ESS Ltd. Meeta Student Award 2009

ESS Ltd. would like to Congratulte Mark Johnson (pictured right) who took home the spoils in this years ESS Ltd. MEETA Student Awards, which took place during the Meeta Annual Conference in November.

Mark is studying Engineering Systems Maintenance at DIT and he won the award for his “Design out Maintenance Project” on Speed Control of a telescopic cylinder.

Mark did this in conjunction with Bristol Myer Squibb, which manufacturers bulk pharmaceuticals in its plant in Cruiserath. An important part of the process is drying within vessels and an agitator is used. This agitator moves down and up through the product during the drying sequence. This movement is controlled by two, 2 stage telescopic cylinders.

The problem was that the cylinders were not extending and retracting at constant speed, leading to uneven mixes of product and early failure of bellows covering the agitator shaft.

Mark came up with two solutions!!

Both involved the modification of the hydraulic circuit and PLC programme. One used a flow control valve and one used a proportional control valve.

Well done Mark!! (And he got a nice cash prize too).


This year our very own Ray O'Neill (pictured left) chaired the morning session of the Meeta conference, while David Riley, senior Asset Strategy Manager with ESS Ltd., presented a case study on a project ESS Ltd. completed on the Heathrow T5 Baggage Handling System.

To view a copy of Dave’s presentation, click here