The magazine for Product Design Engineers and Machine Builders

Sensible heads, not sensational headlines

If you believe everything the news media is telling you, then times look bad. Really bad? But when the chief economist at the Institute of Directors tells you that he’s been dropped from a number of news programmes for not being pessimistic enough, then you begin to wonder if perhaps there’s less in all this than meets the eye. Despite the headlines of manufacturing contraction, companies at the high value end of the manufacturing spectrum are still growing strongly. So whatever we do, let’s not talk ourselves into something that might never be; let’s not let a long, deep and disastrous recession become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

John Richardson's engineering diary

Currently, fewer than 0.1 per cent of the UK’s 26 million cars are electric, and we have a long way to go if we want to be a world pioneer in electric cars. But perhaps the development of electric vehicle technology represents an opportunity for the UK to take a real lead and, given the current state of the global economy, now is exactly the right time to seize the opportunity. In fact, it’s exactly the sort of high-value manufacturing opportunity that the UK is particularly good at embracing.

Becky Silverton writes

I've found myself wondering just how many good ideas have been abandoned over the years because of lack of funding or poor calculations or simply prejudice.? Well, if you often find yourself reminiscing about worthwhile projects you worked on decades ago that were abandoned for no good reason, or if you believe that forgotten projects might be re-invented using technologies that weren’t available at the time, then finally there’s an opportunity to do something about it.

Just  click here to download the November 2008 issue of Industrial Technology magazine as a pdf file, it’s less than 8Mb so shouldn't  take too long to download. You can read all the features as well as use the interactive links to view all the web sites of the companies we've written about and who've advertised with us. Instead of having to download the magazine in the future why not register to receive a copy free of charge each month? Click on the "Get a FREE copy" link on the left to register.