The latest news, announcements and updates from the world of transportation and logistics, across land, sea and air
Creating a resilient supply chain
P&O Ferrymasters has commenced operations at DP World London Gateway Logistics Park LG231. LG231 is located at the heart of the Logistics Park and sits alongside DP World London Gateway Port, offering unique multimodal integration. It is Ferrymasters’ first facility in the UK supporting both imports and exports.
One of the leading European providers of tailor-made transportation and logistics services, P&O Ferrymasters took occupation of the 231,000 sq ft (21,460 m²) distribution centre space on practical completion of the building on 27 July 2020.
The company was able to set up business immediately to manage and operate the new distribution centre, allowing it to meet increased market demand for warehouse and cross-dock activities at London Gateway.
Taking a five-year lease at the brand new LG231 facility will enable P&O to further build its port/market-centric distribution centre strategy. It follows the opening of a new Rotterdam distribution centre in 2019 and complements the P&O Group developments in Tilbury – activities which are more continental cargo focused,
Enhanced US position
Sparrows Group has enhanced its position in the US industrial market after securing a key distributor agreement with SKF, one of the world’s largest lubrication system, bearing and seal specialists. As part of the agreement, Sparrows will supply and install lubrication systems as well as provide parts and repair services for SKF’s Lincoln lubrication systems in Louisiana and Mississippi.
SKF has the largest industrial distributor network in the industry, with 17,000 distributor locations encompassing 130 countries. It supports a number of global industries including manufacturing across every sector, construction, marine, oil and gas and agriculture. A total of 12 Sparrows personnel has completed training on automated lubrication systems at SKF’s facility in St Louis, Missouri, and Sparrow’s Slidell, Louisiana, site as part of the agreement.
Stewart Mitchell, Sparrows CEO said: “This agreement is a timely achievement and will aid us to move forward as we further establish our credentials in the competitive US industrial sector. It will help to create significant opportunities for us in new areas such as food and beverage, pulp and paper, tooling, and metals manufacturing - all of which are key to our continued growth.”
Electric travel
Volvo Buses and the Public Transport Authority of Western Australia (PTA) are partnering to bring Volvo’s first ever Electric Buses to Australia. Four Volvo Electric Buses will be delivered to the PTA as part of the existing 900 Bus Supply Agreement between Volvo and Transperth, which was signed in March 2019. The Agreement includes provisions for the introduction of alternative powered vehicles into the public transport bus network when the technology became available in Volvo’s Australian product line.
While handover of the first electric buses to the PTA is not scheduled until late next year, the planning is well underway. The units will be all-electric 11.7-metre long, 2.5-metre-wide vehicles with local Australian bodies designed and built by Volgren Australia. Whilst these units will be the first of their kind for Volvo in the Asia-Pacific region, the chassis are based on established Volvo technology already implemented in Europe.
Perfect upgrade
ASEA Power Systems, a leading manufacturer of isolation transformers, shore power converters and power management systems, has expanded the Dock Boost Transformer (DBT) product line to offer upgraded models ranging from 12-24kVA. ASEA Power Systems’ DBTs are smart isolation transformers with three levels of boost to keep vessels powered even when input voltages sag by up to 35 per cent. These DBTs are the perfect replacement for the Charles Iso-Boost and can protect sensitive, and often expensive, electronics from damage associated with common shore-power problems including brown outs, spikes, sags and low-line or high-line voltage.
Expanding ASEA Power Systems’ existing international product offering, the new product models offer compatibility with international voltage standards and 50A or 100A shore cord inputs.
Powering forward
Rolls-Royce is to supply its very first series production MTU PowerPacks which are prepared for future use as hybrid traction units: Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail, the national railway operator of the Republic of Ireland, has ordered 41 of these MTU Hybrid-ready PowerPacks.
As Peter Smyth, Chief Mechanical Engineer at Iarnród Éireann Irish Rail, noted: “Reducing the exhaust emissions of our trains is a key part of our commitment to sustainability and to the strategic ‘Ireland 2040’ project, and with Rolls-Royce we have the right traction partner on board to help us do that.”
Fitted with MTU 6H 1800 R86 engines, the PowerPacks comply with the EU Stage V emissions directives and each delivers 375 kW from the diesel engine as well as 150 kW from the electrical machine. Delivery is to commence in 2021, and the PowerPacks are to power Class 22000 trains on scheduled services from late 2022.
World’s first
A technical and commercial entry point for sustainable mass air transport has been unveiled. The disruptive design has been developed by the Electric Aviation Group (EAG), the UK-based engineering and development firm, which expects its first aircraft to be in service by 2028.
EAG has optimized the latest technology, economics and operational parameters to create the design for the Hybrid Electric Regional Aircraft (HERA), to ensure it can solve the challenges of decarbonization and mass transportation.
“Significant investments have been raised to develop sub-19 seat hybrid and all-electric aircraft which we believe is the wrong strategy. These small planes cannot meet the demands of mass air transportation or the requirements of decarbonization,” commented Kamran Iqbal, founder and CEO at EAG. “Our design is for an aircraft that will initially offer 800 nautical miles range at launch in 2028, and which will be able to carry over 70 people. We will be a first mover in what is a $4.4 trillion market.”
Inspired by motorsport
BAE Systems and Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE) have joined forces to explore how battery management and cooling technologies from the motorsport industry could be exploited to deliver efficiency and performance gains in the design of future combat aircraft.
Julia Sutcliffe, Chief Technology Officer for BAE Systems’ Air sector, said: “Working in partnership with companies like WAE is vital to drive rapid innovation at the pace the Tempest programme demands. Changing how we engage with wider industry and leveraging the best technologies and processes from across the global supply chain is essential in order to deliver value to the UK, our international partners and our allies.
“This collaboration is a great example of how we’re starting to achieve this - finding synergies, great engineering minds and mutually beneficial technology projects with organisations outside of our traditional partnership base.”
The project is part of a wider research effort to develop technologies that could be used to develop the most advanced combat air system for the UK. Next generation combat air technologies will need high-power at low weight in order to provide long range endurance and mission success. Future systems will also need to generate enough energy to power a small town, which can be managed safely and efficiently throughout the aircraft and its subsystems, with pilots depending on high-performance ‘power when you need it’ combat air capability.
WAE brings best-in-class capability in power management - from decades of experience of driving performance in the automotive and motorsport industry - and as a foundation technical partner in Formula E to transfer the technologies into electric vehicles on land, sea and in the air.