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Best high-speed rotary bearing in THK history

THK's High-Speed, Double-Row Angular Contact Ring BWH is the fastest rotary bearing in company history. By utilizing balls inside a cage instead of rollers, this new structure achieves unprecedented speeds. It supports loads from all directions while matching the high rigidity and rotational accuracy of standard cross-roller ring design options.
Learn more.

100,000 hours: KNF diaphragm pump achieves exceptional lifetime

Reaching 100,000 hours of uninterrupted performance is a remarkable achievement for micro diaphragm gas pumps. It represents more than 11 years of continuous operation in a controlled environment, exceeding the demands of most real-world applications. This milestone highlights KNF's engineering expertise and the reliability built into every pump.
Get a closer look at the 100,000-hour lifetime test.

Metal finishing: With rising carbide prices, when cermet makes sense

As critical raw material access tightens, manufacturers are rethinking cutting tool usage. While essential, carbide is often unnecessary for finishing processes. Cermet -- a ceramic-metal composite -- offers an excellent alternative, delivering exceptional fracture and wear resistance for these specific machining stages.
Read the full article.

Crossed roller bearings for complex loads

Designed with a large contact area where the rollers meet the raceway surfaces, crossed roller bearings (CRBs) from IKO exhibit exceptional rotational accuracy with less deflection under load. Many mechanical designs can benefit from the rigidity, accuracy, speed, and compact size that IKO CRBs provide, and they come in a wide choice of sizes and constructions to fit various rotating mechanisms. Machine tools, industrial robots, and medical equipment are only a few of many applications.
See all your options, including slim and super slim models, from IKO.

Full-color 3D-printing Design Guide from Xometry

With Xometry's PolyJet 3D-printing service, you can order full-color 3D prints easily. Their no-cost design guide will help you learn about different aspects of 3D printing colorful parts, how to create and add color to your models, and best practices to keep in mind when printing in full color. Learn how to take full advantage of the 600,000 unique colors available in this flexible additive process.
Get the Xometry guide.

What's new in hyperMILL 2026?

OPEN MIND Technologies has announced a wide range of new and enhanced capabilities in its hyperMILL 2026 CAD/CAM Software Suite that save time and increase accuracy. For precise and efficient 2.5D, 3D, precision 5-axis, and mill/turn machining, hyperMILL offers users exceptionally productive programming and powerful machining strategies. Check out all the new features.
Learn more.

Clear, high-flexibility silicone meets NASA low-outgassing specs

Master Bond MasterSil 981-LO is a two-component, addition-cured silicone for bonding, sealing, coating, and encapsulating. Meeting NASA low-outgassing specs, its optical clarity suits aerospace, satellite, and optoelectronic applications. This 100% reactive, solvent-free system features a forgiving 1:1 mix ratio, minimal shrinkage, a 3- to 4-hr working life, and cures overnight at room temperature plus heat.
Learn more.

What's a high-helix (high-lead) screw and what can it do for you?

"High-helix (high-lead) screws are a crucial component in many motion control systems, offering increased efficiency and faster linear motion," says Christopher Nook, CEO and founder of Helix Linear Technologies. "Unlike standard lead screws, these specialized screws feature a steeper helix angle, allowing for greater lead per revolution." Learn their mechanics, advantages, and many applications.
Read the Helix Linear Technologies blog.

New interactive factory microsite helps manufacturers discover EXAIR solutions

EXAIR and BETE have launched a new interactive factory microsite designed to help manufacturers quickly identify products that can improve efficiency, safety, and performance throughout their facility. From conveying and cooling to blowoff, static elimination, and industrial cleanup, the platform demonstrates how liquid and air solutions integrate into everyday manufacturing challenges. The digital experience features a fully interactive factory floor map with clickable hotspots positioned throughout key production and maintenance areas. Each hotspot highlights how specific EXAIR and BETE products can be applied in real-world industrial processes.
Explore the interactive microsite.

Next-gen SLA materials rival traditional thermoplastics

Formlabs has announced two new SLA materials that bring 3D printing significantly closer to being a manufacturing method for end-use part production. Tough 1000 Resin and a significantly improved Tough 2000 Resin join Tough 1500 Resin, forming the new Tough Resin family. These resilient engineering materials stand up to harsh environments, impact, and repeated wear, all while delivering a dark, matte surface finish with crisp details when printed on Form 4 Series 3D printers.
Learn more.

SOLIDWORKS: Mastering sheet metal -- advanced tips and tricks

GoEngineer's Brady Daniels, Senior Applications Engineer, gives a master class in next-level sheet metal design. This on-demand webinar covers practical tips and techniques aimed at expanding your understanding and improving real-world workflows. Topics include bend calculations, comparing design approaches, how flat patterns work, and embracing multi-body design. Skip through or take in the whole presentation when you have time. [Credit: Screenshot courtesy of GoEngineer]
View the GoEngineer video.

SJT Industries SIM couplings and timing pulleys

Automation-Direct now offers SIM couplings and 8M timing pulleys for reliable power transmission in OEM and MRO applications. Designed for precise motion control, these components efficiently transmit torque and rotational power. Available in multiple bore sizes and configurations, they ensure accurate alignment, consistent torque transfer, and dependable tooth engagement for various industrial equipment systems.
Learn more.

Top Tech Tip: How do you 3D print STL files?

Learn the basics of 3D printing STL files -- the files that serve as the digital foundation for 3D printing -- and a whole lot more from the experts at Xometry. These files have advantages, of course, but did you know they have disadvantages too? Also learn about STL tools and programs, and how to reduce file size or even repair a file you are having trouble with.
Read the Xometry article.

Tech Tip: Why pins walk and how to ensure it doesn't happen

Lateral movement of installed solid, slotted, or coiled spring pins, commonly referred to as "walking," can occur within a dynamic application if proper design guidelines are not followed. Issues with different pin types may have different causes. Learn the many reasons why pins walk and the design best practices you should follow to avoid the condition.
Read this informative SPIROL Tech Tip.

Ball screw assemblies: Ships in 2 to 3 weeks

Designed to simplify your projects and minimize assembly time, the BNK and SDA-VZ Ball Screw Assembly Series from THK are ready when you are. Each ball screw assembly includes: ball screw shaft (finished ends for standard THK support units), nut bracket, support units, housings, and coupling. Intermediate flange and coupling kit for your motor available.
Learn more.

Engineers develop ballistic wallpaper, pop-up guard towers, laser guns for military

By David Vergun, U.S. Army

Nick Boone, a research mechanical engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center, in Vicksburg, MS, shows a section of ballistic wallpaper during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, 2015. [Photo Credit: David Vergun]

 

 

 

 

Troops often use abandoned masonry, brick, or cinderblock structures for defensive purposes instead of building their own or digging foxholes.

While these structures offer a degree of protection, they are susceptible to blast impact from missile or other large projectiles, said Nick Boone, a research mechanical engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Engineer Research and Development Center, or ERDC, in Vicksburg, MS.

Boone spoke during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, where a large number of Army laboratory exhibits were on display.

Engineers at ERDC came up with a novel idea of fortifying these structures with rolls of lightweight ballistic wallpaper with adhesive backing that can quickly be put up on the inside of the walls, he said.

The wallpaper consists of Kevlar fiber threads embedded in flexible polymer film, he said.

Without the wallpaper, a wall that is hit will "rubblize," he said, sending shards of rock and mortar flying at the occupants inside.

When the blast occurs with the wallpaper installed, it acts as a "catcher's net," containing the rubble and preventing debris from injuring Soldiers.

Engineers built unreinforced structures and actually bombed and blasted them, Boone said, showing a video of the experiments. Small blast testing was done at nearby Fort Polk, LA, and large-blast testing was conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, FL.

Ballistic wallpaper is still in the research and development stage and does not yet have an official name, but it could one day be produced and fielded and hopefully save lives, Boone said.

Other protection
Improved protection mortar pits and guard towers, designed by engineers at ERDC and royal engineers from the United Kingdom, have recently been shipped to Afghanistan, Boone said.

ERDC engineers developed the Modular Protective System, or MPS. These are inexpensive, lightweight, easily assembled and disassembled panels attached by cross-braces, which offer "a lot of protection," he said. The panels were developed by ERDC, and the cross-braces were developed with collaboration from the royal engineers.

"We got the idea from picnic chairs that fold up neatly," he said.

The structures are pretty basic, he said. The braces are made of lightweight galvanized steel tubing, and the panels are made of multi-layered fiberglass.

Modular Protective System models of guard towers and mortar pit protection are shown during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, 2015. [Photo Credit: David Vergun]

 

 

 

 

Boone showed models of the fortification as well as full-size versions. They resembled scaffolding. The steel tubing is crossed-braced at angles that afford the greatest strength, he said. It is strong enough to protect against military-grade rounds.

Besides being inexpensive, strong, and lightweight, the MPS can be quickly assembled by just a few Soldiers without any specialized tools or equipment, he said.

Another positive is that the entire MPS structure fits inside a small container that can be sling-loaded under a CH-47 Chinook helicopter for rapid delivery, he said. The beauty of it is that the shipping container itself then becomes the ammunition storage for the mortar pit structure. For the guard tower, the shipping container becomes a platform to support it.

Once the mission ends, everything gets packed back into the shipping container. Nothing gets wasted or left behind, he said.

The mortar pit MPS kits are being used by Soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, he said. The guard towers are being used by the royal engineers there as well. A small, expeditionary guard tower for the U.S. Army has not yet been deployed.

MPS is standing by for licensing and for a possible transition to a program of record, he said.

Contaminants protection
While protection from blast is fairly evident, protection from the unseen can be just as deadly.

Dr. Brandon Lafferty, a research soil scientist with ERDC, said that while operating in enemy territory, Soldiers sometimes come across existing infrastructure that poses threats that cannot be seen.

"Sometimes, those buildings were abandoned for a reason," Lafferty said. "They may have been a chemical processing site, a waste dump, we just don't know. There are currently no portable tools to rapidly determine possible hazards."

Soldiers on the move often do not have time to wait for heavy test equipment to be trucked in and tested by specialists, he continued.

ERDC engineers developed the "Environmental Toolkit for Expeditionary Operations" to address this problem, he said.

Dr. Brandon Lafferty shows the Petroleum Environmental Test Kit during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, 2015. [Photo Credit: David Vergun]

 

 

 

 

An engineer, who is not a specialist, can toss all the instruments he needs in his rucksack and determine if contaminants are present and what their levels of concentration are, he said, so that a commander can make an informed decision whether or not to occupy the structures or area.

The three pieces of gear used for testing include the Hand-held Fluorescent Spectrometer, which measures heavy metals in soil and water; the Petroleum Environmental Test Kit, which identifies and measures petroleum content in soil and water; and the Water Dog, which tests water properties for hardness, acidity, conductivity, and turbidity to determine if the water is contaminated, good for drinking, or maybe just clean enough for washing clothing.

When Soldiers decamp, the area is tested once more because of environmental reporting that requires an area to be left uncontaminated, he said.

Soldiers are being trained to use the test equipment at the Maneuver Support Center of Excellence on Fort Leonard Wood, MO. Test equipment is now being field tested in Kuwait and Iraq, he said.

Video teleconference in a suitcase
When Soldiers need to set up an outpost or bivouac in an unfamiliar area, there might be hazards nearby like landslides or flooding that they're not aware of.

To determine if the location is safe, Soldiers can contact the experts at ERDC who have all of that information readily available, said Vernon Lowery, general engineer, ERDC.

To make contact in remote areas possible, ERDC has supplied the entire Army with Telecommunications Equipment Deployable, or TCED. This video teleconferencing capability comes in a small suitcase that is easily carried by one person, he said. The communications equipment links to Vicksburg via satellite.

Soldiers in remote areas might also want to communicate with people other than at ERDC for various reasons. Lowery said ERDC can relay them to Video Teleconferences, or VTCs, elsewhere around the world.

Vernon Lowery, general engineer, ERDC, shows the telecommunications equipment deployable during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, 2015. [Photo Credit: David Vergun]

 

 

 

 

For example, when Soldiers deployed to Haiti to assist with earthquake humanitarian assistance relief in 2010, they used TCED to establish command and control. Lowery said Soldiers told him it was their "lifeline," and without it, they could not have accomplished their mission.

Laser protection
Laser guns may sound like the stuff of science fiction, but engineers at the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command - Technical Center at Redstone Arsenal, AL, have successfully developed and tested just such a system, known as High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator, or HEL MD.

Dee Formby, an engineer involved in its development, said that a 10-kW laser, mounted on a Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck A4 platform, successfully took out 60-mm mortars and unmanned aerial vehicles at White Sands Missile Range, NM, last year.

Workings of the High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator are shown during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, 2015. [Photo Credit: David Vergun]

 

 

 

 

Once the laser locks on, it essentially fries its target, Formby said. It is a cost-effective way to destroy cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, mortars, rockets, and artillery.

A 60-mm mortar round fried open by a High Energy Laser Mobile Demonstrator during testing is shown during DOD Lab Day at the Pentagon May 14, 2015. [Photo Credit: David Vergun]

 

 

 

 

In good weather, the laser achieves a high success rate, he said. Right now, the system does not perform as well in degraded weather and atmospheric conditions. Distance-to-target remains classified.

In 2017, a 50-kW version will be tested, followed by a 100-kW demonstration in 2020. Higher power means quicker kill time of the projectile, he said, because more power is on the target.

Published 2015

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