Design News articles from April 2008

Design News archives from April 2008

The Case of the Culpable Contractor.
April 7, 2008... By Myron J. Boyajian, President, Engineering Consultants The U.S. Navy used electric-powered forklifts in the ammo holds on its aircraft carriers. These stand-up rider, end-control, straddle-type forklifts were propelled by two linked,...

Best of the Engineering Marketplace.(Buyers guide)
April 7, 2008... Compiled by Elizabeth M. Taurasi and Sasha Brown-Worsham CIT Relay and Switch's AH Series Elizabeth M. Taurasi, Sasha Brown-Worsham Panel mount, splash- and vandal-proof CIT Relay and Switch introduces the AH Series 19-mm...

Coffee, Industrially Automated.(coffee consumption)(Editorial)(Statistical data)
April 7, 2008... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief My first cup of coffee in the morning is a sacred ritual. Potency is paramount; hence my preference for hearty French and Italian roasts. I suppose the sad thing is that I brew it in a $20 Mr. Coffee CGX20...

Engineering a Good Cup of Coffee.(Javabot)
April 7, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control & Automation Machine-building skills and controls know-how have produced an automated coffee roasting and brewing system known as the Javabot If Willy Wonka designed a coffee store, he...

Boeing's Dreamliner Drives.(Boeing Commercial Airplanes' new airplane is the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, a super-efficient airplane)
April 7, 2008... By Doug Smock, Contributing Editor, Materials and Fastening The wildly successful composite platform highlights a dramatic trend toward design and productivity in the once moribund fastener industry Recent supply problems for the...

All Systems Go.(engine control unit)(Parametric Technology Corp)
April 7, 2008... By Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor, Design Tools Mechatronics to the rescue. Engineers are grappling with how to more effectively design products that have mechanical, electronics and software components. When an average vehicle...

Mouse Fits in Cramped Spaces, Goes Through Walls.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Working in a cramped coach seat during a flight or controlling a distant PC while presenting in a large room pose different challenges, but they can both be addressed with the Air Mouse from Gyration....

Monitoring Materials on the Fly.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Airbus is expanding the use of fiber-reinforced materials, slashing weight by 25 percent over aluminum. But as usage increases, so does the likelihood reinforced parts will crack. Though cracks in...

People Watching with a Purpose.(Xsens is a leading developer and supplier of products for measurement of motion)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Recording and analyzing human motion is transforming fields as disparate as sports science, computer animation and medical rehabilitation. The Moven motion capture suit from Xsens Motion Technologies...

Providing a Sense of Security.
April 7, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Stolen laptops are a growing security risk, whether they store thousands of Social Security numbers or an individual owner's financial data. Biometric sensors provide another tool in the battle to...

Sensing Wing Positions.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor The difficulty of producing modern aircraft has gotten plenty of attention over the last year. On a large plane like the Airbus A380, one of the biggest challenges comes with wings. They are huge, carry...

Case #118: Spying on Your Freezer.(William Grill developed a gadget that measures freezer temperatures)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Design News Staff William Grill wanted to make sure his freezer didn't cut out and ruin his frozen food. He was concerned that when he traveled, his food could defrost and re-freeze - thus compromising his frozen steaks - without his...

Micro Innovations' Battery-Free Mouse.(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Micro Innovations, a company that imports and distributes computer accessories, introduced an environmentally friendly product line that includes surge protectors, a battery-free mouse and a low-power...

Green Air Purifier Debuts.(Alen Corp.)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Alen Corp.'s green AirMD air purifier is certified lead-free, ozone safe and Energy Star qualified by both the EPA and the U.S. Dept. of Energy. 'We are offering the first green lead-free air purifier in...

Autodesk Releases Green Building Studio.(Autodesk Inc., a company that produces AutoCAD and building information modeling (BIM) software)(Brief article)
April 7, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Autodesk Inc., a company that produces AutoCAD and building information modeling (BIM) software for the building industry, released green building software it acquired in the purchase of Green Building...

Mama Don't Take My Kodachrome Away!(Information fo digital cameras)
April 7, 2008... By Kevin C. Craig Photographs do give us nice bright colors and the greens of summer and they do make you think all the world's a sunny day! But we don't need Kodachrome film anymore as the digital image sensor (figure 1, below) - the...

Small Vehicle Market Going Electric.
April 7, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics Lead-acid batteries, brush-type motors lead parade of tried-and-true technologies In today's electric vehicle (EV) market, small is beautiful. Thanks to a change in...

TI Targets Handhelds with New Processor.(Texas Instruments Inc. )
April 7, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics 'Superscalar' architecture enables 1,200 MIPS, a 4x increase in processing speed Texas Instruments Inc. (TI) says it will bring laptop-type performance to the handheld level,...

LeCroy Takes Complexity Out of the Box in Redesign.(Design For Manufacturing and Assembly )
April 7, 2008... By Doug Smock, Contributing Editor, Materials and Fastening Use of finger tabs and self-clinching inserts cuts fastener count from 103 to 42 in an oscilloscope top box DFMA project The number of fasteners used in an oscilloscope top box...

Ceramic Motors for Magnetically Sensitive Medical Systems.
April 7, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Nanomotion piezoelectric motion systems are going into MRI-guided medical devices that work in close proximity to imaging systems Piezoelectric motors and actuators usually get the nod in...

Autodesk Firms up Digital Prototyping Story.
April 7, 2008... By Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor, design tools Company rolls out Inventor 2009, with enhancements that improve connections between manufacturing and design processes Emphasizing its digital prototyping story, Autodesk...

The U.S. Should Be Smart Enough to Know Better.
April 7, 2008... By Pamela Kan, president, Bishop-Wisecarver Corp. America has turned its back on education and manufacturing For years the U.S. has been the center of the world's economy. That was largely due to our culture of innovation and a once...

Political Correctness and Datasheets.(Datasheets)
April 7, 2008... By John Ardizzoni Q. Datasheet Specifications: Provoking or Confusing? A. That's a matter of opinion. We receive many comments about our datasheets, mostly 'good,' 'well done' or 'reliable data.' On some occasions, however, customers...

GM's Power Train Strategy.(General Motors Corp.)(Interview)
April 7, 2008... By Charlie E. Freese V, executive director diesel engine engineering, GM Powertrain More hybrids and diesels are in the plans General Motors recently introduced a dual-mode hybrid for the Chevy Tahoe and the GMC Yukon. In addition, GM...

State-of-the-Art Applications.(Evaluation of control systems)
April 7, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Ethernet, robotics and motor-drive controllers create powerful application solutions For machinery OEMs interested in modular machine design, increased levels of performance, flexibility and smaller...

Innovative Tools & Techniques to Implement Flexible Automation.
April 7, 2008... By Andre By, Contributing Writer Modular subsystems, machine vision plus configurable control software are key Automation Engineering Inc. (AEi) is a worldwide supplier of automation systems for high precision manufacturing...

Modular Machines.(Interview)(Interview)
April 7, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Automation motion technologies shape new machinery designs What are important trends in automation and motion control? A key direction in machine design is modular machine concepts where OEMs are...

Non-Linear Control Advances Servo Performance.
April 7, 2008... By Mark P. Bourgeois, Contributing Writer Adaptive servo control eliminates settling time Today's feedback control systems use digital control techniques and observer software control algorithms to achieve the highest accuracies and...

New Power Management Devices Boost Efficiency.
April 7, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics ICs target handhelds, servers and data centers In today's product designs, power efficiency is more critical than ever. Cell phones, portable media players and PDAs need to...

Count Your Effective Bits.(Information of data-acquisition system)
April 7, 2008... By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor When you buy a data-acquisition (DAQ) board or system that includes, say, a 20-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC), you expect to get 20 bits of resolution. Chip manufacturers produce highly accurate...

Readers Pick the Best and Worst Tech Movies.
April 7, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics Not enough movies have engineers as central characters Apparently, many Design News' readers are movie buffs. In January, we asked our readers to weigh in on the best and...

The Case of the Fatal Frustum.(arson investigation)
April 28, 2008... By Kenneth Russell, Professor Emeritus, MIT, Cambridge, MA Urban Americans fear home intruders. The motive for the intrusion is most likely burglary, but the results can be horrific. A noisy dog, even of the Toy breed, is the best intruder...

Best of the Engineering Marketplace.
April 28, 2008... Compiled by Elizabeth M. Taurasi and Sasha Brown-Worsham Omron's B6TS Elizabeth M. Taurasi, Sasha Brown-Worsham Available in four versions Designed to integrate easily and quickly with any capacitive touch interface, the new...

It's Not a Slam Dunk.(plug-in hybrid batteries)
April 28, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics Plug-in hybrid batteries are still an unknown for the auto industry To an engineer, it looks obvious. Gasoline packs 80 times more energy per kilogram than a lithium-ion...

No Batteries Required.
April 28, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Hydraulic hybrid technology has been aimed at trucks, but it could make sense for smaller vehicles What if there was a hybrid vehicle technology that could at least double the gas mileage...

Electrifying Car Design.
April 28, 2008... By Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor, Design Tools 3-D CAD and simulation software are helping electric vehicle teams address new aerodynamics, packaging and power design challenges Designing a vehicle, whether a sports car or SUV,...

Case #119: Take Control of Your Car's Interior Lights.(Automobile Interior Lights Fader)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... Staff When you close your car door, the lights may go out immediately, fade or they may stay on interminably while you stand there wondering if you closed the door all the way. Bill Bowden has devised a gadget that lets you take control of...

Fastenal Stores Launch Recycling Program.(Fastenal Co. partners with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp.)(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Industrial distributor Fastenal partnered with the Rechargeable Battery Recycling Corp. (RBRC) to launch RBRC's Call2Recycle program in 1,900 of its stores throughout the U.S. Consumers can now drop...

Post Office Recycling Via Mail.(Brief article)
April 28, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor The U.S. Postal Service launched a pilot program that allows customers to recycle small electronics and ink-jet cartridges by mailing them free of charge. The 'Mail Back' program makes it easier for...

Microsoft Releases Green Enterprise Products.
April 28, 2008... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Microsoft is taking its software into green territory. The company recently signed an agreement with Yello Strom, a Cologne, Germany-based electricity supplier, to help people better understand how their...

Readers Sound Off.(Letter to the editor)
April 28, 2008... Staff When do you become an engineer? The engineers coming out of school think that their school is good until... they are confronted with real engineers ('Crisis in Engineering Education,' DN 03.17.08, http://rbi.ims.ca/5709-516 )... .

Engineering's Terrorism Link?('Engineers of Jihad')
April 28, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control 'Engineers of Jihad,' a report from Oxford University's Dept. of Sociology, examines whether there is something about engineers that makes them more likely to join extreme Islamic groups ...

Camera Analyzes Driver Behavior, Boosts Safety.(Drivecam Inc. camera module)
April 28, 2008... By Charles J. Murray, Senior Technical Editor, Electronics System watches, records, stores and uploads video events A new windshield-mounted camera module could enable automotive fleet managers to monitor driving behavior of their...

New Silicone Rubber Offers Expanded Design Options.(liquid injection-molded silicones)
April 28, 2008... By Doug Smock, Contributing Editor, Materials and Fastening Design engineers benefit as North American injection molders look for niche, value-added applications to stay globally competitive The steep decline in American injection...

Caterpillar Goes Electric.(Caterpillar Inc.'s D7E)
April 28, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control The company's D7E tractor features a novel new all-electric drivetrain Hybrid-electric drives aren't just for passenger cars and on-highway vehicles anymore. Caterpillar...

Thirty Year Quest for Lean Burn.(lean-burn technology )
April 28, 2008... By Michael A.V. Ward, Ph.D., President & Board Chairman, Combustion Electromagnetics Inc. Birth, death and 'rebirth of lean-burn technology' Lean-burn technology is alive and well and can help the auto industry - if we let it. With...

Sensors Get More Savvy.
April 28, 2008... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor System engineers benefit with simplified design The ability to sense common or unusual parameters is a great start for any control system. However, those sensors that take into account system-related...

Total Recall Using In-Sight.(Cognex In-Sight)
April 28, 2008... By Karin Krell, Contributing Writer Complete traceability for medical instruments ID technologies that have already proven themselves in other industries are now opening up previously untapped potential in hospitals. Potential for both...

Pulse-Width-Modulation (PWM) Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) vs. Stand-Alone DAC.
April 28, 2008... By John Austin and Youbok Lee, Ph.D., Contributing Writers What benefits are associated with each, which is most appropriate? In today's highly competitive electronics environment, designers are constantly looking for ways to reduce...

The System Aspects of Sensing.(Interview)
April 28, 2008... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor Changing the definition of plug-and-play sensors The short list of system aspects includes interfacing, communication (including wireless), packaging and ease of use. As the author of IC Insights'...

Sensing Consumer Needs.(sensors in consumer products)
April 28, 2008... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor Sensors add new features and functionality to consumer products Forecast to have an increasing impact on solid-state sensor applications (according to IC Insights' O-S-D Report)...

Product Highlights from the IFPE Show.(International Fluid Power Exposition)
April 28, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Leaders in fluid power unveil the latest product technologies and innovations More than 144,600 industry professionals from around the world attended CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2008 and IFPE 2008 from March...

Precision Hydraulics.
April 28, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Integrated axis control valves improve tolerances, reduce machine size As diesel engines are increasingly required to have greater output at smaller sizes, engine parts manufacturers are seeking new...

Leak-Free Design.(leak-free hydraulic systems)(Editorial)
April 28, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Torquing and coupling nut design critical to engineering hydraulic systems Designing effective, leak-free hydraulic systems requires special attention to torque levels and proper sealing techniques....

Hydraulic Modeling and Simulation.
April 28, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Standard software tools provide methods for verifying hydraulic system design Software tools for simulation and modeling can help verify the design of hydraulic motion control systems. Model-based...

Holding Heavy Loads.
April 28, 2008... By Al Presher, Contributing Editor Gantry manufacturer uses servo motor brake for fail-safe performance In emergency stop situations, to achieve fail-safe operation, heavy loads need to be stopped quickly in a controlled manner. A...

Rugged Encoders.(Editorial)
April 28, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control They thrive in washdown, other harsh environments Engineers know harsh environments can wreak havoc with feedback devices such as encoders, even causing them to fail prematurely, turning...

Seek New Peak Horizons.
April 28, 2008... By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor When we talk about a 'bell curve,' most technical people understand we mean a Gaussian or 'normal' distribution. My introduction to the Gaussian distribution came in an analytical-chemistry course when our...

The Art of 3-D Printing.(Design and the Elastic Mind exhibit)
April 28, 2008... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Design and the Elastic mind spotlights the potential - and limitations - of additive manufacturing technologies The most important debate taking place in the additive fabrication circles...