future by semcon

Traceable products and processes don’t just save time and money – they can save your company.

reva ready for the world 1 inspiring nature 1 abb taking wind power to sea

futureby semcon A MAGAZINE ABOUT ENGINEErING sErvIcEs & prOdUcT INFOrMATION # 1 2010

0 13456 tra cea ble 5779

CONTENTS #1.2010Articles in this edition of future by semcon

2 future by semcon 1.2010

REviEw

In the wake of a crisis

28 NaTural iNspiraTioN provides New producTs Janine Benyus, one of the world’s leading experts in biomimicry, sees nature as a natural source of know-how for finding sustainable solutions to human problems. New ways of extracting energy, clean water and smart products – the possibilities are endless.

32 reva challeNgiNg The auTomoTive iNdusTry They’ve been considered outsiders in the automo-tive industry, but Reva from India is making inro-ads into the fast lane as its Reva NXR electric car is now ready for global sales with improved safety features. There are high hopes and many believe that Reva will put India, electricity and affordable small cars on the map once and for all.

38 meeT semcoN’s sharpesT miNds In Semcon Brains we meet individuals who work on exciting assignments: Stefan Isaksson creates lifelike images using CGI, Carlos Barbosa calculates and simulates engine durability and dynamics and Gu Bo is a technical illustrator who believes in the power of pictures.

future by semcon 1.2010 3

24 wind in the sailsABB has positioned itself as a world-leading supplier for the transfer of high-voltage di-rect current using HVDC Light technology. Their latest assignment: supplying green electricity to Germany from what will be the world’s biggest wind farm 128 km into the North Sea.

Website: www.semcon.com Address: Future, semcon AB, 417 80 Göteborg, sweden. change of address: [email protected] Publisher responsible under swedish law: Björn strömberg. Project manager semcon: Anders Atterling telephone: +46 (0)70 447 28 19 email: [email protected] editorial production: Tidningskompaniet, Göteborg. Project manager: peter Mohlin. editor: Katarina Misic. design: charlotte sundberg. Website: www.tidningskompaniet.se repro: Tidningskompaniet, Göteborg. Printed by: Trydells Tryckeri, Laholm. issn: 1650-9072. translation: cannon språkkonsult AB, Halmstad.

lot has been said about the global financial crisis that’s swept around

the world, and we cannot yet say it’s over. It is however high time

we looked to the future and see what oppor-tunities lie ahead. After a year of challenges and cutbacks Semcon has started to edge ahead in the areas of Life Science and Energy, where the offshore industry represents sig-nificant potential alongside nuclear, hydro and wind power. In this edition we visit the offshore company Aker in Norway, one of the world’s biggest wind farms in the North Sea that ABB has worked on, and pharma-ceutical company Recipharm.

despiTe all The NegaTive figures and cutbacks in the automotive industry a number of our units have done well. In Germany, the big-gest market for design and development in the world, we’re among the leading players. And I’m convinced that we’ll see greater de-mand in the future for the type of service we provide. We’re seeing growth potential for example on some of the geographic markets – such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. In this issue we visit Reva in India, whose innovation and fresh approach challenged the entire automotive industry.

semcoN sTaNds oN two legs – product de-velopment and technical documentation. In this issue we focus extra on the traceability of products and processes that are becoming increasingly important to our customers.

Kjell nilsson cEO sEMcON


PEOPlE #1.2010PeoPle in this issue of future by semcon

Traceability of products and processes is becoming an in-creasingly important and challenging issue for companies. Meet some of the people in Future by Semcon who tell us about traceability.

janine benyus, biomimicry expert, montana, usaAre there examples of “products” in nature that don’t work?“99.9 per cent of all plant and animal life that’s ever lived on Earth is extinct. That means that millions of products have been recalled, which are now in the fossil archive. We can also learn from them. Take the iPhone, one of my favourite products, it’s brilliant in many ways but if I drop it it’ll break. Everything in natu-re has the ability to mend itself, and species that lacked that ability disappear-ed. We should perhaps try and replicate a similar ability in our products too.”

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arnt aske, senior project manager, aker mh, kristiansand, norway how important is traceability of products and components in the offshore industry? “The oil industry generally has vast amounts of information and data from various processes that’s not sufficiently utilized today. There’s huge potential for innovatively using this data. Traceability would then be more important and I can imagine a paradigm shift in this area.”

carlos barbosa, team leader statics, dynamics & acoustics, semcon, wolfsburg how important is traceability of components when working with car engines for example?“When an engine comes onto the market it’s a product. You need to know where it’s come from and who made it if you have any problems with it. It’s now possible for example to esti-mate the lifecycle of an engine component, where in the past that wasn’t possible. That’s an important improvement in terms of quality.”

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karin ferm, group leader, medical life science, semcon, göteborg What can other industries learn about traceability from the pharmaceutical industry? “It’s an old industry that’s been subject to government demands for a long time. Over the years there have been events that have increased these demands and challenged the industry. The pharmaceutical industry has come a long way and been forced to review its working methods without neglecting quality. This is experience that other industries can benefit from.”

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mirzad kovacevic, group leader for the cad group, plm, semcon, göteborg What can other industries learn about traceability from the automotive industry? “The automotive industry is good at thinking in processes and defining the entire chain. As an individual you need to think beyond your own role and own component. This mindset helps them find the information they’re looking for. Information that can’t be found is worthless.”

stefan isaksson, group leader,cgi group, semcon, göteborg

how can cGi technology facilitate changes when tracing a fault in a product?

“CGI technology makes it easier to change a product later on than if you’ve just taken photos. A car that’s been given the

wrong rims or colour can easily be changed using the computer.If you’ve taken a picture of a bedroom and the client changes

their mind and wants a different material for the pillows it can be easily achieved using the 3D program – if you take a picture

you’ll need to redo the entire job, which is more expensive and more complicated.”

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text Anders nilsson, kAtArinA misicphoto kim kyung Hoon/reuters/scAnpix

It actually began a long time before the barcodes in the 1970s: Traceability is now more complex and high-tech than ever and a hot topic for many indus-tries. Whether manufacturing vehicles, white goods and food or working in the nuclear, pharmaceutical or process industry – the demands for traceability are increasing while everyone’s asking: Can we afford not to?

Trace evidence

Focus:TRaCEabiliTy

future by semcon 1.2008 7future by semcon 1.2010 7

Focus:TRaCEabiliTy

iT’s approachiNg 9 p.m. local time. It’s Friday 5 February 2010, and there’s eager anticipation at Toyota’s head office in Nagoya. Toyota’s CEO, Akio Toyoda, the grandson of Toyota’s founder has called an urgent press con-ference. He’s going to comment for the first time about the company’s growing recall crisis

– over 8 million cars have been recalled in just a few months. A composed Akio Toyoda bows to the awaiting group of journalists and begins his two-minute, well-rehearsed statement.

“We’re facing a crisis. The recall is causing anxiety amongst our customers who are won-dering if their cars are OK. For that we are very sorry. Believe me, Toyota’s cars are safe. We always put the customer first.”

Toyota’s accelerator and brake problem started back in 2004, but it wasn’t until 2009 that they started taking the link to incident reports from Europe, the US, Japan and China seriously. Work started to find out what the problem was in each case, how they could be fixed, what components were involved, what models had the actual components and what markets these models were sold on. Toyota’s traceability ability was given its biggest chal-lenge to date.

When the models were identified the work to track the cars became a routine procedure, says Bengt Dalström, CIO at Toyota Sweden.

“We know exactly when a Toyota is manu-

factured. We can almost tell you what time it rolled out of a certain plant. That infor-mation is contained in the chassis number and via the vehicle register in the various countries we can simply link the number to an owner and an address. We never lose a single car, and we never recall a car unless we have to.”

Whether the recall was car-ried out quickly and thor-oughly enough will have to wait and see, but the Toyota case shows without doubt the importance of traceability and how the scourge of the indus-try – recalls – was handled.

Toyota’s recall crisis has been called “Toyo-tagate” by US media, and is expected to cost a staggering USD 2 billion before the costs of the electrical problems in the latest Prius model have been factored in. Toyota’s sales plummeted by 16 per cent in January on the crucial US market. And many believe that it’ll take years before Toyota can improve its image and reputation again. When Akio Toyoda took over as CEO in the summer of 2009 most peo-ple thought his biggest challenge would be to lead Toyota through the biggest financial crisis the company has experienced in half a century. That has proven to be the simple part of the assignment.


TraceabiliTy, oN a more commercial and in-dustrial scale, began in June 1974 when the first barcode scanners were installed in a super-market in Ohio. The first item with a barcode is said to have been a packet of Wrigley’s Juicy Fruit chewing gum. If we look back on how the need for traceability arose we can quickly see that it’s always been there. In the pre-indus-trial economy and way into the 20th century most trade was local, which made it easy to trace goods back to where they originated. If a chair broke you went back to the furniture-maker and complained, if the meat was off you went back to the butcher, who in turn knew exactly from which farm the meat came from.

Industrialization and urbanization had a

I

Akio toyoda, ceo of toyo-ta, made his first appear-ance on 5 february 2010 to comment on toyota’s

massive recall.

negative impact on traceability in society. Milk no longer came from the farm down the road but came in a Tetrapak with the name of the dairy on the side but its origins were anony-mous. And today, global trade means that the distribution chain behind simple products can also include a large number of subcontractors spread across different continents. A packet of muesli will tell you where it was packaged but won’t tell you where each of the ingredients came from.

afTer beiNg The excepTioN for most of the 20th century traceability is now on the increase. Companies, consumers, legislators – they’ve all discovered that they’ve a lot to gain from

increased traceability and that rapid techni-cal developments have meant large-scale traceability is now financially and practically possible. Companies are seeing increased op-portunities for quality control, faultfinding and protecting against pirate copies, plus more effective logistics and warehousing. Increased opportunities are a dream for consumers to check authenticity and perfection and that the goods live up to specific wishes, for exam-ple for ecological production, fair trade etc. Legislators are seeing increased opportunities to prosecute crimes and protect society from harmful goods. Traceability can also be used to reduce the carbon footprint in various ways when recycling.

“The issue of traceability was rekindled in the 1990s when mad cow disease was spread-ing. There was suddenly an interest from soci-ety to trace beef back to a certain breeder,” says Bo Raattamaa, CEO of GS1 Sweden, part of a worldwide organization that develops stand-ards for goods and information flows.

“At the end of the 20th century and start of the 21st century pirate goods were flooding into Europe at an alarming rate, which is one of the reasons why companies were becoming more interested in traceability,” Bo continues. “The pirate goods market, which is still grow-ing faster than the global economy in terms of per cent, is enraging con-sumers and retailers who bought


goods in good faith, but mainly among brand owners who are losing vast sums of money. There is also the risk that the brands are weak-ened if the copies are of poorer quality than the originals. Pirate copies are also sometimes a direct health hazard,” he points out.

“The situation is serious in the pharmaceu-tical industry. We know that on some markets around one in four products sold contain less of the active substance than stated on the packaging, or none at all,” he says.

The eu has demaNded traceability for all pharmaceutical products for many years. The principle is known as “one step forward one step back” and means that every company in the value chain must document incoming and outgoing supplies with regards to from where, what and when.

“EU ordinances don’t expressly require internal traceability, or creating a link between incoming and outgoing goods in the com-pany,” says Frédéric Vincent, EU commission’s spokesman on issues of health and consumer policies.

“Nevertheless an internal traceability sys-tem would contribute to more targeted and accurate withdrawals,” Frédéric explains. “Food business operators are likely to save costs in terms of time of a withdrawal and in avoiding

unnecessary wider disruption. This in turn would help maintain consumer confidence.”

“The same argument for investing intrace-ability can be used for a number of other industries: saving costs, protecting the brand, maintaining customer confidence. If we look at the annual reports from the EU’s RAPEX, a warning system for harmful consumer prod-ucts (apart from food and pharmaceuticals), we can say that the top three places have been held by the same consumer products since the system began in 2004: in first place toys, followed by electrical equipment and vehicles. These industries spend huge sums of money recalling products that risk undermining their brands.”

Christina Skjöldebrand, adjunct professor of packaging logistics at Lund University, Faculty of Engineering, LTH, says that it’s got to a point that it’s no longer legislation that in-stigates improved development towards extra traceability. Companies have discovered that it’s in their best interests to improve trace-ability.

“Legislation is basic and anyone can meet that level. The industry’s and retailers’ own standards are tougher. What’s driving devel-opment are companies wanting to protect their brands. If you become associated with a scandal that’s not dealt with properly it’ll take

a long time to build up consumers’ confidence again. Traceability can ultimately be a matter of survival for companies.

she says ThaT coca-cola’s scandal in Belgium in 1999 was a wake-up call for many Euro-pean food companies. Hundreds of people at the time reported not feeling very well after drinking Coca-Cola products. Eventually all Coca-Cola products were removed from the shelves throughout Belgium and Luxembourg, the Netherlands and France soon followed suit with similar measures. The event received international attention and received noticeable effects in sales as far away as Japan and India: Coca-Cola’s global profits dropped that year by 31 per cent, and CEO and Chairman Doug-las Ivester resigned at the beginning of 2000. An article from Businessweek Online called the events in Belgium “the worst PR crisis in the soft drink industry’s history.”

“Coca-Cola didn’t react fast enough, leading to less confidence among consumers over a long time,” says Christina Skjöldebrand.

Bo Raattamaa also emphasizes the impor-tance of acting decisively and forcefully when confidence in the company is at stake.

“Traceability is not just a technical issue, it’s also a matter of market psychology,” he says. “If I was in charge of a company that

10 future by semcon 1.201010 future by semcon 1.2010

Focus:TRaCEabiliTy

traceable productsWhether it’s a matter of toys, vehicles, food, pharmaceuticals or nuclear power – today’s demands on traceability are not just about being able to guarantee quality and safety, it’s also a guarantee for the company’s brand and future survival.

released harmful products onto the market I’d probably choose to recall the entire consign-ment of that product from the stores even if it would probably be sufficient to recall a small amount. People then see that you’ve done ev-erything in your power. This raises the image of the company and you avoid the mass media focusing on whether the packages left on the shelves are really safe.”

iN TechNical Terms traceability is a question of systematically gathering information at every point along a distribution chain and tying this documentation to the specific products. The information can be stored on a circuit that fol-lows the goods, like a tachometer, but as a rule it’s better and cheaper to just give the product

an ID number and gather all other information centrally,” says Bo.

“If you store the information in the goods it can be tampered with,” he says. “The informa-tion is protected in a separate events register. That’s important because traceability deals a lot with being able to prove that you live up to certain demands.”

A crucial question is how high-resolution a company’s system for traceability is. Capital goods often have a unique serial number, such as a car chassis number, making it possible to identify each one throughout the distribution chain.

Cheaper goods on the other hand are usually handled in larger consignments, batches, where a lot of packages have an identical number.

Developments are heading more towards fine-mesh safety nets, even for relatively cheap goods produced in large volumes. One example is the European pharmaceutical or-ganization EFPIA’s pilot project with unique serial numbers on individual pharmaceutical packages. The trial will run from autumn 2009 to autumn 2010 at 25 pharmacies in Sweden with the aim of being the model for a system that can be introduced throughout Europe in a few years. The aim is mainly to prevent coun-terfeit medicines. The serial number is auto-matically checked off against a register when the package is scanned by the cashier. If there is a problem with the serial number, such as the incorrect number or if a package with the same number has already been sold, the system sounds the alarm. The serial number is stored on the packaging in what’s called a two-dimensional barcode - a checked pattern the size of a postage stamp, with information coded in points instead of traditional bars. GS1 has developed the new standard, known as GS1 DataMatrix. It was also GS1, or rather the organization’s European and North American predecessor that created the classic barcode for the retail trade back in the 1970s.

Another modern follow-up to the barcode is RFID technology, which allows information to be simply stored on an electronic circuit

“ Traceability can ultmately be a matter of survival for companies.” Christina Skjöldebrand, adjunct professor at Lund University, Faculty of Engineering



on the packaging: This can then be read using radio signals, creating major potential for au-tomating the flow of goods and controls.

RFID is already in use in many applications, such as in modern bus cards that can be read without needing to take them out of your wal-let or handbag. Using RFID to mark goods is limited as it does incur a cost, as opposed to printed barcodes that are almost free. RFID prices are coming down however, and new are-as of use are constantly under review. In Parma in northern Italy the technology is being used in a pilot study to check the distribution chain for the province’s proprietary air-dried ham, Prosciutto di Parma. Professor Antonio Rizzi at Parma University’s RFID lab says that the technology has many advantages.

“Checks and audits of quantities on delivery now take a fraction of the time. The system also permitted increased traceability from production, through all intermediaries and out to the shops. RFID checks can also be used for stopping ham from outside the province being marketed as genuine Parma ham,” he said in a Supply Chain Europe article.

The classic barcode has dominated over the past few decades. Bo Raattamaa doesn’t believe that any of the new generation data carriers will be as dominating, and it’s not

important anyway, quite the opposite, they complement one another.

“It doesn’t matter if you use an RFID tag or DataMatrix, if they basically contain the same information – often just one number,” he says. “On the other hand it is important that the underlying structure is the same so it’s easy for companies in Germany, the US and Taiwan to link up to one another, exchange informa-tion and have traceability.”

“The major challeNge now is to create these common structures for various kinds of goods, whether pharmaceuticals, foods, toys or any-thing else,” he continues. The models exist, the architecture exists, and it’s now a matter of willingness. The players in the chain need to sit down and resolve “what this will look like, how it will be used and how it will be integrat-ed with our business systems?”

Christina Skjöldebrand thinks the same. Technical features won’t be the challenge in the future, but integrating everything to work as a whole.

“Collaboration, cooperation, transparency and the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing; these will be the crucial issues. A lot has already happened in this area, and players in various parts of the value chain are work-

ing a lot more with each other now than a few years ago. But there’s a lot left to do.”

she says ThaT TraceabiliTy issues weren’t even considered by most companies when they laid the foundation to their IT systems in the 80s and 90s.

“Every player in the chain has built up their own IT communication systems and these often can’t communicate with one another,” she says.

“There are obstacles in the way over the short-term. But over the long-term increased traceability is a very strong trend that will characterize society a lot,” says Bo.

“This development is linked to what’s usually known as internet of things – that many things around us will be connected to the internet in the future. This will naturally radically change the prerequisites available for tracking goods. Traceability is in demand everywhere, and will cover much of society. It’s actually hard to find areas that won’t be affected.”

TraceabiliTy is geNerally associated with specific products, but the principle of guar-anteeing quality and perfection through an unbroken chain of documentation is also used in other contexts, such as the nuclear power industry. Accidents like the ones at Harrisburg and Chernobyl have contributed to promot-ing routines, government requirements and increased safety consciousness, which are all supported by documentation.

“To ensure traceability we work in a struc-tured manner and methodically with verifi-cation and validation,” says Jari Salo, quality control manager at Ringhals, the biggest nu-clear plant in the Nordic region that produces a fifth of all the electricity used in Sweden. It’s a matter of meeting requirements and showing that every requirement is met through docu-mentation,” he says.

The routines for verification and validation at Ringhals were inspired by the pharmaceuti-cal and automotive industries.

“There are of course lots of differences be-tween industries, but the basic principles for pharmaceuticals and nuclear power are still

Dangerous consumer proDucts The five mosT reporTed

producTs in 2008 reporTs by counTry of origin for The producT

Electrical appliances

vehiclesclothes and textiles

children’s products

Other32%

6%

9% 10%

11%

Toys 32%

Unknown 10%

EU20%

china including Hong Kong 59%

Other11%

source: rAPeX AnnuAL rePort 2008

Focus:TRaCEabiliTy


P eople have been making medicines and cures from time immemo-rial, but the first regulation of the

pharmaceutical market didn’t arrive until 1902.

Antibodies from an infected horse were given to sick children. The children died

Karin ferm increasing traceability for nuclear power and pharmaceuticals

from the unfit serum and authorities re-alized that the market needed regulating.

More than a hundred years later the pharmaceutical industry, driven by strict-er demands from authorities, has become the precursor in the field of traceability.

“They’ve been forced to be more ef-

fective without jeopardizing quality. This is something that many industries will benefit from,” says Karin.

Karin is a graduate chemistry engineer with almost ten years’ experience of the pharmaceutical industry for Semcon. She’s group leader at Ringhals working on

traceability and validation. She also helps Ringhals with developing their quality management system.

Karin’s experience from the pharma-ceuticals industry is a huge benefit for the project at RInghals. The methods for documentation and quality control can be adapted to the nuclear power industry.

“In recent years the pharmaceutical industry has started reviewing how it can eradicate unnecessary working methods and elements. I personally believe that a quality system must help and support the entire activity and really generate value, whether it’s about supplying a product of good quality or working ef-ficiently.

“We need to stop looking at quality work as a cost and instead realize that it’s a tool to generate income. But that also places demands on us putting our ener-gies into the right things and choosing effective methods,” she says.

Ten consultants in this area from Semcon are on site at Ringhals. Their role is to keep track of documentation and monitor traceability in the many projects. Facilities are becoming increasingly com-plex and authorities are imposing stricter demands.

“The biggest challenge is finding meth-ods that guarantee good quality but also provide drive for the business. It’s a matter of constantly asking what the purpose of a specific activity is and returning to the fundamental requirements,” she says.

As group leader she’s passionate about the opportunity of working on projects with other customers.

“It allows you not to get stuck in a rut, you get lots of experience and you really get to provide customers with benefit.” 1

The Swedish nuclear power industry is seeing stricter safety demands. Traceability here can learn a lot from the pharmaceuti-cal industry. Karin Ferm at Ringhals has a foot in both industries. text Sara Wågenberg photo nicke johanSSon


Karin ferm is taking experiences from the pharmaceutical in-dustry with her into the nuclear power industry.

age: 40.Title: Group Manager, Medical Life science. office: semcon, Göteborg.

Karin fermFaCTS


In the automotive industry it’s just as important to keep track of work done yesterday as work to do tomorrow. Not

only to track the root of a quality problem, but also to work cost-effectively.

Semcon provides a package solution that can almost be described as a love af-fair between the CAD programme CATIA

making traces in the automotive industry

V5, the Office package and product data management, PDM. The system links the programmes and manages the thou-sands of files that present themselves during development.

“Files are part of the process with con-tent and status changing constantly. We keep track of files created or changed on a

daily basis and don’t just track the actual file but also track its content. This means that we can reuse knowhow of the vari-ous components in a product and avoid making things from scratch,” he says.

The PDM system tracks rules and forms in templates and means that tested con-struction solutions are not wasted. Work

that once took days can now take ten minutes using increased traceability.

“Things that other parts of the world need extra manpower for we’re now solving with smart methods. That’s how European industry can compete,” he explains.

Three consultants from Semcon worked with Product Lifecycle Manage-ment, method development and training of staff at Volvo Cars for over two years.

“Our method development work allows us to provide companies with extra return on their investment in the system. In brief we bolster our customers’ competitive strength through shorter time to market and improve flexibility.”

Mirzad Kovacevic comes across lots of chaotic projects in his job. His biggest challenge is getting customers to use the entire solution from the start.

“Many customers don’t dare to imple-ment the entire package because there are so few employees. Instead they choose to use a traditional file structure and get problems when the number of files grows quickly. Valuable time that could be used developing a product is instead spent handling files. That’s when I can expect a telephone call,” he says, and sees an increasing number of industries that could benefit from PDM.

“As group leader I try and find assign-ments in new industries. Industry can benefit from our expertise and there’s still so much left to do. The automotive industry has come a long way with this mindset. We’re currently working with the boating industry that’s really pro-gressing well with CATIA V5.” 1

age: 43.Title: Group Manager cAd group, pLM.office: semcon Göteborg.

mirzad KovacevicFaCTS


Where others see a car Mirzad Kovacevic sees tracks. Using intelligent documentation he can account for every decision, choice of material and redesign over a car’s entire lifetime. He’s now ready to take on other industries.text Sara Wågenberg photo nicke johanSSon

mirzad Kovacevic makes sure that cars are traceable during their lifetime.


quite similar: we’re not permitted to harm any-one so we need to make sure we work correctly and show this to those checking up on us.

major moderNizaTioN projects underway at two of the four nuclear reactors at Ringhals nuclear power station are nearing completion. It’s common for a thousand people or more to work on a reactor at one time during these overhauls. There are vast amounts of techni-cal documentation supporting the entire work and often subject to revision. “A major chal-lenge is therefore to ensure that all involved work from the same prerequisites, i.e. current versions of documents,” Jari Salo explains.

“Ensuring a change has been made correctly and that everyone knows that it’s this version of the document that applies – that’s trace-ability at the highest level,” he says. “Good systems and processes still allow comprehen-sive documentation to be handled effectively and securely.”

“Our document management system gives us good control, so we have no problems find-ing the right information. In total our four different document management systems contain between four to six million docu-ments,” says Jari.

Another factor driving development to-wards added traceability is the growing envi-ronmental and climate interest. More trace-ability means greater opportunities to check

a good’s claim of actually being eco-friendly. As environmental demands are tightened and more certification is introduced – even on products without an environmental profile – the importance of traceability increases on systems to verify the information.

oNe example of how traceability can help identify and even boost sales is noticed on the issue of whether cod should be sold or not. At the beginning of 2009 the WWF announced that it was once again OK to eat cod from the Barents Sea. Since 2006 25 per cent of Swed-ish households have stopped buying cod and to instil confidence Findus, the multinational food giant with activities throughout Europe, realized that it needed clear traceability and labelling of products.

“Each consignment of cod supplied to processing plants has a document stating

which trawler caught the fish and where it was fished. This allows the fish to be traced from the freezer display back to the trawler and guarantee that the catch is not the product of illegal fishing,” says Niger C Larsson, respon-sible for quality and sustainability issues at Findus.

Apart from identifying a product traceabil-ity can also be used to make stock control and logistics more effective, reduce waste and in doing so help towards using fewer resources.

The rapidly growing interest for locally produced goods also naturally requires good traceability and detailed indication of ori-gin. It’s now possible at some ordinary dairy counters to buy milk cartons that state exactly what local farm the milk came from and what time the cow was milked. A glass of milk from the neighbouring farm, just like in the old days. 1

n TraNsporT aNd logisTics: trucks, containers and pallets used more effectively. rFId tags can also measure temperatures during transport and control goods so they get on sale before quality is affected. n pharmaceuTical pacKagiNg: an rFId tag with a unique serial number on each package makes it easier to check whether medicines are genuine.

n caTTle: ear-tagged cattle mean that the meat can be traced back to an individual breeder and give con-sumers a temperature profile throughout transport.

n NiKe+: rFId tag in the sole of your Nike shoes communicates with your ipod or sportBand, giving runners real-time information about speeds and how far you’ve run.

n smarT sTore shelves: rFId tags on individual goods make it easier to handle stock, reduce waste and make sure the item never runs out.

n car Tolls: the information on your rFId tag on your windscreen registers as you drive through the toll, meaning you don’t need to stop, you avoid manned booths, queues and cash.

n library booKs: library books are tagged with rFId to speed up the lending out procedure, simplify finding incorrectly placed books and maximizing the floor space that the collection stands on.

n medical jourNals: in future it will be possible for patients to have an rFId tag under their skin containing all medical information easily accessible for the doctor.

n washiNg: in future the washing instructions on your trousers will be able to tell the washing machine what wash cycle should run thanks to an rFId tag.

trAceAbility todAy And tomorrow RFID is a way of simplifying traceability – here are some of the areas of use now and in the future

Traceability is in demand everywhere, and will cover much of society.”

Bo Raattamaa, CEO of GS1 Sweden

Focus:TRaCEabiliTy

“

THE SOlUTiONhoW semcon solVed the client’s AssiGnment

tHe cHAllenge: Biotech company Denator gave Semcon the task of designing and constructing its patented solution for preserving tissue samples before being analyzed.

tHe solution: Key components of tissue samples quickly deteriorate as soon as they leave the body and oxygen and energy is no longer being supplied naturally. The time factor is therefore crucial for preventing the sample deteriorating before it can be analyzed. The solution was a functional, user-friendly system where design and construction supports the user through a display with a simple interface and centring of key functions. Semcon also helped with blueprints for optimizing the manufacturing process.

tHe result: Denator’s unique Stabilizor T1 solu-tion has been sold to many prominent international research institutes. Stabilizor T1 was given the international iF Design Award 2010 in Hannover.

Preserved samPles give beTTer resulTs

A product like denator’s must be reliable on the market and environment its active on. The design should con-vey visual simplicity and purity, while supporting the technical functions. For people to feel confident about using the product it must be seen as being simple and reliable.

reliAble brAnd


The display is a touch screen, which gathers all the func-tions in one place and is simple to keep clean. The angle of the display is important for eliminating reflections and facilitating readability for users who are standing as well as sitting.

FunctionAl displAy

The sample holder where the tissue sample is placed enters the apparatus on a mechanical slide where it’s subjected to rapid, carefully controlled heating com-bined with pressure. All air is also extracted to further improve the treatment and ultimate preservation. The size of the sample is measured to achieve an optimal treatment time in the heat chamber.

eFFective slidedenator’s product will be used in laboratory environ-ments so its size must be optimized to the limited space available there, while all functionality fitting under its outer casing. The product is ergonomically adapted to be used both while standing and sitting and is also very portable.

optimized size

The slide has LEds whose different colours signal where the sample is in the process. A blue light indicates that sampling is in progress.

inFormAtive diodes


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From sea To land ABB has taken charge in terms of effective HVDC Light technology. The world’s biggest marine wind farm is being constructed 128 km out in the North Sea. ABB and Semcon are making sure Germany gets green electricity.


text olle Hernegren photo Henrik HAnsson

brighT yellow plat-form measuring 1,500 m2 and 30 meter tall stands in the North Sea as proof of outstanding engineering and the collaboration between ABB and Semcon. What will be the world’s

biggest marine wind farm is being built on the Borkum Riff Sandbank, 128 km north west of the German North Sea coast. 80 wind turbines will provide electricity to the German national grid when the link between the BorWin Alpha platform and the land station in Diele, 200

km away is commissioned later this year. The electrical energy from the wind farm will then replace 1.5 million tonnes of CO2 emissions annually from fossil fuel energy generation on land.

Electricity is converted from AC to DC on the yellow platform and then transferred via two DC cables to the land station. ABB and Semcon collaborated on the groundbreaking technology used for transferring, known as HVDC Light. The project, known as BorWin 1 began in September 2007 and it was full speed ahead from the start.

“It was a technical challenge to provide a plant for a platform at sea,” says Mattias Schollin, electrical construction manager at ABB’s HVDC facility in Ludvika. We previous-ly supplied HVDC plants to oil/gas platforms,

Peter Alnefeltage: 26.Title: Electrical systems engineer.office: semcon västerås.

mattias schollinage: 34.Title: Hvdc construction manager .office: ABB Ludvika.

known as Power from shore HVDC Light. But now it was a large-scale turnkey assignment where we supplied a complete platform just for HVDC, which has been a tough job.

HVDC stands for High Voltage Direct Cur-rent, which is available in two versions, Classic and Light.

The benefits of HVDC Light as opposed to traditional AC technology include less energy loss when transferring and it’s the only tech-nology that’s able to use cable over such a long distance. It’s also possible to create grids of wind farms, land stations and transfer lines needed if wind power is to be fully utilized.

How does HVDC Light transfer work? One example would be a number of groups of 10 or so wind turbines being linked, via a common 33-kilovolt cable, to a platform with substa-tions, transformers and control equipment. The electricity is then transformed to a higher voltage and then fed on to an HVDC Light plant on the platform. The plant transforms the electricity to DC that then travels along two cables under water. The link can then go underground for the last part of the way to the land station, where the DC is converted back

to AC and transported out to the national grid. “What was new about this project was get-

ting all the systems to work together and un-derstanding the individual system’s affect on the everything as a whole,” Mattias continues. Many of the common assistive systems used at land stations have needed to be adapted to solutions that suit the tough environment out at sea. An important job has been to make sure that all these systems work together effective-ly to ensure safe, reliable operation. It’s been a matter of seeing the context early on in order to get everything in place on time.

Semcon has close to 20 consultants on as-signments at ABB in Ludvika. Some are work-ing on the HVDC Light project, mainly with mechanics and electrical construction. Peter Alnefelt is an electrical systems engineer and has spent days on end at the land station for the BorWin 1 project.

The link from BorWin Alpha ends in Diele in northern Germany, after running 128 km under the sea and 75 km underground. Peter is responsible there for the electrical instal-lations required for the MACH 2 monitoring system. The system monitors the entire plant

and manages alarms and functions for control and protection via an operator interface.

“I’ve worked with electrical plant con-struction,” says Peter. “That means that I’ve done the electrical diagram of how the plant is linked electrically between MACH 2 and the equipment needing monitoring. I’ve not worked directly with the HVDC technology, but concentrated more on the interface be-tween various equipment – what signals our system needs and how we get them, and the peripheral systems that exist, such as assist-ance from low-voltage substations and battery systems. Local electrical installation engineers then managed the installation and I helped with the monitoring and then commissioning.”

borwiN 1 has beeN a kick-start to Peter Al-nefelt’s career. He started as a consultant at Semcon in 2008, straight after graduating with a degree from Mälardalen University. He joined the ABB project at year-end 2008 and started in the office on construction work. In April 2009 Peter went to Diele to monitor installation.

“It’s been very stimulating,” he says. “I was


the only one from my department and there was a lot to take in for a rookie. I was extreme-ly busy all the time, but it’s great fun and I have excellent contact with the others.”

Peter Alnefelt has also taken part in a project on the Valhall oil platform, where an HVDC Light link provides the platform with electricity, which would otherwise have been produced on the platform using fossil fuel.

maTTias scholliN is pleased with the coopera-tion between ABB and Semcon on this project.

“It’s been good to be able to work with Sem-con throughout the project. Peter helped us in the initial phase to construct, then to monitor installation and recently he’s helped us com-mission the facility. He’s covered the entire spectrum, which has been of great value.

Mattias Schollin believes that Peter got a tough, lead role early on in his career.

“Peter was green when he arrived, but he showed potential and took responsibility so we were able to give him more to do. In paral-lel with the success of HVDC Light, develop-ment of HVDC Classic is ongoing, which is a product line that had its first commercial


installation with the Swedish mainland from Gotland back in 1954. This was for the transfer of high-voltage electricity over a long distance. The latest product development has resulted

the 30 m tall platform will convert electricity from 80 wind turbines and then transfer it to land.

in UHVDC, with a 2,000 km long 800-kilo-volt cable between Xianjiaba and Shanghai in China, which is a prestigious contract for ABB.

The ambitions of moving over to renew-able energy and cutting the use of fossil fuels indicate that this type of project has a bright future. The EU has defined its 20-20-20 pack-age, stating that by 2020 emissions of green-house gases must drop by 20 per cent with a minimum of 20 per cent of energy coming from renewable sources and energy efficiency must rise by 20 per cent.

ThaT offshore-based wind power will play a major role for achieving this is clear. But the really high winds are seen far from the coast, meaning challenges for getting the energy to the users. The problems can be overcome and HVDC Light is a major factor in this solution.

Peter Alnefelt and Mattias Schollin prob-ably won’t lack work in the future either. With the major investments needed to achieve the climate objectives and with ABB’s lead role on the HVDC market, where the company has over 50 per cent, both ABB and Semcon are well positioned. 1

CReAtING GReeN eLeCtRICItY FoR the FUtURe

denmark

germanyth e n eth erlan dsth e u k

sweden

n norden

128 km

75 kmemden n

n diele

borkum 2

Q&a Janine BenyusbiOmimiCRy ExPERT

The giraffe’s slimy tongue – Lotus leaf’s rough surface – woodpecker’s shock resistant skull. Nature has the solutions that can inspire us to develop new, smart products. “Nature’s product development has been going on for the past 3.8 billion years,” says janine benyus, one of the world’s leading biomimicry experts.

janine benyus was on the Galapagos Islands a few years ago with a group of engineers working with water purification. She was trying to get them interested in biomimic-

ry – finding inspiration for new technol-ogies from nature – but the engineers were sceptical.

“We already do that,” they said. “We use bacteria to purify water.”

Janine replied that water purification using bacteria was an old method and

that biomimicry was something completely different. Biomimicry is all about picking up on something, getting an idea from a plant or animal and then applying it to a new design and new products.

The engineers didn’t understand. They asked her about the problems they found in their sector. They told her about mineral de-posits inside water pipes. The pipes eventually get blocked and must be flushed clean using

text cHristoFer brAsk

photo jAy wAtson

highly toxic cleaning agents or even dug up. Janine Benyus picked up a shell from the

beach and asked them: “What are your mineral deposits made up of?”, “Calcium carbonate,” they replied. “That’s exactly what this is,” she said holding up the shell.

She then told them that molluscs emit a protein that inhibits crystallization when they’re fully grown. She also told them that there’s already a product on the market that shares the same idea. It’s a kind of protein that clears water pipes from deposits in an eco-friendly way. During the rest of the stay on the Galapagos the engineers couldn’t get enough of nature studying.

Janine Benyus says:“They realized that there were organisms

out there that had already solved the problems they themselves had spent their entire careers looking for.”

She first got interested in biomimicry in


J

1990 and started compiling articles from sci-entific journals. She’s now considered a guru on the subject, with consultancy assignments all over the world. In 2007 she was one of the enthusiasts praised by Time Magazine when it had a special issue about “Environmental heroes”.

There is a strong basic commitment for ani-mals and nature. Biomimicry is not only in demand because of its positive environmental ef-fects but also just as much for its smart solutions.

Back in 1997 Janine pub-lished “Biomimicry: Innova-tion Inspired by Nature”.

“I was surprised by the re-sponse,” she says. “I thought that most of the readership would be researchers. But that wasn’t the case at all. The first people in touch were archi-tects, despite the fact that I hadn’t written anything about buildings, then town planners, engineers and industrial de-signers. Companies would call and say, “Can you send a few biologists to our development department?” or “Can your biologists explain to our en-gineers what solutions nature has to offer?” We then decided – my business partner and I – to take the plunge and form a consultancy company with biologists. Nothing like that had existed before.

was there any criticism?“Yes, there was a group of engineers that

had said for years: “We’re better than nature. We can develop solar panels that absorb solar energy much more effectively than a leaf.” My answer: Quite right, but making a solar panel isn’t eco-friendly and when solar panels are scrapped it’s extremely hard to recycle the material, compared with a leaf that decays and becomes earth. Even if the human race can achieve a lot we still haven’t learnt from nature how to create something as amazing as

an entire lifecycle. To make a product as bril-liant as we see in nature – and then recycle it as effectively.

Some engineers had the ignorant attitude of, “give us anything nature has to offer and we’ll make it better,” but I think they’ve become a little more humble.

There’s also a huge difference between natu-ral and industrial materials. people use a lot of metal.

“That’s true, but biomim-icry isn’t about copying nature with exactly the same materials, it’s about learning something about its design principles. Many leaves, like the lotus leaf, are self-cleaning. The dirt sticks to the rough surface and when rainwater runs off it takes the dirt with it. The design principle there is for your product to have a granu-lar surface. Paints for the automotive industry have been designed with these attributes – paints that are self-cleaning. They’re obvi-ously not made from the same material as a lotus leaf, but made according to the same principles.

is biomimicry eco-friendly by definition?

“No, not by definition. There are three levels. The first is form – like the lotus leaf’s rough surface. The second is process, manufacturing and finally imitat-ing an entire eco-system – which is where sustainability comes in. If you stop at form you might get a rough surface that’s made of poisonous materials, made using a poison-ous manufacturing process and you might not have any idea what’s going to happen to these poisonous substances when the product has served its useful life. We must therefore ensure we do the entire process. We shouldn’t just ask: “What will the product look like? But also: “What materials will it be made from?

Would nature use that material? How would nature make it, market it, and package it? We should try and look to nature throughout the process. In this way we get closer to an eco-logically sustainable product.

has it been difficult for companies to go all the way?

“No. Not particularly. The timing for bio-mimicry is perfect. Some of the biggest com-panies in the US like General Electric, Procter & Gamble, Nike and Boeing have turned to us for help. They want to be better at sustain-ability, both for their products and manufac-turing processes. They’ve been challenged by their customers, investors and shareholders to be greener. They’ve done the same thing for such a long time and they now need a new approach. When they hear about biomimicry they say: “Why not? Let’s give it a shot!”

what’s the key for companies who want to be inspired by nature in their product develop-ment?

“To have a biologist present at the design phase. I ask for example: What problems are you trying to solve? The designer answers: We’re trying to make a helmet. I say: No. I didn’t ask what you’re trying to design but what do you want your product to do: We identify the function. For a helmet the func-tion is to protect something valuable. What needs to protect itself in nature? Shells of course. Nuts, where the shell protects the kernel inside. I’d also look at animals that dive deep in our oceans and need to withstand enormous pressures, or animals that live in tidal zones and fight against the rocks – how do they protect themselves? I then summarize these principles in a way most people will un-derstand and then the designer says: “Aha, now I understand. Perhaps it’s a woodpecker’s skull I should be copying when drawing my helmet.”

you mentioned earlier that washing cars might soon be a thing of the past thanks to lotus leaves’ rough surfaces. has the automo-tive industry used the natural world for other innovations?

“Mercedes has a concept car called “box fish car”. It’s shaped similar to a fish that lives in coral reefs. It looks quite odd, almost a cube.


Q&a Janine BenyusbiOmimiCRy ExPERT

born: 1958.lives: Montana, USA.drives: A 2001 Volvo Cross-country, education: Graduated from Rutgers College after studying natural resource management and English literature. work: Science writer, author of six books and one of the world’s most well-known advocates of biomimicry. leisure: “You’ll often find me outdoors. I live in a valley sur-rounded by mountains and untouched wilderness. I ski in the winter and go hiking in the summer.”

janine benyusFaCTS

When they tested it they found that it had the least wind resistance ever measured in a wind tunnel. They then created a car using the same shape that can drive 70 miles a gallon.”

“Tire manufacturer Continental makes tires based on the tree frog’s grip when it hops be-tween wet leaves in the rain forest.”

“And Volvo Cars has a new anti-collision system, which got its inspiration from grass-

hoppers that live in vast swarms that look like smoke as millions of them sweep through the countryside. But they never crash into one an-other. A researcher in Newcastle who studied how these grasshoppers avoid collisions has come up with principles that Volvo has ben-efited greatly from.”

do you have a favourite animal? “The giraffe! I was short for my age as a

child and became fascinated by tall people and animals. I really wanted to be a giraffe. They’re interesting animals for many reasons. Their tongues for instance are about 30 cm long. They eat leaves from acacia trees – and despite the trees being full of thorns it man-ages to eat without damaging its tongue. This is because the tongue is covered with a thick slime. The slime is nature’s most effective lubricant. Industry uses oil-based lubricants for machinery, which results in huge amounts of dirty waste. Imagine if it were possible to replace oil with water-based, slimy lubricants! There are actually research projects underway in this area.


giraffes, elephants and dolphins – but what about the king of the beasts, the lion, what can we learn from him?

“Lions’ teeth are interesting. Predators’ teeth need to be extremely strong, so there’s a lot to be studied there. And if we take one of the lion’s relatives, Nike has looked at how the leopard’s paw is designed to manage such high speeds.”

what animal has been the inspiration to most products so far?

“Difficult to say. But sharks must be high on the list. They’ve inspired everything from antibiotics to boat design. One company has managed to imitate the skin of the Galapagos shark. It’s not a fast swimmer, but still man-ages to keep itself bacteria-free because bac-teria can’t attach to it well. This material can be used on everything from operating tables to door handles in hospitals. It stays bacteria-free for up to 21 days. Biomimicry makes us see the world in a different light. In the past we asked ourselves: What can we use these plants and animals for? Now we’re asking: What can we learn from them? 1

1 Solar panelS“A flexible solar panel that works like pho-tosynthesis and contains no poisonous

substances would be a product of the future.”

2 Clean water“Clean water is already in short supply in many parts of the world. Purifying dirty

water, extracting water from fog and transport-ing water in an eco-friendly way has a lot to learn from nature.”

3 SenSitive buildingS“In the future we’ll have buildings that feel when the sun’s shining. Or if there

is snow on the roof, which would trigger the building to bend the roof in order for the snow to fall from it.”

future products inspired by nature 3

Continental’s tires are based on the tree frog’s grip when it hops between wet leaves in the rain forest.”Janine Benyus, Biomimicry expert

“

semcon brAins


text HAnnA joHAnsson, mAgnus pettersson, dAvid wiles

photos nicke joHAnsson, AlexAnder F yuAn,

dAvid koenigsmAnn

stefAn IsAKsson, 36, teAmLeAder for cGI GrouP, semcon GöteborG


stefan isaksson gets to see products long before they exist in reality. He and his colleagues develop stills and 3D animations of products that are then used as marketing material etc. Im-ages and animations are in turn created using CAD models of the product using CGI – Computer Generated Imagery technol-ogy.

Many of the tools Stefan uses daily come from the film industry, where films like Avatar and Lord of the Rings were milestones in 3D and CGI development. But Stefan Isaksson, who trained in Hollywood, says that there are still differences in the way we work.

“A film production is more specialized and only works with a small part of the end product. My job includes being involved from order to delivery, which is very stimulating.

The CGI group visualizes various design concepts and devel-ops marketing material in the form of photo-realistic brochure pictures and 3D animations. The products can include every-thing from cars to kitchen interiors.

“From a financial perspective the technology is often better than if you took a photo. It’s easier to change and move things around in the picture – change rims on a car or make a head-board in a bedroom out of a different material. CGI technology is developing rapidly, and one of the challenges is keeping up and learning how to use the technical tools.

Visualization expert

carlos barbosa is stationed in Ger-many in charge of a team mainly deal-ing with engine simulation.

“The best thing about being a calculations engineer is simulation trials. You can predict so much,” he says.

In the past engines’ durability and dynamics were calculated in labora-tories and the engine was put under mechanical stress. Modern computer

technology however allows this to be done virtually – and with much better results.

“Computers are becoming faster and more capable with more realistic results,” he says. His six-man team in Wolfsburg carries out simulations on entire engines and individual compo-nents such as engine retainers.

Everything is tested apart from the inner workings of engines. One of

the main clients is the company that was the reason for Wolfsburg being founded in the 1930s, Volkswagen.

Carlos Barbosa finds it infinitely exciting.

“It’s a real challenge to do computer simulated durability tests and take ac-count of all the peripheral factors that real engines face when eventually used in the real world”

And because technology is con-

stantly developing it never gets boring.

“In the future it will be a matter of expanding and further developing engine calculations. It will also be a matter of developing methods for problems we cannot simulate for the time being, for example a gearbox. This would allow us to simulate the complete drivetrain in a car,“ says Carlos Barbosa.

cArLos bArbosA, 34, teAm LeAder stAtIcs, dynAmIcs & AcoustIcs, semcon WoLfsburGengine calculations engineer

semcon brAins


‘A picture says a thousand words.’ When it comes to technical documents for mobile phone base stations, a picture can be worth so much more.

“In many situations illustrations are much more vivid than words and are easier to understand, especially in cus-tomer product information (CPI) docu-ments,” says Gu Bo, a technical illustrator and graphic designer at Semcon in

Beijing. “I think that the role of technical illustrator is one of the most important positions in the product information area.”

Bo, who studied industrial design in China and then went on to do a post-graduate course in product design in the UK, is part of a small team of illustrators, writers, method engineers and product managers at Semcon in the Chinese

capital producing CPI documents for a major Swedish telecommunications company. The accuracy and clarity of Bo’s illustrations and the words that accom-pany them are of utmost importance for the telecoms engineers installing or maintaining the base stations on which modern society relies so heavily.

More than being just artistic, the job of technical illustrator demands master-

ing an ever-growing range of software, excellent communication skills, and the ability to quickly grasp technical details. Now four years into the job, Bo still enjoys the feeling of satisfaction that comes with clicking on ‘print’ at the end of a project. “It makes me happy to see when the customer is satisfied with my work,” she says. “I see that my role is appreciated.”

Gu bo, 28, technIcAL ILLustrAtor, semcon, beIjInG Iconographer



The Norwegian offshore com-pany Aker MH of Kristiansand is one of the world’s leading suppliers of complete drilling equipment, especially for the oil industry. When Aker MH, part

of Aker Solutions, contacted Semcon at the end of 2008 they were having problems with the ergonomics of an operator chair that they needed help with quickly. Arnt Aske, Senior Project Manager at Aker MH, was in charge of the commercial and technical aspects.

“In the first six months of the project we realized that there was huge potential to come up with an overall solution for the operator’s working environment, which was a solution that would also bolster Aker’s brand,” he says.

Together with Semcon they carried out a pre-study where they analysed the existing chair in an interactive training environment. From this pre-study they decided to develop a prototype that would initially be used in-ternally to get first-hand feedback from the organization and management, and then from external customers. This was all done to find the very best, most innovative solution for the future.

meaNwhile They came up with requirement specifications for an overall solution for the operator’s environment, or project charter, supported by case notes, calculations and vi-sion. It acts as decision data for management and propels the project from idea to reality.

It started with developing a chair and ended with a completely new way of looking at operator environments. Together with Semcon the offshore company Aker MH has taken on one of the most demanding workplaces imaginable – an oil drilling platform. text Florence oppenHeim photos nicke joHAnsson, AnitA Arntzen

demanding rig geTs new suPPorT


“I can envision solutions that allow proac-tive management of incidents that create stoppages. For example, operators can make improvements earlier, preferably before the rig shuts down. Integrating that type of solution in next-generation operator environments I think will be an important area of improve-ment that customers will benefit greatly from,” he says.

It was exactly that kind of issue that made Aker MH choose to go with Semcon for the project. Because Semcon can contribute tech-nical skills and also take part in the innovative process, from a position where it’s impossible to produce a clear specification of the project.

“We don’t currently know what customers want. That’s why we developed a prototype, a visual image that you can touch, and that we can test on customers and get feedback concerning new solutions and technologies.

Semcon will be an important resource in this initiative because they are used to working with these kinds of processes,” he says.

He believes that the operator’s chair will be an increasingly important factor in branding in the future. Being a driller ranks highly in the industry and the younger generation have exacting demands on their working environ-ments. Equipment must therefore be at the leading edge in terms of technological devel-opment and convey Aker’s values, in order to attract the experts.

aKer chose semcoN because of its extensive experience of ergonomic solutions from vari-ous sectors, not least the automotive industry. They also knew from the start that Semcon and its organization had expertise from other industries that would come in useful if an ex-tension of the project was necessary.

rise aNd lowerThe entire chair can be raised to suit the individual operator.

iNdividual adjusTmeNTsThe curvature of the chair back is adjustable in size and height for the best individual setting. The seat is ad-justable laterally and can be angled to provide room for the thighs.

“The operator spends hours on end in his cab during a shift,” he says. “We realized that we need to look to the long-term and come up with the prototype for a futuristic, ergonomic, intelligent operators’ chair that’ll take up into the future. Arnt has a vision for the future. Drilling for oil can go as deep as 5,000 m beneath the earth’s crust. We’re talking vast amounts of energy under enormous pressure, with minimal opportunities to see what’s hap-pening in the borehole.”

“Imagine if the operators could see what was happening they could make decisions earlier and more effectively, which would make it more safe for the equipment and for the peo-ple on the oil rig.”

aNoTher aspecT is the fact that it’s very costly for equipment to be idle. It’s around USD 350,000 per day to operate an oilrig.

5 Functions IN AkeR’s New CoNCept ChAIR

smarT joysTicKs To create maximum ergonomics the control unit joystick is adjustable. The control unit also has multifunctional control keys.

aNgled screeNs flexible, thin touch-screens. Transpar-ent when not in use. can be angled in two directions to eliminate glare. also adjustable along the length of the armrest to adapt to the user.

adjusTable supporT armrest that’s height- and length-adjustable. The headrest is also fully ad-justable and also contains an inbuilt microphone and speaker.


“Apart from the actual chair the extension of the project dealt with panels, controls, visuali-zation and everything involved in a demanding working environment,” says Joakim Lindgren at Semcon. And who knows, in the future maybe even operators will be able to sit on land and control the drilling? We need to think of every aspect of our future scenario.

The existing interior of the operator’s cabin consisted of heavy, safety-classed furniture, where all electronics that could cause sparks were built in. Semcon’s team soon realized there was an opportunity to make a dramatic change to the entire interior of the cabin. Not least the staff-related safety, in the increas-ingly accident-prone offshore industry.

“We should never ignore the human factor. The environment for the people controlling the rigs must be optimal to avoid accidents and serious stoppage time,” he says.

joakim lindgrenage: 45.Title: project manager, design & development .office: semcon, Göteborg.

Arnt Askeage: 45.Title: senior project Manager.client: Aker MH, Kristiansand, Norway.

“ We realized that there was the potential to come up with a complete solution for operators’ working environment.” Arnt Aske, Senior Project Manager, Aker MH

One of the first ideas for the vision was to make the whole of the operator’s cabin safety classed, which would mean greater freedom of design and functionality. Step one was a pre-study with analysis of the existing cabin en-vironment and the operator’s chair. The next step was proposing change.

“We were helped by virtual environments to better understand users’ situations. We used recently developed CAD technology to visualize our thoughts and ideas in a proto-type of tomorrow’s operator chair,” says Håkan Ohlsson, who’s a designer at Semcon and who helped to develop the prototype.

TraNspareNT Touch screeNs when not in use and a window with information that is see-through still allowing full control of all data. Monitoring technology in the backrest so that the operator can hear radio traffic on deck and

personal settings for the chair activated with the help of a pass. The opportunity with the simple press of a button to swivel the chair if something should hit the cabin. And possibly a reinforced backrest that can withstand a first hit.

“There are also lots of options with regards material technology for upholstery that solves problems without needing to add electronics,” says Håkan. Not everything will be able to be realized in one product but we’re highlight-ing the issues to interest customers in new possibilities. The first prototype is ready and we’re now waiting for feedback and further improvements before being tried out for real in a demonstration situation.”

“The idea is to highlight a critical, isolated procedure of an emergency situation to show at a trade fair how an operator can handle the situation using new solutions,” he says.1

SEmCON UPdaTEWhAt’s GoinG on in semcon’s World

iNspired by The world’s firsT electrically powered sports car, the Tesla Roadster, student Marc-Dino Meer-mann, developed the E-bike, a bicycle that runs on both muscle and electrical power. The bicycle is a degree project and developed while Marc-Dino was at Semcon Vehicle Body and Interior Department in Munich.

The E-bike challenges existing electric bicycles on the market by combining performance and design in a new way. It looks like a bicycle but is as strong as a motorbike. The target group is sporty commuters.

“The E-bike can be driven to work even over longer

journeys. It has a top speed allowing it to easily keep up in urban traffic,” says Marc-Dino, since 2009 an em-ployee at Semcon Munich.

The E-bike comes equipped with a portable battery that can be charged at home and will last for 40 km. The test groups and manufacturer are pleased with the bike. Marc-Dino Meermann is now hoping that more people will realize the many uses of electrical energy.

“Electrical vehicles are making inroads and so far there are no bicycles that come anywhere close to the E-bike,” he says. 1

e-bike – an electrical bicycle with the strength of a motorbike


compleTely New wheelchair will roll out onto the European market in the summer. Swedish manufacturer Etac turned to Semcon to help with its devel-opment. “Etac wanted a wheelchair that was significantly more cost-effective to make and whose market would be disabled, older people. The chair should also be easy to fold and put in a car,” says project man-ager Henrik Augustsson.The group started working on concept development in autumn 2008 for the two parts involved in the project: the chassis

and the backrest. Two industrial design-ers from Semcon drew up the technol-ogy together with Etac. Two mechanical constructors and an ergonomist from Semcon were also brought in.“We were forced to think very ration-ally and use methods for major volume production, such as moulding the metal rather than machining it,” he says.A finished proposal was ready by Christ-mas 2008 and a prototype was made during the spring.“We’ve really worked as a team. We were very lucky that we worked with the same

computer systems as Etac,” he says. The wheelchair is now undergoing a number of tests so it can be mass-pro-duced. The collaboration with Etac will continue on future projects. “We’ve worked with Semcon in the past and what we value most is the close relationships we form during the project. Despite the challenge of keeping different parties together we managed to keep to schedule, which was one of the fastest product development projects Etac has ever had,” says Bo Lindqvist, development manager at Etac. 1

Wheelchair development by Etac

imagiNe a car wiTh aN iNTeracTive sound system that tells you from which direction a rapidly advancing cyclist is coming from. This will soon be reality in a new three-year HMI research project (Human Machine Interaction and Interface) that Semcon is taking part in. The project will develop the interaction in the future between people and cars’ functions.

The project is being run by Volvo Cars in association with Swedish universities and research institutes. The project is being partly fi-nanced by Innovate and the National Swedish Road Administration.

“HMI will be extremely important in future. Competition is toughening on the market and to keep one’s position requires

differentiation. It’s Volvo’s aim to be the world leader in HMI and we want to be part of that development,” says Anders Sundin, technical manager for Semcon’s ergonomics and HMI initiative.

What the project will mainly look at is how drivers can safely integrate with the information systems like radio, MP3, mobile phone, navigation and internet etc.

It’s hoped that the project will open up new opportunities in terms of safety, eco-driving and vehicles that communicate with one another.

The project, which started in February 2010, includes six people from Semcon. 1

semcon in new research project

Semcon was among the best suppliers invited to the annual Porsche Supplier Days, held on March 25 in Leipzig. The best suppliers of the year are chosen on the basis of quality, keeping to delivery dates, pricing, flexibility and customer service.

“Only through close coopera-tion with our suppliers are we able to perform continuously at a peak level in development and production,” says Michael Macht, President and CEO of Porsche AG.

Westinghouse, the global supplier of nuclear power technology has chosen Semcon as its Preferred Supplier to cement the coopera-tion for engineering services. The focus will mainly be on quality assurance and control.

“This is an important milestone in our energy initiative,” says Mats Gilbertsson, project manager at Semcon.

new country manager in Germany

semcon chosen as Porsche supplier

Westinghouse chose semcon

semcon is taking part in a research project to find out how drivers integrate with a car’s functions.


henry Kohlstruck is the new country manager in Germany.

Semcon has appointed Henry Kohlstruck as its new country manager for the German business. Henry joins Semcon from the Ger-man development company Edag.

“I’m convinced that we’ll ce-ment and develop Semcon’s position as the lead supplier on the crucial German automotive market under Henry Kohlstruck,” says Kjell Nilsson, CEO Semcon.

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