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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.
View the video.

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.
Learn more.

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.

Sensors aim to save millions:
Army developing new aircraft maintenance technologies at research lab

Researchers at the Army's corporate laboratory are testing new technologies created for the Federal Aviation Administration that could give commercial and military maintenance programs earlier warning of problems.

A U.S. Army Soldier prepares to board a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter landing near Tafaria, Iraq, in 2006. Historically, military maintenance programs have relied on time-scheduled maintenance. The U.S. Army Research Laboratory is looking into new aircraft maintenance technologies that could get safer aircraft back in the air faster. [Image: Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Jackey Bratt, U.S. Navy.]

 

 

 

 

Army Research Laboratory (ARL) officials say that condition-based maintenance, known as CBM, will get safer aircraft back in the air faster because it relies on repairing and replacing faulty parts in aircraft when they need to be fixed or replaced. Traditional military maintenance programs rely on time-scheduled maintenance.

Dy Le, chief of the mechanics division within ARL's Vehicle Technology Directorate, said ARL's work in this area supports the FAA on developing and validating CBM methodologies, and once matured, those methodologies would help the FAA certify the use of the Health and Usage Monitoring System, or HUMS, as part of commercial aircraft maintenance programs.

ARL's customized technologies are being incorporated into the HUMS, which serves as a central repository for aircraft system information, he said.

ARL's work in CBM is highlighted in a special two-part series as part of its broadcast program, "Inside the Lab."

The show, airing on ARL's website and on its YouTube Channel, focuses on a number of ARL-developed sensor technologies that are embedded in the HUMS. These sensors, many developed with the Communications-Electronics Research, Development, and Engineering Center (CERDEC) and the Federal Aviation Administration, monitor and signal system faults.

Le said sensors placed on critical areas of the aircraft, like the tail rotor output shaft, measure performance. The information from the sensors is fed into the HUMS system, where maintenance crews can quickly review data and identify abnormal readings like vibrations much faster than done in the past.

He said CBM could also result in huge maintenance cost savings. If the system is fully implemented, the Army can save about $9.3 million per year in eliminating many maintenance test flights on the Apache, for example, on a direct reimbursable basis. For the UH-60 Blackhawk, it could amount to a savings of $2.6 million per year.

"Knowing the condition of the aircraft helps Soldiers avoid potential fatalities due to helicopter critical component failure," Le said.

"The great thing about HUMS is that it provides a digital data stream which allows us to update the models for individual components of the aircraft by the bearings and the gears," said Romeo DelRosario, chief of the electronics technology branch within ARL's Sensors and Electron Devices Directorate. "It allows you to increase the accuracy of potential failure predictions."

Under the ARL CBM research, ARL scientists and engineers also work with researchers from other government agencies, including the U.S. Air Force; U.S. Navy; academia, including University of California-Irvine and University of Maryland; and industry, including Acellent Technologies Inc., Sikorsky Aircraft Company, and Boeing Aircraft.

Source: U.S. Army Research Laboratory

Published August 2012

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