If you want to witness how our sad history is repeating itself, please read on.

Article summary
SALi based suspension units are a British invention, but their technical development is being led by China.
Engineers at Nanjing University are publishing papers which suggest that SALi based suspension units are a Chinese innovation. They have refused to sign a research licensing agreement with Cheshire Innovation and have ignored our suggestions for collaborative development.
The CrashSALi Project (2002-3)provides clear documentary proof of the British origins of this invention. Unfortunately, it also shows how we have thrown away a seven year technology lead to an economic competitor.

What Britain is losing: About 45 million road vehicles are manufactured world-wide each year. Suspension manufacturing is a Multi-Million Pound segment of this industry. As we pull out of recession, an opportunity to create world beating manufacturing jobs is being lost.
 

1. The SALi suspension unit concept

The diagram below illustrates the prototype suspension unit specified in the CrashSALi research contract. The British research laboratories of the Malaysian Rubber Producers Research Association (MRPRA) advised on the materials to be used.

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The British prototype suspension unit

This lightweight unit does not require any precision made parts, so manufacturing costs should be low. The design could be used for a wide range of vibration isolation applications in mechanical and civil engineering.
 

2. The Chinese bid to take the lead in SALi suspension development

In July 2009, Bill Courtney, the inventor of SALi Technology, made a disturbing discovery. State funded research into SALi based vibration isolators is making rapid progress in China.
Two papers have been published by engineers at Nanjing University:

1. H. d. Teng, Q. Chen, Study on vibration isolation properties of solid and liquid mixture, Journal of Sound and Vibration, (2009) doi.10.1016/j.jsv.2009.04.036.
2. H. d. Teng, Q. Chen, Performance Characteristics of SALiM Isolator, Proceedings of the World Congress in Engineering, 2009, Vol. II.

Bill promptly wrote to the authors, but they were not interested in a British-Chinese collaboration. They have also refused to sign a licensing agreement to legitimise their work.

Here’s the header from one of the Nanjing University papers. Note that the SALi brand name has been subtly changed from SALi^TM to SALiM.

The authors present detailed research results and then come to an optimistic conclusion.

Reference 2 above, page 4.

This promise of “outstanding performance and a good prospect in engineering practice” should be a wakeup call to a sleepy Britain. A business rival is developing know-how that could take engineering jobs from Britain as we move out of recession.

The Nanjing publications include plagiarised material from Bill's 1998 MPhil research thesis. This material is very difficult to get hold of; there’s only one public copy of Bill’s thesis. It’s hidden away in the Manchester University archives.

Here’s an example of the plagiarism:

This is a reproduction of Figure 1 in Teng and. Chen, reference 1 above.
For comparison, Bill's thesis original is reproduced below.

Courtney, W.A. Preliminary investigations into the mechanical properties and potential applications of a novel shock absorbing liquid, MPhil Thesis, Manchester School of Engineering, University of Manchester (1998)
 

3.         CrashSALi

3.1 Documentary proof that SALi based suspension systems are a British invention
The CrashSALi Project (2002-3) was a 65% British taxpayer funded feasibility study into crash protection and vehicle suspension applications of SALi. Copies of the research contract are held by The Small Business Service and Manchester University. These provide irrefutable proof of the British origins of the SALi suspension design.

3.2      How Britain lost a seven year technology lead

For some puzzling reason that has never been explained, the contractually agreed materials were not used for the University research.

The failure of poor materials should have shown up clearly in the research results as a gradual tailing off in performance over several oscillation cycles. However, the University CrashSALi report only included test results for a single impact, so the evidence of poor research remained hidden.
The research results were meaningless and could not be used to attract commercial interest in Britain.

A recent example of good British work  (Cardiff University)
Figure 17 on our Battery charging car suspension page shows an encouraging set of results using a valid test and appropriate materials. Unfortunately, this belated British work has to be done on a shoestring budget in the form of short undergraduate projects. The research management is excellent but we are continuing to fall behind the competition, because progress is inevitably slow.
 

4  The cover-up

Please contact us for details of the cover-up.

Below: a timeline of the key events.

Wake up, sleepy Britain!
You are losing potential wealth and jobs for British workers.

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Other SALi projects: Sassy Hats,   PedSALi