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Intro to reed switches, magnets, magnetic fields

This brief introductory video on the DigiKey site offers tips for engineers designing with reed switches. Dr. Stephen Day, Ph.D. from Coto Technology gives a solid overview on reed switches -- complete with real-world application examples -- and a detailed explanation of how they react to magnetic fields.
View the video.

Bi-color LEDs to light up your designs

Created with engineers and OEMs in mind, SpectraBright Series SMD RGB and Bi-Color LEDs from Visual Communi-cations Company (VCC) deliver efficiency, design flexibility, and control for devices in a range of industries, including mil-aero, automated guided vehicles, EV charging stations, industrial, telecom, IoT/smart home, and medical. These 50,000-hr bi-color and RGB options save money and space on the HMI, communicating two or three operating modes in a single component.
Learn more.

All about slip rings: How they work and their uses

Rotary Systems has put together a really nice basic primer on slip rings -- electrical collectors that carry a current from a stationary wire into a rotating device. Common uses are for power, proximity switches, strain gauges, video, and Ethernet signal transmission. This introduction also covers how to specify, assembly types, and interface requirements. Rotary Systems also manufactures rotary unions for fluid applications.
Read the overview.

Seifert thermoelectric coolers from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct has added new high-quality and efficient stainless steel Seifert 340 BTU/H thermoelectric coolers with 120-V and 230-V power options. Thermoelectric coolers from Seifert use the Peltier Effect to create a temperature difference between the internal and ambient heat sinks, making internal air cooler while dissipating heat into the external environment. Fans assist the convective heat transfer from the heat sinks, which are optimized for maximum flow.
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EMI shielding honeycomb air vent panel design

Learn from the engineering experts at Parker how honeycomb air vent panels are used to help cool electronics with airflow while maintaining electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding. Topics include: design features, cell size and thickness, platings and coatings, and a stacked design called OMNI CELL construction. These vents can be incorporated into enclosures where EMI radiation and susceptibility is a concern or where heat dissipation is necessary. Lots of good info.
Read the Parker blog.

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.

Loss-free conversion of 3D/CAD data

CT CoreTech-nologie has further developed its state-of-the-art CAD converter 3D_Evolution and is now introducing native interfaces for reading Solidedge and writing Nx and Solidworks files. It supports a wide range of formats such as Catia, Nx, Creo, Solidworks, Solidedge, Inventor, Step, and Jt, facilitating smooth interoperability between different systems and collaboration for engineers and designers in development environments with different CAD systems.
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Top 5 reasons for solder joint failure

Solder joint reliability is often a pain point in the design of an electronic system. According to Tyler Ferris at ANSYS, a wide variety of factors affect joint reliability, and any one of them can drastically reduce joint lifetime. Properly identifying and mitigating potential causes during the design and manufacturing process can prevent costly and difficult-to-solve problems later in a product lifecycle.
Read this informative ANSYS blog.

Advanced overtemp detection for EV battery packs

Littelfuse has introduced TTape, a ground-breaking over-temperature detection platform designed to transform the management of Li-ion battery systems. TTape helps vehicle systems monitor and manage premature cell aging effectively while reducing the risks associated with thermal runaway incidents. This solution is ideally suited for a wide range of applications, including automotive EV/HEVs, commercial vehicles, and energy storage systems.
Learn more.

Benchtop ionizer for hands-free static elimination

EXAIR's Varistat Benchtop Ionizer is the latest solution for neutralizing static on charged surfaces in industrial settings. Using ionizing technology, the Varistat provides a hands-free solution that requires no compressed air. Easily mounted on benchtops or machines, it is manually adjustable and perfect for processes needing comprehensive coverage such as part assembly, web cleaning, printing, and more.
Learn more.

LED light bars from AutomationDirect

Automation-Direct adds CCEA TRACK-ALPHA-PRO series LED light bars to expand their offering of industrial LED fixtures. Their rugged industrial-grade anodized aluminum construction makes TRACKALPHA-PRO ideal for use with medium to large-size industrial machine tools and for use in wet environments. These 120 VAC-rated, high-power LED lights provide intense, uniform lighting, with up to a 4,600-lumen output (100 lumens per watt). They come with a standard bracket mount that allows for angle adjustments. Optional TACLIP mounts (sold separately) provide for extra sturdy, vibration-resistant installations.
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World's first metalens fisheye camera

2Pi Optics has begun commercial-ization of the first fisheye camera based on the company's proprietary metalens technology -- a breakthrough for electronics design engineers and product managers striving to miniaturize the tiny digital cameras used in advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), AR/VR, UAVs, robotics, and other industrial applications. This camera can operate at different wavelengths -- from visible, to near IR, to longer IR -- and is claimed to "outperform conventional refractive, wide-FOV optics in all areas: size, weight, performance, and cost."
Learn more.

Orbex offers two fiber optic rotary joint solutions

Orbex Group announces its 700 Series of fiber optic rotary joint (FORJ) assemblies, supporting either single or multi-mode operation ideal for high-speed digital transmission over long distances. Wavelengths available are 1,310 or 1,550 nm. Applications include marine cable reels, wind turbines, robotics, and high-def video transmission. Both options feature an outer diameter of 7 mm for installation in tight spaces. Construction includes a stainless steel housing.
Learn more.

Mini tunnel magneto-resistance effect sensors

Littelfuse has released its highly anticipated 54100 and 54140 mini Tunnel Magneto-Resistance (TMR) effect sensors, offering unmatched sensitivity and power efficiency. The key differentiator is their remarkable sensitivity and 100x improvement in power efficiency compared to Hall Effect sensors. They are well suited for applications in position and limit sensing, RPM measurement, brushless DC motor commutation, and more in various markets including appliances, home and building automation, and the industrial sectors.
Learn more.

Panasonic solar and EV components available from Newark

Newark has added Panasonic Industry's solar inverters and EV charging system components to their power portfolio. These best-in-class products help designers meet the growing global demand for sustainable and renewable energy mobility systems. Offerings include film capacitors, power inductors, anti-surge thick film chip resistors, graphite thermal interface materials, power relays, capacitors, and wireless modules.
Learn more.

Engine design takes major leap at Argonne with ability to conduct 10,000 simulations simultaneously

By Greg Cunningham, Argonne National Laboratory

The search for a truly revolutionary engine design that can make dramatic gains in efficiency requires deep scientific understanding and tools.

Lots and lots of tools.

In the past, tools were needed to make prototypes, requiring repeated testing and retrofitting along with a healthy dose of engineer's intuition to determine which ideas held the most promise. In the future, however, the most important tool for designing engines may well be computers, specifically supercomputers that can virtually test and evaluate thousands of designs simultaneously, weeding out the less promising and leaving behind only those with the most potential, thereby greatly reducing development costs.

A team of scientists and engineers with the Virtual Engine Research Institute and Fuels Initiative (VERIFI) at the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory recently announced that they have taken a major step toward that future. The team has completed development of engineering simulation code and workflows that will allow as many as 10,000 engine simulations to be conducted simultaneously on Argonne's supercomputer, Mira. These simulations are typical "engineering-type" smaller scale simulations, which are used routinely for engine design within industry.

This massive simulation capacity has opened up a new capability for industrial partners seeking new advanced engine designs.

The work was enabled by a recent award of 60 million core hours on Mira -- the fifth-fastest supercomputer in the world -- located at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility (ALCF), a Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science User Facility.

Presently, engineers exploring new engine designs can do a small number of simulations -- perhaps 100 -- on cluster computers, which can take weeks to complete. Each change of a variable in an engine design, such as piston-bowl or fuel-injector configuration, requires a new simulation, and changing multiple variables increases the number of required simulations exponentially, quickly using up the computing power available to industry. At the end of this lengthy simulation process, the engineers have data to select promising designs to go to a prototype hardware build, but only based on a limited number of simulations with a limited number of variables.

"This new computing capability is a quantum leap from what anyone was doing before, and it holds the potential to unlock major breakthroughs in engine efficiency, as well as very substantial cost savings," said Sibendu Som, principal investigator and principal mechanical engineer at Argonne's Center for Transportation Research. "In the past, doing 10,000 simulations was unthinkable. Now we can do that in a matter of days."

While writing code and optimizing workflows might not seem like traditional automotive skills, Som said the coding effort is critical for engineers trying to access the breakthrough capability provided by Mira. The team works with the CONVERGE engine simulation software from Convergent Science, but it's not as simple as putting CONVERGE on a supercomputing system like Mira and hitting start.

Mira is often used to do a few huge simulations, but the VERIFI team wants it to do large numbers of smaller, engineering-type simulations simultaneously. To get there, they had to optimize the source code of CONVERGE and use an Argonne-developed, high-level programming language known as Swift to manage the massive workflows involved.

This massive simulation capacity has opened up a new capability for industrial partners seeking new advanced engine designs. VERIFI is already working with a major auto manufacturer, a leading company in energy and transportation, and a global fuel supplier to put this unique capability to work.

"We're talking about bringing the power of supercomputing to engine design, which will accelerate deployment of new technologies," said Argonne mechanical engineer Janardhan Kodavasal. "You're letting the computer do the heavy lifting. When you can ask a family of questions and get answers in hours, rather than months, you change your approach to asking questions."

The power of supercomputing will not only increase the quality and quantity of simulations while reducing the development costs; it will also broaden the number of vehicle systems that can be simulated at once. The smaller computer systems VERIFI has been working with have forced engineers to focus on finite aspects of engine design, such as fuel injectors or the fluid dynamics of combustion. With this new approach, they can broaden their inquiry to the entire powertrain.

"The modern internal combustion engine is an extremely complex system, so it needs these types of computing resources to do simulations on the scale required to enable real breakthroughs," said Kevin Harms, senior software developer at ALCF. "This is a very exciting area of computer science that could have real-world impacts through greater transportation efficiency and a reduction in harmful emissions."

Funding for the project is provided by DOE's Office of Science and Office of Energy Efficiency & Renewable Energy Vehicle Technologies Office.

Also assisting in the research was Marta García, assistant computational scientist at ALCF.

Published April 2016

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