The solution to the problem of quickly creating personal contacts on an international basis is here. That's the bold claim of the company behind the new Global Direct service, a global network for local service. It offers the internationally active person free information and a personal guide to everything from work to leisure. All over the world Global Direct trains franchisees, who let web users benefit from their local knowledge. Here, the keyword is personal service.

An uncoated SBS board called Ensocard, designed to meet environmental challenges and offer uniform printing quality is being introduced by Enso Paperboards. It is the latest addition to the company's graphic and packaging board family that also includes Ensocoat, Ensogloss and CTMP-based Enso Performa.

ABB's ACS 600 SingleDrive range of variable speed AC drives has been extended from 630kW to 3MW. The power range starts at 2.2kW. This is the market's widest range of AC drives based on Direct Torque Control (DTC) technology, according to ABB.

The Finnish company Hadwaco Ltd has delivered its first evaporator for purifying rinse water to a plant for the treatment of aluminium profile surfaces. The purification process is based on a closed-loop system whereby purified rinse water is re-utilised, and chrome is efficiently separated and brought to a deposit. The capacity of the plant, at Mäkelä Alu Ltd in central Finland, is 50 m3 of rinse water per day.

The Stora Group has just decided to install a new recovery boiler in their Stora Gruvön paper and pulp mill. This new boiler, at an estimated cost of £46-58 million, will considerably improve the company's environmental standing in respect of pulp production, while also permitting production capacity to be increased as required.

Nymölla, in southern Sweden, is the latest and last of the paper mills managed by Stora Fine Paper to receive its EMAS registration. Now all of the Stora Fine Paper mills are environmentally certified in accordance with ISO 14001 and have EMAS registration. All the company's products had already qualified for the Swedish Swan environmental approval label. Stora Nymölla is an integrated pulp and paper mill, and is the company's largest of its type.

New technology now lets you carry the Internet around in your pocket. A new system of mobile webcasting has already generated high interest among telecomms operators, including the Swedish company Telia, which has developed new mobile services based on this technology.

"The amount of packaging used all over the world cannot be reduced by bringing in generalised regulations. Politicians, bureaucrats and environmental organisations within the EU would like to believe it can be done this way, but they are completely wrong. Rules like this may instead lead to increased environmental loading." This is the blunt warning from Anders Sörås, Managing Director of the Packforsk research institute, at the recent Stora Gruvön "Sugar and Flour Days".

As mechanical functions become increasingly automated and compact, the need for actuators to meet these requirements is growing. The EF1 and EF2 pneumatic cylinders from Bimba Manufacturing Company target this need in metric machine applications. Both models have bore sizes of 12mm to 100mm, with stroke lengths of 5mm to 100mm. Each is based on an identical precision extrusion that features integral mounting grooves for flush installation of miniature sensing switches.

A new generation of portable IR thermometers from Raytek Corporation makes critical temperature measurements more reliable by defining the target area with a sixteen point laser sighting circle. Precise aiming, combined with enhanced electronic data storage and emissivity reference tables, improve the speed and accuracy of temperature measurements in a broad spectrum of process and maintenance applications throughout industry and institutions.