New Online leak mapping for PermaNet through your web browser

The PermaNet system from Halma Water Management (HWM) receives data from Permalog+ noise loggers deployed on water pipes to listen for leaks, and transmits this information wirelessly to an office computer. A new development called ALMOS (Acoustic Leak Monitoring Online System) now enables live, onscreen display of PermaNet data tracking from the PermaNet system from any internet-connected PC with using a new graphical interface and the latest digital mapping technology - without the need for any specialist software.

Users of the system simply have to visit the website (www.almosleak.com) and log in to see the precise location, condition and noise levels of their deployed Permalog+ loggers. This information can be displayed either in a list form, or overlaid onto a detailed map, terrain or satellite view of the area. Loggers in a non-leak state appear in blue on the map, those transmitting a leak alert are shown in red, and those with anomalous readings display a yellow warning sign. Each logger can be individually highlighted to view more detailed information, including its serial number, noise level, signal strength and acoustic spread. This enables problem areas to be quickly and accurately identified, and offers the potential for in-depth analysis of the leak situation. The list view allows loggers to be sorted by a number of variables, and historical leak data for each one is available at the click of a mouse.

Users can be set up to have different levels of access to data and administrative functions, so several people can view the data simultaneously but only administrators will be able to make changes to it. A demonstration of the system is available at (www.almosleak.com), which shows a district of Copenhagen where the system has been used for several months successfully to achieve and maintain a 10% reduction in leakage.

The ALMOS system can be used to view and manage integrated data from several sources, including PermaNet and Automatic Meter Reading Readers (AMR's) systems, with all data running through an extensive web server-based algorithm analysis post processing function (patent pending). This offers currently unparalleled water management functionality to save time, water and money.

Water suppliers can now monitor 100% of their distribution system confidently and effectively, knowing that the combination of Permalog® technology, PermaNet data communication and ALMOS online data presentation enables them to identify potential leak sites quickly, accurately, conveniently and automatically.

Halma Water Management  (HWM) in profile
Halma Water Management is the world leader and world's largest supplier of leakage management, pressure management and flowmeter technology. HWM is comprised of four Halma companies: Palmer Environmental, Radcom Technologies, Hydreka and FCS under a single dedicated sales and sales support network. Halma p.l.c. is a group of companies that makes products for hazard detection and life protection, and is a market leader in specialist electronic, safety and environmental technologies.

For further information, e-mail: sales@hwm-water.com  or view website: www.hwm-water.com  Refer to page 290   

Metallurgical testing service optimises efficiency using QSI's WinLims

The UK's largest single site, commercial metallurgical laboratory, Rotech Laboratories of Wednesbury, has optimised its investment in a WinLims Rental solution for contract laboratories from Quality Systems International by linking the WinLims software, (pictured on the right), with the West Midlands contract laboratory's Sage accounting software.

The new development will improve the efficiency and customer service levels of the organisations metallurgical testing and consultancy services by enabling data to be easily updated across Rotech's administrative and financial systems.

Rotech, which has UKAS ISO 17025 accreditation and also complies with Rolls Royce requirements, offers a series of metallurgical testing and consultancy services that primarily support companies operating in the energy and power, fasteners, automotive and general engineering sectors.

QSI's WinLims Rental solution.

Part of the Rubery Owen Group, Rotech Laboratories tests a wide selection of engineering parts and components including castings, tubes and wires. The laboratory is equipped to test all types of alloy, both ferrous and non-ferrous, and offers a 24-hour turnaround on urgent samples. The business focuses on three major testing areas: Chemical analysis and corrosion science, Mechanical testing and Metallurgy.

QSI installed WinLims at Rotech in the earlier part of 2008 initially to support the laboratory's chemical analysis service.

"After we've finished in the chemical analysis area we are going to expand WinLims into all the other services we offer," explained Richard Smith, the managing director of Rotech Laboratories. "We are keen to spread WinLims across our range of testing services. There is no point in a company buying a product like WinLims for just a part of the business. To get business out of a system like that we have to apply it across the whole business."

At the moment Rotech uses the WinLims software to create 60 reports a week to support the chemical analysis service. In total Rotech currently generates 60 to 70 reports a day across the business in all disciplines and ultimately it is planned that WinLims will generate reports for all of these services.

"Now we are finding that more and more customers are requiring PDF reports and Rotech wants to produce more and more reports that can be sent electronically. Electronic report distribution is more cost effective. It is simpler and cheaper for us because no postage is involved," commented Mr Smith. "Our business process goes from enquiries, quotation, sample receipt, sample booking in, sample preparation, sample test, sample result, sample report and invoicing through to financial system update. Once we are invoicing on our own and, most importantly, updating Sage we will have completed the business cycle. I also believe one of the key benefits of WinLims Rental solution is when you consider the power behind the software and its ability to track and trace jobs and produce audit trails."

QSI's WinLims Rental solution provides 'out-of-the-box' LIMS software for a rental fee of a few hundred pounds a month for a three user system. WinLims rental is identical to QSI's full WinLims system, and comes bundled with an installation program and tutorials to get users up and running quickly and easily as possible. The rental agreements can be converted to a subscription contract or full purchase at any time, keeping an organisation's options open.

For further information, e-mail: info@qsiuk.com or view website: www.qsiuk.com

Thames Restek promotes quick and easy filter changes

Leading specialist supplier of quality gas chromatography equipment, Thames Restek has announced a special promotion on SGT gas filter cartridges to remind customers of the importance of replacing worn out base plates. It is not just filters that need replacing, base plates wear over time too which can lead to leaks. Until the 31st December 2009, the company will be offering a free base plate (worth £120) when purchasing two or more gas filters.

Thames Restek provides a comprehensive range of single, double and triple super clean gas filters depending on whether removing hydrocarbons, water or oxygen.

Connecting a filter via a base plate offers quick and easy filter changes without the risk of leakage. Spring-loaded check valves seal when a filtration cartridge is removed and only open when a new cartridge has been locked in place. There is no need to loosen or tighten fittings every time a filter is changed, making the process faster and safer.

Customers will receive a free single position base plate when buying any two SGT filters from the range, whilst a free two position base plate is available when purchasing any four filters and a triple position base plate comes free with any six filters.

For further information, view website: www.thamesrestek.co.uk   Refer to page 265

A broad spectrum of high-quality thermal
equipment for sample preparation and processing

Diamond Light Source, the UK's national synchrotron facility in Oxfordshire, has taken delivery of seven Carbolite electric furnaces designed to provide researchers with a broad spectrum of high-quality thermal equipment for sample preparation and processing.

Diamond, the largest UK scientific investment for 40 years, is a third-generation light source with an electron beam energy of 3 Giga electron volts (three thousand million volts).  At its heart is a circular vacuum chamber, half a kilometre in circumference, through which electrons travel at just below the speed of light.  Passing the electrons through specially designed magnet arrays produces infra-red, ultra-violet and X-ray beams of exceptional quality and brightness, which enable researchers to study the basic structure of many materials, down to the scale of molecules and atoms.

Within the doughnut-shaped building are currently 14 experimental stations, known as beamlines, with eight more due for completion by 2012.  The beamlines are supported by laboratories that provide researchers with comprehensive in-house facilities for performing cutting-edge experiments into a very wide range of fields, including health research, engineering, environmental science, sustainable energy, cultural heritage and fundamental physics.  Plans for a further ten beamlines are currently under review.

Carbolite furnaces had previously been supplied for sample preparation and related activities at the Synchrotron Radiation Source (SRS) at Daresbury, Cheshire.  The equipment supplied by the company to Diamond Light Source includes a specially designed high-vacuum tube furnace, four conventional tube furnaces and two chamber furnaces.  Maximum operating temperatures are between 1200°C and 1500°C. These furnaces are mainly used for heat treatments that are commonly used for inducing structural and phase changes, which is essential for material, engineering and environmental science.  The tube furnaces allow additional species to be introduced or intercalated into the structure of materials, which can then be examined using X-ray diffraction.   

The vacuum tube furnace has silicon carbide heating elements that provide a maximum operating temperature of 1500°C, with control provided by a Carbolite 301 PID instrument that allows temperature ramp rates and dwell periods to be pre-set for different procedures.  Samples are held in a 50mm-diameter 450mm-long work tube.  Reliable vacuum performance on the model at DLS is achieved by means of a rotary vane roughing pump combined with a high-vacuum oil diffusion pump.  Models with a turbo-molecular high-vacuum pump and fully oil-free roughing pump are also available from Carbolite.

The four standard Carbolite tube furnaces provide heating capabilities up to 1500°C in air or inert gases and include two models with three-zone control that allows temperature gradients to be applied or very accurate control of long heated lengths to be achieved. The two chamber furnaces have operating temperatures up to 1300°C and 1500°C, the higher-temperature model having a rapid-heating capability.

For further information, e-mail: info@carbolite.com