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Seeking self-cleaning electric water heaters

• Posted by Haier
• ·
• Project Size : Strategic project backed by large scale funding €

Haier seeks technologies to allow easy self-cleaning of electric water heaters. Background Residential electric water heaters commonly develop scale inside the holding tank over time. The presence of scale reduces the efficiency and service life of the electric water heaters, and it may also have an adverse impact on health. Standard maintenance for these water heaters consists of a professional cleaning every 3 years and user cleaning every 6 months. The process for cleaning the water heater tank is straightforward, but time-consuming and messy. Haier, a major manufacturer of hot water systems, seeks technology that will allow easy cleaning (removal of scale) of electric water heater tanks. Ideal solutions will sense when scale removal is necessary and automatically self-clean. But solutions that can provide efficient and easy cleaning on demand are also of great interest. Additionally, the structural design of successful technologies is important – scale and other sediment should be easily flushed from the tank to prevent clogging. Additional information: • Electric water heaters have different volumes, including 40L, 50L, 60L and 80L, etc. • The inner tank of the electric water heater is pressurized. The rated water pressure is 0.80Mpa and the municipal tap water pressure is 0.05Mpa; the rated supply voltage is 200V and the rated frequency is 50HZ.

Device for passive supression of vortex-induced vibrations (VIV) in structures

• Posted by Fundació URV
• ·
• Patents for licensing

The present invention relates to a device for suppression of Vortex-induced vibrations (known as VIV) in flexible structures or in elastically supported rigid structures. Vortex-induced vibrations are a type of fluid-structure interactions that are consequence of the unsteady periodic forces generated in the wake of bluff bodies when affected by currents. The forces induced on the structures as a result of the large region of separated flow in the wake of the structure, result in vibrations. Vibrations can be fatal in engineering applications. Structures with low mass and damping are the ones in which VIV can be more important. In marine applications, most of the structures are characterised by combined low mass-damping. Although VIV is crucial in marine applications, the invention described here could also be used to prevent VIV in other non-marine scenarios such as structures affected by winds.

Seeking for technologies to reduce frozen meat gravy loss

• Posted by Haier
• ·
• Project Size : Strategic project backed by large scale funding €

For current refrigerators, meat and frozen foods are stored under low temperatures (-18℃) for longer preservation. However, after certain period, due to temperature fluctuation (caused by the on-and-off actions of the compressor and defrost, etc.) and sweeping of cold air flow (in air cooled refrigerators), frozen meat may lose water. For example, water on meat surface is removed and food cell is pierced through by ice crystals. Once the meat is thawed, there will be a large amount blood and the meat will taste hard or bad. This will have negative impact on meat quality. To further improve frozen food quality, we are now seeking for a new solution that could be applied on refrigerator products.

Photonics

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Genome sequencing

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