immo!nvest – Die Plattform für Standorte und Immobilien

Tag: Materialprüfungs- und Forschungsanstalt

  • Empa develops heat-resistant drone for fire brigade

    Empa develops heat-resistant drone for fire brigade

    The FireDrone from Empa and the Aerial Robotics Laboratory of Imperial College in London has passed its baptism of fire: Initial tests with the flying robot, which is intended to support fire brigades in their operations, were positive, according to a media release from Empa. In Empa’s flight arena in Dübendorf, they showed that the flight characteristics and controllability of the special drone, which is around 50 centimetres tall, were “excellent” despite its special equipment. The autonomous aircraft was equipped with a new type of insulation jacket, an additional built-in cooling system and aluminium cladding.

    The design, which the researchers have just published in the scientific journal “Advanced Intelligent Systems”, was convincing in this dry run. However, in order for the drone to provide the emergency services with initial information about the source of the danger, it must also be able to withstand high heat. “The extreme heat generated by a fire is too great for conventional drones to fly closer,” David Häusermann from Empa’s Sustainability Robotics laboratory is quoted as saying.

    The Empa laboratory Building Energy Materials and Components was able to synthesise the insulating material with which this was also possible. It is an ultra-light aerogel made of polyimide and silica. It was also reinforced with glass fibres. The electronics, thermal imaging camera and CO2 sensors of the FireDrone prototype survived several test flights undamaged during tests with a gas fire on the training grounds of the Andelfingen training centre. Now they are also to be tested under heavy soot development.

    “If a drone makes the first reconnaissance of the situation, we don’t have to send the firefighters into the danger zone immediately,” Stefan Keller, training coordinator for the fire brigade of the building insurance of the canton of Zurich, is quoted as saying. “For us, this progress is enormously interesting.”

  • Switzerland needs 87 million tons of material a year

    Switzerland needs 87 million tons of material a year

    Researchers at the Federal Materials Testing and Research Institute ( Empa ) investigated the question: How much does Switzerland consume? The basis was the mass and energy flows for the year 2018. According to the press release , this means that domestic material consumption is 87 million tonnes net per year. That is the mass of material needed to keep the Swiss economy running. This includes, for example, buildings, streets, cars and electricity.

    As an example of outflowing masses, the announcement mentions that 12 million tons end up in the final disposal. The export in the research year 2018 amounted to 18 million tons. A large part of the incoming material remains in the system and allows the "warehouse" to grow by 52 million tons per year (as of 2018). The total weight of the “material warehouse” in Switzerland is around 3.2 billion tons.

    The study is the fourth part of the MatCH project. The abbreviation stands for "Material and energy resources and associated environmental impacts in Switzerland". The project was launched in 2013 on behalf of the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) and extended over several stages. The first part recorded all material and energy flows in the construction sector; the second covered mobility. And part three was devoted to the production and consumption of the other goods that are imported, obtained domestically and exported.

    The work now presented is part four, which brings a synthesis of the findings from the three previous ones. The team also analyzed how the behavior of the population affects greenhouse gas emissions. In addition to per capita consumption data, the researchers also analyzed personal behavior. The message states that if all residents behaved like the fifth of the population with the most exemplary lifestyle, Switzerland's total greenhouse gas emissions could be reduced by 16 percent. If, on the other hand, everyone behaved like the fifth with the least ecological lifestyle, emissions would rise by 17 percent.