The Isle of Man TT is among the oldest and famous races in motorsports. Azhar Hussain, an eco-conscious motorcycle fanatic, hopes to turn the race into what he calls the world’s first high-speed zero-emissions grand prix.
If Hussain’s vision receives approval from TT organizers, TTxGP will showcase motorcycles and three-wheelers fueled by anything that doesn’t emit tailpipe pollution. They’ll race on the same 38-mile mountain course where conventional bikes hit speeds in excess of 120 mph. “This is an event where cutting-edge technology, systems and designs can be tested against the best in the world and rapidly refined and improved,” Hussain told Wired.com. “All of this means that clean tech is delivered to the consumer faster than it would otherwise.”
Two teams have signed up so far — Kingston University in London and Electric Motor Sports, the California company that builds electric motorcycles and sells other electric vehicles.
In the following video video TheStreet.com’s political analyst John Fout points out free trade issues which he believes both presidential candidates have flip-flopped on. He says that in the democratic primary Obama knocked NAFTA saying the country needed to “renegotiate” the agreement. After beating Hillary who had taken such a strong anti-NAFTA stance, now Obama says he supports “fair” free trade.
Fout then rips McCain for touting free trade to win the Republican vote, yet afterward giving a speech in April proposing the creation of a “League of Democracies” alienating China and Russia. Fout also claims that McCain said he wants kick Russia out of the G8.
“Auction of the Week” is new blog feature in which we give readers the inside scoop on one upcoming machinery auction every week. The following is not an advertisement. It is totally free of monetary consideration for TMW or any other company. We will pick these auctions on the merit of what we believe will interest members of the machining community.
The Sharon Screw Products sale, put on by Cincinatti Industrial Auctioneers, July 15, will be interesting not just because it is the biggest Greenlee event in memory, but because it has six Model OM Cincinnati Centerless Grinders. The OM model was made in the early 1950s by Cincinnati, and discontinued a few years later for the 220-8 series. But the allure of the compact OM remained long after it should have vanished into the scrapbooks of once viable used machinery.
Many companies have figured out ways to rebuild and put CNC controls on the humble OM. Sharon owns one of those CNC retrofits being sold. These machines are favorites in India where rebuilding the grinders has become a cottage industry. Perhaps the popularity in India derives from the sound of “Om,” a tone that Yogis chant to synchronize their breathing exercises.
I talked to Bill Becker a University of Illinois professor who has gone into business with his children building mini wind turbines for city dwellers who have access to moving air.
Becker answered the phone when I called his office on the North Side of Chicago. He says people are calling from all over the world to inquire about his vertical axis turbines which look more like modern sculpture than energy generator.
Becker’s low cost generators cost $15,000 to $20,000 depending on the size. His bigger one has two alternators and a smaller version one. They hook directly into the building power supply, looking like big erector sets of steel tubing. Becker has extensive credentials in the alternative energy field. He invented a solar powered bike, but he’s having a ball now with his own firm Aerotecture International Inc.
He told me he is working out a deal with Abt, a big Chicago retailer of televisions and appliances. Abt wants to go green in their huge showroom warehouse but the management also sees potential in getting into the personal energy generation business. Becker has recently installed a combo wind generator with solar panels at the headquarters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Chicago. The IBEW sees green installations as an important avenue for development of the profession.
The wind farm folks have allied themselves with the electric utilities. Becker says the massive wind generators have their place but it is potentially a lot easier to put a small, mass produced unit on a condo building or bridge than hook up the infrastructure to wind farm on a remote, if windy, mountain side.
The event is a competition between students from around North America (there is a different one in Europe) to create the most fuel efficient car ever. Purdue University won the prize for a solar engine vehicle reaching 2,861.8 miles per gallon. Penn State won the Fuel Cell category with a car reaching 1,668.3 miles per gallon, and Mater Dei High School claimed the first and third place trophies for the internal combustion engine category. The 5th and 6th Gen vehicles traveled 2,383.8 and 1,208.6 miles per gallon respectively.
But why is Shell, an oil company, sponsoring an event whose purpose is to invent cars which will obliterate the demand for its product? It reminds me of the Philip Morris commercials telling people not to smoke. David Sexton, President of Shell Oil Products said in a CNN interview, “We’re thrilled that if some of these ideas can maybe in the future reduce fuel consumption we think that would be good for everyone.” Does “everyone” include himself?
It must be a PR thing because otherwise it makes no sense. The oil companies are banking on the idea that even if fuel efficient, alternative energy vehicles do become practical and affordable, it will take decades before the supply of vehicles worldwide adopts the new technology. In the meantime Shell looks like a green maverick amongst its Big Bad Oil peers.
“Auction of the Week” is new blog feature in which we give readers the inside scoop on one upcoming machinery auction every week. The following is not an advertisement. It is totally free of monetary consideration for TMW or any other company. We will pick these auctions on the merit of what we believe will interest members of the machining
community.
Rockwell Automation, the old multi-story Allen-Bradley plant in Milwaukee is selling a nice selection of National Acmes and New Britain multi spindles. Hilco is the auctioneer in an online event spanning July 1 – 10.
The Allen-Bradley plant has wood floors seldom seen today. Those floors have sopped up untold gallons of cutting oil over 70 years as Allen-Bradley evolved from a premier supplier of starters and relays for mechanical products to a producer of automation devices under the Rockwell banner.
Hilco is selling twelve 7/16″ RA6 Acmes in this deal, more than I’ve seen in any one place for a long time. The tiniest Acmes ever made may be worth more for their parts than for running product. Trying to find 7/16″ RA6 parts today is like trying to find a replacement for an eyeglasses frame that’s been discontinued.
When I was 17 years old my father hired me as a screw machine prospector for the summer. All day long I would call shops in the Midwest looking for surplus Acmes, New Britains and Davenports with my cousin Dan Pinkert. Occasionally we would drive to Kalamazoo or Indianapolis, camp out at the bell system headquarters and call locals hunting for the elusive screw machine or chucker.
The last week of the summer Danny and I took the train up to Milwaukee. One of my first calls was Allen-Bradley, the massive fortress of a factory in downtown Milwaukee with a reputation for quality products and right wing politics. We hit gold. A-B had a 9/16” RA6 new in 1952 for sale. I asked my dad what it was worth and he told me to get it for $2,500 or less.
We quickly took a taxi over to the plant, found the purchasing guy in charge and made an offer. Bingo. We made the deal. I think my father sold the machine for $7,500, which paid for the summer expenses of Dan and I.
I see one lone 9/16” Acme in the upcoming Hilco sale. It’s probably worth about $2,500 today.
A recent survey by RBC Capital Markets showed that many Americans are becoming more open to living near wind, hydro, geothermal, and even nuclear power generation facilities in response to high energy prices and environmental concerns. Only 16 percent of Americans said that they would oppose the construction of any type of energy plant or facility in their hometown, down from 23 percent in 2007.
In addition to power generation related companies (mentioned in the following video) infrastructure manufacturers such as Parker-Hannifin Corporation, Foster Wheeler, and Woodward Governor Company, are just a few of the firms which could capitalize on the possible expansion of diverse power sources.
Bob Maddox, an artist and cabinet maker from Medford, Ore., has built a jet powered bicycle which can go at least 50 MPH (he predicts it can go 75 if anyone’s got the guts). “When you’re on a motorcycle going 50 mph, you don’t think anything about it,” he told Wired Magazine. “But on a bicycle, it feels way too fast.” Recently he started selling the bikes on eBay.
In addition to strapping jets onto bikes, Maddox who was an avid skydiver for 20 years decided to strap a jet to his chest and make himself into a human missile. He discovered that turbine jet engines are expensive but pulse jets are cheap and simple so Maddox set to work building one. “All I started with was a schematic out of an encyclopedia,” he says. The engines are basically a long tube with a fuel pump, a spark plug and a reed valve. Air and fuel are mixed at the front and ignited in a process that repeats – or “pulses” – about 70 times a second.
He started refining his pulse jet engines, which he fashions from aluminum and stainless steel in his workshop. He’s sold about 50 of them. The smallest are used to power model airplanes. The largest – two monsters producing 500 pounds of thrust apiece – have joined the beastly nitro-methane engine in Wally Larson’s Top Gun Groundfighter show car. (Blog.wired.com)
World trade is like a chameleon, constantly changing colors to survive and flourish. This is why I tend to disregard the Lou Dobbsians who are constantly searching for bad guys rather than opportunities.
With the developing world growing so fast now and the added strain of material flowing to China to heal the wounds of the horrible earthquake, the container system is simply overused. The China trade is sopping up all slack in capacity, which means rates are triple those of six years ago if you can even find a container to send goods from the U.S. to Europe.
The cost of shipping a standard, 40-foot container from Asia to the East Coast has already tripled since 2000 and will double again as oil prices head toward $200 a barrel, says Jeff Rubin, chief economist at CIBC World Markets in Toronto. He estimates transportation costs are now the equivalent of a 9% tariff on goods coming into U.S. ports, compared with the equivalent of only 3% when oil was selling for $20 a barrel in 2000. (Wall Street Journal)
With labor costs and the value of the yuan rising too, China is losing its competitive edge in manufacturing versus the U.S. Even furniture, which gravitated almost entirely to China, is coming back to America.
The container shortage is an annoyance at the moment. Its deeper significance is in the context of world trade. If the protectionists do not mess things up after the election, the seeds are being sown for a significant resurgence in American manufacturing for many years to come.
Just when you think that we Americans have it bad with gas prices between four and five dollars per gallon, look across the Atlantic. Europeans are paying around nine dollars per gallon. Spanish truck drivers have protested by simply parking in a long line along the highway. Now in Spain and France people are protesting high prices by riding bikes in the nude. Also, farmers are leaving fields and clogging roads with their tractors.
