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Test your knowledge: High-temp adhesives

Put your knowledge to the test by trying to answer these key questions on how to choose the right high-temperature-resistant adhesive. The technical experts from Master Bond cover critical information necessary for the selection process, including questions on glass transition temperature and service temperature range. Some of the answers may surprise even the savviest of engineers.
Take the quiz.

New Air Holster Safety Air Gun Mount

EXAIR's new Model 5930 Air Holster provides a simple and convenient way to keep Safety Air Guns secure and within easy reach at workstations throughout a facility. Designed to give operators a designated location for their air gun when not in use, the Air Holster helps prevent misplaced tools while keeping work areas organized and efficient. Its practical design makes it an ideal addition to manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, and other industrial workstations where Safety Air Guns are frequently used.
Learn more.

Southco access hardware in rail applications

Discover how Southco's rail access hardware solutions help improve safety, reliability, and operational efficiency across modern rail networks. The video showcases a range of rail applications where Southco's access hardware plays a critical role, including driver cabins, lighting systems, tray tables, headrests, armrests, and other passenger and operator touchpoints. Designed to support dependable performance in demanding moving environments, Southco's solutions help operators streamline maintenance processes, minimize downtime, and enable more proactive asset management.
View the video.

Multi-zone tension leveler for hard-to-flatten alloys

Redex USA's Levelflex^® is a modular, multi-zone tension leveler engineered for continuous processing lines, including coating and heat treatment of aluminum alloys and where flatness is critical to coating adhesion and downstream formability. By stretching material within 95% of its yield strength, it corrects stubborn flatness defects in fewer passes. It comes in open-loop pure stretch or closed-loop tension measurement modes to optimize surface integrity and eliminate crossbow.
Learn more.

Hold any shape with ID and OD Form Holding Clamps

These simple OD and ID clamping solutions from Fixtureworks clamp onto your part in one easy operation, eliminating the need for custom fixtures. They allow users to clamp onto the inner or outer diameter of small-size, irregularly shaped work parts fast. Lots of options.
Learn more.

Need inserts? We make it E-Z.

Founded in 1956, E-Z LOK allows users to repair damaged or worn-out threads without the need for special taps or installation tools. Our line of threaded locking inserts is used in metal, plastic, wood, composite, and additive industries. Extensive inventories are maintained in four warehouses across the U.S., and all products are sold through industrial distributors. One source for all your needs!
Learn more
or contact Kyle Lindsly-Roach for free samples at 310.323.5613 x221.

Stop paying the 'assembly tax': Why your next design should be one part not 10

"As metal additive manufacturing (AM) moves from the prototyping lab to mainline production, the most significant ROI isn't found in making parts faster, it's found in making fewer of them." So says Erica Manzella of Go Engineer. Learn about the hidden costs of traditional assembly, the DfAM toolset native to SOLIDWORKS, and the advanced 3DEXPERIENCE optimization tools and industrial metal AM hardware that are making monolithic design a physical reality.
Read the GoEngineer blog.

Best-seller: Copper filament for 3D printing

Virtual Foundry, the company that brought us 3D-printable lunar regolith simulant, says Copper Filamet™ (not a typo) is its best-selling metal filament. This material is compatible with any open-architecture FDM/FFF 3D printer. After sintering, final parts are 100% pure copper. The company says this is one of the easiest materials to print and sinter. Stainless steel, porcelain, aluminum, and titanium available too.
Learn more and get all the specs.

What can replace a coil spring? You've got better options!

Traditional coil springs can limit mechanical designs. Wave springs offer a space-saving alternative, providing equivalent force and deflection in up to half the operating height while reducing assembly size and weight. There are four wave spring types that can replace a coil spring. Learn how each variant delivers unique performance capabilities to optimize space, efficiency, and reliability.
Read this informative NEW Smalley technical article.

Next-gen metal bonding: 3M Scotch-Weld 8500 Series

Replace traditional fasteners and streamline assembly with 3M Scotch-Weld Acrylic Adhesive DP8507NS. Engineered for direct bonding to bare or slightly oily metals with minimal surface prep, this high-performance adhesive withstands paint bake cycles up to 200 C (392 F), resists corrosion, and holds strong down to -40 C. Upgrade durability, aesthetics, and design flexibility. Bonds many plastics too!
View the video.

3 things you need to get right when 3D printing gears

When businesses decide to 3D print their own gears, they can reduce lead times and costs associated with replacements, prototypes, and small-batch production runs significantly. According to the experts at igus, however, "achieving industrial-grade reliability requires more than just a digital file; there are several fundamental technical basics you must master first to ensure your gears can withstand the rigors of real-world use."
Read this informative igus tech tip.

DURACON polymer with 30% recycled content

Daicel Corporation's High Performance Polymers SBU has launched four new DURACON^® POM grades featuring 30% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content. Unveiled at CHINAPLAS 2026, the lineup includes Standard, Low VOC, Sliding, and Tough options. Leveraging advanced compounding expertise, Daicel maintains quality and mechanical performance comparable to standard virgin resin grades for demanding global industrial and automotive components.
Learn more.

Renishaw unveils revolutionary LIBERTAS™ 3DP tech

Renishaw's new LIBERTAS software technology addresses two of the most persistent challenges in metal AM: poor downskin surface finish and the need for support structures. Users have greater freedom to manufacture complex geometries.
Read the full article.

Innovate like a PRO: Protolabs' new AI-enabled manufacturing platform

ProDesk by Protolabs accelerates innovation for product development and procurement teams. It features real-time, AI-powered quoting with design for manufacturability (DFM) analysis across injection molding, CNC machining, and 3D printing. The platform enables seamless team collaboration and customizes quotes with instant feedback on materials, lead times, secondary operations, and finishes prior to production.
Learn more.

SDP/SI Shaftloc Fastening System

Shaftloc is a unique, reusable locking device for securely mounting mechanical components like gears and sprockets onto shafts without the need for keyways, set screws, or adhesives. Its simple, two-piece design offers a cost-effective alternative to traditional fasteners, providing high clamping force and vibration resistance. Installed with standard tools, Shaftloc is perfect for designers seeking flexible, hubless mounting solutions. Available in four styles.
Learn more from SDP/SI.

What's twistronics? Twisting 2D materials unleashes their superpowers

Researchers have developed a completely new method for twisting atomically thin materials, paving the way for applications of "twistronics" based on tunable 2D materials

Two-dimensional (2D) materials, which consist of a single layer of atoms, have attracted a lot of attention since the isolation of graphene in 2004. They have unique electrical, optical, and mechanical properties, like high conductivity, flexibility, and strength, which makes them promising materials for such things as lasers, photovoltaics, sensors, and medical applications.

When a sheet of 2D material is placed over another and slightly rotated, the twist can radically change the bilayer material's properties and lead to exotic physical behaviors, such as high-temperature superconductivity (exciting for electrical engineering), nonlinear optics (exciting for lasers and data transmission), and structural super lubricity (a newly discovered mechanical property that researchers are only beginning to understand). The study of these properties has given birth to a new field of research called twistronics, so-called because it's a combination of twist and electronics.

The twist angle between the layers governs the crystal symmetry and can lead to a variety of interesting physical behaviors, such as unconventional superconductivity, tunnelling conductance, nonlinear optics, and structural super lubricity. [Credit: Luojun Du et al., Aalto University]

 

 

 

 

Researchers at Aalto University in Finland, in a collaboration with international colleagues, have now developed a new method for making these twisted layers on scales that are large enough to be useful, for the first time. Their new method for transferring single-atom layers of molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) allows researchers to precisely control the twist angle between layers with up to a square centimeter in area, making it record breaking in terms of size. Controlling the interlayer twist angle on a large scale is crucial for the future practical applications of twistronics.

"Our demonstrated twist method allows us to tune the properties of stacked multilayer MoS2 structures on larger scales than ever before. The transfer method can also apply to other two-dimensional layered materials," says Dr. Luojun Du from Aalto University, one of the lead authors of the work.

A significant advancement for a brand-new field of research
Since twistronics research was introduced only in 2018, basic research is still needed to understand the properties of twisted materials better before they find their ways to practical applications. The Wolf Prize in Physics, one of the most prestigious scientific awards, was awarded to Profs. Rafi Bistritzer, Pablo Jarillo-Herrero, and Allan H. MacDonald this year for their groundbreaking work on twistronics, which indicates the game-changing potential of the emerging field.

Previous research has demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate the required twist angle by transfer method or atomic force microscope tip manipulation techniques in small scales. The sample size has usually been in the order of 10 microns, less than the size of a human hair. Larger few-layer films have also been fabricated, but their interlayer twist angle is random. Now the researchers can grow large films using an epitaxial growth method and water-assisted transfer method.

"Since no polymer is needed during the transfer process, the interfaces of our sample are relatively clean. With the control of twist angle and ultra-clean interfaces, we could tune the physical properties, including low-frequency interlayer modes, band structure, and optical and electrical properties," Du says.

"The work is of great significance in guiding the future applications of twistronics based on 2D materials," says Professor Zhipei Sun from Aalto University.

The results were published in Nature Communications in an article titled, "Precise control the interlayer twist angle of large scale MoS2 homostructures."

Source: Aalto University

Published May 2020

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