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News News by industry Research BAS licenses out its cutting edge technology | BAS licenses out its cutting edge technology |
| Written by Lautaro Vargas | |
| Wednesday, 05 March 2008 | |
 The low powered magnetometer in operation. Photograph by: Mike Rose, British Antarctic Survey Demand from the British Antarctic Survey’s (BAS) international peers who want access to its high-performance magnetometers has prompted the Cambridge institution to license the product to the Newton Hall Group, which has already collaborated on the innovation. Cambridge-based Newton Hall has established eXtreme Instruments (Xi) a dedicated subsidiary to fully commercialise this and other BAS technologies. “It is the first time we have conducted a deal of this type,” said Mike Rose, BAS head of engineering in Physical Sciences.”We do not really know the size of the market, our expertise is the Antarctic and we are very successful in this area. Xi’s commercial know-how will help us manage demand for the equipment, allowing us to get on with what we do best – the science.” The apparent reluctance to exploit world leading technology is very genuine, BAS does not want anything to interfere with its research, however, when other polar researchers came knocking, BAS felt it a somewhat distraction. “Japan, China and Italy polar research organisations approached us and asked to buy the LPM because of how well our system works. We reluctantly sold it, we’re not a business, but are Government funded,” said Rose. “However, as people came and asked to buy, we decided to license so someone else could exploit it rather than us and make it their business.” The magnetometer is one of the most basic measuring devices in upper atmosphere physics, comparable to the thermometer in other areas of science. Although the Antarctic is an ideal place to take readings of the Earth’s magnetic field, running a network of magnetometers in the harshest and remotest place on the planet has been a major challenge. BAS’s LPM is unique because of what it describes as a ‘technical trick’ that means it consumes less power than a single Christmas-tree light. By using solar power during the summer and storing excess power in batteries, it can operate unmanned during the long, dark, Antarctic winter when temperatures may reach -80oC. “The longest we have left an LPM completely unattended is 444 days. When you consider the complexity of the instruments, which include a computer to store data, this is pretty impressive,” said Rose. All BAS LPMs are named after characters from the TV series Blackadder. The highest BAS LPM, Speckled Jim, is almost 11,000 ft above sea level, while Lord Whiteadder is the nearest LPM to the South Pole. The second device covered by the deal with Xi is this extreme conditions power supply. As well as being used to power the LPM, the device also has a wide range of applications, currently powering other remote instruments such as weather stations and cameras. “The clever thing about the extreme power supply which uses solar, a little wind and is rechargeable, is how it handles battery at low temperatures,” said Rose. “It is more widely applicable and could be used in oil and gas environments in the cold.” The deal initially allows Xi to make and sell both these devices with scope for others to follow. While the LPM has a limited market, the underlying power supply’s ability to work in such harsh environmental conditions holds much greater potential. Though Newton Hall’s Ian McNulty would not be drawn on its initial projections for the two BAS products or how much funding is going into its commercialisation, he does expect further work to follow. “Xi has been established to exploit extreme instrumentation products both developed in conjunction with BAS and with others. We expect to increase the number of products licensed in the next few months,” said McNulty. As well as XI, Newton Technology Group is the holding company for four other subsidiaries: SG Controls, Metals Research, Delta Design and Engineering, and Newton Technical Services.
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