military – Shanghai Metal Corporation

Floating Containers – Assistants for Navy SEALs

As shipping containers are getting more and more applications from skate parks to swimming pools, it is becoming very obvious that we haven’t seen everything that these steel crates can do. Now they developing a different kind of shipping container system for military and maritime industry.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing a solution that helps organizations providing humanitarian assistance and disaster relief support over broad coastal areas. DARPA’s idea is to use standardized ISO shipping containers that form a platform for emergency helicopters to land. The floating shipping container system also offers accommodation facilities for its crew.

The solution will be designed to offer assistance to navy forces by freeing military ships to carry out other military missions. Tactically Expandable Maritime Platform (TEMP) consists of core-support modules that offer all the life support needed by the crew and delivery vehicles. The delivery vehicles, Captive Air Amphibious Transporters (CAAT), utilize air-filled pontoons that make the containers float. The crew will receive its supplies via unmanned air-delivery system.

The system has been simulated at the GRASP Lab of the university of Pennsylvania where scientists have demonstrated how the containers utilize GPS to easily assemble a floating platform. It would be interesting to know if the system could be controlled by artificial intelligence distributed with every container. Such system could be implemented with flocking algorithms that makes the containers organize independently just like a flock of birds. Bringing this technology into play could be the next innovational step towards rescuing human lives.

As already mentioned, this ambitious project uses ordinary standardized shipping containers. We in Shanghai Metal Corporation provide those containers worldwide. Please visit our website for more information or send us an inquiry. Remember to check our social media sites Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.

Tuomas P. // SMC Editor

Pictures and original articles: Inhabitat, Makezine, DARPA, Wikipedia on Flocking, Flocking Algorithms on Jouni Smed’s lecture slides, Navy Live

Do Bombs Really Tick?

“Actually, baggage handlers don’t worry about ticking ’cause modern bombs don’t tick. But when a suitcase vibrates, then they gotta call the police. Nine times out of ten: it’s an electric razor. But… every once in a while… it’s a dildo.”

— Airport Security Officer, Fight Club

Movies are there to entertain, so its understandable they don’t waste time on specifics and science. However, some movies invest so much time in developing a scifi premise or a character’s vast expertise in bomb making that it’s slightly insulting when they present us with something so amateur. (See our past article ‘are locks as easy to pick as in the movies?’ for more on movie realism.)

This is older than television; if you look at animated cartoons from the early to mid 20th Century, one of the more common mayhem-related props is a bomb—black, bowling-ball-sized, with burning fuse stuck in the top, and possibly the word BOMB on it in big happy white letters.

On TV they always have blinking lights (red is a popular color), audible beepers and/or a timer counting down on them. Some bombs have all three. Older depictions have a loudly ticking alarm clock taped to a bundle of dynamite.

In reality, modern bombs that aren’t sanctioned by government are generally made not to be identified so wont tick, beep or otherwise indicate its true form. Military and construction bombs however are labeled to the extreme. Construction is due to health and safety, and military because as the majority are designed to explode on impact, labeling won’t affect their efficacy.

So to answer the question, no, bombs do not tick.

Shanghai metal manufactures the carbon steel strip for clockwork feeds which do indeed tick. As an ISO 14001 (International Quality Management System) Company and recipient of the “Star Enterprise Award,” Shanghai Metal Corporation prides itself on exceeding international standards of quality and reliability. We guarantee the best prices, quality support, and fast delivery. To find out more, please visit our Website or send your inquiry here. Follow us on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

Source: TV Tropes

Siobhan R.// SMC Editor

Move Along Airplanes – Submarines Overtake Travel

China has moved a step closer to creating a supersonic submarine that could travel from Shanghai to San Francisco in less than two hours. Not much is known about the team’s progress because it is a military project, but the SCMP reports that Germany, Iran and the US are working on similar projects.

The team from the Harbin Institute of Technology was inspired by a supersonic torpedo invented by the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

Water yields more friction on an object than air, which should mean that a submerged boat or weapon could never travel at the same speed as an airplane.

But the Soviet military figured out how to put a missile inside an air bubble to cheat this rule of science — a process known as ‘supercavitation’. They created the Shakval, a torpedo that could reach speeds of over 379 km/h, much faster than any other torpedo available.

The Chinese team, led by engineering professor Li Fengchen, sought to apply the same process to a submarine by overcoming two central problems. The submarine would need to be launched at speeds of up to 100 km/h in order to generate the air bubble. It would also require very advanced steering because the ship’s rudder would be inside the bubble, not touching the water. The answer was found in the form of a manmade liquid membrane that would cover the submarine’s surface. The result is a vessel that could reach the speed of sound, crossing the entire Pacific Ocean in approximately 100 minutes. Once supercavitation is harnessed, it could be incorporated into any underwater activity.

Shanghai Metal manufactures the stainless steel used in submarine hull manufacturing. To find out more, please visit our website, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. Or you could try our new mobile app by scanning our QR code.

You can also read more articles by our team at SMC:

Thor’s Hammer: The Science

Shipping Container City – Shanghai Immigrant’s Homes

Can You Do A 360 Degree Loop On A Swing Set?

Become Bullet Proof …Using Water

Counterfeit Money Cases

LEGO Lands On British Shores

Innovative Uses of Soap

Air Quality – What Can Be Done?

Team Building Exercises – A New Spin

How Much Petrol Costs Internationally

The Antarctican Training Programme – Could You Make It?