The NPL sponsored Measurement in Action, IET Innovation Award has been won by the University of Manchester and Pipeline Engineering.

Susan Evans, Director of Programmes, NPL; Dr Xuesong
Wang R&D Engineer for Pipeline Engineering and winner of
the 2010 Measurement in Action Award; and Suzi Perry,
TV presenter

NPL sponsored the Measurement in Action Award as part of its continued support of advances in innovation in engineering and technology, the University of Manchester and Pipeline Engineering won the award with its new Acoustek product for monitoring the integrity of subsea pipelines.

Acoustek is a novel technique for detecting leakage and blockage in subsea, natural gas pipelines. The objective for this project was to develop a non-intrusive technique able to detect blockages in subsea natural gas pipelines with an accuracy of 1-2 metres over distances of up to 10 kilometres. The technique injects an acoustic pulse into the pipeline and the reflections produced as this signal travels along the length of the pipe are then measured.

Jonathan Williams, NPL Chair of the judging panel said of the University of Manchester and Pipeline Engineering's winning entry:

"The panel chose Acoustek as the winner of the Measurement in Action category for their very innovative use of acoustic techniques to replace existing approaches for monitoring gas filled subsea pipelines. The technology has now been commercialised and already deployed on several pipelines where the benefits of the technique have been demonstrated. The work was carried out with academic and industrial collaboration and the method has been patented. This project demonstrates an excellent application of measurement to a real business problem."

View a webcast of the Award presentation and interview with Susan Evans, Director of Programmes, NPL

Also shortlisted for the Measurement in Action award were: EA Technology Limited, for their ultraTEV monitor condition assessment system for electricity distribution plant; European Technology for Business Ltd for a sensor based gait monitoring system for use in a person's natural environment; Huntleigh Healthcare for the Dopplex Ability - an automatic ankle brachial index system and the University of Manchester, School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering for its portable RF scanner based on complex permittivity mapping for breast cancer detection in real-time.

For more information, please contact: Jonathan Williams