Engineering Magazine – June 2019

6 JUNE 2019 ENGINEERING

Materials

The new adidas Kromaskin field hockey

stick is made from Hypetex Textreme

material, developed with innovative

technology born out of Formula 1 racing.

The stick features a unique colourised

carbon fibre outer layer on spread tow

materials that reduces fibre damage during

production to maintain the highest structural

performance whilst bringing a premium new

aesthetic to field hockey sticks.

Carbon fibre spread tow technology is

used for the outer shell, with ultra-thin

carbon tapes rather than conventional

carbon ply structures. These are woven

into tightly packed uniform fibres

that reduce voids and carbon defects

improving surface quality and maximizing

performance.

It also incorporates other new and

improved technologies, including a

preform core technology designed by

the Hypetex team specifically to allow

players to cut new angles and distribute

more effectively, whether it be threading

the clinical pass or going aerial.

The new Kromaskin stick, designed and

engineered by Hypetex and manufactured

by Marque Makers for adidas, has

outperformed other benchmark sticks on

the market in laboratory tests.

http://www.hypetex.com

Logistics

IES is flying the flag for Bristol businesses in

the field of specialist logistics for research

equipment.

The company has recently completed the

highly technical task of moving and installing

brand new, extremely valuable research

equipment into a new nanofabrication and

cleanroom facility at Royal Holloway, University

of London; along with the decommissioning,

relocation and re-commissioning of equipment

taken from the old cleanroom to the new

one. The University is one of the UK’s

leading research intensive institutions and the

new facility, known as SuperFab, will help its

Department of Physics to continue research

into new and unique types of ultra-sensitive

sensing devices and the development of

superconducting quantum devices.

In addition to the high cost and large size

of the new equipment, the IES team were

faced with the major challenges of uneven

terrain and possible adverse weather, both of

which could have caused significant damage.

Not only did they overcome these, they did

so on time, with Professor Phil Meeson from

Royal Holloway’s Department of Physics

commenting, “The equipment was swiftly

reconnected, re-commissioned and expertly

tested. We were surprisingly quickly left with

all of our tools working in the new location just

as they had been in the old one, together with

some friendly and very useful free advice. IES

are a very impressive source of expertise.”

http://www.royalholloway.ac.uk/superfab

Multi-million equipment move

High-power

hockey stick

MONITOR