World's Largest

Lasers, is there anything they can’t do? If they’re not shooting down UAVs, they’re fighting AIDS or bringing us the next generation of HDTVs. That’s all well and good, but when it comes to lasers there’s none bigger than the National Ignition Facility (NIF) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in California - an instrument capable of delivering 500 trillion watts of power in a 20-nanosecond burst which is now nearing completion. Its myriad uses will include providing fusion data for nuclear weapons simulations, probing the secrets of extrasolar planets and could even lead to the holy grail of energy production - practical fusion energy. Read More

Solar panel manufacture is a costly process making it difficult for solar electricity to compete with power generated from fossil fuels. One way of driving these costs down is through the production of larger panels, enabling installation costs to be reduced. To this end, Solar Panel Manufacturer T-Solar Global S.A. has just announced that it has begun volume production of the world’s largest solar photovoltaic (PV) modules. The solar panels are sized at 5.7m2 or 2.3m X 2.6m - that's the equivalent to the combined area of over six 42 inch plasma TV’s and T-Solar says that they are ideally suited for solar farm applications where installation costs can be reduced by about 20% over smaller scale panels. Read More

January 13, 2009 Micro’s new US$15,000 touch screen Messenger 65P is designed as a retail-ready interactive consumer kiosk which can be used for self-service applications, digital signage, store maps, advertising, messaging, product information, and demonstrations. It can be hung from a ceiling or wall or even positioned on the countertop, but it's the dimensions of the bohemoth which couples Sharp’s largest commercial LCD with an Intel Core 2 Duo processor which make it stand out almost anywhere - 64.6" high by 37.6" wide by 7.4" deep. The Messenger 65P is on display at the Intel exhibit at the National Retail Federation’s BIG Show 2009 which opened this week. Read More

Dubai is set to be home to the world’s largest LED screen - a curved, 300ft+ tall monster that will be visible from a distance of just under 1 mile. The screen will make up the facade of the “Podium” skyscraper which will offer commercial and retail space across 35 floors of around 10,000 square feet each with over 50,000 square feet of parking space. Read More

A digital photo frame is usually considered a nice addition to your living room side table, but for this behemoth you might well need to clear some wall space. Smartparts' recently announced SP3200WF is a 32 inch, WiFi enabled digital picture frame offering 1366x768 resolution and the ability to display RSS Feeds, PowerPoint slides or PDF files in addition to your favorite snaps and video with sound supplied via built-in speakers. Read More

FANUC Robotics has introduced the heavy-duty M-2000iA line of robots, designed for handling truck, tractor and car parts. The model which was demonstrated during the IMTS 2008, sets new records for size, reach and wrist strength, claiming the title of world’s largest and strongest six-axis robot. Read More

One of the greatest hurdles for major construction in remote areas is moving heavy building materials to the worksite. Road-building is an environmental issue, as well as often being cost-prohibitive and impossible in many terrains. Some areas are unreachable by cargo ship, large cargo planes require good weather and long runways, and helicopters simply can't carry heavy enough loads - which is why Skyhook's Jess Heavy Lifter is so significant. It combines the neutral buoyancy and stability of an airship with the lifting power of four big rotors. Capable of lifting 40 tons (80,000lbs) vertically and transporting the load more than 200 miles without refuelling, the JHL-40 offers twice the load capacity of the world's current largest cargo helicopter. Read More

The 35-meter two master PANGAEA is the largest and most flexible polar expedition sailboat ever built. It can navigate through tropics and rivers as easily as it can through polar regions, and will travel to five continents, including the North and South Pole. Read More

As global temperatures slowly increase, a number of nations, including the USA, are finding themselves battling widespread droughts and huge, devastating wildfires that threaten properties, lives, infrastructure and ecosystems alike. Whatever the causes, new tools are clearly required to help subdue the massive bushfires that have destroyed an area the size of Oregon over the last 18 years. Aerial fire suppressant drops are sometimes the only way to effectively fight huge firefronts, and Evergreen's new Boeing 747-based Supertanker promises to be the daddy of them all, carrying seven times more drop capacity than most dedicated firefighting aircraft. Evergreen expect the Supertanker to be a quicker, cheaper, safer and more effective aerial firefighting tool than anything else on the market - and its 747 base platform gives it the ability to operate throughout the USA and around the world wherever it's needed. Read More