Click this link if you cannot read the issue below: Designfax - Tech for OEM Design Engineers
January 05, 2016Volume 12 Issue 01


Image - ID/OD Retaining Ring Lock
ID/OD Retaining Ring Lock
Spirolox Retaining Rings can operate in an internal and external groove at the same time. Install the ring in one groove and then compress the ring with the mating component into the second groove. When the grooves meet, the ring snaps into place creating a low cost, hidden, high strength, tamper-proof rotating joint. Over 6,000 rings are stocked from ¼" to 16" diameters in carbon and stainless steel, customs up to 120".

Click here to learn more.


In this issue of Designfax

  • Most popular article: 3D-printed Shelby Cobra
  • Aluminum alternative to Li-ion batteries
  • Anti-drone technology demonstrated
  • Custom rifle barrel makers learn new trick
  • Simulating blasts on Army helmet prototypes
  • World's thinnest light bulb
  • Wings: Drone strikes commercial jet turbofan sim
  • Mike Likes: CadMouse for CAD professionals
  • Engineer's Toolbox: Spinel as transparent ceramic armor
  • Top Product: Copper foam
  • Top Product: High-hardness 3D-printing materials
  • Top Product: Board-level DIY EMI shielding
  • Top Product: Instant hybrid cyanoacrylate adhesive
  • Top Resource: Why plastic bearings outperform metal
  • Mike Likes: Lightweight zipper-fin heat sinks
  • Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
    • GE engineers fire up mini 3D-printed jet engine
    • Honda shows off motorcycle/car prototype
  • New Products
    • Electrical, Mechanical, Motion
    Cover Image: Best of 2015 Part 1

News

Discovery about new battery overturns decades of false assumptions

After falling into National Corvette Museum sinkhole, restoration of 1-millionth Corvette underway

Ford tests cylinder deactivation and flywheels to amp up EcoBoost engine fuel efficiency

UK's first major trial of self-healing concrete gets underway



Image - New High Precision Piezo Motion Controller
New High Precision Piezo Motion Controller
MICROMO announces the DMC-30019 Single Axis Controller from PiezoMotor. The DMC-30019 is a customized controller/driver for use with Piezo LEGS® motors from PiezoMotor Uppsala AB (Sweden). The unit is built on the DMC-30000 Pocket Motion Controller Series, the latest generation single-axis motion controller from Galil Motion Control, Inc. With the Piezo LEGS® direct drive, motor size is significantly reduced and precision is gained by elimination of bulky and lashing mechanical parts.

Click here to learn more.


Feature articles
Most popular article of the year:
3D-printed Shelby Cobra born from giant additive manufacturing machine (Wow!)

It took six weeks for designers, engineers, and finish techs at Oak Ridge National Laboratory to put together a fully drivable 3D-printed Shelby Cobra replica. The bright blue sports car, a celebration of the racing car's 50th anniversary, was hurriedly prepared in the short term for a debut at the 2015 North American International Auto Show in Detroit this past January. In the long term, the feverish efforts produced a working lab on wheels that aims to become a plug-and-play testbed for new engine, fuel cell, and battery technologies.
Read the full article.
Image -
Click here to request your
2016 Proto Labs Cool Parts calendar.
It's a great resource.


Image - Aluminum battery touted as safe, fast-charging alternative to conventional Li-ion batteries
Aluminum battery touted as safe, fast-charging alternative to conventional Li-ion batteries
Stanford University scientists have invented the first high-performance aluminum battery that's fast-charging, long-lasting, and inexpensive. Researchers say the new technology offers a safe alternative to many commercial batteries in wide use today.
Read the full article.

Image - Army, commercial engineers demonstrate anti-drone technology
Army, commercial engineers demonstrate anti-drone technology
With the explosion of military and consumer drone usage around the world, new anti-drone technologies -- from missiles to radio jammers to lasers that fry UAVs in the sky -- are rolling out to track, immobilize, and destroy flying threats.
Read the full article.

Image - Custom rifle barrel makers learn trick from fabricators of less-sophisticated pieces
Custom rifle barrel makers learn trick from fabricators of less-sophisticated pieces
Hammer forged barrels are not well thought of by precision rifle shooters, but a critical manufacturing process used by the hammer forging guys is suddenly getting attention from custom barrel makers today.
Read the full article.

Image - IED-like blast waves simulated against Army helmet prototypes
IED-like blast waves simulated against Army helmet prototypes
The U.S. Army is looking at helmet prototypes with optional parts to protect the face and jaw from various threats, including blast waves. But, as Dr. David Mott -- an aerospace engineer at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory -- says, more parts lead to more surprises.
Read the full article.

Image - World's thinnest light bulb is one atom thick, reaches temps above 2,500 deg C
World's thinnest light bulb is one atom thick, reaches temps above 2,500 deg C
An international team of scientists has demonstrated an on-chip visible light source using graphene, an atomically thin and perfectly crystalline form of carbon, as a filament. Creating light in small structures on the surface of a chip is crucial for developing fully integrated "photonic" circuits.
Read the full article.

Image - Wings: <br>Engineering researchers simulate what happens when a drone strikes a commercial jet turbofan
Wings:
Engineering researchers simulate what happens when a drone strikes a commercial jet turbofan

Researchers at the Virginia Tech College of Engineering have created computer animations of what would happen if a drone were pulled into a commercial airliner's turbo fan engine block.
Read the full article.

Image - Mike Likes: <br>All-new CadMouse for CAD professionals
Mike Likes:
All-new CadMouse for CAD professionals

Designed using extensive CAD-user input, the 3Dconnexion CadMouse is the first mouse made specifically for CAD professionals. It combines powerful, ergonomic hardware and smart, easy-to-use software. It features a dedicated, full-size middle mouse button; QuickZoom; a smart scroll wheel; an advanced laser sensor; a gesture/radial menu button; and optimally shaped PTFE feet. Power users will have the CadMouse in one hand and the 3Dconnexion wireless SpaceMouse Pro or SpaceNavigator in the other.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Engineer's Toolbox: <br>Spinel wears new mantle as transparent armor for Soldiers, products
Engineer's Toolbox:
Spinel wears new mantle as transparent armor for Soldiers, products

Imagine a glass window that's tough like armor, a camera lens that doesn't get scratched in a sand storm, or a smartphone that doesn't break when dropped. Except it's not glass, it's a special ceramic called spinel {spin-ELL} that the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) has been researching over the last 10 years.
Read the full article.

Image - Top Product: Copper foam
Top Product: Copper foam
Copper foam from Goodfellow combines the outstanding thermal conductivity of copper with the structural benefits of a metal foam. These features are of particular interest to design engineers working in the fields of medical products and devices, defense systems and manned flight, power generation, and the manufacture of semiconductor devices. This product has a true skeletal structure with no voids, inclusions, or entrapments. A perennial Designfax favorite.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Top Product: High-hardness 3D-printing materials
Top Product: High-hardness 3D-printing materials
If your vision of the future is 3D printing your own high-hardness steel bearings right at your location on demand, your wish has been granted. A new development from the NanoSteel Company supports the market need for on-demand, on-site wear parts while addressing the current challenges in 3D printing of high-hardness parts. NanoSteel's powder alloy overcomes one of the major hurdles to achieving a high-hardness metallic part through additive manufacturing: the tendency to develop cracks during part builds. The company worked with a global process development partner to optimize processing of a proprietary NanoSteel alloy with a high volume fraction of borocarbide phases. This successfully produced a fully dense (99.9 percent) crack-free part with hardness values over 1000 HV, wear resistance comparable to conventionally manufactured M2 tool steels, and a uniform microstructure.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Top Product: Board-level do-it-yourself EMI shielding
Top Product: Board-level do-it-yourself EMI shielding
ProtoShield sheets from Tech-Etch are depth-etched with a checkerboard pattern for folding, so they can be easily formed into many diverse configurations. In the product-development stage, fully functional shields can be created in minutes with just a pair of scissors and a straight edge for folding. Offered in two sizes: standard (.25-in. squares) and metric (5-mm squares). Both versions are solderable and corrosion resistant due to nickel silver material. Shield prototypes can be directly soldered to the board, or shield clips can be used for easy mounting. Samples available.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Top Product: First instant hybrid cyanoacrylate adhesive
Top Product: First instant hybrid cyanoacrylate adhesive
Henkel has introduced Loctite 4090, a versatile, patented hybrid adhesive that combines the bond strength of a structural epoxy with the speed of an instant adhesive. This powerful combo delivers the first structural cyanoacrylate: an adhesive that offers rapid, high-strength bonding to a range of substrates along with impact and moisture resistance, and temperature resistance to 300 F. Versatile enough to solve both indoor and outdoor design and assembly challenges, the new tech greatly expands the capabilities of cyanoacrylates, especially in applications where traditional instant adhesives offer too little strength or are too brittle.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Top Resource: Why plastic bearings outperform metal
Top Resource: Why plastic bearings outperform metal
Plastic bearings cost and weigh less than their metal counterparts. And they often run longer in harsh environments and under adverse conditions. Plain bearings molded of plastic are often an economical replacement for needle, ball, and plain metal bearings. To a certain extent, though, plastic bearings face an uphill battle for respect among the engineering community.
Learn more in this White Paper guide from igus.

Image - Mike Likes: <br>Lightweight high-density zipper-fin heat sinks
Mike Likes:
Lightweight high-density zipper-fin heat sinks

New zipper-fin heat sinks from Advanced Thermal Solutions (ATS) are protecting thousands of components from the dangers of excess heat at a lower cost than other high-fin-density heat-sink types. Zipper fins are machined from thin sheet metal, typically aluminum or copper, and are formed into custom shapes. Zipper-fin sinks can be designed with integral ducts to contain and optimize cooling airflow for LEDs as well as hot components in the telecom, datacom, military, and embedded electronics industries.
Click here to learn more.

Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
GE engineers fire up mini 3D-printed jet engine
Engineers at GE Aviation made a simple 3D-printed mini jet engine and then had it roar to life at 33,000 rpm. The backpack-size screamer was built over the course of several years to test 3D printing's capabilities with metal and high-strength, high-temperature alloys. "We wanted to see if we could build a little engine that runs almost entirely out of additive manufacturing parts," said Steve Grimm, the plant leader at the Additive Development Center outside Cincinnati, in a GE Reports interview. "This was a fun side project."
View the video.

Video Image
Honda shows off motorcycle/car prototype
Combining the open and engaging feel of a motorcycle with the dynamic handling of an automobile, the Honda Project 2&4 made its North American debut Nov. 17 at the 2015 Los Angeles Auto Show. The design is the winner of the company's in-house 2015 Honda Global Design Project. The Honda Project 2&4 is powered by the RC213V competition motorcycle engine, a 999 cc V-4 unit, originally developed for the world-class MotoGP motorcycle racing series and specially tuned for use on public roads. With a 14,000-rpm red line, the powerplant is mated to a six-speed dual-clutch transmission and delivers peak power of 212 hp at 13,000 rpm, and peak torque of 87 lb-ft. at 10,500 rpm. The body design and engine position were inspired by the legendary Honda RA272 Formula One racecar of 1965.
View the video.

Video Image

New products

Electrical/Electronics
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