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hyperMILL 2024 CAD/CAM software suite

OPEN MIND Technologies has introduced its latest hyperMILL 2024 CAD/CAM software suite, which includes a range of powerful enhancements to its core toolpath capabilities, as well as new functionality for increased NC programming efficiency in applications ranging from 2.5D machining to 5-axis milling. New and enhanced capabilities include: Optimized Deep Hole Drilling, a new algorithm for 3- and 5-axis Rest Machining, an enhanced path layout for the 3D Plane Machining cycle, better error detection, and much more.
Learn more.

One-part epoxy changes from red to clear under UV

Master Bond UV15RCL is a low-viscosity, cationic-type UV-curing system with a special color-changing feature. The red material changes to clear once exposed to UV light, indicating that there is UV light access across the adhesive material. Although this change in color from red to clear does not indicate a full cure, it does confirm that the UV light has reached the polymer. This epoxy is an excellent electrical insulator. UV15RCL adheres well to metals, glass, ceramics, and many plastics, including acrylics and polycarbonates.
Learn more.

SPIROL Press-N-Lok™ Pin for plastic housings

The Press-N-Lok™ Pin was designed to permanently retain two plastic components to each other. As the pin is inserted, the plastic backfills into the area around the two opposing barbs, resulting in maximum retention. Assembly time is quicker, and it requires lower assembly equipment costs compared to screws and adhesives -- just Press-N-Lok™!
Learn more about the new Press-N-Lok™ Pin.

Why hybrid bearings are becoming the new industry standard

A combination of steel outer and inner rings with ceramic balls or rollers is giving hybrid bearings unique properties, making them suitable for use in a wide range of modern applications. SKF hybrid bearings make use of silicon nitride (twice as hard as bearing steel) rolling elements and are available as ball bearings, cylindrical roller bearings, and in custom designs. From electric erosion prevention to friction reduction and extended maintenance intervals, learn all about next-gen hybrid bearings.
Read the SKF technical article.

3M and Ansys train engineers on simulating adhesives

Ansys and 3M have created an advanced simulation training program enabling engineers to enhance the design and sustainability of their products when using tapes and adhesives as part of the design. Simulation enables engineers to validate engineering decisions when analyzing advanced polymeric materials -- especially when bonding components made of different materials. Understand the behavior of adhesives under real-world conditions for accurate modeling and design.
Read this informative Ansys blog.

New FATH T-slotted rail components in black from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct has added a wide assortment of black-colored FATH T-slotted hardware components to match their SureFrame black anodized T-slotted rails, including: cube connectors (2D and 3D) and angle connectors, joining plates of many types, brackets, and pivot joints. Also included are foot consoles, linear bearings in silver and black, cam lever brakes, and L-handle brakes. FATH T-slotted hardware components are easy to install, allow for numerous T-slotted structure configurations, and have a 1-year warranty against defects.
Learn more.

Weird stuff: Moon dust simulant for 3D printing

Crafted from a lunar regolith simulant, Basalt Moon Dust Filamet™ (not a typo) available from The Virtual Foundry closely mirrors the makeup of lunar regolith found in mare regions of the Moon. It enables users with standard fused filament fabrication (FFF) 3D printers to print with unparalleled realism. Try out your ideas before you go for that big space contract, or help your kid get an A on that special science project.
Learn more.

Break the mold with custom injection molding by Rogan

With 90 years of industry experience, Rogan Corporation possesses the expertise to deliver custom injection molding solutions that set businesses apart. As a low-cost, high-volume solution, injection molding is the most widely used plastics manufacturing process. Rogan processes include single-shot, two-shot, overmolding, and assembly. Elevate your parts with secondary operations: drilling and tapping, hot stamping, special finishes, punch press, gluing, painting, and more.
Learn more.

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 interactive digital catalog from EXAIR

EXAIR's latest catalog offers readers an incredible source of innovative solutions for common industrial problems like conveying, cooling, cleaning, blowoff, drying, coating, and static buildup. This fully digital and interactive version of Catalog 35 is designed for easy browsing and added accessibility. Customers can view, download, print, and save either the full catalog or specific pages and sections. EXAIR products are designed to conserve compressed air and increase personnel safety in the process. Loaded with useful information.
Check out EXAIR's online catalog.

5 cost-saving design tips for CNC machining

Make sure your parts meet expectations the first time around. Xometry's director of application engineering, Greg Paulsen, presents five expert tips for cutting costs when designing custom CNC machined parts. This video covers corners and radii, designing for deep pockets, thread depths, thin walls, and more. Always excellent info from Paulsen at Xometry.
View the video.

What can you secure with a retaining ring? 20 examples

From the watch dial on your wrist to a wind turbine, no application is too small or too big for a Smalley retaining ring to secure. Light to heavy-duty loads? Carbon steel to exotic materials? No problem. See how retaining rings are used in slip clutches, bike locks, hip replacements, and even the Louvre Pyramid.
See the Smalley design applications.

Load fasteners with integrated RFID

A crane, rope, or chain may be required when something needs lifting -- plus anchoring points on the load. JW Winco offers a wide range of solutions to fasten the load securely, including: lifting eye bolts and rings (with or without rotation), eye rings with ball bearings, threaded lifting pins, shackles, lifting points for welding, and more. Some, such as the GN 581 Safety Swivel Lifting Eye Bolts, even have integrated RFID tags to clearly identify specific lifting points during wear and safety inspections and manage them digitally and without system interruption.
Learn more.

Couplings solve misalignments more precisely with targeted center designs

ALS Couplings from Miki Pulley feature a simplistic, three-piece construction and are available in three different types for more precisely handling parallel, angular, or axial misalignment applications. The key feature of this coupling design is its center element. Each of the three models has a center member that has a unique and durable material and shape. Also called a "spider," the center is designed to address and resolve the type of misalignment targeted. Ideal for unidirectional continuous movement or rapid bidirectional motion.
Learn more.

What is 3D-MID? Molded parts with integrated electronics from HARTING

3D-MID (three-dimensional mechatronic integrated devices) technology combines electronic and mechanical functionalities into a single, 3D component. It replaces the traditional printed circuit board and opens up many new opportunities. It takes injection-molded parts and uses laser-direct structuring to etch areas of conductor structures, which are filled with a copper plating process to create very precise electronic circuits. HARTING, the technology's developer, says it's "Like a PCB, but 3D." Tons of possibilities.
View the video.

Can scientists make matter only using light? High-power laser simulations aim to help make it happen

A few minutes into the life of the universe, colliding emissions of light energy created the first particles of matter and antimatter. We are familiar with the reverse process -- matter generating energy -- which occurs in an atomic bomb, for example, but it has been difficult to recreate that critical transformation of light into matter.

Now, a new set of simulations by a research team led by UC San Diego's Alexey Arefiev points the way toward making matter from light. The process starts by aiming a high-power laser at a target to generate a magnetic field as strong as that of a neutron star. This field generates gamma ray emissions that collide to produce, for the very briefest instant, pairs of matter and antimatter particles.

A new study offers a recipe for researchers at the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) high-power laser facility to follow to produce matter from light. Pictured is the L3-HAPLS advanced petawatt laser system at the ELI Beamlines Research Center. [Photo courtesy: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.]

 

 

 

 

The study published May 11 in Physical Review Applied offers a sort of recipe that experimentalists at the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI) high-power laser facilities in Eastern Europe could follow to produce real results in one to two years, said Arefiev, an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering.

"Our results put scientists in a position to probe, for the first time, one of the fundamental processes in the universe," he said.

Harnessing high power
Arefiev, Ph.D. student Tao Wang, and their colleagues at the Relativistic Laser-Plasma Simulation Group have been working for years on ways to create intense, directed beams of energy and radiation, work that is supported in part by the National Science Foundation and Air Force Office of Science Research. One way to accomplish this, they noted, would be to aim a high-power laser at a target to create a very strong magnetic field that would throw off intense energy emissions.

High-intensity, ultra-short laser pulses aimed at a dense target can render the target "relativistically transparent," as the electrons in the laser move at a velocity very close to the speed of light and effectively become heavier, Arefiev explained. This keeps the laser's electrons from moving to shield the target from the laser's light. As the laser pushes past these electrons, it generates a magnetic field as strong as the pull on the surface of a neutron star -- 100 million times stronger than Earth's magnetic field.

To say this all happens in the blink of an eye is a vast overstatement. The magnetic field exists for 100 femtoseconds (a femtosecond is 10^-15 of a second, a quadrillionth of a second).

A high-power laser in this instance is one in the multi-petawatt range. A petawatt is a million billion watts. For comparison, the Sun delivers about 174 petawatts of solar radiation to the Earth's entire upper atmosphere. A laser pointer delivers about 0.005 watt to a Power Point slide.

Previous simulations suggested that the laser in question would have to be high powered and aimed at a tiny spot to produce the required intensity to create a strong enough magnetic field. The new simulations suggest that by increasing the size of the focal spot and boosting the laser power to around 4 petawatts, the laser's intensity could remain fixed and still create the strong magnetic field.

Under these conditions, the simulations show, the laser-accelerated electrons of the magnetic field spur the emission of high-energy gamma rays.

"We did not expect that we didn't need to go to a crazy intensity, that it's just sufficient to increase the power and you can get to very interesting things," said Arefiev.

Particle pairs
One of those interesting things is the production of electron-positron pairs -- paired particles of matter and antimatter. These particles can be produced by colliding two gamma-ray beams or colliding one gamma-ray beam with blackbody radiation, an object that absorbs all radiation falling on it. The method produces a lot of them -- tens to hundreds of thousands of pairs born out of one collision.

Scientists have performed the light-into-matter feat before, notably in one 1997 Stanford experiment, but that method required an extra stream of high-energy electrons, while the new method "is only light used to produce matter," said Arefiev. He also noted that the Stanford experiment "would produce one particle pair about every 100 shots."

An experiment that uses only light to create matter more closely mimics conditions during the first minutes of the universe, offering an improved model for researchers looking to learn more about this critical time period. The experiment could also provide more chances to study antimatter particles, which remain a mysterious part of the universe's composition. For instance, scientists are curious to learn more about why the universe appears to have more matter than antimatter, when the two should exist in equal amounts.

Arefiev and his colleagues were encouraged to do these simulations now because the laser facilities capable of carrying out the actual experiments are now available. "We specifically did the calculations for the lasers that have not been available until recently, but now should be available at these laser facilities," he said.

In an odd twist, the simulations proposed by the research team could also help the ELI scientists determine whether their lasers are as intense as they think they are. Firing a laser in the multi-petawatt range at a target only five microns in diameter "destroys everything," said Arefiev. "You shoot and it's gone, nothing is recoverable, and you can't actually measure the peak intensity that you produce."

But if the experiments produce gamma rays and particle pairs as predicted, "this will be a validation that the laser technology can reach such a high intensity," he added.

Last year, the UC San Diego researchers received a U.S. National Science Foundation grant that allows them to partner with ELI researchers to carry out these experiments. This partnership is critical, Arefiev said, because there are no facilities in the United States with powerful enough lasers, despite a 2018 report from the National Academies of Sciences warning that the U.S. has lost its edge in investing in intense ultra-fast laser technology.

Arefiev said the ELI laser facilities will be ready to test their simulations in a couple years. "This is the reason why we wrote this paper, because the laser is operational, so we are not that far away from actually doing this," he said. "With science, that is what attracts me. Seeing is believing."

Source: Jacobs School of Engineering, UC San Diego

Published June 2020

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