techniques from machine learning, computational linguistics and information retrieval,” he says. “My colleagues and I have been working in this area for about 15 years and have been able to use this experience as a springboard to develop Lingle.”

New device can help to prevent high water bills

A WATER LEAK at a business premises that went undetected for six months landed the owners with a shock water bill of €13,500 – instead of the usual €200. But it sparked an idea in the mind of Monaghan inventor Eamonn Hughes. “It set me thinking about a way not just of monitoring water consumption but also of detecting possible leaks,” he says.

A combined alert and monitoring device, the unit can be fitted internally or externally and is connected by wire to a water-flow meter. Flow rates are recorded and displayed on the monitor and hourly rates can be reviewed later. The overall flow in each 24-hour period is logged and compared to average usage. The unit can be programmed by the user and deviations outside pre-set parameters trigger visual and audio alarms. It also has wireless and text alarm options.

Farmers are the initial primary target market for the unit because they are heavy users of water and often have extensive networks of pipes.

It has potential wherever water usage has direct cost implications, however. This includes the 200,000 Irish households in group water schemes, business premises where water is already metered and potentially every home in the country when proposed national water metering is introduced.

AquaWatch recently received a credibility boost when the Environmental Science Unit in Trinity College Dublin adopted its system for use in a water conservation research project. Now the firm is setting its sights farther afield with the help of an Enterprise Ireland export mentor.

The electronic and plastic components for the unit, which retails at €175 plus Vat, are made in Ireland and assembled by AquaWatch, which employs six people in Ballybay.

AquaWatch could face competition from other consumer electronics companies if a significant potential market emerges but Hughes believes there is sufficient innovation in AquaWatch to retain first-mover advantage. Given that he has two other commercially successful inventions to his credit – wooden wedge-making and block wall cutting machines – he may be right.