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How ball spline coatings enhance performance and extend component life

According to Thomson, "Precision ball splines have gained popularity as an ideal choice for applications that require low-friction linear and rotary motion. These components, which utilize a single splined shaft, enable complex movements in multiple directions." But how do you keep these ball splines performing at their peak for longer? Coatings can do the trick, and Thomson has three of them: black oxide, hard chrome plating, and nickel plating. Learn more about these coatings and which one makes the most sense for your precision ball spline solution.
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Key factors for ball screw applications

Learn the six key factors that should be considered when specifying ball screw assemblies in motion control applications. PCB Linear gathered a panel of experts in the field of linear motion to concentrate on this important topic -- particularly when it comes to the company's new miniature ball screw product line. Learn about precision and accuracy, orientation, speed and acceleration, duty cycle, linear motion travel, and load capacity. Podcast available too.
Read the PCB Linear blog.

3D printer uses pellet extrusion system instead of filament

The latest addition to 3D Systems' industry-leading portfolio of EXT Titan Pellet systems is the EXT 800 Titan Pellet. With a build volume of 800 x 600 x 800 mm, this thermoplastics 3D printer harnesses the speed, reliability, and efficiency of the company's large-format pellet systems in a more compact unit with lower upfront investment. Use this machine to fabricate more modestly sized functional prototypes, tooling, fixtures, sand casting patterns, thermoforming molds, and end-use parts. Markedly faster than competing FFF and FDM printers, and up to 10X reduced material costs compared to filaments.
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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.

World's first current-carrying fastening technology

PEM^® eConnect™ current-carrying pins from Penn-Engineering provide superior electrical connections in applications that demand high performance from internal components, such as automotive electronics. This first-to-market tech provides repeatable, consistent electrical joints and superior installation unmatched by traditional fastening methods. Features include quick and secure automated installation, no hot spots or poor conductivity, and captivation options that include self-clinching and broaching styles.
Learn more about eConnect pins.

New flat quarter-turn clamping fastener

IMAO Fixtureworks has expanded its One-Touch Fastener lineup to include a new quarter-turn clamping fastener that features an innovative flat design and is ideal for clamping in limited spaces. The QCFC flat quarter-turn fastener features a recessed body that protrudes only 2 mm from the mounted surface, a knob that rests flush inside the body, visible ON and OFF markings for safety, and an audible click when fully turned to clamped or unclamped position.
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Bellows and disc couplings with higher torque capacity

Ruland Manufacturing now offers bellows and double disc couplings with bore sizes up to 1-3/4 in. or 45 mm for use in systems with torque up to 1,400 in.-lb (158 Nm). High-torque applications in precision semiconductor, solar, conveyor, and factory automation applications often use these shaft sizes. Ruland disc and bellows couplings accommodate all forms of misalignment, are zero-backlash, and have a balanced design for reduced vibration at speeds up to 10,000 rpm.
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Simplify your designs with slewing ring bearings

According to Kaydon Bearings, "A slewing ring bearing has rolling elements designed to create a reactive moment within the bearing's dimensions envelope to oppose applied (overturning) moment load," so you can use one bearing instead of two, reducing the height requirements, and even improve performance. Slewing ring bearings can also simplify a drive system by utilizing gear teeth on the inner or outer race. Learn all about slewing ring bearings in this informative article.
Read the Kaydon whitepaper.

Jet valve for ultra-small dispensing

DELO's DELO-DOT PN5 LV pneumatic jet valve is designed for micro-dispensing low-viscosity adhesives and other media in miniaturized applications. Thanks to its compact design, it also requires very little space to install in production systems. Interchangeable nozzles with different diameters and a flexible, adjustable plunger stroke ensure precise and reliable applications at different droplet sizes. Volumes of as low as 1 nl can be achieved, which corresponds to droplet diameters of 250 µm or less.
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Stainless steel constant-torque flush-mount hinge

Southco has introduced a flush-mount version of its popular and durable E6 constant-torque hinge. Its low-profile, corrosion-resistant package makes it an ideal solution for maximizing security, longevity, and aesthetics. It offers high torque for demanding applications while maintaining its low profile. Lots of uses.
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Claw vacuum pump for industrial applications

Vacuum expert Leybold has added a new model to its proven CLAWVAC dry claw vacuum pump series: the CLAWVAC CP B. This innovative, rough vacuum pump, designed for robust processes including food processing, material handling, and environmental industries, is powerful, energy efficient, and easy to clean. The intuitive handling of this unit is mainly due to its functional design, which features a pair of claws that rotate in the cylinder with no contact or wear. Its separate gearbox prevents oil contamination. The design ensures short downtimes and long service intervals: 20,000 hr between oil changes and up to 48,000 hr between general overhauls.
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DualVee linear guides and tracks used in warehousing

See how Bishop-Wisecarver's DualVee^® motion tech can add huge benefits to warehousing operations. This video highlights two applications: a manual storage and retrieval system and an automated storage and retrieval system of long aerospace-grade carbon fiber in sub-zero temps. Patented DualVee guides and tracks keep operations running smoothly.
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Build-to-order knobs and hand hardware

Rogan Corp.'s innovative use of two-shot plastic injection and insert molding has been providing customers with high-quality plastic clamping knobs, levers, and control knobs for almost 90 years. Rogan offers concurrent engineering, product design, and assistance in material selection to ensure customer satisfaction for standard or customized parts, with a focus on cost optimization and on-time delivery. Custom colors, markings, decorative inlays, or engineered materials to meet special requirements, such as adding extra strength or utilizing flame-retardant material, are all offered.
Learn more.

Slewing ring bearing made of wood and plastic

The PRT-02-30-WPC slewing ring bearing is another step forward by igus toward integrating renewable raw materials into industrial production. Made of 50% wood and 50% high-performance plastics, the cost-effective and lubrication-free slewing ring bearing balances strength and durability with a proven low CO2 footprint. The materials incorporate solid lubricants, making the new slewing ring bearing smooth running and maintenance-free.
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Flex Locators for quick fixture changeover

Flex Locators from Fixtureworks are designed for quick changeover of small and large fixtures, automation components, and more. They are ideal for applications that require frequent disassembly, providing excellent repeatability for locating and clamping in a single operation. Manual and pneumatic versions are available. Just turn the handle, knob, or screw!
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Super strange material: Q-glasses could be a new class of solids

There may be more kinds of stuff than we thought. A team of researchers has reported possible evidence for a new category of solids, things that are neither pure glasses, crystals, nor even exotic quasicrystals. Something else.*

"Very weird. Strangest material I ever saw," says materials physicist Lyle Levine of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST).

The research team from NIST and Argonne National Laboratory has analyzed a solid alloy that they discovered in small discrete patches of a rapidly cooled mixture of aluminum, iron, and silicon. The material appears to have none of the extended ordering of atoms found in crystals, which would make it a glass, except that it has a very defined composition and grows outward from "seeds" -- things that glasses most assuredly do not do.

The microstructure of this aluminum-iron-silicon mixture is odd. The round nodules are the q-glass, not crystalline but with a well-defined chemical composition. The spherical shape indicates they grow from an initial seed. The nodules use up iron and silicon in the mixture until the surrounding concentration of aluminum gets high enough to start forming the radiating, linear aluminum crystals. (Color added.) [Credit: Bendersky/NIST]

 

 

 

 

The solids catalog used to be pretty straightforward. Solid stuff was either a crystal or a glass. Crystals fill up space with atoms or molecules in specific, fairly rigid patterns. The positions of the atoms are fixed such that if you take any section of pure crystal and slide it up, down, in, out, or sideways a given distance, it will fit perfectly in the new position. That's translational symmetry. You can also spin the crystal through certain angles and the atoms also will line up; that's rotational symmetry.

Glasses have neither symmetry. They're just a random arrangement of their components, as if you'd taken a liquid and suddenly frozen everything in place without giving the atoms a chance to get in order. Which, in fact, is how metallic glasses are made.

In the 1980s, Dan Shechtman, an Israeli then working at NIST as a guest researcher, shook up this paradigm by finding evidence for quasicrystals, a new category of solids in which the atomic composition is fixed, and the material has rotational symmetry, but weirdly not translational symmetry. There is no long-range order to the pattern of the atoms.

The new material, which the research team has provisionally dubbed a "q-glass," can be shown by X-ray diffraction to have neither rotational nor translational symmetry, just like a glass, says Levine, but regardless, the atomic arrangement apparently is not random. "As the nodule grows, every atom still knows where to go," he says.

For one thing, the q-glass seems to have a strict chemical composition, according to Levine. Seen under a microscope, it's clear that, like a crystal, the spherical q-glass regions grow outward from a seed during cooling and exclude atoms that don't fit. "It's rejecting atoms that aren't fitting into the structure, and if there's no structure, it's not going to be doing that," says Levine. "It's amazing. Everything you can think about this thing behaves like a crystal, except it isn't."

The team used a variety of sophisticated techniques at Argonne's Advanced Photon Source to rule out other possibilities. The material might, for example, be a mass of randomly arrayed crystals so small they don't show up individually under the X-ray probes. But if such crystals were there, they'd grow slowly as the stuff is annealed. That doesn't happen. "We went through the laundry list of possibilities and disproved them, one by one," says Levine.

One possibility, say the researchers, is "frustration" -- two or more incompatible crystal orderings may start growing from the seeds and continually interfere with each other, destroying any long-range order. But, "one exciting possibility is that the q-glass is the first example of a 3-dimensionally ordered configuration of atoms that possesses neither translational nor rotational symmetry," says Levine. "Such structures have been theorized by mathematicians, but never before observed in nature."

*G.G. Long, K.W. Chapman, P.J. Chupas, L.A. Bendersky, L.E. Levine, F. Mompiou, J.K. Stalick and J.W. Cahn. A highly ordered non-crystalline metallic phase. Phys. Rev. Letters 111, 015502 (2013). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.015502.

Source: NIST

Published September 2013

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