| June 10, 2014 | Volume 10 Issue 22 |
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 | Completely Updated New Full Line Catalog:
Full of New Fasteners
Micro Plastics introduces its new 300-page catalog #40 containing thousands of fastening solutions for engineers and product designers. Find hundreds of new problem-solving products, including Spacers, Washers, Clips, Clamps, Ties, Bushings, Screws, Nuts, Rivets, and Plugs. Micro Plastics specializes in Nylon threaded fasteners, but the company also offers extensive product lines for wire management and circuit board hardware. FREE samples are available upon request.
Click here for more information. |
 | Mike Likes:
Silicon carbide foam -- Extreme toughness in a lightweight form
Silicon carbide (SiC) foam, available from Goodfellow, provides the exceptional hardness (Mohs 9), high-temp durability (up to 2,200 C), and performance of solid silicon carbide, but in an extremely lightweight and versatile foam structure. This material has a high thermal and electrical conductivity, and its matrix of cells and ligaments is completely repeatable, regular, and uniform throughout the material, yielding a rigid, highly porous and permeable structure with a controlled density of metal per unit volume. This combination of properties is highly valued in a range of industries, including aerospace, defense, and semiconductor manufacturing. Applications include: high-temp filters, rocket nozzles, heat-shielding elements, heat exchangers, and electromagnetic radiation absorbers.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Engineer's Toolbox:
NASA boards the 3D-manufacturing train
Given NASA's unique needs for highly customized spacecraft and instrument components, additive manufacturing, or "3D printing," offers a compelling alternative to more traditional manufacturing approaches. Led by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, the agency has launched a number of formal programs to prototype new tools for current and future missions using this emerging manufacturing technique.
Read the full article. |
 | Edge welded metal bellows:
Flexibility in more ways than one!
Edge welded metal bellows allow for flexibility in axial, angular and parallel offset motion and provide the most stroke in the smallest amount of space of any bellows technology on the market, by reaching 90% of its free length. BellowsTech can customize size, shape, material, weight, length, and mounting connections to customer specifications.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Wireless rotary torque transducer for extreme high-vibration environments
The Model BT4000 Series Wireless Coupled Flange Drive Rotary Torque Sensor from SensorData Technologies is the only transducer of its kind that offers high-reliability Bluetooth wireless rotary torque sensing in extreme high-vibration environments, where most torque transducers experience premature wear and failure. The series offers highly reliable transmission of measured torque data, requires relatively little installation space, and can measure torque up to 8,000 Nm at speeds up to 7,000 rpm, with analog voltage, digital, or frequency signal outputs.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Bolt interlock added to valve interlock series
Kirk Key has expanded its Eagle Valve Interlock Series, adding bolt interlocking designs to the range of integral valve interlocks. The trapped key interlocking system ensures that workers follow a pre-determined sequence of operation for activating valves in a wide range of industrial settings from manufacturing plants to petrochemical facilities. Eagle Valve Interlocks attach to the valve body without voiding the manufacturer's warranty. The robust, oversized key cannot be duplicated.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Better assembly for tiny PCB parts
Remtec has adapted its Gold-Tin Plating Technology on metallized ceramics to include a newly developed technique of selectively applying AuSn deposits for interconnecting RF and microwave electronic components, lead frames, and other miniature parts on high-frequency PC boards. The proprietary new process replaces the commonly used, labor-intensive method of placing and fastening gold tin solder preforms on organic boards. The use of Remtec's time-proven gold-tin plating capabilities to selectively apply solder on board materials makes electronic assembly significantly less costly and oftentimes serves as an enabling solution for assembly of tiny parts and components on "hard to get" places on circuit boards.
Click here to learn more. |
| | Most popular last issue |
 | Gearheads rejoice: Liquid crystal forms a totally new class of lubricants
Although lubricants are widely used in motors, axles, ventilators, and manufacturing machines -- just for starters -- there have been almost no fundamental innovations for this product in the last 20 years. Together with a consortium, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM in Freiburg, Germany, have developed an entirely new class of substance that could change everything: liquid crystalline lubricant.
Read the full article. |
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| | Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action |
NASA engineers ready Supersonic Decelerator saucer tests
NASA's Low-Density Supersonic Decelerator (LDSD) project is scheduled to perform full-scale, stratospheric tests of two devices this week in Kauai, Hawaii, for landing heavy payloads on Mars: an inflatable deceleration shield in the shape of a saucer and an enormous parachute. The supersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerator is a very large, durable, balloon-like pressure vessel that inflates around the entry vehicle and slows it from Mach 3.5 or greater to Mach 2 or lower. In the inflatables test, a saucer-shaped vehicle with rocket engines will hang from a launch tower, be attached to a huge helium balloon and lifted to 120,000 ft, and then rocket to Mach 4 for supersonic testing.
View the video. |
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