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March 03, 2015Volume 11 Issue 09


Image - Custom Wave Springs
Custom Wave Springs
Smalley can manufacture custom Wave Springs quickly and economically to meet your specific application requirements. Because force and deflection requirements are application-specific, custom springs are often needed. With Smalley's No-Tooling-Cost manufacturing process, customs can be produced from .200" to 120" diameters in carbon steel, stainless steel, or other readily available exotic alloys. Prototypes can be available in as little as two weeks for testing.

Click here to learn more.


In this issue of Designfax

  • Recovering obliterated serial numbers in metals
  • Mini pump motor selection
  • Powerful muscles from fishing line
  • Wheels: Mr. K, Nissan's 'Father of the Z-car,' dies
  • Mike Likes: Easy vibration measurements
  • Engineer's Toolbox: Iron's thermodynamics
  • Product: First instant hybrid cyanoacrylate adhesive
  • Guides: Go-to reference for automotive Ethernet
  • Cool Tools: Wireless 3D SpaceMouse
  • Product: Optimize power transmission performance
  • Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
    • Navy update on firefighting robot prototype
    • What is a multi-start flexure?
  • Most Popular Last Issue
    • WWII 30-ton overhead crane
    • Cutting-edge machining: Laser beam in a water jet
    • Wheels: Nissan glow-in-the-dark car paint
  • New Products
    • Electrical, Mechanical, Motion
    Cover Image: Nissan's legendary Mr. K, 'Father of Z-car,' dies

News

Radio chip could greatly extend battery life for the 'Internet of things'

Moog car seat test system allows greater flexibility in automotive test labs

Don't cut me off: Honda introduces world's first predictive adaptive cruise control system

Ultrasonic device made by Brazilian team tries to make acoustic levitation simple



Image - MICROMO Launches New FAULHABER 3274-BP4 Brushless Motor
MICROMO Launches New FAULHABER 3274-BP4 Brushless Motor
The new 3274 BP4 motor series is overload‐resistant and operates without wear‐prone mechanical commutation. As a result, its operational lifetime is many times longer than that of a conventional DC micro motor, making this motor a perfect fit for applications in advanced robotics, electric grippers, process automation and high‐performance traction drives used in inspection robotics.

To learn more and purchase online, visit the MICROMO product selector and store.


Feature articles
New method can recover obliterated serial numbers in metals
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a technique for mapping deformation in metals that can recover destroyed serial numbers on metal objects such as firearms, a common challenge in forensics.
Read the full article.
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Learn about Proto Labs' suite of seven additive, machining, and molding services.


Image - Choosing the right motor technology for your miniature pump
Choosing the right motor technology for your miniature pump
While there are parameters of design that can be changed within a mini pump, the critical item in pump performance is the motor selected, since it generates the flow, pressure, or vacuum. Learn about proper motor selection, which leads to optimum pump performance and a more efficient end product.
Read the full article.

Image - Researchers create powerful muscles from fishing line, thread
Researchers create powerful muscles from fishing line, thread
An international team led by the University of Texas at Dallas has discovered that ordinary fishing line and sewing thread can be cheaply converted into powerful artificial muscles. The new muscles can lift 100 times more weight and generate 100 times higher mechanical power than a human muscle of the same length and weight.
Read the full article.

Image - Wheels: <br>Mr. K, Nissan's 'Father of the Z-car,' dies at 105
Wheels:
Mr. K, Nissan's 'Father of the Z-car,' dies at 105

Yutaka Katayama ran Nissan's U.S. operations in the 1970s and is widely known as the father of the Datsun Z, the world-class affordable sports car. He retired from Nissan in 1977. In September last year, Katayama granted a rare three-part interview in which he reflected on his long and storied career in the car business and his philosophy about what makes a sports car great.
Read the full article.

Image - Mike Likes: <br>See how easy vibration measurements can be
Mike Likes:
See how easy vibration measurements can be

Introduced at Sensors Expo last year, the Digiducer Piezoelectric USB Digital Accelerometer is rapidly gaining acceptance in both industrial and test markets. There are already more than a dozen commercially available software packages that communicate directly with the Digiducer Model 333D01. The device is finding utility in applications from balancing to electric motor monitoring to vehicle vibration. Value-added reseller GTI Predictive Technology has incorporated the product with its app, VibeRMS, and an Apple iPad mini for an entry-level vibration monitoring system. The ability to bring high-dynamic-range vibration signals to smartphones and tablets is simplifying and broadening both predictive maintenance and process improvement uses of sound and vibration.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Engineer's Toolbox: <br>Understanding iron's thermodynamic properties
Engineer's Toolbox:
Understanding iron's thermodynamic properties

As you heat up a piece of iron, the arrangement of the iron atoms changes several times before the material starts melting. This unusual behavior is one reason why steel, in which iron plays a starring role, is so sturdy and ubiquitous in everything from teapots to skyscrapers. But the details of just how and why iron takes on so many different forms have remained a mystery.
Read the full article.

Image - Product: First instant hybrid cyanoacrylate adhesive
Product: First instant hybrid cyanoacrylate adhesive
Henkel has introduced Loctite 4090, a versatile, patented hybrid adhesive that combines the bond strength of a structural epoxy with the speed of an instant adhesive. This powerful combo delivers the first structural cyanoacrylate: an adhesive that offers rapid, high-strength bonding to a range of substrates along with impact and moisture resistance, and temperature resistance to 300 F. Versatile enough to solve both indoor and outdoor design and assembly challenges, the new tech greatly expands the capabilities of cyanoacrylates, especially in applications where traditional instant adhesives offer too little strength or are too brittle.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Guides: Go-to reference for automotive Ethernet
Guides: Go-to reference for automotive Ethernet
As the quantity and variety of electronic devices in cars continue to grow, Ethernet promises to improve performance and enable increasingly powerful and useful applications in vehicles. "Automotive Ethernet - The Definitive Guide" describes the fundamentals of networking and explains the Data Link and Physical Layer technologies used by industry-standard Ethernet variants, as well as the new BroadR-Reach technology from Broadcom designed specifically for vehicle use. Offered by Intrepid Control Systems.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Cool Tools: Wireless 3D SpaceMouse
Cool Tools: Wireless 3D SpaceMouse
SpaceMouse Pro Wireless' patented 6-degrees-of-freedom (6DoF) controller cap creates a natural connection between you and your 3D content, while the advanced 2.4-GHz wireless tech puts an end to unsightly cables on your desktop. With 3Dconnexion's SpaceMouse Pro Wireless, users can smoothly pan, zoom, and rotate models and camera views while 15 conveniently positioned buttons provide access to application commands, standard views, and more. Battery life is two months. 3DxWare 10 allows you to customize and optimize your SpaceMouse Pro Wireless for peak performance and tailor settings and buttons to your application and needs.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Product: Optimize your power transmission performance
Product: Optimize your power transmission performance
SKF offers an extensive range of standard and customized couplings engineered for high performance and reliability in power transmission applications. A wide variety of coupling types combined with a wide range of sizes and bores equips users with ideal solutions to mechanically connect two rotating shafts and transmit power from one shaft to the other. They can also compensate for shaft misalignment that otherwise could adversely affect velocity and acceleration of the driven shaft.
Click here to learn more.

Most popular last issue

Image - 30-ton overhead crane is testament to U.S. manufacturing, WWII sabotage-plot intrigue
30-ton overhead crane is testament to U.S. manufacturing, WWII sabotage-plot intrigue
An 85-year-old overhead crane provided the ultimate testimonial to the quality of American manufacturing recently when it was discovered still in good working condition 10 floors below Grand Central Terminal in the middle of New York City. The 30-ton Whiting double-girder crane was spotted when it was featured in an historic film about how spies sent by Hitler tried to cripple the U.S. rail transport system during WWII.
Read the full article.

Image - Cutting-edge machining: Shooting laser beams inside a water jet
Cutting-edge machining: Shooting laser beams inside a water jet
Lasers do a good job of making precise, tiny holes in things like airplane turbine blades, but the metal can sputter and form molten microscopic gobbets that can spread through the air and stick to the finely machined metal surface. The Laser MicroJet, a new tool invented by engineers at GE Power & Water and Synova, a Swiss provider of innovative laser-cutting systems, is making big strides at bettering the process.
Read the full article.

Image - Wheels: <br>Nissan parades around in glow-in-the-dark car paint
Wheels:
Nissan parades around in glow-in-the-dark car paint

Nissan in Europe has become the first manufacturer to apply organic glow-in-the-dark car paint to a standard-line vehicle. The lasting glow provides an eye-catching display, possible safety features, and an extra marketing boost for its all-electric LEAF.
Read the full article.

Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
Navy provides update on firefighting robot prototype
Researchers unveiled a 5-ft, 10-in. firefighting robot prototype Feb. 4 at the Naval Future Force Science & Technology EXPO, revealing details about its successful demonstrations last fall aboard the USS Shadwell, a decommissioned Navy vessel. The Shipboard Autonomous Firefighting Robot (SAFFiR), sponsored by the Office of Naval Research (ONR), walked across uneven floors, identified overheated equipment with thermal imaging, and used a hose to extinguish a small fire in a series of experiments. Developed by researchers at Virginia Tech, the 143-lb bipedal humanoid robot is helping ONR evaluate unmanned systems in damage control and inspections aboard naval vessels. It's slow and unwieldy, but still shows promise.
View the video.

Video Image
What is a multi-start flexure?
A single-start spring is a single continuous-coil element that starts at one end and terminates at the other. This configuration is common to most springs. A "double start" spring has two intertwined continuous-coil elements phased 180 degrees apart. In effect, this puts two independent helixes in the same cylindrical plane. Multiple-start flexures, such as triple-start, are similar extensions of the concept. Helical Products spells out why you should consider single-, double- or triple-start flexures when designing or choosing your next coupling or spring.
View the video.

Video Image

New products

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