'The hypocrisy of large companies amazes me': your letters to Professional Engineering

Sexism is alive and well

"I started to read the article “Played out” with great interest (Professional Engineering No 4, 2019). As a female engineer who has faced serious challenges since graduating five years ago and who is now no longer working in an engineering role, these articles show me that I am not alone and that much more needs to be done before the industry will accept women automatically as members of their teams. 

I also found that this was a more realistic article than many you publish because the women came from a degree background and were working in industry, rather than becoming engineers through apprenticeships or working solely in academia.

However, I am incensed that phrases such as “good-looking”, “softly spoken”, “self-described tomboy” and “now the mother of a little boy” can be used in such an article, which should have been showing the real problems that are faced by women in this industry. Women are equal to men: our looks, personalities, mannerisms and family situations should be no more cause for comment than a man’s. Would this magazine, which purports to strive for equality, have referred to a man in this way?

I graduated from a top university with a first-class master’s degree and went on to the graduate scheme of a multinational engineering company and into what would have been my dream job. Within 18 months that job no longer existed, and I was rescued by another team in another division who saw my potential. 

For the last four years I have been working in marketing, now with responsibilities across Europe. The exposure to different countries and customers and the travel which I now do does excite me but it is not what I spent four years at university hoping to do. 

Too much is allowed to depend on the attitude of individual managers: some accept women without question but a lot are prejudiced. I was forced out by a male manager who did not know how to deal with women while my male equivalent was allowed to stay in the team. 

The hypocrisy of large companies attracting young people – of both sexes, but particularly girls – into their industry and then not giving them parity of opportunity amazes me. 

Large companies encourage women to become STEM ambassadors to engage the next generation. Perhaps by the time that generation is ready to enter the industry there will be an industry-wide acceptance of female engineers. I hope things change soon."

Name and address supplied

Traffic jams in the sky

"Here are four questions regarding the article “Vertically challenged” (Professional Engineering No 4, 2019). 

1) How long until we fill the sky with traffic? (We never thought we would fill the canals, roads or railways: but we were wrong.) 

2) How much range should be kept in reserve for hovering while queuing to land at popular spots like Glastonbury? 

3) Where will the flying taxis park when not in use? (Cities now like the idea of being car-park free.) 

4) How will we prevent bird strikes in ducted fans? Maybe we should ban birds from towns... 

I fear we are creating a society where rich people fly and the poor are grounded, as in the film Elysium."

Ken Strachan, Nuneaton, Warwickshire

Don’t buy your electric car’s battery, lease it

"Readers will have been encouraged by the announcement by Jaguar Land Rover and BMW that they are to join forces to develop electric motor technologies. The rapid advance in electric car performance was also demonstrated in the article “On the charge” (Professional Engineering No 4, 2019).

The article underlined lack of range as one of the main challenges facing electric car and battery designers. The issue has put off many potential customers. There is also concern that an electric car purchased today will rapidly become obsolete as battery technology advances.

A solution to this problem is to employ separate ownership models for the car and the batteries. Whilst the car would be purchased outright, the battery could be leased from the manufacturer. 

The purchase price of a new car could include say 500 recharges after which the battery would be recycled by the manufacturer and exchanged for one with potentially greater range as technology advances. Ownership of the battery would remain with the manufacturer. Some degree of standardisation of battery size and connection would be required for this model to work.

A comparable ownership model has worked successfully for years in the liquefied-gas-bottle industry, where ownership of propane bottles is retained by the gas supplier, who also monitors the condition of the bottles." 

Theo Roberts, Langport

Put recycling first

"I read with great interest the article concerning recycling of coloured PET bottles, “Auf wiedersehen, PET” (Professional Engineering No 4, 2019). When I worked for Coca-Cola Southern Bottles as chief engineer, I was responsible for converting the first bottling line in the world to handle PET bottles and certain aspects of the bottle design so that it could be filled, capped and packaged at high speed. 

At this time (1979-80) all the materials were recyclable. The PET bottle was clear with a paper label and easily recycled as were the caps and the secondary packaging which was cardboard. The only item not recyclable was the paper label which would end up as pulp when the bottle was processed during recycling and was easily disposed of eco-friendly.

How and when did colour get introduced into the PET bottle? Was it a marketing requirement? Together with the use of shrink cluster wrapping for secondary packaging, all of which are difficult to recycle, that has been highlighted by numerous TV documentaries and articles regarding plastic waste which is having a disastrous effect on the planet.

Perhaps the IMechE could instigate a proposal to be taken to the UN to get back to the original concept where all materials used in the packaging process are easily recyclable." 

Anthony George Best, Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire