Skip to main content
Sister Publication Links
  • Middle East Foam & Polyurethane
  • UTECH Asia/PU China
  • UTECH Europe
  • UTECH Las Americas
Subscribe
  • My Account
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Coronavirus
  • News
    • Asia
    • Americas
    • Europe
    • M & A
    • Financial results
    • Automotive
    • India levies anti-dumping duty on polyols from Saudi Arabia and UAE
      World car registrations rebounded in March
      Wanhua doubled revenue in Q1 2021
      Machinery sector business confidence returned to average in 2020
    • US mattress imports kept on falling in February
      World car registrations rebounded in March
      US footwear imports up in February 2021
      A fishy source of non-iso PUs
    • World car registrations rebounded in March
      Taking the helm at Baumer
      Western Europe's car registrations rebounded in March 2021
      Machinery sector business confidence returned to average in 2020
    • Recticel completes FoamPartner purchase
      iStock, 2019, 800, Web, glue, adhesive, sticky, CASE
      Plixxent moves into the UK
      Kingspan moves into pipe insulation
      Recticel insulation starts move into Central/Eastern Europe
    • Wanhua doubled revenue in Q1 2021
      Grammer felt the coronavirus fever in 2020
      Coronavirus drags down Anli’s 2020 earnings
      Sinomax grew business in 2020
    • World car registrations rebounded in March
      Western Europe's car registrations rebounded in March 2021
      US car sales up dramatically in March 2021
      Foam and chip shortage hit US car production
  • Data
  • Information
    • Country Overview
    • Market Sector overviews
    • Technical articles
    • Company profiles and strategies
    • China’s PU industry on the path to recovery; plans for technology upgrades
      Chinese cold chains grow bigger
      Flexible foam rises to challenges in the Middle East and Africa
      Life at the cross-roads: what does the GCC offer PU?
    • Europe's flexible foam makers face rising prices as outages hit markets
      Western European car registrations rebound slowed in September
      Western European car registrations regained some ground in August
      Western European Car registrations rebound continued in July
    • Take out the VOC with hybrid release agents
      Batteries give pultrusions power
      Seeing a way through VOC and FOG
      Aromatic polyols for simpler rigid PU formulations
    • Taking the helm at Baumer
      Hennecke and Frimo: an automotive partnership
      Pushing ahead: AutoRIM drives KM’s UK growth
      BASF opens it first ‘Creation Center’ in Mumbai with a PU twist
  • Events
    • Exhibitions
    • Conferences
    • Webinars / Livestreams
    • Become a Speaker
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Issues
  • Subscribe
MENU
Breadcrumb
  1. Home
  2. News
January 20, 2012 12:00 AM

Beakbane bellows aid search for life under Antarctic ice

Utech Staff
  • Tweet
  • Share
  • Share
  • Email
  • More
    Print

    Kidderminster, UK -- Specially designed polyurethane bellows manufactured by UK engineering group Beakbane will play a crucial role in a project to explore Lake Ellsworth, an ancient lake 3 km below the ice of Antarctica.

    The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) project involves drilling through the ice to the lake and sending down probes to sample the lake water and the sediments on the lake bed.

    The specially designed bellows will provide a sealed protective container for the water-sampling probe, ensuring it has no contact with the outside world and remains sterile from assembly to deployment in the lake.

    Funded by the National Environmental Research Council, the Lake Ellsworth project is a partnership between British Antarctic Survey, the National Oceanography Centre (NOC) and eight UK universities

    The NOC is responsible for designing and manufacturing the probe that will sample the water in the lake, as well as for the system to deploy it down the 3-km borehole in the middle of the polar wilderness.

    The 5-m long polyurethane bellows manufactured by Kidderminster-based Beakbane must stay flexible down to -35 deg C, be tough enough to withstand the journey to Antarctica and withstand exposure to hydrogen peroxide vapour.

    "The project will bore through the ice to take samples and search for life in the waters, which have been cut off from the outside world for hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of years," said Kevin Saw, the mechanical engineer who heads the NOC design team.

    The results will show whether life can exist in these extreme conditions of pitch dark, water temperatures of -2 deg C and high pressures, and give a window on life on earth in the distant past.

    See more on this project in the forthcoming issue of Urethanes Technology International.

    "

    Recommended for You
    The raw materials roller coaster
    The raw materials roller coaster
    US mattress imports kept on falling in February
    US mattress imports kept on falling in February
    India levies anti-dumping duty on polyols from Saudi Arabia and UAE
    India levies anti-dumping duty on polyols from Saudi Arabia and UAE
    Latest Issue
    Click HERE for Free Download
    View All Archives
    Get our newsletters

    Breaking news and in-depth coverage of essential topics delivered straight to your inbox.

    Subscribe today

    Register to access our archive of leading information on the polyurethanes industry.

    Subscribe now
    Connect with Us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Facebook
    • Youtube

    Follow us on social media for the latest polyurethanes industry news and event updates.

    Logo
    Contact Us

    Office 127,
    61, Willow Walk,
    London
    SE1 5SF
    E-mail us
    +44 (0) 203 287 5979

    Customer Service:
    +1 313 446 0450

    Resources
    • Advertise with Us
    • Media Kit
    • Staff
    • Careers
    • Ad Choices Ad Choices
    • Sitemap
    Legal
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • Privacy Request
    Copyright © 1996-2021. Crain Communications, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
    • Coronavirus
    • News
      • Asia
      • Americas
      • Europe
      • M & A
      • Financial results
      • Automotive
    • Data
    • Information
      • Country Overview
      • Market Sector overviews
      • Technical articles
      • Company profiles and strategies
    • Events
      • Exhibitions
      • Conferences
      • Webinars / Livestreams
      • Become a Speaker
    • Advertise
    • Contact Us
    • Issues
    • Subscribe