"Peter Ratcliffe" Distinguished Conduct Medal/DCM is an author and former member of the Special Air Service (SAS).

Peter Ratcliffe came originally from Salford, Greater Manchester/Salford, Greater Manchester. As a boy, he joined the 1st Battalion, The Parachute Regiment (1 PARA) before and eventually going on to pass the SAS selection course. Upon joining the regiment, he was posted to 18 (Mobility) Troop D Squadron.

During his time in the SAS he was to deploy into a number of theatre and operations including the Dhofar Rebellion in Oman, the Falklands War and Operation Granby in the Gulf. During the 1991 Gulf War, Ratcliffe was the Regimental Sergeant Major and deployed in Iraq to relieve the Officer Commanding A Squadron (one of the few times where an enlisted man has formally relieved a commissioned officer). He subsequently led the squadron on a raid on a communication site known as "Victor Two" for which he was awarded the DCM.

Apart from writing books himself Ratcliffe has appeared in books by Andy McNab, Chris Ryan, Peter 'Yorkie' Crossland and Cameron Spence.

More Peter Ratcliffe on Wikipedia.

We made it clear when Carnival made its initial proposal that our response was based on two simple criteria -- value for our shareholders and deliverability.

Twenty years ago, pneumatic cylinders controlled virtually every axis of a case packer. New case packers today are often all servo-controlled. We are taking old case packers and adding two-axis pushers and servo-controlled elevators to provide significantly more speed.

So much of our business is driven by speed. Because of globalization, we have observed an intense pressure to reduce downtime and thus, increase overall productivity.

Carnival has nothing at stake here and therefore has no downside, ... We, on the other hand, have a valuable transaction that could be put at risk.

The revised proposal still falls short on value and adds nothing on deliverability.

Any wear that does eventually occur in the screw or nut is compensated by the nut which adjusts automatically to maintain a zero backlash over a very long service life.

We couldn't fit the ball screw and nut into our existing design with a fast enough pitch to suit the higher speeds. It would hit its limits and not allow us to reach the high linear speeds we needed. We could have found a ball screw with a fast lead, but it would not have fit into the current assembly, forcing us to redesign the entire slide system for a bigger, heavier screw.