EoW January 2013

Transatlantic cable

According to Fran Caul eld, research director for Insight Research Corp, healthcare providers are avid consumers of telecommunications services and new technology. She told Ms Azevedo: “The combination of increased demand for wireless and broadband access, massive data storage demands, and the conversion to electronic health records (EHRs) and procedures is straining existing healthcare networks.” The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, a part of the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009, says hospitals that can demonstrate “meaningful use” of electronic health records will receive money from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Those that don’t will face a reduction in Medicare patient reimbursement rates. “It’s clear that the larger organisations are converting to electronic health records sooner and they are doing it more expensively,”Ms Caul eld said. † Even as more doctors in the US adopt electronic health records, and more patients have access to those records via Internet-based systems, Insight Research believes everything that is happening related to telemedicine is just the beginning. An example cited in Network supports that view. Twenty years ago, the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston began using 600-pound videoconferencing equipment to connect patients and doctors. Today the institution’s videoconferencing equipment has been reduced to a system that can sit on a desktop and weighs 15 to 20 pounds. Thanks to advancements in technology, wrote Ms Azevedo: “Sick or injured people in remote areas such as the South Pole and on cruise ships can get evaluated by specialists.” Bill Vlasic, the Detroit bureau chief of the New York Times , wrote in mid-October that the US auto market, growing “fast and furiously,” was up 14 per cent for the year to that point and headed above 14 million in annual sales for the rst time since 2007. He sees that market, after crashing to its lowest sales level in 25 years in 2009, as having regained its status as a safe haven for the world’s automakers as well as their most reliable source of pro ts. Jesse Toprak is similarly impressed. The chief market analyst for the auto research site TrueCar.com told the Times : “The industry was able to heal itself with natural remedies: new products, improved gas mileage, better technology, and providing good value to people who need to replace older models.” Over the course of the recent recession, the average age of vehicles on American roads stretched out to 11 years: the best stimulus the industry could have asked for, in Mr Vlasic’s view. When consumers resumed shopping, they found the products o ered by Detroit and its competitors to be more fuel-e cient than ever and replete with new technology and safety features. “The key was that the industry could now sell new cars without resorting to huge incentives that destroyed pro ts,” said Mr Toprak, the analyst. “They could spend more on improving their products.” (“When a Crisis Comes With a Reset Button,” 11 th October). Automotive After a precipitous drop just three years ago, the US auto market has made a stunning turnaround

† Mr Vlasic noted the “unique vantage point” commanded by Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Detroit’s Chrysler and its parent company, the Italian carmaker Fiat. Successfully so far, Mr Marchionne has utilised Fiat-based technology and platforms to improve Chrysler’s product lineup. According to the philosophical Mr Marchionne, the travails endured by Chrysler prepared the way for its marriage to Fiat. Moreover, he believes that the broader American auto industry is better o for having su ered through the bankruptcies, bailouts, and dismal sales. “Surviving these events makes you into a di erent person because you end up realising you got really close to losing it all,” the Chrysler-Fiat chief said. “[And] if we don’t manage it properly, it could happen again.”

Technology

GM makes its choice of a lightweight material to help its cars go farther on a tank of fuel: magnesium

General Motors in late October announced that it had been testing a new forming technology. Steve Rousseau of Popular Mechanics wrote that magnesium sheet metal – roughly 75 per cent lighter than steel and 33 per cent lighter than aluminium – might seem an obvious choice for a producer gearing up to meet the ambitious fuel economy standards to be imposed in the US over the next decade or so. But, he noted, “Its high cost, complex forming processes, and vulnerability to corrosion have led auto makers to shy away.” According to GM body structure development engineer Paul Krajewski, the company has solved all three problems. In its new high-volume forming process, he told Mr Rousseau, magnesium sheets are quickly heated to 842ºF, then placed in airtight dies that use air pressure to form the sheet into a panel. The method is based on high-temperature plastic vacuum forming. “You don’t form the magnesium with mechanical action – pushing it or drawing it or ironing – like you would typically do with sheet metal,” Mr Krajewski explained. “Rather, you clamp it around the outside so it’s sealed, and you apply gas pressure to form it into shape.” (“GM Touts Weight-Saving Magnesium Sheet Metal,” 24 th October). By taking advantage of its existing manufacturing infrastructure, GM believes it can e ciently produce magnesium parts at high volume, o setting their high cost. The automaker also intends to use a corrosion-resistant coating to enhance the endurance of its magnesium sheet metal. Traditionally, wrote Mr Rousseau, magnesium has been used in performance parts such as steering wheels, engine cradles, and the iconic mag wheels most famously found on the Shelby Cobra. But GM claims that the use of magnesium for structural components could shave up to 150 pounds from the weight of a vehicle, for fuel savings of between nine and 12 per cent. And the technology may be coming to the company’s cars quite soon. Mr Krajewski disclosed that 50 vehicles were set to roll o GM assembly lines by the end of October equipped with magnesium inner panels on doors and trunks. “This is another thing in our toolbox,” said the GM engineer. “We’re also working on aluminium, high-strength steel, and

23

www.read-eurowire.com

January 2013