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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.

Cybersteels: MIT researchers set their focus on computationally designed high-performance metals

An MIT team is working toward creating better cybersteels, or steels designed with computing technology. Key to the work is the incorporation of fundamental atomic-level data about steel. This image shows the electronic charge distribution at grain boundaries within a steel. [Credit: Image courtesy of QuesTek Innovations]

 

 

 

 

By Elizabeth A. Thomson, Materials Research Laboratory, MIT

With a grant from the Office of Naval Research, MIT researchers aim to design novel high-performance steels, with potential applications including printed aircraft components and ship hulls.

What do the Apple watch and the Raptor engine of the SpaceX Starship have in common?

Answer: Both are made, in part, from advanced materials developed over only a few years -- as opposed to the usual decades -- with the help of computers in a field pioneered at MIT. Now eight MIT professors -- including one of the inventors of the field, known as computational materials design -- aim to make the field even more powerful, thanks to a five-year $7.2 million grant from the Office of Naval Research.

The work is part of the next phase of the Materials Genome Initiative (MGI) announced by President Barack Obama in 2011. The MGI is developing "a fundamental database of the parameters that direct the assembly of the structures of materials," much like the Human Genome Project "is a database that directs the assembly of the structures of life," says Gregory B. Olson, the Thermo-Calc Professor of the Practice in the MIT Department of Materials Science and Engineering (DMSE). The particular fundamental database structure for materials is known as "CALPHAD," invented at MIT in the 1950s, with its commercialization pioneered by the Thermo-Calc company that supports Olson's professorship.

The goal is to use the MGI database to discover, manufacture, and deploy advanced materials twice as fast and at a fraction of the cost compared to traditional methods, according to the MGI website.

The MIT researchers will focus their efforts on steel, "because it's still the material [the world has] studied the longest, so we have the deepest fundamental understanding of its properties," says Olson, project principal investigator. Those fundamental properties are key to a growing steel database that governs everything from chemical compositions to the sequence of process temperatures to design new high-performance steels.

In January, some 60 researchers met at MIT in a two-day conference designed to share progress to date and future initiatives on such cybersteels, or steels that are fully computationally designed. The meeting was sponsored by the multi-institutional "CHiMaD" Center for Hierarchical Materials Design, MIT's Steel Research Group (SRG), QuesTek Innovations, and MIT's Materials Research Laboratory. Olson co-founded SRG, QuesTek, and CHiMaD, and remains affiliated with all three, as well as the MRL.

From printable steels to advanced ship hulls
Cybersteels can have a variety of applications, including steels manufactured by 3D printing that are changing how naval aircraft components are made. Olson's materials design company, QuesTek, has already used computational design technology to take cybersteels to flight qualification in naval aviation components. The Office of Naval Research is also interested in developing non-magnetic steels for ship hulls. "The detection of submarines is based on magnetism, so if you can take away the magnetism, you have a new stealth capability," says Olson, who led computational materials design in 1985 with the late MIT professor Morris Cohen.

In 1985, Olson remembers, nobody knew whether computers could enable the design of new materials. Eventually, however, he and colleagues showed that they could, culminating in President Obama's announcement of the MGI.

The research
The MIT cybersteels project will include work on everything from expanding our knowledge of molten steels -- to be led by Antoine Allanore, DMSE professor of metallurgy -- to the economic modeling of the new steels -- to be led by Elsa A. Olivetti, the Esther and Harold E. Edgerton Career Development Professor in DMSE.

Another major area of study involves the boundaries between the microscopic grains that make up a steel. While the bulk thermodynamics of steel are well established, Olson says, "We need to make progress on the thermodynamics of interfaces" -- the grain boundaries. Experimental work to this end will be conducted by C. Cem Tasan, the Thomas B. King Associate Professor of Metallurgy in DMSE, and James M. LeBeau, an associate professor of DMSE. Theoretical work on grain boundaries will be covered by Christopher A. Schuh, the Danae and Vasilis Salapatas Professor of Metallurgy in DMSE, and Jeffrey C. Grossman, the Morton and Claire Goulder and Family Professor in Environmental Systems and head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.

Olson, together with Professor David M. Parks of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, will work on incorporating simulations of steel toughening mechanisms early in the design process. Historically, simulations have been used in the late stages of design.

Olson is excited about the future. "We have [already] succeeded beyond what I had hoped this technology would be. It's amazing to see it taking off."

Published February 2023

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