Design News articles from December 2007

Design News archives from December 2007

Top blog posts.
December 10, 2007... By Design News Staff Recent posts on the latest engineering technology trends designnews.com/blogs Do LED Lamps Signal the End of Christmas Magic? Herr Drosselmeyer is rolling over in his grave - again. 1987 mid-November; the...

The Giant German Plastics Show Did Not Disappoint.(Georg Kaufmann Formenbau)
December 10, 2007... By Doug Smock, Contributing Editor, Materials and Fastening Innovative design ideas sprouted like daisies at K 2007, the giant plastics trade show held Oct. 24-31 in Dusseldorf, Germany. There were plenty of interesting collaborative...

The Case of the Acrobatic Airplane.
December 10, 2007... By Kenneth Russell, Professor Emeritus, MIT, Cambridge MA. A twin-turboprop powered passenger airplane was shared by several companies. The pilot for one user attempted to lower the gear for a routine landing but found to his dismay one of...

Engine Control + Torque Sensor = Improved Fuel Economy.
December 10, 2007... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor Technique uses the existing shaft for low cost measurement In spite of all the sensors found on vehicles, a torque sensor is not one of them. 'All OEMs today use torque sensors in their lab and...

Wind Power to the People.
December 10, 2007... John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief Today is raw, wet and windy with gusts up to 25 mph - a lousy day in most anyone's book. But it would be a good day if I had a wind turbine in my back yard. And I soon will. I have been interested in wind...

Best of the Engineering Marketplace.
December 10, 2007... Compiled by Elizabeth M. Taurasi and Sasha Brown-Worsham Otek's LSB Elizabeth M. Taurasi, Sasha Brown-Worsham Part of new loop-powered meter series The New LSB shares the same housing as the HI-Q123, HI-Q124 and HI-QTBS, but...

Motion is Moving to Ethernet.
December 10, 2007... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Thanks to its expanding real-time capabilities, industrial Ethernet technologies can increasingly take on motion control applications Engineers who design industrial machines still have to...

The Compliance State of Mind.
December 10, 2007... By Beth Stackpole, Software/Hardware Rather than dealing with compliance directives after-the-fact, smart companies are retooling to make compliance a consideration at the onset of design Like any startup in the electronics space,...

Sun Sets on Six Sigma at 3M R&D.(Company overview)
December 10, 2007... By John Dodge, Editor-in-Chief To apply a strict methodology to the innovation process or not to apply... that is the question For the past two years, 3M Corp. has been giving back freedom and decision-making to its researchers...

Pixel Counts Soar.
December 10, 2007... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Digital camera capabilities continue to soar. Kodak's EasyShare Z1275 has 12 megapixel resolution and can record up to 80 min of High Definition video. Photographers can print images up to 30 x 40 inch...

Customizing Guitar Playback With Handheld Effect Control.
December 10, 2007... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Changing the sound of an electric guitar no longer requires plugging in to a number of different amps and special effect pedals. Instead, the pocket-sized POD family from Line 6 digitally models the...

3 MP3 Recorder Cuts Out Radio Commercials.
December 10, 2007... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Those who enjoy radio but don't like listening to advertisements might want to look at a unit from PopCatcher, a Swedish audio designer. Its FM radio system turns radio broadcasts into MP3s, leaving...

GPS Helps Prevent Speeding Tickets.
December 10, 2007... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Portable navigation devices are letting users program alerts to prevent speeding tickets or highlight spots they may want to stop, displaying that information on larger screens. Garmin PNDs and handheld...

5 Playing iPod Video on TVs.(televisions)(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... By Terry Costlow, Contributing Editor Ultra wideband wireless communications are taking the iPod's video capability full circle, making it possible to store TV shows on an iPod, then play them back on a TV. Taiwan-based Chanceux Co. uses...

Case # 113: Turning a Flash Camera into a Coin Toss.(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... By Design News Staff Joe Groele of Allegany, N.Y., took a flash camera, added a few electronic components and turned it into a coin-tossing gadget. He converted the flash into a strobe, then he ran the electricity through a coil to create...

Siemens, Kansas Universities Create Off-Grid Solar Home at DC Mall.(district of columbia)(Siemens Building Technologies Inc.)(University of Kansas)(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Siemens Building Technologies Inc. worked with engineering and architecture students from Kansas State University and the University of Kansas to build a net zero-energy solar home at the National Mall in...

Pratt-Whitney Builds Energy-Efficient Engine for Mitsubishi.(Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd.)(Pratt and Whitney)(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor Pratt-Whitney has launched the energy-efficient Geared Turbofan engine to power the new Mitsubishi Regional Jet. The airframe application for the Geared Turbofan was designed to deliver a significant...

Clean Diesel Fuel Nearly Doubles in One Year.(Brief article)
December 10, 2007... By Rob Spiegel, Contributing Editor The Diesel Technology Forum - a non-profit group that works to raise awareness about the environmental progress of diesel engines - has reported that ultra-low sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel has become widely...

Readers Sound Off.(Letter to the editor)
December 10, 2007... By Design News Staff Is there unbiased research out there? I have been an electrical design engineer for 40 years.A I, also, refuse to get my news from the weekly magazines, the evening news or CNN.A About half of what I see on Fox...

Testing the Tools.
December 10, 2007... By Kevin Craig Like many of you, I have played golf off and on since I was a teenager. It always seemed like it should be an easy game. But as anyone who has played golf knows, that is the furthest thing from the truth. I now believe the...

Revamped Motor Standards.
December 10, 2007... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Electric motor technology may not progress in leaps and bounds, but there have been plenty of evolutionary changes over the past few years. In an ideal world, that evolution would trigger...

Microchip Jumps to 32 Bits.
December 10, 2007... By Charles J. Murray, senior technical editor, electronics Eight-bit leader brings scalability, simplicity to 32-bit applications Eight-bit heavyweight Microchip Technology Inc. has entered the 32-bit market, making it easier for users...

One Controller Handles Motion and Robotics.
December 10, 2007... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Integrating kinematics into general motion controllers promises to eliminate some stand-alone robot controls Robots and packaging machines already work together closely - except for their...

Z Corp. Scanner Aims for Accuracy.
December 10, 2007... By Beth Stackpole, Contributing Editor, Software/Hardware New ZScanner 800 3-D scanner taps third camera to deliver five times the resolution 3-D design is all about visualization and accuracy and Z Corp. has added a new model in its...

Model-Based Design.
December 10, 2007... By Tony Lennon, Industry Marketing Manager, The MathWorks Inc. It's the new branch of computer-aided engineering Computer-aided engineering capabilities continue to evolve and expand as the increasing power of desktop computers lets...

What's Your Amplifier's Febricity Due to Electricity? (or Accurate temperature measurement ... it's all a matter of degree).
December 10, 2007... By Design News Staff Q. What's the best way to measure the die temperature of a small package op amp or similar device? A. There are a few ways to get at the junction or die temperature of a device, some better than others. The first...

Distributed Intelligence is Key.
December 10, 2007... By Joe Biondo, Marketing Manager, Bosch Rexroth Corp. - Electric Drives and Controls Industrial Ethernet is becoming more prevalent in business Joe Biondo, marketing manager for Electric Drives and Controls with Bosch Rexroth Corp.,...

Meet Your Robot 'Pharmassistant'.(Innovation Associates Inc.)
December 10, 2007... By Lawrence D. Maloney, Contributing Editor Innovation Assoc. has designed a highly synchronized motion system that can fill up to 5,000 prescriptions per day They call it RDS ROBOTx and it's definitely not your corner drug store....

Portable Medical System Improves Treatment for CO Poisoning.(carbon monoxide)
December 10, 2007... By Randy Frank, Contributing Editor Today's technology and innovative design make an 80-year-old discovery work Accepted for more than 50 years, the initial treatment for carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning involves giving patients 100...

Getting Started in Medical Design.(Ted Kucklick)(Interview)
December 10, 2007... By Lawrence D. Maloney, Contributing Editor Veteran medical designer Ted Kucklick of Cannuflow, gives his views on the essential steps in developing products for one of the OEM's fastest-growing - and toughest - markets What is the...

Engineers Pitch Medical Marvels.(Johns Hopkins University)(Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)
December 10, 2007... By Lawrence D. Maloney, Contributing Editor From the world's most sophisticated prosthetic to a robotic 'inch worm' for heart surgery, engineers are harnessing motion systems for medical innovation A veteran of the Iraq war yearns to...

Free Software Transforms Data.
December 10, 2007... By Jon Titus, Contributing Editor Before operating systems separated programmers from direct control of hardware, I would send arrays of data to a dual DAC card and view the information on an oscilloscope. If I wanted to use an FFT, I had...

Smarter Machines.
December 10, 2007... By Joseph Ogando, Senior Editor, Motion Control Information-enabled machines that can communicate with higher level systems are what the big consumer products companies want If you want to supply machines to the big boys of consumer...