BOC Report and accounts 2005 - Alle jaarverslagen

36 The BOC Group plc Annual report and accounts 2005
Research, development and information technology
Research and development (R&D)
Research and development is conducted around the world with key sites located in north America, the UK and
Japan.The Group Technical Centre (GTC) in Murray Hill, New Jersey, is a primary R&D location for market
applications for Process Gas Solutions and for electronic materials for BOC Edwards. Co-ordination of R&D is
managed through the Group technology council.The council also meets regularly with the Group new business
development forum to ensure the opportunities and risks from technological change are understood and, where
appropriate, exploited.
Process Gas Solutions undertakes internal development, forms alliances and partnerships with universities and
customers, licenses or acquires technologies from third parties and leverages governmental funding to progress key
developments. Internal developments use its core technical competencies while external partnerships give access
to additional competencies.
In 2005 BOC successfully commissioned the cryogenic refrigeration system for the high temperature
superconducting (HTS) cable project at Albany, New York.This 34.5 kV HTS cable will form part of the Niagara
Mohawk utility grid. BOC was responsible for the cryogenic system, monitoring and interfacing with the cable
system, working with the Niagara Mohawk utility company.The project drew on BOC’s strengths in heat and mass
transfer and its ability to manage remote operations infrastructures.
Additional licenses were signed during the year for BOC’s proprietary glass melting technology, CGM,
which is based on its combustion and modelling competencies. Major glass companies were willing to publicise
their results and allow other glass companies to visit their installations.These companies include Owens-Corning,
Pilkington,Anchor Glass and LG Philips, representing the fibreglass, flat glass, container glass and TV glass segments
respectively.
BOC’s knowledge of adsorption and materials has been applied to the continuing development of an oxygen
generation process. Based on the selective oxygen sorption properties of specific ceramic materials it has the
potential to reduce substantially the cost of oxygen for certain applications in future chemical and power plants.
As part of a European Union funded project, BOC has identified promising new materials for use in oxy-fuel coal
boiler-based power plants. Pilot demonstration of the process is being progressed with government funding in the
US and the European Union.
BOC has excellent access to hydrogen/synthesis gas production technology through Linde BOC Process
Plants. In addition, BOC continues to develop novel ceramic-based technologies that offer potential step change
improvements for the production of hydrogen and synthesis gas.
BOC is working with Ceres Power of the UK jointly to develop fuel cell-based systems for generating
electricity, using a variety of cylinder gases. BOC developed and commercialised a helium conservation system
for the optical fibre manufacturing industry and licensed the technology to Fibre Ottiche Sud, a division of Pirelli.
This technology improves overall efficiency substantially and reduces helium wastage.
Based on its combustion and modelling competencies, BOC successfully commercialised a new way to
enhance the productivity of steel from basic oxygen furnaces and reached commercial agreements for licensing the
technology to leading steel producers.
BOC’s heat and mass transfer experience enabled it to develop and commercialise a food freezing technology
to crust-freeze luncheon meat logs prior to slicing, allowing customers to increase the speed of their production
lines and overall product yield. It also eliminates product handling, increases the efficiency of cryogenic freezing and
makes more efficient use of floor space.
For BOC Edwards, the pace of innovation in the silicon semiconductor market is unabated with leading edge
customers following a two year technology cycle. In the storage market the pace is even more rapid with storage
capacity doubling every year. Fab investments have generally been at or below those in 2004 with the exception of
the flat panel area where investments have been higher than predicted.
Emphasis in product development has been on reducing new products’ demand for power and utilities.
Monitoring and control capability helps create products with these capabilities, including active utility control.
A sensor-less turbomolecular pump with an integrated controller, which was introduced this year, is smaller, easier
to install, yet has better performance with lower vibration.
Energy and environmental concerns drive new abatement technology.The Zenith Plasma for Etch gives
excellent destruction and low cost of ownership for customers that prefer non-combustion abatement technology.
Liquid abatement systems for copper can be installed at points of use or throughout a production facility.
In the general vacuum business, new products for the scientific sector offer cost-reduction and enhanced
performance. Lower-cost web-enabled sales channels have been introduced for our broad customer base.
The pharmaceutical business supplied its first systems containing a patented non-contact weighing system.
The application, which uses nuclear magnetic resonance technology, has received approval from the US Food and
Drug Administration and is incorporated in several new vial loading products.
Industrial and Special Products installed prototypes of a new thermodynamic cylinder filling package at two
sites handling scientific and industrial gases.Thermodynamic modelling gives real time control and compensates
for raw material impurities and other system variations, resulting in tighter mixture tolerances and better
production efficiency.