Best in class: The winners of the 2012 British Engineering Excellence Awards

Congratulations to all the winners and to Grand Prix winner Parker Hannifin Racor. And thanks to all the companies that entered. The BEEAs will be back again in 2013, so watch out for the call for entries next year. 1. Grand Prix 2012 Sponsor: Findlay Media Winner: Parker Hannifin Racor Super Impactor CCV The winner of the British Engineering Excellence Grand Prix was selected by the Judges from the winners in the other categories; a challenging task, given the standard of entries to this year's Awards. Some 30 million diesel engines are manufactured each year and it's no surprise that designers of these engines have focused on reducing the exhaust emissions. But there remains another problem: 'blow by'. This happens when combustion gases under high pressure are 'blown by' the piston rings in the crankcase. These gases have to be allowed to leave the engine to avoid pressure build-up, but without increased emissions, so crankcase ventilators (CCVs) are employed to clean the gases and return them to the engine's air intake system. Alongside solving the blow-by problem, the Superimpactor doesn't include a replaceable filter, nor does it feature rotating parts or electrical components. 2. Consultancy of the Year Sponsor: Eureka Winner: Team Consulting Team is a 25 year old company which focuses on the design and development of medical products, systems and devices. Amongst projects which have been completed recently are drug delivery systems, critical care and surgical tools. According to Team, two things have helped to grow its business: a focus on the medical sector; and the desire to save lives and make people better. The Judges were particularly impressed by Team's development of a system which helps to keep a human liver alive for 24 hours, avoiding the need for racing against time to get the organ to its recipient. Clinical trials for the product have started and Team's customer expects to launch the product in 2013. 3. Small Company of the Year Sponsor: D Young & Co LLP Winner: Outram Research This year's winning company, Outram Research, applies specialist skills in analogue and digital signal processing and embedded microprocessor design to develop power quality analysers for utilities, network operators and other users. The products are used to troubleshoot power network problems around the world. First established by John Outram in 1980, the company developed the Ranger data logger and licensed the design to a number of organisations. However, he decided in 2003 that the data loggers were not achieving their potential and negotiated the return of the IP, a move which allowed Outram to design, manufacture and sell the products. This move has funded the development of products such as the Outram FLM. 4. Start Up of the Year Winner: Amantys Sponsor: Cambridge Consultants Set up in 2010 by former executives from ARM and an academic from the University of Cambridge, Amantys is targeting high power conversion across markets where power requirements can reach the MegaWatt level, with voltages as high as 6.5kV. Through a combination of embedded intelligence and analogue control techniques, Amantys is addressing a market which it says is worth $4.6billion and which is set to grow by 12% a year. Its approach is to allow designers to optimise the efficiency of power converters and to improve system reliability. The company has raised more than £7m in funding and now has 14 staff, as well as its own high energy test and qualification facility. 5. Design Team of the Year Sponsor: Anglia Winner: Qioptiq SAKER The SAKER design team faced a number of challenges; the weapon sight needed to be compact, lightweight and to have low power consumption. Innovations needed to be made in the package, the two objective lenses and the image combining optics. Design commenced in October 2011, with a target date for the first prototype of 1 June 2012. This date was brought forward to 21 May 2012. putting the programme was two weeks behind schedule. Through a team effort, however three days before the event, significant amounts of work remained, but two prototypes were delivered in time for the launch. Highly Commended: Congratulations to ByteSnap's EV charging post design team, whose entry was highly commended. 6. Green Product of the Year Sponsor: National Instruments Winner: Racor Super Impactor CCV In order to meet the Euro 5 emissions targets, engine manufacturers are using closed crankcase ventilation (CCV) systems to return cleaned blow by gas to the engine's air intake. The Racor Super Impactor CCV reduces engine emissions to the level required by Euro 6/tier 4 legislation. But customers have been more rigorous. One potential user required more than 98% of blow by oil to be recovered and for the device to be useful on new and worn engines. Made from recyclable nylon PA66, the SuperImpactor CCV works without using a replaceable filter, reducing the amount of hazardous waste generated. 7. Materials Innovation of the Year Sponsor: Engineering Materials Magazine Winner: Tata Steel Europe HPrail Work on HPrail – a special grade of steel developed specifically for railway applications – was prompted by the Hatfield rail disaster in 2000, which was said to have happened as a result of rolling contact fatigue (RCF), whereby cracks develop due to a mismatch in the rail's microstructure between ferrite and cementite. Tata Steel's solution is to strengthen the soft ferrite by alloying additions of silicon and vanadium. Meanwhile, nitrogen levels are controlled to ensure the desired particles precipitate during manufacturing. 8. Electronic Product of the Year Sponsor: Digi-Key Winner: Nujira NCT-L1100 Mobile phone power consumption is a topic on which many have a view. One of the 'guilty' components is the power amplifier (PA). In a conventional configuration, the PA operates from a fixed supply voltage and often operates at less than maximum efficiency. Nujira believes it has solved this problem using envelope tracking, where the supply voltage is constantly adjusted to make sure the PA is running at peak efficiency for the given power requirement. The NCT-L1100 is the first device in Nujira's Coolteq.L range of envelope tracking power supply modulators. According to Nujira, the part can reduce the amount of wasted power by more than 50%, not only extending battery life, but also reducing heat generation. 9. Mechanical Product of the Year Sponsor: igus (UK) Winner: Johnston Sweepers C201 While the C201 compact road sweeper is based around technology developed some 50 years ago, it features a range of new design concepts, including what is described as a revolutionary four wheel steering system. While the previous model – the C200 – was a success in the UK, overseas sales suffered because the machine didn't offer four wheel steer. There are more than 30 design improvements on the C201, ranging from a new chassis and engine mounting to a host of safety and comfort features. Designing a new chassis allowed four-wheel steer to be added as a modular option. 10. Young Design Engineer of the Year Sponsor: RS Components Winner: Michael Aldridge and Simon Pykett In one of the most keenly contested Awards, the Judges were unable to separate this year's joint winners. Michael Aldridge graduated from Strathclyde University with a Master's Degree in Product Design Engineering in 2008. Now a design engineer with 4c Design, he has been involved with a range of projects, including: developing a 'fresh outlook' on liferaft design; the complete design of an electric bike – which involves a patent application; and a machine which can bottle vaccine solutions under sterile conditions. Meanwhile, since starting work with Penny Hydraulics, Simon Pykett has 'transformed the company's nuclear business', winning a £160,000 contract within six months. Originally tasked with developing a way to lift and handle spent nuclear fuel, Pykett took ownership of the project, developing an internal capability by winning and delivering a contract, rather than by seeking contracts after the capability had been developed. His work also resulted in Penny Hydraulics becoming a quality assured supplier to Sellafield a year earlier than anticipated. He has since secured business at other nuclear sites, including a £240,000 contract with Magnox. 11. Design Engineer of the Year Sponsor: Mouser Electronics Winner: James White In a recent two year project, James White lead the development of three loader arm assemblies. This has, for the first time, given Caterpillar a family of loader arms with a common design for its backhoes. The project also reduced the number of loader designs from five to three and increased manufacturability and assembly efficiency. White is named as the designer of an innovative clamp protected by design rights and has a patent pending for an element of the next generation loader arm design.