Like a rather dubious film sequel that you had little, if no idea that had an original trots this imaginatively titled pdf from our favourite stainless steel folks, Euro Inox:

Dear subscriber,

Decades of experience have shown that stainless steel is an exceptionally neutral and corrosion resistant material. For this reason, it is normal choice, e.g. in the food industry, in pharmaceutical production or for medical devices. Over the last few years, there has been extensive research into the behaviour of materials in applications that pertain to human health. The new brochure STAINLESS STEEL: WHEN HEALTH COMES FIRST summarises the currently available accepted results about stainless steel. The publication is available from the Euro Inox website:

http://www.euro-inox.org/fla_171_EN.html.

If you would prefer to receive a printed copy, please do not hesitate to send an e-mail to info@euro-inox.org mentioning the key word HEALTH PUBLICATION and your mailing address.

Considering quite a few sheet metal shops are experiencing a bit of downtime at the moment, we could all do one of two things:

1. Work our nuts off trying to find extra work in order to keep the wolves from the door.

or,

2. See what tunes we can get out of our workshops’ underutilised machinery.

I have absolutely no idea how legitimate this is, but it’s supposedly a laser cutter playing the Super Mario Bros. theme:

So, set to it people. Start cranking up your notchers and guillotines and tune them in to whatever melodious or malodorous cacophony you can muster.

Then again, posting videos of you whacking a generator with a spanner pretending it’s the start of the Test Match Special Cricket Theme simply won’t wash.

The closest we ever get to the fabrication and design of buses is beating the living panels out of the local Tyrer fleet after they’ve pranged a bus shelter. Although we (and by we I mean Matt) did happen to design a fuel arm loading bracket to prevent the overspill of diesel while fueling locomotives for Virgin Trains.

Simple Fuel Arm Loading Bracket

Anyway, if you particularly like the sound of free in relation to stainless steel bus and rolling stock fabrication and research therein, you can send off for the following CD-ROM by Euro Inox:

Under the acronym INSAPTRANS, a research report about the use of stainless steel in the design and fabrication of buses and rolling stock is also available now on CD-ROM.

Contents:

1. Introduction: stainless steels in transport vehicles
1.1 Rail applications history
1.2 Current rail applications
1.3 Bus and coach applications
1.4 Future potential

2. Materials
2.1 Grades
2.2 Delivery
2.3 Mechanical behaviour and design values
2.3.1 Tensile properties of the project materials
2.3.2 Design values and physical properties of stainless
2.4 Corrosion properties
2.4.1 Atmospheric corrosion
2.4.2 De-icing and dust-control chemicals
2.4.3 Corrosion resistance evaluation
2.4.4 Corrosion test results
2.4.5 Corrosion test summary
2.5 Stainless steel high-temperature mechanical properties: fire resistance
2.6 Selection of materials
2.6.1 Structural applications
2.6.2 Forming applications
2.6.3 Summary

3. Lightweight structures and design
3.1. Stainless hollow-section structures
3.1.1. Manufacture of hollow sections
3.1.2. Structural design aspects for hollow-section joints
3.2. Sandwich panel structures
3.2.1 Design principles of sandwich panels
3.2.2 Panel cross-section
3.2.3 Elastic response
3.2.4 Strength and deflection criteria
3.2.5 Structural optimisation
3.2.6 Design tools
3.2.7 Special issues in all-steel sandwich panel design

4. Manufacturing issues in lightweight structures
4.1 Bending of high strength stainless steel sheets
4.1.1 Verification of minimum sheet bending radius
4.1.2 Determination of sheet springback behaviour
4.1.3 Guidelines for bending ultra high-strength stainless steel
4.2 Tube bending
4.2.1 Types of mechanical tube-bending processes
4.2.2 Springback model
4.2.3 Rectangular tube-bending results
4.2.4 Design guidance for three-roll tube bending
4.3 Welding and joining
4.3.1 Arc-based welding processes
4.3.2 Laser-based welding processes
4.3.3 Resistance welding
4.3.4 Adhesive bonding

5. Properties of lightweight structures
5.1. Welded joint properties
5.1.1 Static strength
5.1.2 Fatigue and corrosion fatigue strength
5.2 Sandwich panel mechanical properties
5.2.1 Four-point bend testing of full-size panels
5.2.2 Three-point bend testing of panel sections
5.2.3 Summary and conclusions
5.3 Lightweight structure crash properties
5.3.1 Axial impact tests
5.3.2 Side impact tests
5.3.3 Tubular frame crash tests
5.3.4 Panel compression and crash testing

6. Life cycle issues
6.1. Effect of vehicle weight on life cycle cost
6.2. Environmental effects of bus-frame materials
6.3. Life cycle cost evaluation of bus-frame materials
6.4. Summary

In addition to the research report, the CD-ROM contains numerous papers with additional background information given at six regional seminars. These presentations are in English and some of them in French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish.

INSAPTRANS is a joint initiative of stainless steel producers, research institutions and Euro Inox. It was made possible through support from the Research Fund for Coals and Steel of the European Union.

If you do not have the report yet and would like to receive a free copy of the CD-ROM, please return an e-mail to info@euro-inox.org referring to the INSAPTRANS CD-ROM. Please do not forget to indicate your address detail.

Oh and don’t be asking where you can get a copy of the CD or whether we can send you one. Just note the email in bold above and drop those guys a line with the information also in bold.

I thank you.

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.