| News |
| Articles |
| Editorial | Supplement |
| Previous Issues |
| About Engineering Review |
| Contact Us |
August 16-31, 2010
|
Zulfiqarabad: Zardari wants it moving but:PPP men say na khappay
87% water not fit to drink HMC: rehab, no privatization Will you fly or drive  Gadani port, power plant obstructed Lead paints: KU shows risks Engineering computing: NAG adds 150 InterTech's new test fixture Punjab will need 20% less fuel: If smoky vehicles set right Zulfiqarabad: Zardari wants it moving but:PPP men say na khappay They also cited China as an example where despite strict regulation of population movement, the new cities have many outsiders. Besides PPP politicians, civil society organizations and nationalists too are concerned about 'outsiders' controlling the city. Locals, they say, neither have the expertise nor the money to handle the project. So the new city's control would rest with builders and labor coming from outside the province. Surprisingly, this claim is validated through Board of Revenue (BoR) record that over 400,000 acres of land in Thatta district has fraudulently been transferred to people who do not belong to Thatta district. Badin is to be investigated in coming weeks. Sindh Minister for Revenue Jam Mahtab Dahar confirmed this talking to Engineering Review. He said this happened during Sindh's last government (headed by Arbab Raheem). 'We are presently checking the data of other districts'. He hoped computerization of revenue records would stop this crime. Readers may recall that riots following Benazir's murder on December 27, 2007 had targeted some BoR offices including its head office in Karachi resulting in destruction of parts of BoR records. Quite a few people also fail to understand GoS decision to put records of Zulifqrabad's lands in a bank or a company registered with State Bank under banking regulations. However, Jam Mahtab says the decision is right because foreign and national investors would step ahead only, if corporate mindset supports the project. BoR, he said, is incapable of catering the needs of modern times. The proposed arrangement would make buying land easy. One could buy it from the Land Bank or the company in a one-window operation. Concern in Sindh deepens as people fear they will loose control over these areas as Sindh's political clout is not commensurate with its share in the national kitty. Shahab Osto, an economist working with IBA and Zabist argues that everywhere in the world, economically rich parts invariably have more political clout in the affairs of the state. He cited many examples: Northern Italy, South India, Southern UK, South and East China and Eastern USA. Unlike Sindh, they all have great say in decision making. Like Osto, many Sindhis fear that they are about to be turned into a permanent minority, which implies the right to rule would be transferred to 'outsiders'. Future of Sindhis, as a political entity, say some intellectuals, lies not in the paddy fields of upper Sindh but in the rich and strategically pivotal areas stretching from Somiani to Tharparkar. It is here that the world would remain focused for natural resources, foothold and more importantly for strategic objectives. This part of the world links Indian Ocean with mineral rich Central Asia and Europe's Baltic republics and with the oil rich Persian Gulf. Further off, it forms a nexus with South Pacific and beyond through Indian Ocean via Strait of Melacca. Besides concerns, denials and scholarly debates, supporting and opposing Zulfiqarabad, there also exist some suspicions that this exercise is aimed to mint money, secure commissions and kickbacks. Some senior political reporters that ER could get in touch say there is no intention to build a city. The proposal is just for earning money. Whatever the opinion of masses and politicians, significance of Zulifqarabad can best be gauged from the fact that Sindh Chief Secretary Fazal Rehman almost lost his job for being a bit sluggish in identifying the land for it. Fazal Rehman had a big rebuke awaiting him at the Bilawal House meeting called to review the progress on the project. President Zardari was recently in Karachi to push Zulifqarabad, a key objective of this visit. He was furious, as he often gets, when his orders fail to move the bureaucrats. Fazal Rehman had not till then identified any land for the purpose in district Thatta. The news is still a subject of discussion/ comments in power corridors. Top 87% water not fit to drink A survey done by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources has 'discovered' that most of the water used by Pakistanis is not fit for human consumption. Out of 357 samples of 'drinking' water tested under a national quality monitoring program, 87% samples were found to be unsafe for human consumption. The samples had many kinds of contaminants, often more than one. These were: 68% had bacteriological, 24% arsenic, 13% nitrate and 5% fluoride contaminations which made these samples unsafe for drinking. The survey was spread over five years. These statistics were made 'public' at a workshop (Islamabad, August 5). Nothing but bad news came from the moot. It was revealed that industry and population produce more than 5 million acre-feet (almost equals Tarbela Dam's capacity) of industrial and domestic wastewater annually. This is discharged directly into freshwater bodies. More than 200,000 children die of diarrhea yearly because of such water, giving Pakistan the highest infant mortality rate. Out of 134 districts of Pakistan, 81 have no water testing facilities. The problems, said Dr Manzoor Malik Director Water PCRWR, are primarily poor management and decreasing availability of water. Water quality, he said, deteriorates due to: 1. excessive use of fertilizers in farms; 2. intermittent water supplies; 3. inadequate technical capacity; 4. bad governance and 5. lack of infrastructure. The biggest factor behind premature deaths and people, specially children under five falling ill, is microbial contamination, said UNICEF's Water, Environment, and Sanitation Specialist Irfan Saeed Alrai. Quoting official statistics, he said, 116,013 children under five died in 2007 because of diarrhea. This works out to approximately 317 children per day and 13 children per hour. According to 2007 statistics from Rawalpindi's Water and Sanitation Agency (WASA), 70% of the city's water lines deliver sewage mixed water to consumers. Reason: rusty pipelines passing near sewer lines, he said. Alrai said that over-exploitation and absence of environmental protection of water resources - wells, canals, rivers and urban networks - were the main reasons of pollution. All evidence indicates that groundwater aquifers are being mined much faster than they are being recharged. Over extraction hurts groundwater quality as saline water seeps into fresh water zones. At current rates of extraction and wastewater disposal, groundwater availability at shallow depths is either entirely absent or too polluted, he said. Communities downstream of farms and municipal sewage outfalls are the worst hit and have to face the highest illness risk. Top HMC: rehab, no privatizationHeavy Mechanical Complex, Taxilla is not to be privatized but will be improved under an ambitious balancing, modernisation, rehabilitation and expansion plan (cost Rs. 21.54 billion). According to well placed sources, Planning Commission's clearance of the proposal is awaited. Economic Affairs Division will arrange for $156.44 million to cover the plan's foreign exchange needs. It has been profitable despite technological and financial constraints. In year ending June 2010, it had achieved record sales of Rs. 2 billion, a gross profit of Rs. 187 million and had orders worth Rs. 1,400 million in hand and more in the pipeline. HMC is Pakistan's largest professionally managed engineering, design and manufacturing unit spread over 2.31 sq km. It has two big divisions - Mechanical Division and Foundry and Forge Division. It was established with China's technical help during 1960s-1970s but got no major investment later. Planned rehab of the plant and equipment in general will notably boost its capacity, said an expert. Plans cover upgrading/ overhauling of steel melting, casting and forging facilities and adding an induction furnace and a heavy duty forging press. Heavy duty computer, CNC machines, precision welding machines, material preparation equipment and others will also be installed. HMC has a well-equipped product design and engineering office, which has kept itself updated through technology transfer agreements and working jointly with foreign companies. It has, over the years, earned international standards certificates from ISO, American Boiler Board, ASME and TUV etc. But this needs to be upgraded now because of a shift in focus towards power generation and industrial sectors. So it will need more state-of-the-art facilities for computer-aided designing (CAD), computer-aided engineering (CAE) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM). All these new facilities are estimated to cost Rs. 665.38 million. HMC's specialization has so far been sugar and cement plants. These had big demand both in domestic and overseas markets. But the domestic market was saturated quite sometime ago, so it needs to diversify. Recent efforts were not successful, essentially due to non-availability of modern technology, lack of government support and inconsistent policies, said a veteran. Blunting of HMC's competitive edge forces it to diversify and enter other sectors: energy, chemical, petrochemical and agro-based industries and infrastructure. If the proposed plan gets moving, its yearly sales may go past Rs. 15 billion in some years after new plan's launch. According to sources, power plants will be the biggest item on the new menu which will cover hydro, coal, oil, wind and urban and industrial waste fired power stations. HMC is said to be aiming at small hydropower and wind plants on turn-key basis in the beginning. It may be noted here that HMC is no stranger in this sector. It has already manufactured substantial equipment for Bin Qasim, Muzaffargarh, Hubco and AES Lalpir power stations. Medium and mega hydropower projects serviced by HMC include: Malakand III, Ghazi Barotha, Warsak and Tarbela, besides many small and mini hydro projects in Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Kashmir. The restructuring plan is envisaged to be completed in three years. According to insiders, China is being considered as the best option for technical assistance needed here. It was China which had helped Pakistan set up HMC in the first place. It is believed to be willing to support its rehab. Another factor supporting partnership with China is its continued interest in developing quite a few more hydropower projects in Pakistan. During President Zardari's July visit to China, Beijing had shown its willingness to help Pakistan overcome its power crisis and lending $10 billion for hydro and wind power projects. HMC can be a very good partner for local manufacturing of equipment. Top Will you fly or drive The world's first commercial 'flying car' take off on both highways and runways is expected next year when it rolls off the production line, thanks in part, to design optimization from Ansys (Nasdaq). Massachusetts, USA based Terrafugia used ANSYS® engineering simulation software to design and verify its new production prototype of Transition® aircraft that can also drive on a highway. It was unveiled on July 26 at EAA AirVenture Airshow. Terrafugia engineers conducted whole vehicle airflow tests to assess effects of design changes on overall performance, working in parallel across various transition components. The simulations were used to maximize wing lift in the air and to minimize effects of crosswinds on a road. Test flights identified some important engineering issues that helped Ansys fluid dynamics software to address for making a prototype, said Engr. Gregor Cadman of Terrafugia. 'Our latest design improves both in-air and on-road performance of Transition and ensures that the vehicle is good for full-scale manufacturing. Simulation software from Ansys played a central role in these engineering efforts. Without the ability to work in a virtual environment, we would have had to construct complicated physical models, modify or rebuild them, and conduct hours of real-world testing, slowing down the process and adding significantly to development costs', he added. Transition is the world's first vehicle to combine a lightweight, aerodynamic aircraft with the stability needed for long distance driving on highways. The vehicle can cruise up to 490 miles (aprox Karachi to Bahawalpur) at over 105 mph, can drive at highway speeds on the road, and is capable of transforming from plane to car in less than 30 seconds. The sophisticated design features foldable wings spanning 26 feet, a rear-wheel-drive for the road and a propeller for flight. Terrafugia's team of aeronautical engineers earned global attention when Transition's proof-of-concept vehicle completed a successful 60-second test flight in March 2009. The company expects to begin commercial production in 2011. Working closely with Ansys specialists, Terrafugia engineering team also studied the impact of Transition's propeller on air flows around the vehicle. As the project developed, engineers applied simulation tools to study ever-smaller and more precise design modifications, which added to their confidence that Transition will do well in flight tests. Driving and flying put in one vehicle is a big challenge for aeronautical engineers, said Greg Stuckert, aerospace industry manager at Ansys. Terrafugia's use of engineering simulation to fine-tune designs during development, not just at the end for verification, contributed to an optimized historic vehicle and an efficient product launch. Success in test flights and this year's production prototype are proofs that the efforts are paying off. For downloadable images, visit:www.ansys.com/newsimages. Terrafugia Terrafugia, Inc. (pronounced ter-ra-foo-gee-ah) is the developer of the first street-legal airplane, which can fly and also drive on a road. The company has received worldwide media attention from Forbes, Fortune, CNN, CBS and Fox News etc. Based in Woburn, Massachusetts, the company has a team of award winning engineers working on 'personal aircraft' since 2006. It was founded by five pilots who are graduates of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and supported by a world class network of advisors and private investors, Terrafugia's mission is the innovative expansion of personal mobility. Learn more at www.terrafugia.com. Ansys Ansys Inc, founded in 1970, develops and markets engineering simulation software and technologies widely used by engineers, designers, researchers and students across a broad spectrum of industries and academia. It focuses on developing open and flexible solutions to let users analyze designs directly on the desktop, providing a common platform for fast, efficient and cost-conscious product development, from design concept to final-stage testing and validation. The company and its global network of partners provide sales, support and training for customers. Based in Canonsburg, Pennsy-lvania, USA and having more than 60 strategic sales locations in the world, Ansys and its subsidiaries employ over 1,600 people and has a market in over 40 countries. Visit www. nsys.com for more information. Top Gadani port, power plant obstructed Private Power Infrastructure Board (PPIB) fears that the 1000-1200 MW power plant proposed to be run on imported coal and the accompanying 'coal port' to be established at Gadani may not take off. Chinese contractors are reluctant to initiate work as they have been advised not to travel to Pakistan due to safety concerns. Chinese are the only people who appear to be interested in the project. AES, the project sponsors want it built on EPC (engineering, procurement, construction) basis. And according to well placed sources in Islamabad, only Chinese firms would be interested in the project because of environmental considerations about coal. But Beijing's travel advice is obstructing Chinese contractors' plans to finalise the deal. PPIB is believed to have asked both federal and Balochistan governments for 'proper security' of the Chinese and convince Beijing to remove the travel advisory. AES has also proposed an outline of the type of security they want for their Chinese guests during the port and plant's construction. Top Lead paints: KU shows risks Pakistan's paint industry needs to give its formulae a new look - make them lead free. The more conscious among states and nations have long been worried about the matter and have set standards for the industry to follow. Samples of consumer paints checked at Karachi University had significantly high lead, the chemical known for its toxicity and severe damaging effects. The testing was done by MSc Chemistry students and supervised by Dr. Nasiruddin Khan and determined the lead content in consumer paints of various colors and brands. Lead-based paints contribute much to creating lead dust, a big problem for children. Other major sources of lead in the environment include petrol, water, food, cosmetics and lead-glazed ceramics. Ironically, lead-based paints are also used in manufacturing toys in many countries, making children vulnerable to slow poisoning. Health risks emanating from products containing lead have in recent years forced many countries to limit/ ban use of lead in paints. United States last year lowered the limit from 600 parts per million (600 mg/kg) to 90 ppm. Lead can cause anaemia, muscle weakness and brain damage, if swallowed in large amounts. Even small quantities are linked to behavioral problems and low IQ. Developing countries like Pakistan on the other hand, neither have proper regulations, nor are these enforced. For example, paints are not included in the list of 78 products that require compulsory certification and regular monitoring by Pakistan Standards Quality Control Authority, which last revised its specifications in 1997 for 'lead-free paints' to 300 mg/kg. Hazardous poisons According to the KU research, three samples out of 15, including six samples of distemper, had very high concentrations of lead, ranging from 78,446 mg/kg to 195,139 mg/kg. Other samples had lead concentration between 196.3 mg/kg and 505.6 mg/kg. A sample of lime (chuna) had 172.31 mg/kg of lead. Lead is known to be one of the most hazardous poisons and its ingestion in children is common and most dangerous during hand-to-mouth activities from dislodged and deteriorated paint. It is not without reason that experts advocate lead-free petrol and paints, instead of setting permissible limits and then enforcing them, often without any effect, said Dr. Nasiruddin Khan, the research supervisor. Common lead compounds (lead acetate and lead nitrate), are considered specially dangerous because they are highly water soluble. Old buildings' debris with lead-paint is hazardous and should be disposed of under environment protection regulations. Lead and its compounds are used in paints to give them good color, durability and improve drying. Lead-based paints are also believed to be corrosion-resistant. It is advisable that hard colors should not be used in schools, specially kindergartens. And precautions must be taken while using or removing lead-based paints. Pakistan has no regulations on paint contents including use of lead paints in residential buildings, said a senior paint industry man. And since lead-based pigments are very cheap (both local and imported) they are popular. Workers of factories making lead-based paints and those using them by spraying face grave risks, if they do not use any safety gear, he added. Commenting on the matter, head of the Environmental Health Sciences at a leading hospital, said that though lead is also found in the paint on toys and other products, major source of lead exposure to Pakistani children is lead-contaminated dust in deteriorating old buildings. Lead found in the dust of a household due to paint leads to chronic exposure and more adverse health effects. It particularly affects children under six months. Lead exposure can cause hyperactivity, anemia, brain damage, and mental retardation in children. Adults may suffer increased blood pressure, hearing and vision impairment and nerve damage. Lead levels in paints of the same brands in different countries may also be different. In America they meet some limits, in Pakistan or Ghana, they may not, he said. It is now accepted that all countries should promote lead-free paints as children are affected even at very low exposure levels. Revising standards for consumer paints is grossly overdue, said a big US scientist in the field. The limit of 600 ppm lead in paint was set more than 30 years ago while research shows that there is no 'safe' level of exposure, he concluded. The man and his team had studied residential paints in 12 Asian, African and South American countries representing 46% of world's population. Asian countries were China, India and Malaysia. The study found that about 73% of residential paint brands in these countries exceeded the US standard of 600 ppm for lead. 69% brands had at least one sample exceeding 10,000 ppm of lead. High lead paints were detected in all countries. The study emphasized the need for a worldwide ban on using lead in paints. Top Engineering computing: NAG adds 150The largest commercial collection of numerical algorithms for C and C++ has been expanded recently by Numerical Algorithms Group (NAG). Over 150 functions were added, taking the total to well over 1300 user-callable functions. Many of these are key to all types of engineering research and are widely used for developing engineering applications, says a press release received on e mail. NAG's new release includes two new chapters on wavelet transforms and global optimization. A sub-chapter has also been added on option pricing. Additions have been made in statistics, optimization, linear algebra, ordinary differential equations, regression, random numbers, sorting, and special functions. Complete list of mathematical and statistical functionality in the new NAG C Library (Mark 9) can be had from http://www.nag .com/numeric/CL/CLdescription.asp. NAG Library is very reliable and easy to work with, through its extensive documentation and very knowledgeable support team. It offers powerful optimization techniques and broad environment support and also enables use of both serial and parallel processor based numerical computation, said the press release. With origins in several UK universities, NAG (www.nag.com), is an Oxford based not-for-profit numerical software development organization. It has active links with world's leading researchers and practitioners in academia and industry. NAG has offices in Oxford, Manchester, Chicago, Tokyo and Taipei and sales staff in France and Germany besides a global network of distributors. Mathematical and statistical functions of NAG Library are viewed as the most rigorously tested and extensively documented numerical programming components. For more information on NAG services, contact http://www. nag.com /contact_us.asp. Top InterTech's new test fixture Worldwide engineering teams seeking to eliminate losses caused by high defect rates in test-intensive assembly and wasted engineering efforts, often stretching over months, to re-engineer production systems for meeting minimal Gage R&R standards, can now use the services of InterTech Development Co's Applications Laboratory for test fixture design services. According to Jacques Hoffmann, Founder President of InterTech this effort addresses inadequacies in fixture design in response to widespread misconception that high precision leak detectors and other test instruments can work without comparable attention to high precision fixturing. Hoffmann said, 'a classic example was in an automotive plant which I visited to help them design a turnkey leak testing solution for a fuel injection component to achieve very low leak standards, 0.03 sccm at very high pressures, 3,000 PSI. They had specialized leak detectors in place which they thought were good, but the problem was in the test fixture design, which had the frequently found 15 micron Ra. They did not know that the added expense for a near mirror finish fixture (2L lapped finish) was absolutely essential to prevent seal creep. But these superior leak detectors did not deliver consistent test results. Why? The 16 micron Ra of test fixtures was nowhere as precise as the real world requires. The 2L lapped finish that fixed their problems cost more, which high precision always does, but you pay for better fixtures to keep the expense of quality problems and not achieving Gage R&R out of the equation. More information can be had from gsim@intertechdevelopment.com. InterTech Develop-ment (www.intertech development.com) is a world leader in automated testing with 7 patented mass flow and hydraulic technologies, and helium mass spectrometry (meeting ISO-17025 Standards). Top Punjab will need 20% less fuel: If smoky vehicles set right Ministry of Environment, Punjab believes that the province could save up to 20% fuel, if Motor Vehicles Examination is revamped. It stresses that Motor Vehicles Ordinance (MVO) 1965 cannot tackle pollution caused by vehicles. A MoE presentation (Islamabad, July 6) for Punjab government urged them to redo decades old MVO to control their emissions. The law was described as 'inadequate' and said that urban air was being polluted by old vehicles, which emit over 3 million tons of CO2 per year. And old vehicles are not the only villains around. Industry is a much bigger nuisance. Hardly 3-5% industries comply with NEQS 1993 (National Environmental Quality Standards) for industrial wastewater and municipal effluents. Industries indiscriminately discharge untr-eated wastes into public sewers and other water bodies (streams, rivers), lamented an official. And since the 18th Amendment makes provinces exclusively responsible for making and implementing environmental laws, so enforcement capacity of EPA Punjab needs a boost, he added. MoE also proposed preparing a 10 year environment plan for Punjab cities, developing projects and allocating funds for operating Air Quality Monitoring Stations (2 fixed, 1 mobile). It emphasised the need of setting up an enforcement section having of a 'green force' for getting the orders implemented. It was proposed that a credible system of inspecting and certifying vehicles by amending MVO 1965 and MVR 1969 be raised. Besides, a system of proper checks was also needed primarily focusing on checking and certifying all vehicles. Outsourcing of vehicles inspection was also proposed. This included a pilot project for checking vehicles in selected cities and putting all road vehicles under MVE by amending the law. Top |
