Design Engineering articles from June 2001

Design Engineering archives from June 2001

Talking postcard.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Writing is so passe. This latest postcard (WO200062300) is French, disposable, and doesn't need a pen (except to address the envelope!) The postcard is actually a rectangular printed circuit board, which has a microphone, speaker and control...

Contactless component gripper.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Electronic components such as silicon wafers and printed circuit boards damage easily when handling. One tiny knock to a component could render a whole board useless. One novel way of handling these types of devices is by not touching them at...

Electric vehicle sharing system.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... An environmentally-friendly alternative to public transport or private car ownership is addressed by this vehicle allocation system (EP 1067480). Public transport is sometimes not an option due to its lack of flexibility, so Honda has...

A wing-shaped plane.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Engineers at NASA believe that a radical aircraft design dubbed the Blended Wing Body (BWB) could lead to an economical new generation of passenger jets capable of carrying upto 800 passengers. The BWB is a hybrid shape that resembles a...

The first high voltage motor?(ABB)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... ABB claims to have developed the world's first high-voltage motor. Called Motorformer, it is claimed to cut a plant's energy losses by about 25%, gives clear environmental benefits and has a positive impact on the distribution network....

New Car runs on rubbish.(Advantage Rone designed by Rinspeed)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... At a height of 97cm, the Advantage Rone is the lowest car in the world. It is also, claims its Swiss designer, the first sports car to run on kitchen and garden waste. Created by Rinspeed, the new concept car has a rear-mounted...

Heads buried in the e-sand.(UK manufacturers)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... It's official, UK Manufacturers are e-luddites. Research carried out by Microsoft and Cranfield School of Management shows that manufacturers are less than enthusiastic about embracing web-based collaboration. The research shows that...

Portable foot and mouth detector.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Engineers at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory are developing a portable sensor that will be able to spot foot-and-mouth disease in seconds. The core of the sensor, dubbed Canary, is a pennysized glass chip that can detect tiny amounts of the virus...

Blow up aeroplane.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Nasa's Dryden Research Centre has just flown an aeroplane with inflatable wings. The 12000 radio controlled (R/C) aeroplane flew three successful flights and was launched from an aeroplane at an altitude of 800-1000 feet. As the 12000 separated...

Ultra-thin Bomb detecting wire.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Chemists at the University of California, San Diego have developed a silicon polymer 'nanowire,' some 2,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair, that is capable of detecting trace amounts of TNT and picric acid, an explosive...

Method to produce Green petroleum.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... An American scientist claims to have developed a method of producing petrol that he says will eliminate the environmental impact of mining and using fossil petroleum reserves. James Catallo, of the Louisiana State University School of...

Serpentine missile detection.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... A snake expert from the University of Texas is using his knowledge of poisonous snakes to help the US Air Force build better missile detectors. Dr. John Pearce, a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, studies Crotalines -- a...

Weaving electronic webs.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Why use complicated processing techniques to manufacture your display screens when you can simply weave them? This is the approach taken by R&D company Visson, which has just received $5.5 million of investment from Philips to develop a display...

Culture shock.
June 1, 2001... Before Sam Redmond Lyon became a product designer at innovation consultancy PDD her engineering experience had been almost entirely within large companies. My degree in product design heavily emphasised engineering and manufacture; design...

www.marss.com/bristol.htm.
June 1, 2001... If you liked last month's feature on Dimitrios Dardalis' fascinating Rotating Liner Engine, this site's got some great photos of the Sleeve Valve Engines used on aircraft during WWII. The rest of the site's pretty interesting too. Moore...

www.SensorRepSource.com.
June 1, 2001... We're almost getting used to sites which help specifiers find the right product, but how about a site that helps manufacturers find the right sales rep. This is exactly what SensorRepSource (a service of B & D International) claims to offer....

www.think3.com/thinkcare/.
June 1, 2001... Infuriating 30 minute pan-pipe renditions of greensleeves may soon be a thing of the past. CAD company Think3 claims that the telephone help-desk may soon be obsolete thanks to its development of an online customer care service. With a...

An e-wake up call for British manufacturing.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... There's a lot more to e-business than simply putting your catalogue on the web Don't make the mistake of believing that e-business capabilities are optional - they are mandatory. As the global village turns into the global marketplace,...

The truth is out there.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The other day, whilst enjoying a drink in one of Soho's many pubs and bars, an engineer friend of mine said something which caused me to spit my beer all over him in shock and surprise. I discovered that the bane of the technical journalist's...

Seeing is believing.(desktop displays)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Whatever you're designing, chances are you're using displays to either design it or integrate into it. There's never been a wider choice of display technology. But, there's always a trade off between price and performance, mobility and...

A sharp focus on displays.
June 1, 2001... Densitron has implemented a process that improves LCD reflected brightness by at least 50%. According to Densitron this has been made possible by the use of 'MirrorLight' holographic materials, which focus ambient light into an intense...

Mesmerised by Memsic.
June 1, 2001... Memsic claims that its MX2000 range of intertial sensors are the worlds first integrated 2-axis sensors built on a CMOS platform. The MX2000 range offers inertial sensing on two independent axes and come in a range of sensitivities,...

At your beck and call.
June 1, 2001... Anders Electronics has added a low-power 3.9" Quarter-VGA colour STN LCD to its range of LCD modules. Small and lightweight, the Nan Ya LCBA7T211M2 runs on a 3.3V power supply with optional touchscreen. Also in the range is a low-power...

Magnetism.(Gentech International switches)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Gr10L and Gr20L bistable reed switches from Gentech International require no power in order to operate. The switches are said to be polarity sensitive and operate when an opposing magnetic field passes, making the GR10L and GR20L suited for...

Stayin' alive.(voltage indicators)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Remlive from Remlive Ltd was borne out of the death of an experienced electrician who was working on a live control panel. Remlive, first seen in 1994, acts as an extra level of protection by giving a visual warning of any live circuits by...

Climate of efficiency.(electricity consumption)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The Climate Change Levy has put a spotlight on industry's consumption of electricity. 65% of electricity in industry is used by electric motors, many of them running far less efficiently than they could. Industries can alleviate or even...

What drives choice in drives?(variable speed drives)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Possibly more so than any other industrial technology, says EDDIE KIRK, variable speed drives have proliferated to provide the design engineer a bewildering choice of alternatives, not only of subtle variants in the technology but also in...

Fuseless protection.(circuit breakers)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Moeller Electric's PKZM0 fuseless motor protection circuit breakers combine the function of isolation, motor switching, short circuit and overload protection in a single unit, enabling highly efficient motor starters to be assembled from just a...

Compact and contemporary switching.
June 1, 2001... Parker Hannifin is offering its XL25i stepper drive and indexer, together with a compatible 23 frame motor and PC-based motion control software, for just [pound]199. The XL series drives combine latest-generation power switching technology with...

Device control.
June 1, 2001... Rockwell Automation has introduced DeviceLogix, a smart component technology that can be integrated into plant floor devices to provide low-cost control at the device level. This technology is said to improve overall control system...

Phase loss?(monitoring relays)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Carlo Gavazzi's new DPA51 monitoring relay is said to completely eliminate the risk of incorrect rotation of a motor by eliminating phase sequence and phase loss problems in 3-phase systems. The DPA51 is claims its creator ideally suited for...

Plastic paradise.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Way back in 1941, and largely as a gimmick, Henry Ford exhibited an 'all plastic' prototype car that used material derived from soya beans. Ford had previously used the material for internal components, such as steering wheels, interior trim...

Mass produced solutions.(from KV Ltd.)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... In almost every field of industrial engineering there's a distinction between large scale, high volume production of products and bespoke design solutions. Yet one automation company, KV Ltd, embraces a 'third way', exploiting its experience of...

Space saving valve design.(ASCO Joucomatic spool valves)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... ASCO Joucomatic claims that its new Series 570 spool valves save up to 1/3 on installation space with a design that integrates two 3/2 monostable valves in same body size as a 5/2 valve. The space saving design also integrates both pilots...

Smart, easy valve positioner.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Spirax Sarco claims that its SP2 smart positioner is the easiest intelligent valve to set up and use. With only three buttons on the unit's integral keypad, an operator can fully commission the SP2 in less than three minutes compared with up to...

Micropop.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... KV's Micropop is an enhanced solenoid value designed to proportionally control the flow of liquids or gases. With a maximum operational pressure of 12 bar and excellent flow and hysteresis characteristics flow control is made possible by...

Silky smooth Soft Stop.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Comprising a pneumatic cylinder, displacement encoder and proportional valve -- linked via an electronic controller -- Festo claims that its new Soft Stop end position control system offers quieter, smoother, more accurate and reliable...

It's the airboxer.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... A cylinder / valve combination launched by Rexroth Mecman has its own integrated air supply and the option at' direct connection to an AS-Interface bus. Airboxer is a space-saving unit said to be ideal for installation in poorly accessible...

Pneumatics nip at electricity's heels.
June 1, 2001... Festo has deployed advanced pneumatics and closed-loop control in the core of its new robotic handling system, the Kinematic Robot. Traditionally, pneumatic drives have been used for a variety of motion functions but electrical drives have...

Strong arm service from Crane.
June 1, 2001... Crane Services faced a number of challenges when asked to design a gantry system with a gripper mechanism for transporting blocks of polystyrene panels. The blocks come in packs measuring up to 2700 by 1200 by 600mm, and can weigh from...

Algor marries.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Algor has upgraded its InCAD technology to allow full FEA analysis of complex models created in the Solid Edge CAD system. InCAD can directly capture Solid Edge models without any file translation,' claims Algor. Algor

Enclosure design.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... SolidWorks and three of its partners have created ElectronixWorks to address the growing industry demand for rapidly developed, smaller products like computer cabinets, and other electronic enclosures by letting electronics manufacturers design...

Art.(Advanced Rendering Technology)(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Advanced Rendering Technology (ART) is shipping its RenderPipe plug-in for Maya, which offers a seamless interface between ART's RenderDrive system and Maya, the 3D modeling and animation technology from AliasWavefront. This gives Maya users...

A clever plot.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... The recently launched Tecplot 9.0 can be used to visualise, explore, and analyse large 2-D and 3-D data sets consisting of millions of data points. Version 9.0 of Tecplot from Amtec Engineering is available in the UK from Adept Scientific. ...

Vistagy helps with the fibre of life.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Software for designing products from high performance composite materials is now available from Vistagy. FiberSIM 3.4 is the latest version which has updated design automation tools to simplify tasks such as creating ply boundaries and...

Smoothing over problems.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Delcam claims to offer the first reverse engineering system for the real world with the latest release of its CopyCAD software. 'The quality of surface generated by most engineering software is reliant on two factors -- the quality of the...

Hit the bottle.(Brief Article)
June 1, 2001... Q: A wine-loving engineer decided to take his family on a picnic to the local park. Having set out the barbecue and rug, he reached for a chilled bottle of his favourite Chardonnay. 'Oh dear,' said his wife, realising that they'd left the...