Appliance Design articles from February 2007

Appliance Design archives from February 2007

Overlooking the obvious.(product design)(Editorial)
February 1, 2007... Sherlock Holmes' famous reference to "the curious incident of the dog in the night-time" in Arthur Conan Doyle's "Silver Blaze" may be overworked as a metaphor by now, but in the realm of product design, seeing that which is obviously missing...

Shipments.(Statistical table)
February 1, 2007... SHIPMENTS Product Nov. '06 Nov. '05 % Chg. MAJORS--TOTAL 5,183,000 5,659,900 -8.4% CLEANUP--TOTAL 1,035,200 1,114,300 -7.1% ...

Forecasts.(home appliances)(Statistical table)
February 1, 2007... FORECASTS AUTOMATIC WASHERS--Shipments (Thousands of Units) Qtr: 2006 2007 2008 1 2,486.7 2,362.9 2,431.4 2 2,260.8 2,159.1 2,249.8 3 2,406.2 2,432.7 2,512.9...

Consumers will choose energy savings.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Consumers who are given the opportunity to more effectively consume energy, while at the same time saving money, will do so, according to a two-year study by Whirlpool Corp., Benton Harbor, Mich. The Woodridge Energy Study and Monitoring...

BNP Media launches research arm.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Business-to-business publisher BNP Media of Troy, Mich., publisher of Appliance Design magazine, has launched Clear Seas Research, a separate entity designed to deliver business-to-business market research. Clear Seas Research competes in...

DOE denies waiver.(NEWS WATCH)(Department of Energy )(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) denied a petition by the California Energy Commission (CEC) that sought separate water usage regulations for residential clothes washers sold in the state. Had the CEC's petition been granted, California...

Meetings.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... FEBRUARY Motor & Drive Systems Feb. 7-8, Dallas, Texas Contact: 800/803-9488 Email: jessicad@infowebcom.com Website: www.e-driveonline.com/motors_conf_index.htm The International Builders' Show and nextBUILD Feb....

Whirlpool sells Hoover.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Whirlpool Corp. of Benton Harbor, Mich., has sold the Hoover floor-care business to Hong Kong-based Techtronic Industries Co. Ltd. for $107 million in cash. Techtronic will assume operational control of the Hoover business, including...

Enodis bid dropped.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... The U.K.-based AGA Foodservice Group Plc, a maker home appliances, has dropped its bid for Enodis Plc. after failing to agree to terms with shareholders of the food and beverage equipment manufacturer, which is also based in the U.K. Aga had...

Bosch satisfies.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Bosch Home Appliances, Huntington Beach, Calif., earned the highest ranking in J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Major Home Appliance Customer Satisfaction Study. The company was ranked highest in customer satisfaction in the dishwasher and...

AGA builds in Iowa.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... AGA Foodservice Group, which bought Amana Commercial Microwaves from Whirlpool last September, plans to build a $6 million production facility in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The England-based company plans to begin production at the facility by late...

Helen of Troy gets bedhead.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Helen of Troy Ltd., El Paso, Texas, has entered into a licensing arrangement to use Bed Head by Tigi and Toni&Guy trademarks for developing a new line of hair care products including hair dryers, hair styling irons and strengtheners, hot air...

Steel tariffs revoked.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... The U.S. International Trade Commission voted 4-2 to end protective duties on corrosion resistant steel from France, Canada, Australia and Japan after determining that the change would not cause material injury to the U.S. steel industry....

Husqvarna buys Gardena.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Swedish outdoor appliance maker Husqvarna AB has purchased Gardena AG of Ulm, Germany for $964 million to broaden its range of garden products. Husqvarna acquired Gardena from Industri Kapital, a private equity firm that has owned the business...

Electrolux chair steps aside.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Michael Treschow, chairman of the board of directors of Sweden-based Electrolux has decided to not stand for re-election at the company's annual general meeting in April. Treschow has served as Electrolux's chairman since 2004 and was president...

Small-engine waiver granted.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency granted a waiver allowing the California Air Resources board to implement small-engine emission controls that are more stringent than federal standards. The waiver means that small-engines on lawnmowers...

Sutton resigns ARI post.(NEWS WATCH)(AirConditioning and Refrigeration Institute)(William Sutton)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... The AirConditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) has accepted the resignation of its president, William Sutton, effective the end of February. Sutton was elected president of ARI in September 2001 following his retirement as Rear Admiral...

RoHS challenges Chinese.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... The European Union's Restrictions on Hazardous Substances (RoHS) Directive is proving to be a challenge for small and midsize air conditioner makers in China, according to a report from Research and Markets. The Ireland-based research company's...

Optical joystick phone.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Samsung Electronics, Korea, released what it calls the world's first mobile phone featuring an optical joystick. The SCH-V960 changes the way users interact with the menu and interface of mobile handsets. Users utilize the optical joystick key...

Light and sound.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Futuros Ltd., a company that develops products that integrate sound and light, has introduced AMP Lamp, which integrates audio speaker technology from NXT, plc, in the U.K. The AMP Lamp is a table light with an integrated audio system,...

Detecting bacteria.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Researchers at Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., have developed a technique to identify bacteria in its ambient environment using a mass spectrometer. The technique, called desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), could be used to...

Robotic chair lifts.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Engineers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) are developing a robotic system that may offer mobility to wheelchair-dependent people. The HLPR Chair, an acronym for Home Lift, Position and Rehabilitation, draws on...

Phone has e-paper display.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Motorola of Libertyville, Ill., has debuted the MOTOFONE, a value-priced handset that features a paper-like display. Available in GSM and CDMA versions, the phone was launched in India and will be followed by an international rollout. The phone...

Personal technology.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... Personal digital technology such as mobile phones are used by about two billion people worldwide, according to a United Nation's report, Internet 2006: Digital.Life. The devices are beginning to have a pervasive impact on people's lives, the...

Heat exchangers go flat.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Replacing round tube heat exchangers with flattened tube technology may enable the air conditioning industry to provide comfort cooling using a new refrigerant that increases efficiency, but not size. According to a report from the...

No cancer from cells.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... A study by researchers in Denmark found no link between cell phone use and cancer. In a study of some 420,000 Danish cell phone users, including 52,000 who had used cell phones for more than 10 years, the researchers found that cell phone users...

Energy costs drive change.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... A new national consumer market study finds the rising costs of energy are now high enough that a majority of Americans say they have been forced to change their consumption habits. Energy Pulse 2006, an annual study, reports that 70 percent of...

China to stop making DVDs.(NEWS WATCH)(Brief article)
February 1, 2007... In pushing for its own electronic platforms, Chinese makers of DVD players plan to stop making the technology by 2008, according to an industry group supporting the enhanced versatile disc (EVD) industry standard. Nineteen out of 21 members of...

Cell phone transfers.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... The Librarian of Congress has approved six copyright exemptions including one that will allow cell phone owners to break the software lock of handsets and use the phones with competing carriers. The new rules, which expire in three years, grant...

DOE adopts ARI standards.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... The U.S. Department of Energy has adopted standards that are used to evaluate the energy efficiency performance of commercial cooling and refrigeration products and determine if they meet the standards as established by the Energy Policy Act of...

Revising battery standards.(NEWS WATCH)
February 1, 2007... Executives from Sony and Dell were elected to chair an IEEE Group charged with revising portable computer battery standards. lean Baronas, director of the Technology Standards Office at Sony Electronics, and Bill Kabele, director of Power...

Slide style: touch-slider controls add elegance to kitchen appliances.(CONTROLS & SENSORS)(Cover story)
February 1, 2007... Capacitive touch controls are now finding their way into many applications, from mobile phones to television sets. These interfaces are both robust and practical, and increasingly affordable. The designer's quest for the ideal human interface...

Touch controls touch back: tactile feedback enhances usability of a touch interface.(CONTROLS & SENSORS)
February 1, 2007... As appliance designs become more complex and feature-rich, manufacturers are looking at ways to improve the human-machine interface (HMI). While touchscreens offer intuitive operation and software flexibility, touch-activated digital switches...

Touch sensors spread out: improved capacitive-sensing technology expands the realm of potential applications.(CONTROLS & SENSORS)
February 1, 2007... With all the recent excitement about capacitive sensing in portable media players, laptop PCs and mobile handsets, it is easy to forget that such interface technologies have been actively designed into major appliances applications for years....

Work out works smart: wireless mesh network links fitness machines.(CONTROLS & SENSORS)
February 1, 2007... Life Fitness provides more than 300 different cardio and strength-training products to the fitness industry, delivering products that are used in health clubs worldwide. The company employs more than 1,700 people at 12 international...

A taste of style: novel appliances treat both the eyes and the plate.(COOKING TECHNOLOGIES)
February 1, 2007... When high-tech is served up in high style, the result is a double treat for upscale consumers who want a cooking appliance that is sophisticated in every sense of the word. Greater convenience and more precise control over the cooking process...

Combo connection: single platform combines technologies.(CONNECTORS & CORDS)
February 1, 2007... An alternative approach to designing customizable electrical/electronic interconnects for appliances combines the qualities of multiple off-the-shelf connectors and places them on a single platform, blending pins, blades and varying grades of...

Profiles in power: power cord plugs provide innovative design options.(CONNECTORS & CORDS)
February 1, 2007... The plug. That simple device affixed to the end of a power cord that moves power from the outlet or power strip to the appliance. The plug is often overlooked as a mere commodity component, but smart designers know that it can play a pivotal...

The heat is on: for joining plastic parts, thermal and ultrasonic processes serve different roles.(JOINING)
February 1, 2007... As the use of plastic parts increases in various segments of the appliance and electronics industries, specifying the optimal method for joining molded plastic parts has become more challenging and important than ever. This is due to the...

Better bonding: adhesives can bond difficult materials with proper selection and preparation.(JOINING)
February 1, 2007... Combining materials of choice is important for the appliance industry where "form follows function" is archetypal. Appearance, performance, cost, and assembly case constantly dog the engineering community in this industry. This is particularly...

Interpower.(DESIGN MART)
February 1, 2007... Power cords and cordsets that are in STOCK with no minimum order! Interpower Corporation has over 75,000 North American and international power cords and cordsets that are available to ship immediately! Three week lead times on anything that is...

Zettler Controls, Inc.(DESIGN MART)
February 1, 2007... Zettler Controls, Inc. has proven its quality and reliability in the HVAC/R market with product lines such as relays transformers fan center controls contractors, heat sequencers and thermistors. These products are used in both residential and...

Encouraging the audio experience.(ASSOCIATION REPORT: CEA)
February 1, 2007... The popularity of portable digital audio devices and the growth of high definition television (HDTV) in the last several years have brought an incredible energy and excitement to the consumer electronics industry. Consumers are spending more...