The UK lockdown to combat Coronavirus (COVID-19) has affected the hydraulic and pneumatics industry as much as any other. Nevertheless, there are some great, positive news stories breaking through in the world of hydraulics despite all the gloom elsewhere during the pandemic.
Here are our favorite uplifting stories about engineering, hydraulics, and pneumatics from the past few months.
1) Royal Academy Launches Engineering-at-Home Competition For Pupils Aged 7-14 – Pneumatic Designs Wanted!
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) has stepped into the wide gap left by countrywide school closures. They’re making sure that today’s primary and (early) secondary school pupils are not left out of developing their vital STEM and practical thinking skills during the extended lockdown.
Over the next year, the RAE will be running dual, fortnightly challenges online that focus on key areas of developing engineering technologies. Pupils are being asked to come up with solutions to some of the world’s most pressing engineering problems.
Tasks include asking students to consider a solution to the long-term pneumatic goal of building a cheap, safe, easy-to-source, computer-controlled medical ventilator for COVID-19 patients. Great prizes (such as coding and robotics kits) will be awarded to the best entries!
Look out for the hashtag #EngineersInTheMaking.
More information on the ongoing contest and this week’s goals and tasks are available via the RAE website and the RAE Twitter feed.
2) Hydraulics Sector Weathers COVID-19 Storm: Salary and Role Growth Remain Steady Yet Strong
Hydraulics and Pneumatics report that the UK’s engineering sector is still showing similar levels of performance to 2017, as well as healthy year-on-year growth, despite the COVID-19 global pandemic and widespread talk of a recession. UK engineering roles alone have grown by 13.8% across the last tax year to May 2020, outpacing our national average.
Executive and advanced technical roles in hydraulics also remain some of the best paid nationally, pacing far above comparable, living, and average (median) UK wages. Higher earners in engineering and product design can still expect to take home £40,000 or more.
3) GrabCAD Pneumatic ‘CoVent-19’ Prototype Contest Delivers an Exceptional Final Round
Organised at extremely short notice by Internet template library GrabCAD, the international May 2020 CoVent-19 Challenge tasked world-leading pneumatic and microcontroller engineers with developing prototypes to diversify and cheapen the production of medical ventilators.
Informal and professional teams alike have submitted their designs for rapid deployment, low-profile, easy-to-assemble ventilators. The expensive, difficult-to-source machines have run short in many countries as hospitals have transferred more and more critical COVID-19 patients to ICU.
Over 200 entries from 43 different countries have been whittled down to just 7 core candidate teams, each one specialising in the CAD-aided design and 3D-printer production of a low-cost, low-resource, no-fuss portable ventilator.
The grand winner will be chosen by a panel of experts from Massachusetts General Hospital (USA) in June 2020, before (US) FDA-approval is (hopefully) secured for the winning entry. It’s hoped that the best budget ventilator will eventually be manufactured and deployed to hospitals and surgeries worldwide.
Hydraulics During COVID-19 From Hydrastar
During this difficult and uncertain period, Hydrastar is still open for business in the United Kingdom. Hydrastar can support you and your company by supplying a wide range of hydraulic components, pumps, and pipes for any system.
Call or email us today to talk to us about the custom-built hydraulic and pneumatic machines we can provide.
