“What the water rig is at its core is a mobile water treatment technology, and it dramatically changed the lives of the people living on that site.”

Having clean, drinkable water is essential for everyone, no matter where they are. For some on-site workers on remote oil and gas drilling sites, this means transporting in large amounts of bottled water. The result is a large amount of plastic waste from the bottles and air pollution from the extra traffic.

WaterFleet provides an alternative solution. Their water treatment technology means that a mobile rig can be hooked up to an existing well or water storage source on site and provide people with clean potable water on tap. As the rig processes the water, it automatically and continually monitors the quality to ensure it’s safe. WateFleet also uses this technology to provide temporary water solutions to areas that have been affected by natural disasters.

Our producer Eva Ruth went to the WaterFleet headquarters in San Antonio, Texas to meet the Director of Business Intelligence, David Meyers. He explains WaterFleet’s mission statement and takes us inside one of the water rigs.

Find out more about the WaterFleet here.

Find out more about ServiceMax here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Eva Ruth. Music by Rowan Bishop.

“We try to test new things… our solar cells that we used 5 years ago are now the solar cells on your roof.”

In 2004, a group of Belgian engineering students built a solar car to compete in the World Solar Challenge, a 3021km endurance race through the Australian Outback. Twenty years later, the Innoptus Solar team is still going strong, with new students coming together to build new solar racing cars. They are sponsored by PTC Partner Innoptus (part of the 4ITEGO Group) and take part in races all over the world.

For the team, success is all about collaboration and innovation, constantly refining the design of their car to make it faster and more efficient. They are currently double World Champions with their tenth solar car, the Infinite. Clever features like the fin at the back of the car improve aerodynamics and give them an extra bit of help from the wind, and a motor which has been optimised to 98% efficiency helps them to go faster. It is also a fantastic development opportunity for the students involved, with them being able to gain the equivalent of 5 years of development experience in 1 year, as well as have the opportunity to work on a World Champion racing car.

Our producer Wederik De Backer went to the Innoptus Solar Team HQ in Leuven to meet two students who are part of the current team, Head of Engineering Jonas Vlamijnck and Mechanical Engineer Jasper Gutschoven. As well as explaining how they became involved and the level of dedication needed to win races, they give us a tour of their workspace and latest car.

Find out more about the Innoptus Solar Team here.

Find out more about Creo+ here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Wederik De Backer. Music by Rowan Bishop.

“The technology challenges we are facing as an industry are not so much how do we grow the size of turbines, but how do we increase their efficiency at their current size.”

Wind power is playing a huge role in the global renewable energy landscape. In the United States, electricity generation from wind power is on course to potentially surpass coal-fired electricity generation by 2026. Across Europe, this is already the case, with electricity generation from wind exceeding coal for the first time in the region in Q4 2023. Vestas Wind Systems, based in Denmark, are world leaders in wind turbines, they’ve installed more than any other company in the world. They have more than 40 years of experience in wind energy and were the first company to reach the 100 GW landmarks for both the installation and service of wind turbines.

With higher than ever demand for wind energy, wind turbines are getting larger. However, that creates its own challenges, not least ensuring the whole supply chain stays sustainable. In this episode, we find out how Vestas is taking on that challenge through initiatives such as ensuring crucial components like blades are recyclable, or that wind turbine towers can be made using low-emission steel.

Our producer Peter Nørgaard Mathiasen went to the Vestas headquarters in Aarhus, Denmark, to meet Pedro Pastilha, the Head of Onshore Product Management. He tells us more about the wind industry and the future of wind production.

Find out more about Vestas here.

Find out more about Windchill here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and X for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Peter Nørgaard Mathiasen. Music by Rowan Bishop.

“The rescue services need to know that the vehicle is safe to approach… with this app, we have a 3D view of each truck and this augmented reality view.”

With many governments making commitments toward zero-emission targets, more and more of the trucks on our roads are becoming electric. Whilst good news for the environment, it can present challenges for emergency responders, who may not be familiar with how these types of trucks are built. In the event of an accident, emergency services need to be able to access vehicles safely, and potentially, rescue people trapped inside. This means knowing things like where the battery is, where high-voltage cables are or which parts of the truck can be safely cut through.

Volvo Group is the market leader in the manufacture of electric trucks in Europe, and as has been the case for decades, they’re improving safety through clever innovation. They’ve developed an app for use at the scene of an emergency which guides those on the scene around the important components of the truck using 3D images as well as augmented reality. This means that first responders simply need to type the licence plate of the truck into the app and look at it through their device, and they can see information about the important components and potential hazards overlaid on the image.

Our producer Lasse Edfast travelled to Volvo Group’s HQ in Gothenburg, Sweden to meet Anna Wrige Berling, Traffic & Product Safety Director, and Vincent Barnoux, AR Expert & Business Solution Engineer at Volvo. They demonstrate the app for us on one of their trucks and talk about the benefits of using this kind of technology to safely guide users around electric vehicles. 

Find out more about Volvo here.

Find out more about Vuforia here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Lasse Edfast. Music by Rowan Bishop.

A special New Year listen back. Here on The Third Angle, we’ve highlighted stories from all over the globe about how companies have used PTC technology to design a greener future. From the architects using clever design to create low-energy use homes to the engineers revolutionising electric transport in Africa, we’ve heard from some inspiring people.

In this episode, we’re taking a listen back to some of those stories.

If this has left you wanting to know more, you can listen back to all of our episodes on the PTC website or wherever you get your podcasts.

Previous episodes of The Third Angle are available here.

Listen to the full Warehome episode here, and find out more about the company here.

Listen to the full Volvo episode here, and find out more about the company here. 

Listen to the full EVBox episode here, and find out more about the company here.

Listen to the full Roam episode here, and find out more about the company here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

Third Angle is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. And music by Rowan Bishop.

DESCRIPTION

“Spatialisation or 3D rendering of sound means that you get the feeling that you are pulling your speakers out of your ears… hearing the sound or music coming from around you instead. It is actually proven through various studies that that is a more natural way of listening. ”

Jabra’s owner company GN is an audio and video communications technology company which was founded over 100 years ago to undertake the epic task of placing the first telephone line between China and Scandinavia. Since then they have continued to innovate in the area of communications and today they design and manufacture communications devices such as wireless earbuds, headsets, intelligent hearing aids and video conferencing solutions.

Their wireless earbuds are full of cutting edge technology such as advanced noise cancellation, wind cancellation and of course essential for the runners, sweat resistance. They even manufacture some of the toughest, most durable headphones on the market.

One of the latest advances though is spatial, or 3D audio, meaning sound it’s just left or right, it can be a 360 experience for the user.

Our producer Lærke Sivkjær went to visit Vice President of Consumer Devices, Morten Urup, at the Jabra offices in Copenhagen. Morton showed her the sound lab where testing for many of the products takes place, including two anechoic chambers which cancel out outside sound completely for a completely controlled audio environment. He also talks about the future of audio innovation and how AI may play a part in driving it forward.

Find out more about Jabra here.

Find out more about Creo here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Ollie Guillou. Location recording by Lærke Sivkjær. Music by Rowan Bishop.

“Identify and eliminate waste and pollution at source,  circulate products and materials at their highest value for as long as possible and regenerate natural systems. So, put back at least as much or more than you take out from the natural ecosystems on which we depend. And do all that by design.”

This podcast is no stranger to innovation that drives positive change. We’ve met people who are making electric transport easily accessible in Africa and those using VR  to enable medics to reach patients in disaster zones. But what if we could redesign the whole economy to make it waste-free and sustainable for the future?

The Ellen MacArthur Foundation was founded in 2010 by the sailor Ellen MacArthur, with the aim of driving forward a circular economy. Traditionally, we think of the economy as linear: we start with extracting raw materials, which we then make products, use those products for their lifespan, and then they are disposed of as waste. The circular economy takes a different approach, with all of the materials extracted and used designed to be recycled, re-used or fed back into the economy at different stages. This involves a different way of thinking at design stage

In this special episode of The Third Angle, Paul sits down in the studio to speak to Joe Illes, Circular Design Programme Lead at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation. He tells us about the work he is doing to promote the circular economy, and talks about the main things designers should keep in mind when designing something truly sustainable.

Explore the rest of the episodes in the series, where we go on location to meet some of the companies helping to shape a better world.

Find out more about the Ellen MacArthur Foundation here.

Listen to our previous episodes here.

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

This is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Ollie Guillou. Location recording by Gareth Evans and Cal Clarke. Music by Rowan Bishop.

“Manufacturing is critical to our national security, our health and our ability to explore new worlds and advance the human condition... VulcanForms exists to move manufacturing forward and be a small piece, hopefully a very important piece, of that future.” 

VulcanForms is an MIT-born company that builds and operates advanced digital manufacturing infrastructure, founded in 2015. It’s named after Vulcan, the roman god of fire and metalworking. Why? Because the company has developed an innovative new way of manufacturing intricate metal parts on an industrial scale. They use metal additive manufacturing, a form of 3D printing to print engineered metal components that require precise designs and complex structures. This means they can have a production line that can at one time be making components for medical devices, then switch to making consumer electronics, and another week be making products for aviation, space exploration or the defence industry.

What’s more this production line is quieter, cleaner and greener than ever more! Manufacturing  components this way instead of the traditional method of forging them cuts down on costs and removes the need for a supply chain.

In this episode, Co-Founder John Hart takes us around VulcanOne, VulcanForm’s Foundry in Massachusetts, to find out more. We also hear from Brian Thompson at PTC, who tells us about how the 3D CAD software Creo helps the team at VulcanForms collaborate on their designs to perfect this alternative manufacturing process.

VulcanForms is supported by PTC Partner PDS Vision, find out more about here

Find out more about Creo here

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

Third Angle is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Clarissa Maycock. Location recording by Curt Nickisch. And music by Rowan Bishop.

“Ultimately, we will be looking to save lives, I think, within one to two years that that would be a reality.”

If you are injured in a disaster zone, it is critical that you receive medical care as urgently as possible. But what if the environment is not safe for medics to enter? Either because it is a war zone or because there are hazardous materials around? That’s where AMRC’s VR technology can help.

The Advanced Medical Robotics Centre at the University of Sheffield, UK has created pioneering robotics technology to get medics into difficult-to-access areas to triage patients. Using medical telexistence (MediTel) technology, medics can operate a remote controlled robot to reach the patients, and wear a virtual reality headset which places them in that environment. The robots are equipped with medical devices which allow the medics to carry out checks including taking the patient's pulse, administering pain relief and palpitating their abdomen. Meanwhile the headset is so realistic that it feels like the user is there on the ground, with the view from the robot moving in real time as they move their heads. AMRC is hoping to use this technology in the next 1-2 years to save lives in dangerous environments.

In this episode we head to Sheffield to visit AMRC’s Digital Design Lab to meet David King, who demonstrates how realistic their MediTel VR technology is.

Find out more about AMRC here

Your host is Paul Haimes from industrial software company PTC.

Episodes are released bi-weekly. Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter for updates.

Third Angle is an 18Sixty production for PTC. Executive producer is Jacqui Cook. Sound design and editing by Ollie Guillou. Location recording by Helen Lennard. And music by Rowan Bishop.