Sometimes a light breeze is just enough. At
least, that's the point made by the HVLS Fan Company, Lexington, KY, that recently
introduced a ceiling fan with a blade diameter of 20 feet. The high volume, low velocity
fan can circulate 88,000 cfm of room air while turning at a gentle 50 rpm, reducing the
effective ambient temperature in a workplace by 6° to 8° through the convection-assisted
evaporation of perspiration from lightly-clothed workers. To keep the weight down, the
fan's 10 blades are hollow-core aluminum extrusions, roughly 12 pounds apiece, drawn in an
airfoil shape. They are then attached to a cast-aluminum hub. The airfoils create a
continuous, laminar airflow through a large, cross-sectional area, for an average cost of
about a nickel per hour, according to the company. The unit uses a 3/4 horsepower 240/480
VAC three-phase Sumitomo motor, controlled by a frequency inverter mounted in a NEMA 12
box with appropriate fusing and disconnects. The rotational speed can be varied from 0 to
80 rpm, with 50 rpm most typically recommended for summer operation. Starting torque on
the motor is given as 300 ft-lb. Free Info - Circle 400
A lot
of production lines would benefit from an inspector who could learn fast, inspect fast,
and not be terribly complex or nod off during working hours. Most automated systems
involve separate PCs and software, but the Eyebot, made by SIGHTech Vision Systems, Inc.,
San Jose, CA, was made as a single self-contained box. Within Eyebot is an 8051
housekeeping board that holds the algorithms for image compression and interpretation of
images from the user's standard NTSC or PAL camera, with a gate array handling the serious
number-crunching. The compressed images are then stored for reference in the unit's
memory. Users simply teach Eyebot by showing it samples as they would appear during actual
inspection -- the unit posts a "score" that corresponds to how passable the part
is that it's seeing. The user then adjusts a threshold control to create the desired
acceptance band, and sets the unit to Run. Additional training can be added to the
Eyebot's memory to fine-tune the acceptance/reject rate. Eyebot's protocol allows it to
learn to ignore background clutter, since it learns only to identify the given object and
disregard the non-relative pixel information. The same flexibility allows it to ignore
fluctuations in lighting. While the standard Eyebot can inspect for either color or shape,
a color version can handle simultaneous shape and color spectrum inspection. Another model
is dedicated to inspect hard disk carriers, and all units can inspect more than 3600 parts
per minute.
Sometimes a light breeze is just enough. At
least, that's the point made by the HVLS Fan Company, Lexington, KY, that recently
introduced a ceiling fan with a blade diameter of 20 feet. The high volume, low velocity
fan can circulate 88,000 cfm of room air while turning at a gentle 50 rpm, reducing the
effective ambient temperature in a workplace by 6° to 8° through the convection-assisted
evaporation of perspiration from lightly-clothed workers. To keep the weight down, the
fan's 10 blades are hollow-core aluminum extrusions, roughly 12 pounds apiece, drawn in an
airfoil shape. They are then attached to a cast-aluminum hub. The airfoils create a
continuous, laminar airflow through a large, cross-sectional area, for an average cost of
about a nickel per hour, according to the company. The unit uses a 3/4 horsepower 240/480
VAC three-phase Sumitomo motor, controlled by a frequency inverter mounted in a NEMA 12
box with appropriate fusing and disconnects. The rotational speed can be varied from 0 to
80 rpm, with 50 rpm most typically recommended for summer operation. Starting torque on
the motor is given as 300 ft-lb. Free Info - Circle 400 
A lot
of production lines would benefit from an inspector who could learn fast, inspect fast,
and not be terribly complex or nod off during working hours. Most automated systems
involve separate PCs and software, but the Eyebot, made by SIGHTech Vision Systems, Inc.,
San Jose, CA, was made as a single self-contained box. Within Eyebot is an 8051
housekeeping board that holds the algorithms for image compression and interpretation of
images from the user's standard NTSC or PAL camera, with a gate array handling the serious
number-crunching. The compressed images are then stored for reference in the unit's
memory. Users simply teach Eyebot by showing it samples as they would appear during actual
inspection -- the unit posts a "score" that corresponds to how passable the part
is that it's seeing. The user then adjusts a threshold control to create the desired
acceptance band, and sets the unit to Run. Additional training can be added to the
Eyebot's memory to fine-tune the acceptance/reject rate. Eyebot's protocol allows it to
learn to ignore background clutter, since it learns only to identify the given object and
disregard the non-relative pixel information. The same flexibility allows it to ignore
fluctuations in lighting. While the standard Eyebot can inspect for either color or shape,
a color version can handle simultaneous shape and color spectrum inspection. Another model
is dedicated to inspect hard disk carriers, and all units can inspect more than 3600 parts
per minute.