Better spanners, medical aids and saving the planet

There were two spanners: one, the ‘Milli-grip’, invented by Ian Harrison uses a thumb knob engaged rack to quickly change dimensions and ensure robustness, while the ‘Dual Action Speed Ratchet’, invented by Jim Wisbey has a rotatable handle as well as the usual ratchet action to allow it to engage very loose nuts and bolts and access them in spaces too restricted to allow normal ratchet action. Alexander Bushell of Global Medical Systems (Europe) based in Sittingbourne, who was honoured last year for its then prototype field deployable, ‘CompactOR’ portable operating theatre system, was this year honoured for a low cost pedal generator named, ‘Ezeegen’ designed to work with failing batteries and the ‘OxyOne’ portable oxygen generator developed in conjunction with Norgren. The CompactOR is now fully certified, and will be officially launched as a product at the Medic Africa event in Abuja, Nigeria in December. From further away with even more global potential, Professor Dr Wan Azlina Ahmad from the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia headed teams that had developed a method of using bacteria to provide leaching chemicals to assist in the recovery of manganese and zinc from heaps of crushed batteries. They also had a process to use a different bacteria grown on waste organic material to reduce Chromium VI to Chromium III so it could be precipitated out and yellow ‘KunginMent’ pigment extracted from bacteria grown on pineapple waste. More information about the British Invention Show from www.britishinventionshow.com British Invention Show