News

General Motors, Virginia Tech partner to advance brain/machine interface

School-bus yellow is the color of money when it comes to paintless parts

Parker, FedEx Ground announce hydraulic hybrid joint testing program

Cold-rollable titanium alloy is key material for Mars Lander analytical componentry

In this issue:

Feature Articles

Toyota builds world's best driving simulator
What might happen if you combine a mega Wii console with an IMAX theater and a real car to tool around in at break-neck speed? Toyota Motor Corporation knows. TMC has built a super state-of-the-art driving simulator for effectively analyzing the driving characteristics of average drivers to aid in the development and verification of traffic accident-reducing active safety technology. By using screen images, an acceleration simulator, and other technology, the driving simulator provides the most realistic virtual driving environment in existence.
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Spike in nickel prices prompts creation of Crutonite alloy; Caterpillar first user
The exhaust valves on Caterpillar's C15 heavy-duty on-highway diesel engines will sport a new nickel alloy called "Crutonite" from diversified industrial manufacturer Eaton Corp. beginning in 2008. Crutonite is comprised of less than half the amount of costly nickel as traditional high-temperature alloys, but it offers comparable strength, wear, and corrosion resistance.
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High-speed flywheel system is key to manufacturer's power backup needs
When a 2005 power outage hit MasterBrand Cabinets, one of the nation's leading cabinet manufacturers discovered firsthand that UPS batteries are trouble. One cell in their UPS battery cabinet faulted, and that rendered the string's dozens of others useless right when MasterBrand needed them the most. Now MasterBrand uses a flywheel system from Pentadyne Power Corporation run in parallel with batteries.
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Job-related stress: NIST demonstrates fatigue effects in silicon
Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have demonstrated a mechanical fatigue process that eventually leads to cracks and breakdown in bulk silicon crystals — a particularly interesting phenomenon that has long been thought impossible.
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Wheels: Two-stage turbo puts on the pressure in U.S. pickup market
The North American diesel engine pickup truck market continues to be driven by more stringent emission requirements and increases in power and torque. Think something's gotta give? Not according to International Truck and Engine Corporation and Ford Motor Company. Their PowerStroke 6.4-liter V8 diesel engine features BorgWarner Turbo & Emissions System's regulated two-stage turbocharger (R2S).
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5-Star Product: Pocket PC vibration spectrum analyzer
The VSA-1225 Vibration Spectrum Analyzer is Datastick Systems' first product on the Windows Mobile/Pocket PC platform. It enables cost-conscious companies to use vibration analysis in machine condition monitoring, predictive maintenance, and routine troubleshooting.
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News and notes: SolidWorks World 2008
What have we learned from four days in beautiful San Diego for the SolidWorks World 2008 conference, where nearly 4,600 CAD design engineer professionals came together to sell, buy, network, go on vacation, or otherwise better their understanding of the insanity that is 3D design? There is a lot to learn.
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ALGOR is big stress reliever for worldly engineering consultancy
Tolpa Technical Services is an engineering consulting company that specializes in piping, plant design, and stress analysis for clients mainly in the offshore oil and gas compression industries. As part of its engineering consulting services, TTS uses finite element analysis (FEA) software from ALGOR to virtually test and predict how its designs for industrial equipment such as pressure vessels, rotating machines, structural skids, and piping systems will respond to environmental and operational loads.
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New Products
Electrical/Electronic
View products … 		Mechanical
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Motion Control
View products … 		Special: Materials

Guides

Literature, guides, catalogs, and other great free stuff: Always more than 50 new resources

  • Brand New 2007 Superbolt Catalog —
    • Superbolt
  • Configurable power supplies and more —
    • UNIPOWER
  • 100 years of steam application knowledge —
    • Spirax Sarco

View guides …

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