BOC Report and accounts 2005 - Alle jaarverslagen

Research, development and information technology 37
Among areas of development undertaken by the industrial products technology group are oxy-fuel cutting, the
cryogenic cooling of welds, pipeline welding and shielding gas mixtures.The cold spray coating process that uses
helium or nitrogen is being used in a number of new applications and has been accompanied by the successful
introduction of a new helium recovery system.The design and development of new cylinder packages continues,
concentrating on valves with integrated regulators and valve guards.A web-based global fabrication technical library
was launched, designed to support technical and product training initiatives.
The medical business continues to research the clinical application of a variety of gases, including heliox
(a mixture of oxygen and helium) that has demonstrated promising results in a number of areas, including asthma
and brochiolitis in infants and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in adults.The BOC Chair of Anaesthesia and
Intensive Care has been awarded to Professor David Menon of Cambridge University.
In special products, work continues on a new environmentally friendly fumigant,Vapormate, which has
achieved product registration in Australia and New Zealand.
Total R&D expenditure in 2005 was £43.2 million compared to £41.6 million in 2004 and £39.9 million
in 2003.
Information management
The information management (IM) team reports its performance against four criteria: delivering innovation, creating
value, enabling the business and operating efficiently. It also has measures for developing its people and for its safety
performance.All users are surveyed regularly to ensure IM’s performance matches their needs.As well as reporting
regularly on its short-term performance, IM this year updated and had approved its five year strategy.
Development work continues in areas as diverse as wireless technologies, network access, telephony, and
knowledge and document management.The SAP computing system has been deployed further, notably to BOC
Edwards in north America and more countries in Asia, and deployment has started of a global asset management
system.An IM helpdesk has been set up that is available to all employees, all the time. It replaces a number of
regional centres.The global data centre, based in the UK, is now well established and undertakes data processing for
BOC businesses around the world.