The Walter and Elfriede Niehoff Foundation supports a project of the OTH Regensburg. Named after the founder of Maschinenfabrik Niehoff and his wife, the foundation supports the research project "Use of digital twins for medium-sized mechanical engineering companies" of the East Bavarian Technical University of Applied Sciences (OTH) Regensburg with half a million euros. The cooperation agreement was signed by Ulla Niehoff, Chairwoman of the foundation, and Prof. Dr. Ralph Schneider, President of the OTH Regensburg.

The research project combines basic research with applied research and is designed to help small and medium-sized mechanical engineering companies gain a significant knowledge advantage and thus a market advantage by using digital methods in the product development. A digital twin is, in simple terms, the virtual copy of a process or a machine and enables the simulation of operational sequences under conditions that are close to reality. In this way, production processes can be simplified, resources can be used more sustainably, costs can be reduced and the development of innovations can be accelerated. The resources of the foundation will be used to finance the post for a research assistant who will, among other things, initiate interdisciplinary activities in the aforementioned research area.

The Walter and Elfriede Niehoff Foundation also mainly supports young professionals in technical and economic courses and supports social and cultural projects at the Niehoff site in Schwabach. 

The internationally active Niehoff Group is a leading manufacturer of machinery for the wire and cable industry and has around 1000 employees worldwide. The parent company has been working with the Mechanical Engineering Faculty of the OTH Regensburg for about one and a half years and participates along with other well-known plant and machinery manufacturers in its new "digital twin working group".

Bekaert is proud to announce that its near-term and long-term greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

"As the world is transitioning to a zero-carbon economy, it is the responsibility of industrial companies like Bekaert to lead the way in decarbonization actions, in boosting innovation, and in driving smart, safe and sustainable solutions in the end-markets”, says Oswald Schmid, CEO of Bekaert. “I am proud that our ambitious carbon reduction targets have now been officially validated and that we join the group of leading companies that commit to targets supporting the limitation of global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius according to latest science. Delivering upon these targets forms an inherent part of the commitment we make through our sustainability strategy.”

Bekaert’s carbon reduction targets

• Bekaert has committed to actions to align emissions reduction targets to the 1.5-degree target of the Paris agreement. As part of an overall commitment to become Carbon Net Zero by 2050, the company has set ambitious targets for its value chain, covering Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emissions.  
• For Scope 1 and 2 combined, Bekaert will reduce greenhouse gas emissions in absolute terms by 46.2% by 2030, compared to 2019. To this end, Bekaert will enhance the energy efficiency of its operations and increase the proportion of renewable energy supply.
• For Scope 3, Bekaert will reduce the absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 19.7% by 2035 compared to 2019. To reach this ambitious objective, Bekaert engages with suppliers and customers to commit to carbon reduction targets and to measures based on circular principles across the value chain.

 The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)

SBTi is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). The SBTi defines and promotes best practices in science-based target setting and independently assesses companies’ targets. 

Microsoft has acquired Lumenisity® Limited, a start-up based in the U.K. that provides hollow-core fiber (HCF) with a proprietary design said to offer multiple advantages over traditional solid core fiber.

Per the company’s website, Lumenisity was formed in 2017 as a spinoff from the Optoelectronics Research Centre (ORC) at the University of Southampton to commercialize breakthroughs in the development of hollow-core optical fiber. In 2021 and 2022, it won the Best Fibre Component Product for its NANF® CoreSmart® HCF cable in the European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) Exhibition Industry Awards.

A press release said that Microsoft plans to use Lumenisity’s technology and experts to accelerate innovations in networking and infrastructure. It noted that light that propagates in an air core has significant advantages over traditional cable built with a solid core of glass, including increased overall speed and lower latency as light travels through HCF 47% faster than standard silica glass. For further details on Lumenisity’s technology, see the company’s presentations at www.lumenisity.com.

Hellenic Cables is one of 13 parties from eight countries that are part of a coalition working to further the design and deployment of a 6 MW floating wind prototype in the French Mediterranean.

A press release said that the pan-European project, launched in Paris, seeks to accelerate the roll out of the next generation of floating wind technology for a competitive, more scalable and industrial deployment. Other participants include: X1Wind, Naturgy, 2B Energy, Technical University of Denmark, Hydro, Ecole Centrale de Nantes, Schwartz Hautmont, Ocas, Tersan Shipyard, Ocean Ecostructures and Cybernetix.

Backed by the European Commission under the Horizon Europe program with public funding of €16 million, the project is anticipated to run until 2027. It will lead to the deployment of a 6 MW floating wind prototype to demonstrate at a relevant scale an innovative integrated downwind floating platform design, while advancing in parallel on the industrialization and scaling-up of the integrated solution up to 20MW+ scale, in preparation of commercial floating wind farms under development in Europe.

This project builds upon previous European Projects such as the PivotBuoy which recently led to the installation of a part-scale prototype in the Canary Islands to validate the technology. Design work for the initial 6MW system is currently underway and scheduled to be finalized in 2023. Construction is due in 2023 and 2024, ahead of installation in 2025.

Floating wind is considered one of the lowest carbon electricity generation systems to meet the energy demand in a sustainable way while inducing better competitiveness, less noise and visual pollution, and less interaction with the users of the maritime domain. The NextFloat Project represents a unique opportunity to test a novel and disruptive version of this technology at full scale, driving cost curve reductions in order to deliver industrial-scale projects at the earliest possible stage”.

“After the successful deployment and validation of our innovative low-cost solution in the Canary Islands (PivotBuoy project), the goal now is to scale-up and industrialize the technology in advance of large commercial floating wind projects which will come online at the end of the decade across European, Asian and U.S. waters,” said X1 Wind Founder and CEO Alex Raventos. “Wind will allow us time to drive substantial improvements in the competitiveness of floating wind as we prepare for long-term mass deployment.”