MR Mechanical Miscellaneous
October 2010
MR Workshop
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Rosy Trovato

I hope you missed our newsletter in the past months because we are starting again in a better shape.

It's Halloween time and I guess you are looking  for the scariest costume but I hope you also find the time to read us.

Today's news is about Bella Sicilia, it will be made by the contributions of our LinkedIn friends. I do expect yours as well, feel free to contact me with your Sicilian story!

This issue will highlight on Snapper project in which MR is involved with other European companies and whose 5th quarterly meeting took place in Riesi  a couple of weeks ago.

Enjoy,

Meccanotecnica Riesi srl
Let's talk about  extracting energy by the sea

What does a Lithuanian, a Norwegian , a Sicilian and a group of British people have in common?Snapper 5th quarterly meeting at MR

No, your guess is not right! This is not a  joke but there are  companies from several  places in Europe having in common a serious research project known with the acronym of Snapper.

 Technogama from Lithuania, Subsea Design from Norway, Ecotricity, EM Renewable and Ocean Resource from UK are the European Small Medium Enterprises involved in the Consortium and this project's Research & Technological Development is carried by the British NAREC and Edinburgh University.

The project started In September 2009 and will run for two years.

The overarching objective of Snapper is the development of a novel rare-earth magnet based wave power conversion system appropriate for deployment in near and offshore environments and capable of achieving a market competitive lifetime cost of energy.

The Snapper device is designed to work like a typical linear generator in which a set of magnets of alternating polarity are mounted on a translator. The translator is moved up and down inside the multiple copper coils of an armature. Movement of the translator is initiated by a buoy. However there is a crucial difference with Snapper; alongside the armature coils is mounted a second set of magnets of alternating polarity.

Edinburgh University already determined the suitable parameters required for both the prototype and future Snapper designs, a detailed design of the key components has taken place and buoy and seabed fixings design is ongoing.

The potential impact of the project results is that the Snapper Consortium obtains the initial design data for a commercially-viable wave energy device. These results could be used to seek further investment to build a bigger scaled prototype device or even a full scale prototype device. This device could be tested in an offshore environment which would be the next big hurdle to clear a part of the route-map towards commercialization.

Energy is one of the biggest challenges of our time and despite the small size of their company Algimantas, Eivind, Emma, Ed and David are betting with us and the RTD team on this project that will permit a lot of savings in the future.




Read the article

 
Bella Sicilia


As I mentioned before, I am getting help for this column by LinkSciacca- DuomoedIn friends to whom I asked to send me article about Sicilian awesomenesses. Michela Musolino is a singer who specializes in the Roots music of Sicily living and working in New York city. She addressed me on her blog and the following is a very romantic part of a longer story about Sciacca and Selinunte I suggest you to read entirely.

"Years ago, during the summer  I was expecting, part of my stay in Sicily was spent  in Sciacca which was the birthplace of my dad's grandmother, and it is one of the most important fishing ports in Sicily.   I stayed in an hotel overlooking the port. As the room was several stories above the street and the balcony was unreachable from the outside,  I kept the doors to the balcony open while I slept. One night, for no discernible reason,  I found it impossible to sleep.   I sat up in bed and was drawn to look out over the sea.  It was that time of night when the sky is blackest and if not for the stars, there would be no way to tell where the sky met the sea, except this night was different. At that early hour, the fishermen were leaving the port and there were  illuminated lanterns on their boats.  From my vantage point in that darkness, I barely saw the boats,  but the lanterns formed an undulating ribbon of twinkling lights that separated the black night from the quiet sea. As the boats ventured further and further out to sea, the lights would disappear, one by one. The ribbon grew sparser as dawn brought light to the sky.  Eventually the sun started to rise, the boats were nowhere to be seen and that glorious ribbon of light was just a memory.  I sat so still that morning, stared out at the horizon and wondered  whether I had really seen the beautiful spectacle of the fishermen in the  port or had I dreamt it?"


Rocco Lo Stimolo, Founder
In This Issue
Let's talk about extracting energy by the sea
Current Project Spotlight
What's New
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Current Project Spotlight:
This month, we are working on  the several components' job for US  customers
What's New:
 
 
We improved our presence in the US by signing  agency agreements in several territories.
 
 
The new dining room in the grass is ready---more pics have been posted in our page on FB
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