Designfax – Technology for OEM Design Engineers was launched as an exclusive eMagazine in October 2005 following 25 successful years in print. Subscribers to the weekly publication (48 issues a year) are high-level OEM product design engineers and engineering managers who operate in a broad range of manufacturing industries, including automotive, aerospace, appliances, medical equipment, transportation, computer process controls, industrial equipment, and more. Primary content focuses on the latest exciting applications and products for Electrical/Electronic, Mechanical, Motion Control, Fluid Power, and Materials engineering, including articles on powerful software programs that serve as a primary engineering tool. Take a look at what Designfax offers and then subscribe.
| March 03, 2015 | Volume 11 Issue 09 |
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 | 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.
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 | 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. |
 | 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.
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 | 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.
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 | 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.
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 | 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.
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 | 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.
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 | 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.
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| | Most popular last issue |
 | 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. |
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| | 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. |
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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. |
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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.
