Ground-breaking Project successfully crosses the Atlantic Ocean

A pioneering project, supported by Rotec Hydraulics Ltd, has achieved a fully autonomous ship sail across the Atlantic Ocean.

Solo and unaided, the Mayflower Autonomous Research Ship (MAS) set sail from Plymouth harbour in the UK and reached its end destination of Plymouth USA on 30th June 2022 after 36 days at sea and 3,900 miles, having made two stops in Horta (Azores) and Halifax (Canada).

The futuristic vessel was powered by AI and powered using renewable solar energy technology, and a backup diesel generator for night sailing. Throughout the journey, the vessel collected data that researchers hope will provide critical information in the battle to safeguard the future of our oceans. A challenging project relied on a diverse team that spanned 10 countries and 3 continents, including Rotec Hydraulics Ltd.

ProMare, a US based non-profit organisation with a branch in Plymouth UK, teamed up with IBM to build the third Mayflower and asked Rotec to supply a range of hoses and hose assemblies to support the project. Rotec was also pleased to be able to help spread the word of crowdfunding efforts at the start of the project.

Brett Phaneuf, Managing Director of the MAS Project, commented:

 “[The Mayflower Project is] ushering us into a new phase of oceanographic and climatological research with state-of-the-art technology.”

Paddy Dowsett – Project Manager, MSubs says:

“This project brings a number of new  technologies together in a way that hasn’t been done before. There are some smaller autonomous crafts in existence, however nothing anywhere near this scale in terms of size and technicality.”

Find out more about the project, including live video stream when the vehicle is on a mission and footage from previous journeys at https://www.mas400.com/.

Rotec helps Bristol Dragons Powerchair Football Club

Rotec recently had the pleasure of supporting Bristol Powerchair Football team, the Bristol Dragons at the Bristol Ignite Festival 2022.

Powerchair Football is the fastest growing disability team sport, which enables severely disabled people to play football using electric powerchairs.

Ignite Bristol is a movement to get more Disabled people active in Bristol. The festival provides the perfect place to showcase inclusive activities, such as powerchair football, and allow attendees to benefit from participating and creating a new network of friends, clubs and organisations. 

The event is particularly important as Disabled people are half as likely to be active as non-disabled people. 

Rotec helped Bristol Dragons PFC attend the Bristol Ignite Festival by transporting their electric powerchairs to site. Once they arrived at the event, the players had a chance to show off powerchair football to everyone who then could have a go and try it. All the Bristol Dragons PFC players and coaches had a great day and overcame the hot weather to play and demonstrate what a great sport powerchair football can be.

Bristol Powerchair Football Club (PFC) was formed back in 2016, with help of the Bristol Rovers Community Trust, the GFA and Goals Beyond Grass. To find out more, visit Bristol PFC – Goals Beyond Grass.

Pictured below, player representatives from the Bristol Dragons PFC.

Rotec and Somerset County Cricket Club release the 2022 season’s 50-over shirt

Cricket fans will be delighted to hear the news that the new Rotec Royal London Cup shirt for the 2022 season has been released.

The hotly contested 50-over competition, which kicks off in the Summer, will see the Somerset County Cricket Club’s talented players walk out in a new kit that evokes memories of the club’s golden era and once again features Rotec’s logo front and centre as proud Principal sponsors.

Members and ticket holders alike have an exciting season ahead to look forward to. Each home game will be centred around a theme, including a ladies day, family day and an always popular local beer and cider festival. For full details of the 2022 Royal London Cup fixtures, click here.

Rotec Hydraulics Ltd have been proud sponsors of the tournament for nearly 10 years, with partnership highlights including the spectacular Somerset win at Lord’s in 2019.

Paul Prouse, Managing Director comments;

“The enduring and strong partnership we here at Rotec share with Somerset County Cricket Club is fantastic. Rotec wishes the players and all at the Club a successful and enjoyable Royal London Cup 2022 season, where we will be watching and supporting with enthusiasm.”

Royal London Cup game tickets are now on sale and are available from the Somerset CCC website. 

Rotec deliver custom upgrade and HPU builds for leading manufacturer

Recently designed and manufactured, engineers at Rotec Hydraulics Ltd have completed a bespoke project for a market-leading manufacturer.

The British-based company specialise in the manufacture of electronic valve actuators for large fluid flow applications, for example within the oil and gas, water and power industries. The actuators produced are a considerable size and as such, part of the development process includes dynamic load testing. The actuators connect to a test cylinder via a screw thread; as the actuators move the screw thread up and down, this in turn pushes and pulls a hydraulic cylinder.

 Full of hydraulic fluid, the operators were manually operating needle valves to restrict the flow of the hydraulic fluid within the cylinders in order to vary the amount of load on the actuator. Thus, Rotec design engineers developed two key upgrades to this current setup which were:

  • Electrify the load control valves so they can be operated by a computer.
  • Create a power pack which can induce a given pressure inside the test cylinder bores.

 The newly custom-designed system reuses the current cylinders that vary in size from 63mm in diameter to 203mm. To accommodate for this, different sized stands with varying tank sizes have been manufactured to accommodate the extra capacity whilst the control components remain the same. The stands consist of:

  • A custom powder coated steel frame.
  • An aluminium reservoir.
  • Dual electronic proportional pressure relief valves.
  • Dual manual needle valves.
  • Dual ball valves.
  • Quick connect ports for the power pack to connect to.
  • Output ports which connect to the test cylinder.

In addition to this, Rotec developed and built three identical standalone hydraulic power unit (HPU) systems which can create steady state pressures inside the test cylinders bores to eradicate erroneous pressure lag errors. Features include:

  • Powder coated mild steel tank construction.
  • 3 phase motor coupled to a gear pump.
  • Air blast oil cooler.
  • Direction control valve.
  • Dual proportional relief valve.
  • Electronic control box.
  • Stainless steel tool tray.
  • Whole unit is mounted on castors for easy manoeuvrability.

For more information on Rotec’s capabilities, including project case studies, visit www.rotec.net.

Rotec Pledges to Become Net Zero

Businesses taking action to reduce their carbon footprint is critically important in achieving the UK’s goals to tackle climate change by 2050, from cutting emissions in their supply chains to opting for sustainable business practices.

We are proud to announce Rotec has committed to becoming a net zero business by pledging to half its carbon emissions by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2040.

A recent ‘Carbon Footprint Assessment’ identified the main sources of our carbon emissions and has ensured necessary management frameworks, processes and systems for decreasing the company’s carbon footprint are data-driven and have measurable targets. We have also recently received our FNZ Standard – a benchmark and progress recording and monitoring tool, which is verified and audited by future Net Zero.

To achieve net zero by 2040, Rotec will first focus on reducing emissions caused in-house and by their supply chain to the lowest possible level. Any emissions that cannot be eliminated will need to be offset through schemes that remove carbon from the atmosphere.

All of our service centres, based throughout the South West of the UK, have already taken a number of steps towards our net zero goal, and will continue to take future action in the coming years; continuously looking for new ways to become more sustainably responsible and ultimately carbon neutral.

Paul Prouse, Rotec’s Managing Director, commented,

“We are pleased to announce our environmental commitment to achieve net zero by 2040. Reducing Rotec’s carbon footprint is embedded within our business strategy.

 

“As part of being an environmentally responsible company, we are committed to supporting our customers to become more sustainable by designing and offering more energy-efficient and eco-friendly engineering solutions.”

To find out more about Rotec’s environmental sustainability aims and actions, click here.