MDC NEWS UPDATE MAY 09

Next event....

Advances in Aluminium Technology in the Marine, Defence & Renewable Energy sectors

2nd June 2009, Marine Design Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne

Presentation and discussion sharing Alcoa's materials expertise in key markets and highlighting the opportunities presented by technical advancements.

As part of a visit to the MDC and NDI offices, a delegation from Alcoa including Jimmy Williams, President of Alcoa Defense, and Douglas Ramsey, Government Project Development Manager, will give a presentation looking at technical developments in:

Defence

• Naval Structural Design and material selection
• Lightweight Survivable Structures
• Advanced Design for Wheeled Tactical Vehicles

Renewable Energy

• Alternative design solutions for Renewable Energy Systems
• Offshore wind, tidal, geothermal, and storage systems

Alcoa is the world leader in the production and management of primary aluminium, fabricated aluminium and alumina combined, through its active and growing participation in all major aspects of the industry. Alcoa provides design, engineering and production capabilities to customers in the aerospace, commercial transportation, industrial and defence sectors worldwide. The Company has 87,000 employees in 35 countries, has been named one of the top most sustainable corporations in the world at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and has been a member of the Dow Jones sustainability Index for seven consecutive years.

A full agenda will be available soon, however demand is expected to be high so please act now to reserve your place by contacting us on info@marinedesigncentre.com or 0191 255 1710. Places cost £20 for Marine Design Centre, NDI and NOF Energy members, and £45 for non-members.

Composites in the Marine Sector

MDC was delighted to host an excellent presentation last month by Ajay Kapadia, Director of the Materials KTN (formerly the National Composites Network). Discussions covered composite materials, applications in the marine sector, lessons from the aerospace & automotive sectors and US defence composites R&D, as well as the future of composites in the marine sector.

A wealth of information on composite materials is available on the NCN website which can be viewed by clicking here.

Ajay Kapadia's slides from the MDC presentation are available on request from simon.ellis@marinedesigncentre.com

Contract & tender opportunities....

MDC to launch Contracts & Tenders Database

The Marine Design Centre is delighted to launch a new contract & tender service for members. This  innovative solution to finding new business opportunities is to be launched in partnership with Newcastle software development specialist Nimis.

Nimis gathers many thousands of opportunities every week from across web sites, newspapers, databases and opportunity portals, which will then be filtered to provide marine and offshore sector opportunities through the MDC website.

Access is free for member companies and the facility can be used to:

• Access contract opportunities
• Bid for opportunities
• Follow tenders across UK, Europe and US
• Locate new customers
• Produce mailing lists
• Find out who buys their competitors' products/services 
• Identify and monitor competitors 

MDC Business Development Manager, Simon Ellis, said: “We have been very impressed with Nimis and believe that this service will identify some very good sales opportunities for members. This is part of a much wider strategy that we are putting in place to assist and support members to win new business.”

Passwords to access the site will be sent to members in the next fortnight and a launch event will be held soon to demonstrate the facility and the opportunities it offers. For more information please contact Simon Ellis on 0191 2551710 or email simon.ellis@marinedesigncentre.com

 

New member....

Welcome on board, Wavespec

We are delighted to welcome Wavespec as the latest member of the Marine Design Centre.

The business is a well-established marine engineering consultancy providing a full range of consultancy services to clients in every part of the globe.

Wavespec is a leading marine engineering and naval architecture consultancy in the design and construction of vessels carrying LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) in bulk. The full range of services the company supplies includes vessel condition surveys, pre-purchase inspections, condition assessments, dynamic positioning (DP) audits, failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) studies for off-shore and DP vessels, safety audits, project management of vessel construction and vessel conversion, development of repair specifications, contract negotiations, vessel design development and review, plan approval, construction supervision, guarantee claim follow up and operational support.

It is also one of the few consultancies carrying out Shipyard Risk Assessments for insurance underwriting syndicates under the Joint Hull accords (JH143).

Wavespec Limited was formed in early 1993 and, from its inception, has maintained as its core centre of excellence the design and construction of vessels to carry liquids in bulk. The company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Braemar Seascope Group Plc.

Wavespec, based in Essex, already has links with companies in the North East and is actively seeking to increase its connections in the region to access new sources of professional support. It believes that membership of the MDC will allow it to do just that.

Noble Denton Merger

We would like to take this opportunity to congratulate MDC member Noble Denton on its merger with Germanischer Lloyd to form a fully integrated technical assurance and consulting company to serve the worldwide energy industries.

Noble Denton opened a North East office nearly two years ago, and is an active MDC member.

The new entity will provide assurance, inspection and consulting as well as project management on a worldwide scale. It will focus its services along the life-cycle oil and gas – upstream, midstream and downstream, renewables and energy installations onshore and offshore. This includes safety, integrity, reliability and performance management.

We Salute Oxley Developments

MDC member Oxley Developments has been formally congratulated by Support Britain’s Reserves and Employers (SaBRE) for allowing staff time to serve in the auxiliary and armed forces. The SaBRE was set up to educate employers as the benefits of letting employees sign up for part time service such as the Territorial Army.

Oxley Developments, which has bases in Ulverston and Barrow-in-Furness, was presented with a SaBRE certificate by James Cropper, Lord Lieutenant of Cumbria, at a lunch for business people from Cumbria on behalf of the Cumbrian SaBRE committee.

Oxley is a global company, specialising in the design and manufacture of electronic and electro–optic systems and components.

Royal Approval for IHC Engineering Business

Congratulations also to IHC Engineering Business (EB) of Northumberland, a winner of the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2009. The company is one of only ten in the region to be presented with what is considered to be the highest accolade for business success.

IHC Engineering Business (EB) is a member of the Dutch group IHC Merwede which is a world market leader in the construction of specialist dredging equipment and complex custom-built offshore vessels. EB designs, builds and supplies engineering solutions for the offshore oil and gas, submarine telecom, defence and renewables industries. In just over 12 years EB has grown from a start-up company to an employer of more than 180 people with an impressive order book for deliveries in the next few years.

Further AVEVA Training....

Our next 2 PDMS courses in conjunction with AVEVA.

Not only is it great news that AVEVA are putting on the courses, but there is also the major advantage that those attending do not have the time and financial costs involved in traveling outside the region.

PDMS Steelwork Design

18th - 22nd May 2009

This course includes basic functions, AVEVA Plant Design set-up, Basic Steelwork Design, Clash Detection, Reports and Advanced Steelwork Design.

PDMS Equipment & Piping Design

8th - 12th June 2009

This excellent course covers a number of modules useful to equipment engineers & designers as well as instrument and electrical, architectural, piping, layout and structural engineers. The course will consist of basic functions, AVEVA Plant Design set-up, Equipment Design, Piping Design, Clash Detection, Reports and Isometric Production 

For full details of either course please click here.

For further details please contact us on 0191 255 1710 or email info@marinedesigncentre.com

Please contact MDC if you have other training requirements for PDMS or other CAD packages. If we have sufficient demand for particular courses we will endeavour to arrange the appropriate training!

  

HMS Illustrious helps Fleet Air Arm celebrate its centenary

Our members who have worked closely with the Royal Navy and in particular the on-going aircraft carrier programme, will be interested to learn that this is the centenary year of the Fleet Air Arm.

Indeed, Rear Admiral Terry Loughran CB, who was the keynote speaker at our inaugural industry dinner in 2008, is the Chair of a charity very closely linked to the Fleet Air Arm. The Fly Navy Heritage Trust was formed in 1991 to raise funds to ensure the continued operation of the Royal Navy Historical Flight and to enable it to display its historic naval aircraft across the UK. For more information, click here.

We are sure that this will be a truly memorable year and would advise members that they can learn more about the Trust, the Air Arm and all the special events taking place in 2009 by clicking here.

Having provided such a magnificent service to the MDC group who toured the ship on Tyneside recently, HMS Illustrious will help to celebrate the centenary year of the Fleet Air Arm in London over the coming weekend. The ship will be moored near the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and the celebrations will include a number of flying demonstrations.

  

Northern Wind Innovation Programme Launched

We would like to bring to your attention a new programme to support the offshore wind sector in the North of England. The Northern Wind Innovation Programme (nwip) will see £2.6 million of grant funding made available to northern companies currently active, or with potential, in the offshore wind sector. Nwip is a two-year project funded through the Northern Way Partnership and delivered by NaREC and Envirolink Northwest.

The funding process begins in June and information events are being held across the North including Newcastle (June 4) and Middlesbrough (June 10). For more details or to register click here or contact Pamela Robson at info@nwip.org or call 01670 543034.

  

MDC to Host Northern Heat of World Skills UK

Young designers from across the North of England will travel to the Marine Design Centre in June for the Northern regional heat of the Mechanical Engineering CADD competition for World Skills UK.

The event, hosted by the MDC in association with TDR - for whom its Executive Vice Chairman Bill McGawley is a UK Skills Team Leader - will see apprentices from, amongst others, Bradford College, Northumberland College, Wellstream, Contitech Beattie and Unison International compete against each other.

The competition will test competitors’ performance using CAD to produce 2D technical drawings, 3D models and 3D assemblies. In addition, higher level competitors will be required to produce animations that include GDT (Geometrical Dimensioning and Tolerancing) in technical drawings. Highest scoring competitors will be invited to compete in the UK final, and ultimately represent the UK in international competition.

World Skills UK is a set of dynamic skills competitions, for both young people and adults, designed by industry experts. They run in over 70 skills areas from Aeronautical Engineering to Floristry, regionally and nationally, with the opportunity to compete at an international level. The UK will be hosting the 2011 World Skills competition in the build up to the 2012 Olympics.