Report on Optical techniques for information processing/Nonlinear optical information processing, IEE/IoP Quantum Electronics Group, 25 November 1987, London
Report on Industrial flow measurement onshore and offshore, IBC Technical Senices, 22-23 September 1987, London
To make HVDC transmission competitive, the number of components - of which thyristors are of paramount importance - must be reduced. This article looks at the fabrication of thyristors with high blocking voltages.
Heat pumps could be immensely useful in many industrial processes, but standard working fluids are unsuitable for the high temperatures involved. The ideal high-temperature heat-pump fluid should have a high (but not too high) critical temperature, a moderate critical pressure ( approximately=5.0 MPa) and a low (but not too low) boiling point. There are many organic fluids that do meet the above thermodynamic criteria The author's list of 250 contained dozens of them including many of the common laboratory solvents such as ethanol, ether and especially acetone. Unfortunately most of them are highly flammable. The ideal work fluid for high-temperature heat pumps will probably always remain elusive and water, despite its drawbacks will continue to be the best choice in most applications
Much of the contract research at the Institute of Physics's Fulmer Ltd Laboratories applies physics and related technologies to medicine.
The art of colour reproduction is also a science. If coloured ink can only be printed as solid dots, how can the dots best be produced to give full colour pictures.
Electric lamps depend for their performance on an extraordinary range of natural phenomena, some of considerable subtlety or complexity, making them a fascinating field for the scientist or engineer. The author describes some of the less obvious phenomena which are crucial to the efficient performance of modern lamps. These include: thermal diffusion; resonance line broadening; hyperfine structure; metal halide cycles; ionic pumping; voids in tungsten; photoelectricity and electrolysis; and Penning effect
Report on 10th International Magnet Technology Conference (MT10), MIT, 21-25 September 1987, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Food processing depends on physics for preparation, cooking and preservation. The author discusses the use of microwave heating, food irradiation and machine vision in the food industry
Developments in solid-state sensors and signal processing are changing the face of measurement and control technology. Small, cheap, robust and reliable, the new microsensors are expected to find applications ranging from washing machines to industrial plant control
Electro-optic devices are beginning to find practical application as the basis of 'photonics' - the optical equivalent of electronics.
Significant advances in liquid-crystal technology have reached the state where flat portable TVs are a commercial reality. Technical developments, involving thin-film transistor active-matrix displays and more recently ferroelectric liquid crystals will ensure this rapid growth continues
Report on 2nd international symposium on technical innovation and entrepreneurship, Birmingham Technology Ltd, IC2 Institute and Utah Innovation Foundation, 14 September 1987, Birmingham
Sputtering, once no more than a scientific curiosity, is increasingly widely used to produce thin coatings. Magnetron sputtering, in particular, shows how the application of simple physical principles has led to a successful commercial technology.
