Do they mean an entire bus made from stainless steel?

So a European tour to learn the ins and outs of the uses of stainless steel in public transport. Maybe it’ll be a step up from sending the new lad to panel beating night school 101 at Nelson and Colne College. I’m sure Jasper will tell you it certainly beats the hell out of beating the hell out of the side of some bus that’s been driven into some rubbish bin on Burnley Road.

Stainless steels have innovative solutions to offer for public transport. Their mechanical properties help designers to reduce weight, enhance impact resistance and improve fire safety. Stainless steels combine intrinsic corrosion resistance with excellent reparability. And they can be surprisingly cost-effective.

Innovative solutions in bus building and in the design and manufacture of metro or other rail vehicles have been investigated in recent research projects. Their results will be presented to a larger circle of industry experts in a series of seminars, which will take place in autumn 2008 in various places in Europe:

25 September 2008, Berlin, Germany
in cooperation with Informationsstelle Edelstahl Rostfrei
Contact: caroline.bresink@arcelormittal.com

30 September 2008, Lille, France
in cooperation with Institut de Développement de l’Inox (I.D. Inox)
Contact: contact@idinox.com

2 October 2008, Rome, Italy
in cooperation with Centro Inox
Contact: g.gelati@c-s-m.it, phone +39 06 5055 20, or l.rizzo@c-s-m.it, phone +39 06 5055 292

7 October 2008, Warsaw, Poland
in cooperation with Polska Unia Dystrybutorów Stali (PUDS)
Contact: pawel.kiepel@outokumpu.com, mob. +48 600068 331 and adam.zymelka@outokumpu.com, mob. +48 602 347997

10 October 2008, Labein (Bilbao), Spain
in cooperation with CEDINOX
Contact: rsanchez@acxgroup.com

16 October 2008, Gustavelund, Tuusala (near Helsinki), Finland
Contact: hilkka.eronen@outokumpu.com

INSAPTRANS is a valorisation project, which is supported by the European Union from the Research Fund for Coal and steel (RFCS). It involves the following companies and organisations: Acerinox (Spain), ArcelorMittal Stainless Belgium (Belgium), Centro Sviluppo Materiali (Italy), Euro Inox (Belgium), OCAS (Belgium), Outokumpu (Finland) and VTT in cooperation with Helsinki University of Technology (Finland).

Persons who would like to be on the mailing list for the full programme are invited to select a convenient seminar and contact the respective INSAPTRANS partner.

And please don’t ask me any questions as what I’ve quoted above is all I received in the email - you’ll have to get in touch with the person running the seminar you happen to be interested in.

A curious instinct tells me I should make Steph get out more. Whether I give her a key or up her housekeeping are a couple of options I’m pondering.

The problem with her doing bits and bobs for me is that she’s very easily distracted. I should know seeming I’m forever having my tract dissed. Once in a while she’ll concoct a scheme or get diverted by an online interest that is, well, remotely interesting.

Of late, she’s been getting into all things Tesla - the first time she mentioned a Tesla Coil I replied that they wouldn’t come cheap at the Family Planning Clinic. Then again, cracking woofers like that and I should be slightly worried about her tapping me up to be the hamster in this particular Tesla cage:

If you like electrical and scientific wonderments - and if you don’t then you’re a bit odd - the Tesla site I found that on has loads of other amazing Tesla-related stuff you can replicate (or not) in your back garden.

I may show you some of the more exciting stuff at a later date, but something I did come across was these Bernoulli Balls:

And this stainless steel Bernoulli Ball:

Now the weird thing is, round about the same time I was being Tesla’d 24/7 by Steph and checking various Tesla sites out, we received an inquiry at Butler Sheetmetal about a stainless steel ball sculpture that bored little oiks kept knocking off its perch:

Stainless Steel Ball Sculpture

And they wanted to know if the boys could do something to ensure the thing remained upright for long enough for people to enjoy it. It’s not too much to ask, is it?

Obviously, with Bernoulli Balls in mind, I suggested an oversized leaf blower and some elongated industrial straws for balance. Personally I thought it was a bit of inspired genius.

They just told me to stick to the blogging. Fair enough fellas.

Hopefully I’ll have something to show you once it’s done to show you how they did it.

I really don’t anticipate any Benny Hill-esque chase routines as they try to fix it and it goes hurtling off down some field.

Not that any of them would catch it, mind.

Harland & Wolff Ship Broken for Scrap

The linked photoset from this weekend’s Guardian:

April 12 2008: Belfast, UK: The MSC Napoli cargo ship lies in a dry dock at Harland and Wolff ship builders as it is dismantled for recycling. The ship was grounded off the English coast after getting into difficulties during bad weather in January 2007. After she was split into two pieces, the largest front section was floated to the Harland and Wolff shipyard for recycling in August 2007. After the removal of approximately 80 cubic tonnes of waste oil and other pollutants 150 workers began the task of cutting up the high grade steel of the Napoli by hand. The steel is then smelted locally in Belfast and will most likely be used for ship building. The whole process will be finished in three to four weeks.

This is one for Jasper seeming he spent his apprenticeship in the shipyards of Glasgow. I’d like to say he’s bored us rigid with his tales of welding ship floors, but we still don’t have a clue from day to day what he’s talking about. Think of it as a blessing in disguise.

But I’m also pretty confident it’ll get everybody who swarms round The Tinbasher for out-of-date scrap steel prices hot under the collar, too.

It looks like one of my favourite steel buildings in the history of building stuff out of steel has had a bit of a makeover. The Atomium in Brussels has had a bit of a spit and a polish.

Atomium post-renovation

But it ain’t the only one. According to a recent Euro Inox email, the following have been done-up as well.

Content:
- In renovating the Brussels Atomium, the spheres were made from electropolished stainless steel grade EN 1.4404/AISI316L to ensure long-term low maintenance.
- A pedestrian bridge at Cala Galdana, Menorca, was fully designed in Duplex stainless steel to withstand the high corrosive stress in a coastal location.
- Vauxhall Cross Bus Interchange was clad in pattern-rolled stainless steel to ensure high mechanical resistance.
- Wales Millennium Centre involved electrolytically coloured stainless steel to highlight the dramatic architecture of the building.
- The Milan Trade Fair is a convincing example of the sober elegance of polished stainless steel.

Format:
- PDF Files, colour

Click below to view or download:

Renovation of the Atomium in Brussels (8 pages, 760 KB)
- Dutch: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_NL.html
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_EN.html
- French: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_FR.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_132_DE.html

Bridge in Cala Galdana on Menorca (4 pages, 560 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_131_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_131_DE.html
- Spanish: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_131_SP.html

Milan Trade Fair (4 pages, 460 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_130_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_130_DE.html
- Italian: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_130_IT.html

Vauxhall Cross Bus Station in London (6 pages, 665 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_129_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_129_DE.html

Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff (4 pages, 530 KB)
- English: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_128_EN.html
- German: http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_128_DE.html

Vauxhall Cross Bus Interchange, eh? Expect breaking news of us powder coating a new dog dipper bin on Hallam road anytime soon.

This is fabulous. Just take a close look and you’ll notice an entire Bladerunner cityscape made out of drill bits and other associated things you may have lying about the old workshop. Well, not our workshop - all the drill bits and hole saws I’ve ever seen aren’t quite as shiny. Chu Enoki, the sculptor responsible for the work, entitled RPM 1200, probably deserves commending as much for his ability to clean the things in the first place as much as for putting it together.

I remember fondly when both Matt and John worked at Sovereign Sheet Metal in Nelson and they’d ask me down to drill the bolt holes and dial holes for conveyor belt casings, that I’d discard nearly as many drill bits as this in an afternoon. I don’t ever remember them being quite as pristine before, during or after, though. Apparently, I was quite good at the monotonous stuff - yeah, I know, just like my blogging.

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