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Background

Loch Electronics innovate, engineer, design and bring to market consumer electronics products focused on reducing global carbon footprint in households and offices.

Conventional dishwashers are incompatible with the most common household sizes in the UK; they are too big. Loch Electronics has been developing a concept dishwasher design, suitable for small households. In their design, the water spray system was modified to take less space and increase water flow directed at the dishes. As a result, the design is anticipated to offer increased process efficiency, reduced operational time and energy usage.

Challenge

To prove their concept, the company was looking to collaborate with an academic partner with expertise in fluid dynamics. 

Solution

Referred by Business Gateway, Interface was able to successfully match Loch Electronics to the academic team at Robert Gordon University (RGU).  The team has considerable expertise in fluid dynamics and thermo-fluids, with years of experience working on a wide variety of collaborative research studies on the performance evaluation of complex flow handling systems; leading to optimal designs and enhanced operational efficiencies.

Funded by a Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Standard Innovation Voucher, the project involved detailed investigation into the performance characteristics of the dishwasher.

The primary outcome of this project was the hydrodynamic characterisation of the concept dishwasher design. This involved detailed investigation into the performance characteristics of the dishwasher. A systematic parametric investigation was carried out to achieve this. This scientific research will enable the company to develop and market these dishwashers with enhanced knowledge of its working; allowing prototypes to be built for real world testing and analysis, leading to further developments.

Benefits

The innovative water spray system will result in a compact dishwasher design, ideally suited for small households. In this concept dishwasher design, the water spray system was modified to take less space and increase water flow directed at the dishes. This innovation results in enhanced process efficiency, reduced operational time and energy usage, higher power and cost savings, and lower carbon footprint of the device. It is therefore a very saleable product, easy to store and maintain, and with a low cost to manufacture and ship.

Follow-on Activity

After successful completion of the initial collaborative project, both Loch Electronics and RGU wanted to collaborate further on the capsule dishwasher, specifically on the integration of UV lights, to enhance its capabilities through the inclusion of sanitisation and disinfection functions for protection against COVID-19. 

Laboratory tests carried out by an American working group on COVID-19 show that the virus can remain infectious for up to 2-3 days on stainless steel and plastics.  UVC (Ultraviolet type C) lights have long been used for sanitation and disinfection purposes and a recent study in the American Journal of Infection Control found that UVC light exposure completely inactivated the virus in 9 minutes.

A SFC Advanced Innovation Voucher was awarded to create prototypes and carry out testing to prove the theory in practice.

Benefits

With precise control of the amount of exposure to the UVC lights, many different items made of different materials could be disinfected of any bacteria and viruses, limiting the spread of COVID-19. As dishwashers are used in 49% of the households across the UK, and 45% of households across Europe, the impact of this UVC integrated dishwasher would be substantial in helping to stop the spread of COVID-19 and any future viruses as well. As the dishwasher will be compact, it will be ideal for use in small households, nursing homes, hospitals etc.

As well as disinfecting cooking utensils, eating utensils and medical tools, it could also disinfect through UV light, items that would get damaged with water, like face masks, phones, keys, wallets, letters, etc.

Background

SENSEcity Ltd. is a dynamic, high-tech start-up company looking to disrupt the traditional travel guidebook market. Pooja Katara, an architect, is the founder of the company and came up with the idea of an alternative guidebook as an artistically illustrated booklet with a complimentary mobile application during her Masters’ degree at The Glasgow School of Art. The output from her degree included a test of this guidebook.  

Challenge

SENSEcity Ltd. wanted to develop the test case into a working product, addressing the demand for an authentic tourism experience by offering a unique interactive guidebook that would work along with an augmented reality application delivered on a mobile phone. The intent was to bring the cultural heritage of the city to life through experiential tourism. Pooja was looking to collaborate with academics to develop a prototype which could also be a fully working product.

Although Pooja had studied at The Glasgow School of Art (GSA), she was not sure which university would have the capacity and capability to work with her, or how to contact the right people to take forward a collaborative project.

Solution

Pooja met Ruth Oliver, Interface’s Business Engagement Executive for Glasgow and Clyde Valley, at the RBS Accelerator in Glasgow, where the company is based. Ruth drew up a brief outlining the challenge, which was issued to universities throughout Scotland. Several responded to the brief and Pooja chose to collaborate with The Glasgow School of Art’s School of Simulation and Visualisation to use augmented reality to bring archive images and animations to life, and embed audio into the app.

The project was to focus on:

The collaborative project was part-funded funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface.

Benefits

The development of this project alongside the expertise from GSA proved extremely beneficial to SENSEcity and led to their first commercial travel guidebook and mobile application.  The creation of high-quality 3D content improved the AR interactions that users will now get to experience. The re-written narrative, and access to local expert knowledge of the history professor, made the content richer and, with access to the professional sound recording studio at GSA, the company was able to create a high-quality audio guide along with sound effects; an important feature within the app.

Follow-On Activity

Interface provided additional support to the company through a collaborative project with digital marketing students at the University of Glasgow looking at how to promote the SENSEcity app.

In collaboration with West Coast Motors and The Glasgow School of Art (following on from the original project with GSA), SENSEcity received £7,500 from the £50k Collaboration Fund launched by the new Experience Glasgow tourism network, which will allow visitors onboard the Glasgow City Sightseeing bus tours to experience Glasgow in a hi-tech way.

Pooja has since become a Converge Challenge winner of the newly introduced Creative Challenge category for her new-age travel guide.

The company are currently looking at evolving their product to fit into the Covid and post-Covid world.

Background

NjordFrey, established and registered in Rwanda in 2018 as a social enterprise, offers advanced farming solutions to developing farmers in Rwanda, so that they may decrease levels of malnutrition within their immediate community while experiencing stable economic growth.

This is done by offering these farmers access to sustainably designed aquaponic starter kits, seasonal input product lines, e.g. seeds & fingerlings, and operational training to allow them to become independent, all as part of an outgrower credit model.

NjordFrey are in the process of implementing their flagship farm in 2020 to showcase its solution and secure further collaborators and investment for large scale-up.

Challenge

NjordFrey were looking for an academic partner to apply for the Innovate Catalyst Round 8 Agri-tech competition. This Department for International Development (DFID) funded competition was for projects on agri-tech and food chain innovations with partners in eligible African countries. The aim of this competition was to increase the pace of development and scale of uptake of agricultural and food systems innovation by farmers and food systems actors (such as manufacturers, processors, retailers, distributors, or wholesalers) in Africa.

NjordFrey was specifically looking for support from an academic partner in any of the following areas:

Solution

NjordFrey was referred to Interface by the Knowledge Transfer Network to find an academic collaborative partner.

After scoping up the project and sending it on to various universities within Scotland, Ruth Oliver from Interface matched NjordFrey with four academic institutes for further discussions. After which, NjordFrey partnered with the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) for funding applications. The partners were successful in receiving an Innovate UK grant of almost £300k to collaborate on an 18-month project. This project is now underway and both organisations are working together to develop a Digital Health Monitoring System (using non-invasive sensors to provide a real time status of the farm health to improve yield and reduce errors) to improve food security in the developing world.

Benefits

Within Rwanda, 1.8 million smallholder farmers, looking to provide a nutritious protein and plant-based diet while increasing yields to support economic growth, are limited by; high capital costs for high yield solutions, promotion of basic farming techniques by competitors, lack of routes to market, and falling into a dependency trap with other solutions.

NjordFrey (NF), Rwanda, offers these farmers access to sustainably designed aquaponic starter farms via an outgrower credit model, seasonal input product lines e.g. seeds and fingerlings, operational training to allow them to become independent, and facilitates routes to markets.

In collaboration with the University of West of Scotland (UWS), this project is looking at developing a Digital Health Monitoring System that has a high-tech back end (sensors and machine learning) with a low-tech font-end approach (SMS/voice call) to feedback actions to farmers in an inclusive manner, providing NjordFrey with a data-driven product to capture market share in Rwanda.

Overall, our solution will remove high upfront costs and technical barriers, provide increased yields of organic produce, increase calorie intake by 28% and income 10-fold for up to 100,000 farmers and their 240,000 family members, via 2,000+ farms within 10 years. Tackling malnutrition (affecting 34% of children under 5) while improving livelihoods via this model is an innovate first within Rwanda and targets many of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
 

Business benefits

Follow-on Activity

NjordFrey has since gone on to have the following work-based learning projects with students at both the University of Strathclyde and the University of Glasgow, facilitated through Interface:

MSc Management Science (Strathclyde) – Supply chain and Market development – The business required additional data on agriculture markets / supply chains within Rwanda and the opportunities and challenges as a result.

MSc Management Science (Strathclyde) – Business Modelling – NjordFrey required a financial/business model to be developed that would allow them to forecast their 5-year financials and, importantly, run multiple scenarios/simulations within the context of a developing country in East Africa. Ultimately, the outputs of this project would be used to direct their financial strategy.

MBA Consultancy Week (Glasgow) – Export Strategy development – The MBA group were assigned to look at the projected amounts of fish and veg produce over five years, from 32 farms, and develop and market the business’s export strategy to Europe and the rest of the world from Rwanda.

Background

Hypervine Ltd is a Glasgow-based company that focuses on digitising infrastructure to enable construction, engineering and facilities management companies to improve transparency, compliance, consistency, health & safety, recording and reporting; leading to direct and indirect cost savings while improving compliance and quality.

The company is developing a powerful, custom-built single comprehensive, secure and unalterable blockchain platform for the construction, engineering and maintenance sectors with smart contract functionality and analytical tools for more accurate asset and infrastructure management.

Challenge

Following a series of industry scandals that highlighted the need for strong audit trails for building work undertaken, Hypervine was looking for an academic partner to  investigate the use of distributed ledger technologies to trace the completion of work in the construction sector and manage compliance events.

Solution

Ruth Oliver, Business Engagement Executive at Interface, successfully matched Paul Duddy, CEO and founder of Hypervine, with Professor Bill Buchanan and Liam Bell at Edinburgh Napier University’s School of Computing. The Blockpass Identity Lab at the University’s Merchiston campus uses cutting-edge blockchain research to drive innovation.

Ruth said: “Hypervine Ltd and Edinburgh Napier University’s (ENU) School of Computing were a natural fit:  Professor Bill Buchanan is one of the world’s leading lights in blockchain technology and, with researcher Liam Bell, offers a wealth of experience in supporting businesses and organisations in the practical application of this technology. 

Hypervine is helping construction companies build faster, safer, and more cost efficiently by digitising the industry. Exploring how to incorporate secure methods of recording data in complicated supply chains and transactions is a key element of this. Partnerships with academia can propel companies onto the next stage of their development, enabling them to enter new markets, win additional contracts, and grow their business.”

Professor Buchanan, Director of the Blockpass Identity Lab, said: “The nature of the construction industry is that there are many stakeholders involved and, making sure that each part of the process is working as it should, can be difficult. A blockchain solution will aim to integrate digital signing into the key parts of the process.”

Liam Bell, who was the lead blockchain researcher in the lab, said: “The application of blockchain into the construction industry – where strong levels of trust in the process are required – is a natural one.”

The collaboration was supported by the Scottish Funding Council’s Innovation Voucher scheme, which Interface administers.

Benefits

Company – As a result of this collaboration, and the ensuing product, Hypervine has experienced improvements in the supply chain, new and improved products, increased productivity, and job creation, as well as the safe-guarding of existing jobs.

Industry – This collaboration has resulted in an innovative product research that has significant potential to disrupt the construction sector and improve safety records both in the UK and internationally, where there have been a number of disasters caused by improper construction .  Avoidable errors are costing the UK construction industry £21bn per year.  Through blockchain and smart contract integration, the industry can save time and money making the it more efficient while freeing up finance.

Follow-On Activity

In February 2020, Hypervine announced its latest contract, working with the European Space Agency to develop services for the global mining community.

Mining companies have to constantly adapt to ever-changing economic, environmental and governmental policies making easily accessible, high quality and up-to-date data vital. Obtaining the right information with the highest degree of accountability often takes months. Numerous surveys have to be cross-checked and compared on paper alongside satellite-sourced data, by multiple teams in different locations. Through the implementation of Hypervine’s technology, data for mining teams and their subsidiaries is clearly recorded on an unalterable ledger, removing the risk of small changes being magnified down a chain, resulting in potentially catastrophic yet avoidable dangers and miscalculations. 

It was announced (9th November 2020) that Hypervine is to be one of the five new cutting-edge tech firms that will join HS2 Ltd’s Innovation Accelerator programme. HS2 Ltd is the company delivering Britain’s new high speed rail network.  Hypervine will receive commercial and technical support, plus rent-free working space, as they develop their technology to help deliver Europe’s largest infrastructure project.  

Hypervine founder & CEO Paul Duddy said: “Being accepted on to the HS2 Accelerator programme is a significant milestone for Hypervine and as one of Europe’s largest infrastructure projects is a perfect fit for Hypervine technology.“

*A blockchain is a growing list of records or blocks, secured using cryptography and resistant to modification; technology which can reduce the risk of problems like documents being lost or actions not followed up.

Background

Vanilla Blush is a Glasgow-based medical lingerie business founded by a former nurse, Nicola Dames. The business specialises in garments for people living with a colostomy, ileostomy or a urostomy, which are all categorised as stomas. Approximately 102,000 individuals live with an excretory stoma in the UK, with around 21,000 individuals undergoing stoma-forming surgery each year. 

Having a stoma herself, Nicola embarked on her first business venture to develop a new line of underwear for females and males who have suffered from similar conditions. The Vanilla Blush unique underwear is carefully designed with those individuals in mind and comes in a range of colours and sizes with a built-in pouch to conceal the bag.

Listed as a Class 1 Medical Device, the Vanilla Blush garments are supplied to the NHS throughout the UK and are also exported to 18 other countries around the world.

Challenge

A bowel stoma is an artificial opening on the surface of the abdomen that has been surgically created in order to divert the flow of enteric or faecal matter into an external bag. The most common underlying conditions that may require the formation of a bowel stoma include colorectal cancer, diverticular disease, incontinence and inflammatory bowel disease. One of the most frequent complications following stoma creation is parastomal hernia which occurs when an internal part of the body pushes through a weakness in the muscle or surrounding tissue wall. The UK Association of Stoma Care Nurses recommends ‘belts/underwear’ ‘to aid prevention of hernias and offer abdominal muscle support.

Nicola Dames was keen to better understand the individual’s experiences of living with a stoma and usage of support garments. To do so, she appointed a Stoma Care Specialist Nurse who was visiting the nurses responsible for these groups of patients to get an understanding of what advice they give around two key issues:

Following a referral from Scottish Enterprise, Nicola got in touch with Interface to seek help in finding an academic partner to investigate the following:

Solution

Working with Ruth Oliver at Interface, Vanilla Blush was successfully matched with the right academic partner at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI) to complete the first study, exploring people’s experiences of support garments following bowel stoma formation.

The Department of Nursing at UHI has a thriving health and well-being research group that includes nurses, midwives and behavioural scientists. The current research programme in the Department of Nursing is about physical activity in people who have a stoma. This programme is led by Dr Gill Hubbard, an accomplished researcher, behavioural scientist and Director of Research in the Department of Nursing at UHI.

Dr Hubbard has excellent research partnerships with the Colostomy Association and Ileostomy and Internal Pouch Support Group, as well as Bowel and Cancer Research. She also has a thriving Stoma Patient Advisory Group. Dr Hubbard’s essential expertise enabled Vanilla Blush to address the gaps in their evidence about support garments during physical activity, to reduce the risk of hernia in people who have a bowel stoma. 

Business Benefits

As a concept, brand and company, Vanilla Blush embodies both the patient’s perspective and academic enterprise, which is required for an ethically-based efficient business offering an economically beneficial service to the NHS.

Academic Benefits 

The key findings from this project resulted in multiple academic manuscripts and have been presented at various industry-leading conferences throughout the UK and Europe. The full publication is available here.

Background

Macdeck Landscaping is a decking company that has gradually moved into landscaping due to demand from customers for the additional finishing to complete their gardens. They specialise in decking, timber structures, landscaping and garden redesign with an innovative look to each project.

Challenge

The company conceptualised an idea and carried out some basic prototyping of their unique innovative product, a Landscaping Decking Construction System, created with the use of composite materials*. Composite materials can give the required drainage capacity and lack of corrosion in combination, in principle, with the right structural strength for the system.

It was Macdeck’s intention as a business to progress to the creation of a universal branded/trademarked Construction System product. The product would offer the ability to create natural landscapes on raised structures, particularly in flooded areas, and create a wider scope of vision for architects and town and country planners at a more economical cost.

Before this project could develop, a greater fundamental understanding of composite components’ performance in the product was required. At the time, it was not understood either how composite materials would perform in the proposed Construction System under different load situations, what their limitations would be, or what system parameters would be optimal to present a viable and safe product for mass market.

Solution

Looking for an academic partner to collaborate on this project, Macdeck contacted Interface who matched them up with the department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE) and the Advanced Forming Research Centre (AFRC) at the University of Strathclyde, via Strathclyde Links.

The use of these composite materials in a construction context is relatively new, and entirely novel in ‘suspended’ landscaping. A combination of expertise of composite material properties, experimental testing of composites, and structural modelling of composite structures is a unique blend that the two departments at the University – MAE and AFRC – could offer the company.  MAE was also able to offer the company a materials’ testing system as part of their specialist facilities.

The partners collaborated on the project to develop the new product by exploring the properties of the composite components, conducting a series of experimental tests, modelling of challenging performance scenarios, exploring the limitations of the system in terms of static failure modes, proposing solutions to the design issues, linking computer modelling and experimental data and using all knowledge thus generated to contribute to a coherent product technology portfolio.

The project outcomes helped validate the product under brand, as well as helping the company progress with its IP protection and certification, critical to its commercial success.

The approach used was unique and innovative as the two centres of academic expertise were able to bring value to the project that was more than just the sum of the two. The ultimate outcome of the project was a product with the specifications and performance characteristics founded on a sound fundamental scientific basis.

This collaborative project was funded by a Scottish Funding Council Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface.

Benefits

Company:

The company will build on the results of the project; the experimental data, the model outputs and the recommendations, to create a better, safer, more marketable product based on scientific evidence. The expertise and the credibility of the research from the University of Strathclyde will provide them with evidence for future product approvals and marketing, increasing sales and generating revenues for the business.

University:

This project provided an excellent opportunity for the University of Strathclyde to engage with an innovative local Scottish company with a technical requirement matching both the expertise of the Advanced Composite Centre (in MAE) and the AFRC. The project aligned very well with the AFRC’s and the High Value Manufacturing Catapult’s (HVMC) strategic theme of Lightweighting: the technology agenda of creation of very strong but light parts and structures. The AFRC are currently building a portfolio of capability in this area, which includes developing joint capability in composite materials with the MAE. The University’s work will be acknowledged in all literature related to the System.

Economic, Environmental and Societal Impacts

The proposed product is an excellent example of innovation, enterprise and creativity in Scotland. The product, a new innovative Landscaping System, has definite export potential with sales worldwide.

Macdeck Landscaping, going further, plan to create a new company offering new employment in Glasgow in supply, sales and distribution to support delivery of this product to markets in the UK and abroad.

The product has the potential to change how customers, architects, planners and governments deal with flooded land and their ability to build on flooded land, enabling landscape design on a raised surface, lifting wet and continuously flooded areas clear of ground.

An initial positive for the environment is that, in normal circumstances, a raised patio would require concrete foundations, type 1 infill, concrete block, cement, brickwork.  All this can now be removed and replaced by a re-useable, more environmentally-friendly platform.

*  A composite material is a material made from two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties that, when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from the individual components. The individual components remain separate and distinct within the finished structure, differentiating composites from mixtures and solid solutions.

Background

Founded by electrical engineer student Dale Colley, Altitude Thinking Ltd is on a mission to tackle marine pollution by using innovative technology in rivers and canals, capable of monitoring water quality and collection of marine waste.

Challenge
Scotland’s rivers, canals and waterways represent an irreplaceable, high-value resource to the Scottish economy and make a major contribution to the tourism industry and biodiversity.

An electrical engineering graduate from City of Glasgow College, Colley was keen to tap into academic expertise to seek help in applying technology to tackle water pollution. He was looking for an innovative solution to develop, construct and test a prototype of a programmable drone that will be able to be deployed and subsequently safely navigate Scottish waterways and produce accurate, real-time reports on water pollution levels and in the future to remove litter and other pollutants from waterways using suction pumps.

Although Colley had no previous experience of drones or the marine sector, as an engineer he knew he could invent a device that could monitor water quality and tackle marine pollution.

Solution
The City of Glasgow College is one of Scotland’s largest Further and Higher Education colleges and the UK’s number one college for WorldSkills UK, which is a partnership between business, education and governments to accelerate the development of young people’s skills from national to world-class standards.

The College is renowned for its work in the areas of Nautical Studies, Engineering and Maritime studies and has a mix of skills, workshop facilities and expertise required for this project such as electronics, electrical systems, marine engineering, navigation and propulsion – under one roof at the college’s Riverside Campus.

City of Glasgow College’s STEM and Innovation Lead, Douglas Morrison had the necessary academic expertise and was keen to work in partnership with Altitude Thinking Ltd to develop, construct and test a prototype of a programmable drone. The suggested prototype will be a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) equipped with motors making it capable of being deployed to a Scottish waterway alongside a range of sensors and data gathering and transmission facilities, allowing it to report back on pollutants detected.

Most people think of drones as craft that fly in the air but his is designed to travel on the surface of rivers and canals to monitor water quality. Altitude Thinking hopes to develop it even further to have the capability to collect litter, cleaning up Scotland’s waterways and freeing them of blockages – rather like the little robot vacuums that can be programmed to clean floors.

This collaboration project was successfully awarded a £5000 Scottish Funding Council (SFC) Innovation Voucher, administered by Interface to allow partners to look at engineering development for subsequent drones with enhanced capabilities to remove litter and other pollutants from waterways using suction pumps.

This innovative project combines portability with pollution detection, as well as data gathering and transmission, allowing for larger models to be built up over a longer period.
 

Business benefits

An award of an Innovation Voucher has taken Coley from the design stage to making a physical prototype which, with the help from Scottish Canals, is currently going through field trials monitoring water quality in canals.

Academic benefits

Douglas added:

“Dale’s novel application and the way he has integrated them is what adds value and presents an opportunity to change how environmental conditions are monitored in Scotland. His long-term ambition is to support the clean-up of canals and rivers and with supported funding to commercialise it he anticipates seeing it on the market within the next year.”

“It’s a wonderful product and looks incredible. It’s really cool – like a water-bound batmobile – and I believe it will help us to have a better understanding of what is happening within our rivers and canals. What is particularly interesting about it is that it is very much based on a range of readily available sensor technologies.”

Additional impacts

This collaborative project has already delivered a series of successful outcomes associated with the mark 1 drone, its testing and ongoing reviews, modifications and future markets.

Altitude Thinking’s invention has been recognised locally and nationally for its innovative work when being shortlisted for the Global Game-changers for Young Entrepreneurs and made the final shortlist for the Shell Livewire.

Dale has also presented his recent work to her Royal Highness – Princess Anne on her visit to the City of Glasgow College.

Follow on activity

December 2020 – City of Glasgow College, in collaboration with Altitude Thinking Ltd, has been awarded £23,500 to support the ongoing development of a mobile device that will read and analyse water quality. The project aims to deliver a new prototype – Aquabot 2.0. This drone can be remotely operated on the surface of rivers, canals or lochs to monitor water quality. The grant was awarded by the Innovation Centre for Sensor and Imaging Systems (CENSIS) who are also contributing their expertise on engineering wirelessly operating IoT devices. 

Please note that Interface administers the Innovation Voucher Scheme on behalf of the Scottish Funding Council. All funding applications are reviewed on a case by case basis by the Scottish Funding Council, guidelines can be found here.

Background

Re-Tek, who provide refurbishment and resale of used IT equipment, was established in 1996 and is based in East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire. The business has 45 employees in Scotland as well as partners in Europe, America and Asia.  Operating on an ‘incentivised return’ business model, they are leaders in the IT disposal industry offering re-use as a secure, environmentally sustainable method of asset retirement.  In 2018, Re-Tek extended the life of 200,000 used technology items for business and the consumer, therefore preventing the need for these items to be inefficiently or needlessly recycled or landfilled.

The company sources most of its equipment from medium to large-sized businesses and public sector organisations, and they aim to re-market as much of the material received as possible. Approximately 80% of all equipment received is refurbished and re-marketed.  Only equipment which is non-functional or has no market value goes to conventional IT recycling partners. Re-Tek’s facility has LED lighting throughout, a Biomass Boiler and a 62 Solar Panel Array, providing approximately 80% of their energy needs from renewable sources. They take sustainability and corporate responsibility seriously and work closely with WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) and Zero Waste Scotland.

Challenge

The project partners, Re-Tek and Enscape, were keen to find a partner in academia, specifically individuals or teams with expertise in recycling/reclamation of rare earth minerals and in precious metals recovery from electronic waste. This was to partner in a bid for a €166k tender across four countries in the EU, released by EU Life/WRAP UK, which was designed to identify collection models in phase one, and recovery processes in phase two for Critical Raw Materials (CRMs).

Whilst Re-Tek were confident they could deliver Phase 1 (identifying collection models), they needed to identify a project partner to help them deliver Phase 2 (Recovery Phase), as the extraction process would be quite specialised given the recovery materials. 

Solution

The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture referred Re-Tek on to Interface who, after putting out an expertise search to various universities within Scotland, was able to connect them with Professor Andrew S Hursthouse from the School of Computing, Engineering & Physical Sciences at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS).

Re-Tek and UWS were successful in their tender for WRAP and three years on presented the results of their collaboration at The Royal Society in London. The partners are still working together to develop their ideas and are currently involved in a Horizon 2020 two-stage bid. This has also involved Re-Tek and partners networking across the EU through a recent COST Action project co-chaired by Prof Hursthouse.

Benefits

The company received grant funding for approximately two years to support collection models underpinned by Circular Economy initiatives. This will increase the diversion of redundant IT products from traditional recycling and landfill and enhance opportunities for further employment and profitability, whilst income sharing with Social Enterprise partners.

Re-Tek recently won the Sustainability award, sponsored by The Scottish Institute for Remanufacture, at the CeeD Awards 2019.

Follow-on Activity

Whilst Re-Tek reuses approximately 80% of ICT equipment received, the remaining goods are sent to their Recycling Department for preparation before being sent to a downstream recycling partner for further treatment.

Currently, they only remove certain commodities from ICT equipment, e.g. memory, PCBs, hard drives, however they believed that there was a great opportunity to increase their revenues by fully disassembling equipment and segregating by commodity, e.g., aluminum, cables, plastics, etc., which would be advantageous to the recycling partner and should increase the rebate received.

A cost-benefit analysis was required, calculating the cost of disassembling various products and the calculation of the funds received from the recycling partner as a result of the separation. The company was also looking for suggestions for a re-design of the production space to ensure sufficient space was allocated to the disassembly functions.

Interface put out another expertise search to the universities looking for a collaborative partner for this project with the result that the company was allocated a student from the University of Strathclyde’s MSc Business Analysis and Consulting programme. The student provided business insights about the project.

Background

The Gorbals Community Group (Old Gorbals Pictures & Heritage Group) had approached Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) in 2015 seeking technical assistance with their project. They are currently working with many organisations and political bodies exploring the possibility of recreating an old lost Gorbals landmark monument, the Gorbals Cross clock tower and drinking fountain.  This landmark was removed in 1932/3 for the expansion and upgrade to the tram system. 

Challenge

Unfortunately, the original drawings and measurements that would normally be used to help recreate the monument were lost, and there are no other existing records or documents of the structure.

Solution

The group discovered, however, that there is an exact copy of the monument on the island of St Kitts, in the Caribbean, the only surviving piece of four originally cast. 

Stevie Anderson and Eddie Horn, from GCU’s School of Engineering and Built Environment, visited the replica through funding from Historic Scotland, to draw up measurements of the original tower, using state-of-the-art, innovative 3D laser scanning techniques.  They were then able to combine the laser scans with photogrammetry data to obtain higher resolution than is currently available from commercial sources. This visualisation process, partly funded by pooled Scottish Funding Council Innovation Vouchers* awarded to George Taylor & Co, a foundry in Hamilton, and Wireframe Immersive, a 3D visualisation company, will pave the way for a new and innovative interpretation of the previous landmark.

The two businesses that were awarded these Innovation Vouchers are quite different in terms of adoption of digital media and new technology. George Taylor & Co. (Hamilton) Ltd rely on traditional foundry manufacturing processes which have remained relatively unchanged. Wireframe Immersive is a digital media company whose products are almost exclusively created using cutting-edge digital media tools and techniques. This project enabled cross fertilisation of ideas and innovation between two very different companies and the use of the same 3D scanning and photogrammetry data to develop products for new and unique market sectors.

Benefits

George Taylor & Co

For George Taylor & Co, this higher resolution dataset of the existing monument will help produce accurate, detailed 2D technical production drawings and 3D printed models, allowing for an accurate costing and bid for future stages of the manufacture of the monument.

The company recognises the potential for new technologies investigated through the partnership could lead to new market strategies and improved business opportunities gained from the collaboration on this project, and, in the short term, are investigating the potential to manufacture scaled replicas of the Gorbals Cross monument to market and sell.

“Thanks to the funding from the Scottish Funding Council Innovation Vouchers, we at George Taylor & Co. (Hamilton) Ltd and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) have produced an accurate costing for the replacement of the monument in the Gorbals. At the same time, we have gained a lot of knowledge about 3D scanning and printing which is an exciting and innovative technology. We worked well with GCU and would trust that at some point in the future, we will team up again”, said Douglas Kerr, Commercial Director, George Taylor & Co.

“George Taylor and Sons recognise the benefits of keeping in touch with the latest technologies. This project certainly gave the company an interesting opportunity to engage with university expertise and allowed us to investigate the opportunities for these technologies that we would not otherwise have engaged with”, noted Stevie Anderson, GCU.

Wireframe Immersive

Wireframe Immersive can engage with the 3D scanned data to create Virtual Reality (VR) simulations of both the past installation and potential future in-situ reconstruction of the lost monument. The use of VR simulations and real-time simulations from the 3D Laser scanned Heritage monument will raise community awareness and help fundraise for the future manufacture of the monument.

As a result of this project, Wireframe Immersive have employed a graduate student to look at the Heritage market as a new market, with longer-term full employment a strong possibility.

Glasgow Caledonian University

From the University’s perspective, the development of a project with two businesses made it extremely beneficial in terms of developing industrial links and maintaining insight into current industry practice.

Applying technologies in which GCU have developed knowledge and expertise to the benefit of the businesses also proved favourable in terms of staff development and creating teaching material (case studies) for students.

Giving real world examples of industrial applications of modern technologies has proven to be valuable for students learning the latest technologies being taught at university level.

The project partners are now investigating additional mutually beneficial projects, based on joint expertise and a new understanding of skills and technologies which were gained from working together on the Gorbals Cross project.

“Applying for the pooled funding allowed all partners to work together on a project that probably would not have gone ahead if single funding was the only option”, said Stevie.

The Community Group

The Community Group has benefited from the project by engaging with the University partner to realise the project aims and objectives at this stage. The ability to obtain the more accurate quotation from the Foundry partner, George Taylor and Co, has allowed a more realistic appraisal of the intent to reinstate the lost Historic monument within the local area.

They are now seeking to engage with educational institutions on this and other projects currently in the pipeline for the benefit of communities across Scotland.

* Up to four businesses can apply together to pool their Innovation Vouchers to solve a common issue.