Technology for OEM Design Engineers December 12, 2006 — Volume 2, Issue 45
Largest manufacturer of Threaded Nylon Fasteners in the world Micro Plastics, Inc. offers over 20,000 items and stocks an inventory of 250 million parts. Machine Screws, Nuts, Washers, Spacers, Panel Fasteners, Hole Plugs, P.C.B. Hardware, Wire Handling Hardware and more. For more information, visit Micro Plastics online.
How lean can Toyota get? Mega lean.
The first 2007 Toyota Tundra full-size pickup truck rolled off the assembly line at Toyota's all-new Toyota Motor Manufacturing, Texas (TMMTX) production facility November 17. The ceremony marked the arrival of a vehicle that will give Toyota, for the first time, a formidable entry in a segment once considered the exclusive domain of Detroit automakers GM, Ford, and Dodge. Perhaps more significantly, the event marked the opening of a production facility that will immediately establish itself as Toyota's most innovative, featuring an on-site production network of 21 separate parts and components suppliers. Read the full article
LEDder of the Pack! Need energy-efficient, direct incandescent replacement LED bulbs and LED lamps? LEDtronics is a one stop source for based LED bulbs, snap-in and relampable panel mount LED lamps, sunlight visible discrete LED's, PCB mount LED indicators, SMT LED's, full spectrum RGB LED's or UV and Infrared LED's. For a complete listing of products, please visit LEDtronics.
Size without limits: Large-size polyurethane molding gives designers greater scope
Bayer MaterialScience is contributing to a fresh, new design of the cladding sections of computer tomography equipment from Siemens with its Baydur 110 polyurethane. The manufacturer of the polyurethane components, Thieme GmbH & Co., has incorporated key design elements in this high-tech piece of medical machinery. The front, molded in one shot, and the rear wall measure nearly 6.6 ft X 6.6 ft with a wall thickness of just 0.2 in. Read the full article
Mimicking nature creates self-cleaning coatings
Researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology are mimicking one of nature's best non-stick surfaces, the leaves and flowers of the lotus plant, to help create more reliable electric transmission systems, photovoltaic arrays that retain their efficiency, MEMS structures unaffected by water, and improved biocompatible surfaces able to prevent cells from adhering to implanted medical devices. Read the full article
New-generation contact aligners morph tech and design possibilities
Once reserved solely for the building of integrated circuits, contact mask aligners are now being updated to fabricate cutting-edge products in diverse industries such as biotech, consumer electronics, aerospace, communications, and transportation. Today's new applications in biotech, solar, and MEMs represent great examples of technology morphing — using machines that were originally intended for semiconductors and applying other technologies to create new products or even new markets. Read the full article
Stereolithography materials help hatch robotic spiders
For the past three years, Ken Rinaldo, associate professor of art in Ohio State University's Art and Technology program, has been working on a design to create a new method of robotic movement. Key to the success of his Autotelematic Spider Bots was help from product development specialists Laser Reproductions and the innovative use of DSM Somos stereolithography plastics. The ability to choose a particular plastic with specific degrees of flexibility allowed the idea to succeed. Read the full article
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