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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.
Learn more.

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.

Weird science: How vinegar could revolutionize sensor processing -- really

Researchers at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia, have developed a new way to produce ultraviolet (UV) light sensors, which could lead to more efficient and flexible wearable devices.

The study, published in the journal Small in July, shows how acetic acid vapor -- essentially vinegar fumes -- can rapidly improve the performance of zinc oxide nanoparticle-based sensors without using high temperatures for processing.

"We found by briefly exposing the sensor to vinegar vapor, adjoining particles of zinc oxide on the sensor's surface would merge together, forming a bridge that could conduct energy," says paper co-author Professor Shujuan Huang from the School of Engineering at Macquarie University.

Joining zinc oxide nanoparticles together is a critical part of building tiny sensors, as it creates channels for electrons to flow through.

The research team found that their vapor method could make UV detectors 128,000 times more responsive than untreated ones, and the sensors could still accurately detect UV light without interference, making them highly sensitive and reliable.

"Usually, these sensors are processed in an oven, heated at high temperature for 12 hours or so, before they can operate or transmit any signal," says Associate Professor Noushin Nasiri, co-author on the paper and head of the Nanotech Laboratory at Macquarie University.

However, the team found a simple chemical way to copy the effects of the heat process.

"We found a way to process these sensors at room temperature with a very cheap ingredient: vinegar. You just expose the sensor to vinegar vapor for five minutes, and that's it -- you have a working sensor," says Nasiri.

To create the sensors, the researchers sprayed a zinc solution into a flame, producing a fine mist of zinc oxide nanoparticles that settled onto platinum electrodes. This formed a thin, sponge-like film, which they then exposed to vinegar vapor for five to 20 minutes.

The vinegar vapor changed how the tiny particles in the film were arranged, helping the particles connect to each other so electrons could flow through the sensor. At the same time, the particles stayed small enough to detect light effectively.

"These sensors are made of many, many tiny particles that need to be connected for the sensor to work," says Nasiri. "Until we treat them, the particles just sit next to each other, almost as if they have a wall around them, so when light creates an electrical signal in one particle, it can't easily travel to the next particle. That's why an untreated sensor doesn't give us a good signal."

The researchers went through intensive testing of different formulations before hitting on the perfect balance in their process.

"Water alone isn't strong enough to make the particles join, but pure vinegar is too strong and destroys the whole structure," says Huang. "We had to find just the right mix."

The study shows the best results came from sensors exposed to the vapor for around 15 minutes. Longer exposure times caused too many structural changes and worse performance.

"The unique structure of these highly porous nanofilms enables oxygen to penetrate deeply, so that the entire film is part of the sensing mechanism," Huang says.

The new room-temperature vapor technique has many advantages over current high-temperature methods. It allows the use of heat-sensitive materials and flexible bases, and it is cheaper and better for the environment.

Nasiri says the process can easily be scaled up commercially. "The sensor materials could be laid out on a rolling plate, passing through an enclosed environment with vinegar vapors, and be ready to use in less than 20 minutes," Huang says.

The process will be a real advantage in creating wearable UV sensors, which need to be flexible and to use very little power.

Nasiri says this method for UV sensors could be used for other types of sensors too, using simple chemical vapor treatments instead of high-temperature sensor processing across a wide range of functional materials, nanostructures, and bases or substrates.

Source: Macquarie University

Published September 2024

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