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What are Onshape Custom Features?

Certified Onshape Professional Too Tall Toby explains how to supercharge your workflow using community-created tools. In this insightful tutorial, he dives into the world of FeatureScript -- the powerful coding language behind Onshape. Learn where to find new scripts and how to use them. Save time. Learn new skills, shortcuts, and maybe even better ways to do things. Incorporate Custom Features into your everyday work. Very useful.
View the video.

What can you do with touchless magnetic angle sensors?

Novotechnik has put together an informative video highlighting real-world applications for their RFC, RFE, and RSA Series touchless magnetic angle sensors. You may be surprised at the variety of off-highway, marine, material handling, and industrial uses. You'll learn how they work (using a Hall effect microprocessor to detect position) and their key advantages, including eliminated wear and tear on these non-mechanical components. We love when manufacturers provide such useful examples.
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What can the new Autodesk Inventor AI Assistant do for you?

Autodesk Assistant brings industry-specific context to help execute tasks and orchestrate actions across your 3D models -- not just answer questions. Designed to understand your workflows, Assistant appears as a dockable panel alongside your Inventor workspace and includes the ability to perform complex tasks or gather information from your designs without writing a single line of code. Find out what this new AI "colleague" can do for you.
Watch this informative Autodesk video.

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.

Next-gen multi-touch panels

Beckhoff's Next line of multi-touch control panels and panel PCs is engineered for demanding human-machine interface and control tasks. These panels offer convenient operation with advanced multi-touch technology, a high-quality look and feel, anti-glare and anti-ghosting effects, and a wide choice of formats (from 7 to 23.8 in.) and options. A main draw is the line's attractive pricing.
Learn more.

Most powerful handheld 3D laser scanner on the market

Creaform, a business of AMETEK, has launched HandySCAN 3D|EVO Series, the most powerful handheld 3D laser scanning solution on the market. This innovative series features a built-in touchscreen display and an integrated high-res 12-MP photo camera, incorporating augmented reality (AR) and advanced on-scanner visualization. Users can streamline repetitive inspections and enhance quality control processes using the new auto-alignment feature. Powered by 46 blue laser lines with accuracy of 0.020 mm. The Creaform Metrology Suite includes four application software modules: Scan-to-CAD, Inspection, Automation, and Dynamic Tracking. So many more features.
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Continental develops first sensor to measure heat in EV motors

Global automotive supplier Continental has developed a new sensor technology that measures the temperature inside permanently excited synchronous motors in electric vehicles directly on the rotor for the first time.
Read the full article.

LEDs with highest output power available

The new OCI-460 SWIR LED series from EPIGAP OSA Photonics features markedly improved output power compared to the company's previous OCI-480 package and all competitive SMD SWIR LED devices. For example, model OCI-460 ID1550-XS operates at 1,550 nm and features drive current up to 1.5A to deliver approximately 13% higher output efficiency over EPIGAP's OCI-480 package. This impressive advancement features 96% higher output power compared to any other SWIR SMD LED currently on the market. Ideal for use in sensing, machine vision, and more.
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AI and collaboration in SOLIDWORKS

Discover AURA, the new AI assistant built into SOLID-WORKS, in this informative video from TriMech Group. What can AURA do for you? It can streamline workflows and make collaborating on and tracking projects even easier, for starters. Other top features of SOLIDWORKS Design 2026 are also covered. Some good tips here.
View the TriMech Group video.

Solutions for weighing and force measurement

Automation-Direct now offers Sensy 2172L series single point, 5510 series shear beam, and 2782 series tension/compression load cells that deliver flexible solutions for weighing and force measurement. They are ideal for applications ranging from small packaging scales to rugged industrial tanks and conveyor systems. Built from aircraft-grade aluminum or stainless steel, these models feature built-in overload protection, accuracies down to 0.03% of full scale, protection ratings up to IP67, and capacities up to 2,000 kg.
Learn more.

Top Product: Future-proof enclosure cooling

Seifert's new SLIMLINE NEO ushers in next-generation industrial cooling with natural refrigerant R290 (GWP 0.02) and high-efficiency inverter technology. It cuts energy costs with EER up to 3.6, reduces refrigerant charge by 75%, and extends electronics life. A fully redesigned, lighter, smaller enclosure delivers lower vibration, better component protection, and easier handling. Available in two elegant surfaces: stainless steel and mild steel, powder coated.
Learn more.

Coin cell supercapacitors: High capacity, quick release

Coin cell supercapa-citors are compact, high-capacity energy storage devices that rapidly charge and discharge and endure far more cycles than rechargeable batteries. They're ideal for high switching loads such as real-time clock and battery back-up power, battery-swap ride-through, and LED or audible alarms. SCHURTER's latest versions support up to 5.5 V and 100 to 1,500 mF.
Learn more.

Tech Tip: Mastering sheet metal bend calculations in Onshape

Mastering bend calculations in sheet metal design is a key skill that can impact the accuracy and manufactur-ability of your designs significantly. Explore the various options available to become a pro in this Onshape Tech Tip: K Factor, bend allowance, and bend deduction, with guidance on when each should be used. You will probably learn something even if you don't use this software.
Read the Onshape blog.

Digital Engineering: How a private jet gets a high-end refurb

Ever wonder how private jets get overhauled from standard OEM layouts to exotic, artful interiors? It takes engineering expertise, specialty design skills, and true craftspeople. Increasingly, it also takes automation provided by middleware to weave a digital thread through CAD, BOM, ERP, and PDM software.
Read the full article.

How AI is quietly transforming simulation

Is AI really useful, or is it just a passing trend? Balavignesh Vemparala, an R&D Engineer II at ANSYS, lays out a compelling case for how artificial intelligence is already hard at work in the simulation world with real results for users. From faster solves to accelerated workflows, improved quality and traceability, generative models, and more, discover what you might be overlooking when it comes to real-world AI application. Worth the read.
Read this informative ANSYS blog.

Researchers create sensor strings that can vibrate forever ... kind of

Researchers from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in the Netherlands and Brown University in the United States have engineered string-like resonators capable of vibrating longer at ambient temperature than any previously known solid-state object -- approaching what is currently only achievable near absolute-zero temperatures. Their study, published in Nature Communications, pushes the edge of nanotechnology and machine learning to make some of the world's most sensitive mechanical sensors.

Artist impression of new nanostrings that can vibrate for a very long time. The nanostrings vibrate more than 100,000 times per second. Because it's difficult for energy to leak out, it also means environmental noise is hard to get in, making these some of the best sensors for room-temperature environments. [Credit: Richard Norte]

 

 

 

 

The newly developed nanostrings boast the highest mechanical quality factors ever recorded for any clamping object in room-temperature environments; in this case clamped to a microchip. This fabrication makes the technology interesting for integration with existing microchip platforms. Mechanical quality factors represent how well energy rings out of a vibrating object. These strings are specially designed to trap vibrations in and not let their energy leak out.

A 100-year swing on a microchip
"Imagine a swing that, once pushed, keeps swinging for almost 100 years, because it loses almost no energy through the ropes," says Richard Norte, TU Delft associate professor. "Our nanostrings do something similar, but rather than vibrating once per second like a swing, our strings vibrate 100,000 times per second. Because it's difficult for energy to leak out, it also means environmental noise is hard to get in, making these some of the best sensors for room-temperature environments.

This innovation is pivotal for studying macroscopic quantum phenomena at room temperature -- environments where such phenomena were previously masked by noise. While the weird laws of quantum mechanics are usually only seen in single atoms, the nanostrings' ability to isolate themselves from our everyday, heat-based vibrational noise allows them to open a window into their own quantum signatures; strings made from billions of atoms. In everyday environments, this kind of capability would have interesting uses for quantum-based sensing.

Extraordinary match between simulation and experiment
"Our manufacturing process goes in a different direction with respect to what is possible in nanotechnology today," says Dr. Andrea Cupertino, who spearheaded the experimental efforts. The strings are 3 cm long and 70 nm thick, but scaled up, this would be the equivalent of manufacturing guitar strings of glass that are suspended half a kilometer with almost no sag.

"This kind of extreme structures are only feasible at nanoscales where the effects of gravity and weight enter differently," says Cupertino. "This allows for structures that would be unfeasible at our everyday scales but are particularly useful in miniature devices used to measure physical quantities such as pressure, temperature, acceleration, and magnetic fields, which we call MEMS sensing."

The nanostrings are crafted using advanced nanotechnology techniques developed at TU Delft, pushing the boundaries of how thin and long suspended nanostructures can be made. A key of the collaboration is that these nanostructures can be made so perfectly on a microchip that there is an extraordinary match between simulations and experiments -- meaning that simulations can act as the data for machine learning algorithms, rather than costly experiments.

Professor Richard Norte in his lab at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering of Delft University of Technology. [Credit: Studio Wavy for Delft University of Technology]

 

 

 

 

"Our approach involved using machine learning algorithms to optimize the design without continuously fabricating prototypes," says lead author Dr. Dongil Shin, who developed these algorithms with Miguel Bessa. To further enhance efficiency of designing these data-heavy, detailed structures, the machine learning algorithms utilized insights from simpler, shorter string experiments to refine the designs of longer strings, making the development process both economical and effective.

According to Norte, the success of this project is a testament to the fruitful collaboration between experts in nanotechnology and machine learning, underscoring the interdisciplinary nature of cutting-edge scientific research.

Inertial navigation and next-generation microphones
The implications of these nanostrings extend beyond basic science. They offer promising new pathways for integrating highly sensitive sensors with standard microchip technology, leading to new approaches in vibration-based sensing. While these initial studies focus on strings, the concepts can be expanded to more complex designs to measure other important parameters like acceleration for inertial navigation or something looking more like a vibrating drumhead for next-generation microphones. This research demonstrates the vast array of possibilities when combining nanotechnology advances with machine learning to open new frontiers in technology.

Source: Delft University of Technology

Published June 2024

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