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18 March 2010 Canterbury Students win Award for Engineering Excellence Canterbury University students Avinash Aden Rao, Ben Gadsby, Ben Scott and Nathan Allpress are the 2010 winners of the Ray Meyer Medal for Excellence in Student Design, presented by the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ). The Mechanical Engineering students’ final year project, was set by Industrial Research Limited (IRL) and involved developing a process for High Temperature Superconductor splicing. IRL researchers, who are currently developing a woven superconductor cable, had found that the cable would be limited in emerging applications because it could only be produced in lengths of 100 meters. A semi-automated process was developed, tested and optimised by the Canterbury team, making make low-resistance and repeatable solder joints, able to withstand a mechanical ‘bend test’. The strand slicing process also takes into account several environmental factors, such as the need for the final product to be both lead free and, with export in mind, to meet the EU regulations around hazardous substances. The IPENZ Medal is named for Professor Ray Meyer, former President of IPENZ and Dean of the School of Engineering at the University of Auckland from 1971-1974 and again from 1978-1992. Throughout his career Professor Meyer was actively involved in design and commercialisation of research. ‘Ultimately, a very impressive prototype strand-cutting and soldering station (machine) was designed and constructed here’ says Professor Meyer ‘The final process reduces operator error and processing times. The completed project exceeded established performance targets and came in under budget. In fact the ‘prototype’ splicing equipment was so successful that it is being used in the IRL High Temperature Superconductor Strand facility and has already caught the attention of several associated industries. The Ray Meyer Award for Excellence in Student Design is sponsored by GHD For more information contact: Rebecca Adams DDI: 04 473 2028 |
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