From now on, non-smokers will be able to have unrestricted communication with their smoking colleagues without being exposed to passive smoking or odour problems. So says the manufacturer of a special smoking station, Smoke Free Systems AB, which already has its first 1 000 units in use in Swedish work places. Up to six people are able to smoke at the same time without their fumes spreading or polluting the indoor environment. All it takes is an electrical socket, two square metres of floor space and normal general ventilation to eliminate tobacco smoke and its odours in the work environment.

Airtable is the name of an air cleaner in the form of a table, that will improve the hotel room environment for both guests and staff. It does this by removing approximately 90% of tobacco smoke and particles from the room through a specially-designed filter. Apart from leading to increased room occupancy, the manufacturer claims that satisfied guests will spread goodwill, whilst room cleaning time is reduced.

Catering packs for airlines are the latest end-use applications of Stora Enso's ovenable boards. The annual value of the airline catering business is some EUR 3800 million of which packaging accounts for a considerable percentage.  Airlines are now interested in the recyclability and printing properties of the packs, which is creating demand for new packaging solutions. The most recent examples of innovative packaging are pizza packs made of Stora Enso's ovenable board, which are used on KLM's and Northwest Airlines' intercontinental flights.

Only 80 cm in diameter and able to capture signals from up to 8 satellites simultaneously due to its unconventional design and function. We're talking about the Cybertenna multi-satellite dish, a new star on the satellite horizon.Preliminary field tests are said to have shown very good results, and series production will begin shortly. TeleWide, the company behind Cybertenna, will be represented at the Cable & Satellite Mediacast trade fair to be held in London at the end of May.

Newly launched is an aluminium dual grade laser, the Ama Laser DL, which is said to be the only levelling instrument on the market with separate displays for x and y grades, which will reduce the risk of errors and ease measurement.The integrated handle and low weight make this measuring instrument - which is also claimed to be both shock proof and watertight - easy to carry around. Built-in rechargeable batteries will reduce operational problems.

Stora Enso, UPM-Kymmene and Tampere University of Technology (TUT) have commenced research and development co-operation on barrier-coated paper and board products. The largest European groups in the forest industry and TUT expect to make rapid development in four main fields of research: High barrier coating, packaging materials for frozen food, biodegradable plastic coating and intelligent packs. The aim is to develop barrier coated and laminated paper and board based products, and to promote the recycling of materials.

Acotec Ltd, the Finnish construction equipment manufacturer, believes it knows how to help its customers build new markets in the construction business. One of its customers, Rakennusbetoni ja Elementti Oy, has built up a 50 per cent share of the Finnish wet wall market over a period of only ten years. 

Just launched is a new patented servo motor, the Coupmotor, with an integral coupling that connects directly to the motor drive shaft.This motor solution is six times smaller than conventional designs. It will provide increased flexibility for designers and reduce costs for machinery manufacturers.The usual servo motor requires a separate coupling and a coupling housing, but this new model saves space by eliminating the coupling housing.

A long-term co-operative agreement has been concluded between Linq of Sweden, Europe's leading corporate portal specialist and Unisys, the global specialist in E-trade solutions. The details were revealed in connection with the GSM World Congress in Cannes. For Unisys, the agreement will enable the introduction of more than 100 mobile applications for corporate portals, based on the Swedish product. These would be launched within the next 18 months on to over 100 markets across the world. Such portal applications would be offered as "hosted" services. The LinqPortal product has also been chosen to in order to raise Unisys' own productivity in respect of its sales force, part of the group's total of 37 000 staff working in over 100 countries. Finally, this permits global distribution to the operators' market of the LinqPortal and LinqMobilizer products. Since their introduction just over a year ago, a hundred or so licences and installations have already been sold for these services. They have been shown to offer increased efficiency among mobile users, who can then obtain access to their parent company's intranet, central databases and programs via both fixed and mobile units.

The Coffee-to-go business is now arriving on the European continent, being successful in the US and the UK. Traditional café culture is adapting to busy everyday urban life causing an increase in demand for hot drink cups. One of the largest manufacturers in this field, Huhtamaki (brands: Polarcup, Chinet, Bibo), predicts that paper cups will account for one third of the total market by 2004. This is good news for Stora Enso which is currently the leading producer of cup stock in Europe.