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High-capacity benchtop video measurement system

Optical Gaging Products has introduced the SmartScope^® E18, a compact, benchtop video measurement system. Featuring a 12" x 12" stage, IntelliCentric™-E fixed-lens optics, and VIRTUAL ZOOM™ technology, it offers fully automatic 3-axis performance without taking up floor space. Standard LED lighting, a rigid fixed-bridge design, optional touch probes, and advanced metrology software ensure accurate, repeatable inspection.
Learn more.

Tech Tip: Fan selection - Why airflow is not just CFM

For many engineers, fan selection starts and ends with a single number: CFM (cubic feet per minute). Higher CFM feels like a clear win. More air moved must mean better cooling. However, in practice, this assumption is one of the most common causes of thermal problems, excess noise, and late-stage redesigns. Find out why.
Read this Orion Fans technical article.

Useful! Snap-together LED enclosure lighting

Seifert StripLite SL 4000 Series LED enclosure lighting provides bright illumination to 700 lumens. On/off switch and motion sensor models are available. Easily daisy chain up to 16 light strips. Magnetic or clip mounting. See video/info on website or contact Bristol Instruments for more information.
Learn about snap-together lighting.

The hidden hardware helping AI's heat problem: PCHEs

Across AI infrastructure, thermal constraints now connect semiconductor design with power and cooling systems. More compact, lighter, and efficient than conventional shell-and-tube models, printed circuit heat exchangers save floor space, reduce energy costs, and improve overall efficiency in dense, hyperscale environments.
Read the full article.

Nearly 1,000 parts: Industrial enclosure range expanded

Altech Corp. has expanded its industrial enclosure lineup to 10 unique series with nearly 1,000 parts! Designed for control, junction, and terminal applications, these plastic and aluminum housings offer up to IP69 protection. They mount directly to walls or panels, resisting chemicals, corrosion, flames, impacts, and severe outdoor conditions without sacrificing aesthetics.
Find your perfect enclosure today.

Cool Tools: MetraSCAN BLACK2 -- Next-gen shop-floor 3D inspection

You'll gain some superhero powers when you brandish FARO CREAFORM's new MetraSCAN BLACK2, a next-gen portable metrology-grade optical 3D scanner engineered to deliver total inspection flexibility on the shop floor. This unit boasts a 3-in-1 architecture that combines C-Track scanning, stand-alone scanning, and probing in a single metrology-grade system.
Read the full article.

Compact, touchless position sensors: Wear-free operation in tight spaces

Novotechnik's TFD-4000 Series of touchless linear position sensors delivers wear-free measurement in tight spaces. Featuring ranges up to 50 mm, IP67 protection, 12-bit resolution, and analog outputs, these reliable sensors operate from -40 C to 125 C across diverse industrial, mobile, and medical applications such as short-stroke linear valve positioning, solenoid valves, off-highway brake actuation, and more.
Learn more.

World's first 10-m safety laser scanner: See farther, protect more

Datasensing, Datalogic's Sensor & Safety and Machine Vision business unit, has launched the SLS10 Safety Laser Scanner, the world's first 10-meter safety laser scanner. Delivering a 275-degree scanning angle, 240-m² of coverage, and an 84-msec response time, the SLS10 protects larger workspaces with fewer devices. It features best-in-class angular resolution for precise AGV navigation, SIL-2/PLd compliance, dust immunity, and the new ONEGUI platform for simplified configuration.
Learn more and see it in action.

Accelerate AI-driven machine vision systems

BitFlow has announced full production of its Claxon CXP-12 frame grabbers, designed for NVIDIA GPU-accelerated machine vision. Across five models, the CoaXPress 2.0 lineup delivers up to 50 Gbps -- five times 10 GigE Vision -- eliminating data bottlenecks. The full CXP-12 specification ensures deterministic, high-bandwidth streaming to unleash modern AI inference models.
Learn more.

Millimeter-wave imaging inspection in real time

With its new quality and inspection R&S IMAGER millimeter-wave scanner, Rohde & Schwarz aims to simplify the industrial inspection of packaged products. The system sees through common packaging materials at production speed without using X-rays, protecting both products and operators. The high-contrast 3D images are used as digital twins and can be automatically integrated into AI-powered fault-detection systems. Sees through plastics, cardboard, and composites. Applications include food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, logistics.
Learn more.

What are single-loop process controllers?

PLCs are powerful, but complex control isn't always necessary. For standalone processes requiring single-variable monitoring -- like temperature, pressure, or flow -- a single-loop controller is ideal. See how single-loop controllers can streamline your next project.
Read the AutomationDirect tech tip.

Great Resources: Flexible circuit design guide

Tech-Etch uses advanced techniques to manufacture flex and rigid-flex circuits to exacting customer specs. Special processes include selective plating a single circuit with two different finishes, contoured circuits with variable metal thickness, semi-additive and subtractive techniques, open window or cantilevered contact leads, plus SMT for component assembly. Tech-Etch specializes in flexible circuits for medical, telecommunications, aerospace, semiconductor, and other high-reliability electronic applications.
Learn about flex circuits and get the guide (no registration required).

EMI Investigations: New immunity development system

Saelig Company announces the Langer E1 Immunity Development System for EMI investigations. This compact, affordable kit simulates burst and ESD interference to pinpoint layout weak spots down to IC pins. By eliminating "black box" guesswork early in development, engineers can efficiently identify coupling mechanisms, test measures, and resolve immunity issues before compliance failure.
Learn more and see it in action.

Battery packs for unmanned aerial vehicles

Re:Build Manufacturing has launched U.S.-assembled, NDAA-compliant lithium-ion battery packs for commercial, public safety, and defense UAV applications. Available in Core, Power, and Performance series, the packs use non-FEOC cells and are produced at Re:Build's advanced facility in New Kensington, PA. Re:Build also offers custom pack and battery management system development.
Learn more.

Easy-to-use precision measurement system

Optical Gaging Products has announced the StarLite S1, a compact, semi-automatic 3-axis video measurement system. It combines fully automatic video measurements with manual stage motion and features an IntelliCentric-S optical system for high-resolution images. Powered by Measure-X software, this system delivers fast, repeatable, high-accuracy results, making it ideal for both shop-floor and quality-control applications.
Learn more.

Weird science: An add-on to lasers may create star interiors in the lab

A new method of creating laser pulses, more than 1,000 times as powerful as those currently in existence, has been proposed by scientists in the UK and South Korea.

The scientists have used computer simulations in joint research to demonstrate a new way of compressing light to increase its intensity sufficiently to extract particles from vacuum and study the nature of matter. To achieve this, the researchers have come together to produce a very special type of mirror -- one that not only reflects pulses of light but compresses them in time by a factor of more than 200 times, with further compression possible.

The groups from the University of Strathclyde Glasgow in Scotland, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) in Korea, and Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology (GIST) also in Korea propose a simple idea: Use the gradient in the density of plasma, which is fully ionized matter, to cause photons to "bunch," analogous to the way a stretched-out group of cars bunches up as they encounter a steep hill. This could revolutionize the next generation of lasers to enable their powers to increase by more than one million times from what is achievable now.

The new method of compressing laser pulses in plasma is published in the journal Nature Photonics.

The highest-power lasers in the world have a peak power of around 10 petawatts. To put this in context, 173 petawatts (173 × 10¹⁵ W) of sunshine reaches the Earth's upper atmosphere, and about one-third of this reaches the Earth's surface. A petawatt is 10¹⁵ W, an exawatt is 10¹⁸ W, and a zettawatt is 10²¹ W. The sun produces 4 x 10²⁶ W of power or 400,000 zettawatts.

High-power lasers produce pulses of light with durations that are very short -- usually several femtoseconds (one femtosecond is 10^-15 seconds), which is achieved using a technique called chirped pulse amplification (CPA). CPA involves pulse compression, which concentrates laser pulse energy into a short time, thus increasing its peak power by many orders of magnitude.

"An important and fundamental question is what happens when light intensities exceed levels that are common on Earth," said Professor Dino Jaroszynski of the University of Strathclyde's Department of Physics. "High-power lasers allow scientists to answer basic questions on the nature of matter and the vacuum and explore what is known as the 'intensity frontier.'

"Applying terawatt to petawatt lasers to matter has enabled the development of next-generation laser-plasma accelerators, which are thousands of times smaller than conventional accelerators. Providing new tools for scientists is transforming the way science is done. We have set up the Scottish Center for the Application of Plasma-based Accelerator (SCAPA) at the University of Strathclyde to push applications based on high-power lasers forward."

"The results of this research are expected to be applicable in various fields, including advanced theoretical physics and astrophysics," said Professor Min Sip Hur of UNIST. "It can also be used in laser fusion research to help address the energy issues facing humanity. Our combined Korean and UK teams plan to experimentally test the ideas in the lab."

"Plasma can perform a role similar to traditional diffraction gratings in CPA systems but is a material that cannot be damaged," said Professor Hyyong Suk of GIST. "It will therefore enhance traditional CPA technology by including a very simple add-on. ... Even with plasma of a few centimeters in size, it can be used for lasers with peak powers exceeding an exawatt."

Exawatts and zetawatts seem like a lot of power, which they certainly are, but by simply focusing the laser pulse to a small spot using a lens or curved mirror to concentrate its energy, its intensity can be increased by a huge amount. Just as scientists can compress a laser pulse in time to a short duration, the same thing can be done in space by compressing the pulse spatially -- that is, focus it to a small spot. So compression, in a very general way, in space or time, allows an increase in the intensity of a laser pulse. Spatial compression can easily be tested using a lens to focus sunlight onto a piece of paper; the paper will spontaneously combust.

Matter undergoes various transformations as the intensity is increased. For example, air is ionized above intensities of 10¹⁰ to 10¹² W/cm² for visible light wavelengths, and when electrons are subject to lasers of intensities above 10¹⁸ W/cm² they approach the speed of light and this leads into the realm of relativistic optics.

At intensities of 10²⁴ W/cm² and above, protons approach the speed of light, and particles experiencing intense laser fields react to their own radiation fields, which is the current intensity frontier in physics. At intensity above 10²⁹ W/cm², which is known as the Schwinger limit, particles are produced directly from vacuum -- light can be directly transformed into matter. This requires exawatt to zettawatt lasers.

Understanding the nature of matter and vacuum at intensities above 10²⁴ W/cm² is among the outstanding challenges of modern physics. High-power lasers also enable the study of the astrophysical phenomena in the laboratory, providing unique glimpses into the interiors of stars and the origin of the universe.

Source: The University of Strathclyde Glasgow

Published December 2023

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