Design Engineering articles from September 2001

Design Engineering archives from September 2001

Planning ahead for the unpredictable changes.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Chris Biggadike considers the issue of mid-project specification changes. Of all the mine-fields in the product specification-design-release cycle, the issue of mid-project specification changes has to be one of the worst writes Chris...

What did the toilet say to the fridge?(networked home)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... It sounds like the beginning of a potentially unpleasant joke but the networked home -- see last month's feature The house that Orange built' -- throws up hundreds of variations on this theme and designers are expected to have some answers....

Brain Teaser Ping pong poser.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Q Michael is a frustrated engineer who cannot beat his friend James at the floe game of table tennis. After being beaten ten games to none, Michael swiftly offers James the chance to make a bet with him and takes a twenty-pound note not of...

Organic displays.(Cambridge Display Technology)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Cambridge Display Technology, researcher and developer of light emitting polymers (LEPs) - see DE October 2000 - has announced that it has been selected to develop a handheld LEP display for the National Imagery and Mapping Agency in the US....

Lotus to showcase design excellence.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The Design Council has selected the Lotus Elise MK II to showcase British design excellence on a global scale. Chosen for its innovative design, excellence in vehicle architecture and vibrant styling, the new Elise will feature in a major new...

Human powered speed challenge.(Human Powered Vehicle World Land Speed Record )(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Olympic Gold Medal cyclist, Jason Queally, will attempt to break the Human Powered Vehicle World Land Speed Record in Battle Mountain, Nevada, USA, this year, with a unique vehicle. 'The fastest man on earth' is the title that Queally,...

Tiny Computers.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... IBM researchers have created a performing computer circuit within a single molecule. They claim that the development takes us one step closer to a new class of smaller and faster computers that consume less power than today's machines. ...

An English pen in New York.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... An e-mail pen designed by Cambridge Consultants Ltd has been chosen by the Design Council to appear in its New York-based Great Expectations exhibition in October. The e-mail pen enables users to read and write e-mails from their home...

Are we sliding into recession?(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... According to a recent survey almost half of the UK Design Engineering industry is showing signs of recession. But the survey, carried out by Plimsoll Publishing, found conflicting views on the recession debate. Almost half of the 143...

Big spenders jostle for position.(research and development spending)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... A survey of the top 100 R&D spenders in the US witnesses the giants jostle for pole position. Industrial researcher Frost and Sullivan's report sees carmaker Ford lead with R&D investment of $6,800 million. Its rival General Motors must...

'Poor quality tolerated in Britain' says specialist.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Head-in-the sand UK companies are refusing to admit that they have .quality problems that could cause customers to scrap precision components worth thousands of pounds each, according to BADCAD, a Coventry firm that helps clean up 'invisible'...

EDITOR'S COMMENT.(Computer-aided design)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
September 1, 2001... What's mine is not yours A 'dumb solid' is what you used to get after translating a CAD model from one format to another. The history tree is absent and some special features need to be reworked. But this isn't the case anymore with the...

Like a rolling stone.(Jet Propulsion Laboratory)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... It's reminiscent of the giant white ball that terrorised actor Patrick Macgoohan in cult TV series The Prisoner. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) are contemplating using a lightweight, two-story beach ball to explore...

Use the force - Locust.(developing automobile collision-avoidance systems)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Tomorrow's cars may be able to automatically avoid collisions thanks to a Newcastle University experiment in which locusts are forced to watch scenes from Star Wars. Locusts are adept at avoiding predators and in order to study how their...

Vehicle control system using digits.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... As the complexity of gadgets intended to enhance the driving experience increases, Car dashboards are becoming more like aeroplane cockpits. However, air conditioning, navigation systems, CD players and mobile phones all impinge on the...

Finger point bar code reader.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Bar code readers are an integral part of retail activities, but are often cumbersome for the worker, who may spend hours at a time using it. This device (US6234393) is actually worn by the operator as a glove, so he or she can work with...

Digital watermark for GPS protection.(Global Positioning System chip card reader)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Security is always a major issue when sending data across a GPS system. A communication system involves a computer, modem, text checker and GPS receiver with a static or mobile phone (DE19940649). A chip card reader stores biometric data and...

Ammoniacal scientists.(University of Illinois)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Scientists at the University of Illinois are rethinking the use of Ammonia as a refrigerant using a microchannel tube technology that is widely used in the automotive industry for heat exchangers. Ammonia, widely accepted as the most...

Cutting down on your waste.(U.S. government service for minimizing electrical equipment waste)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... With electrical equipment waste levels rising every year, the government is testing a new way of helping companies to keep their waste to a minimum. The new service, dubbed Design Trak, aims to provide advice to manufacturers of...

The road to quieter tyres.(Purdue University research)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... perhaps surprisingly, most of the noise nuisance from a busy road is the result of tyre and not engine noise. Now, Engineers from Purdue University have developed a new technique for analyzing tyre vibrations that they believe will enable...

Silk science improves on nature.(Cornell University)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Researchers at Cornell University say they have made significant advances toward a polymer of silkworm silk that both mimics and improves on nature. In the 1950s, Nobel laureate Linus Pauling deduced the basic structure of silkworm silk....

Why DFM?(Design for Manufacture)(Design for Assembly)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... Design for Manufacture and Assembly (DFMA) has been in wide use in industry for almost twenty years and has created a revolution in product design and development. Considerations of manufacturing at the design stage have expanded and become...

Lead's not dead.(lead acid batteries)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2001... As the power consumption of electronic devices rises the ability to supply them with a portable power supply is lagging. ROGER BROWNLIE reports on the struggle for power In the last ten years laptop disk drive densities have increased by...

Top Ten technologies.
September 1, 2001... Director of Research, ARC Advisory Group takes DE through 10 of the top technologies that the automation industry should look out for The automation industry was once burdened with a reputation for lagging behind in its adoption of the...

Free drives technology handbook.(the Control Techniques Handbook)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The third fully revised and updated edition of the Control Techniques Handbook is now available. Last published in 1990-91, the handbook is said to give an insight into the technology and techniques of motor speed control, from basic...

OEMs get a head start.(Original Equipment Manufacturers)(Inmoco)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Inmoco has added the SERCOS enabled PC840 Series to its PC800 brushless digital servo drives. The PC840 Series, which is best used with Inmoco's PMA, uses the latest Sercon816 ASIC to deliver network communication rates for distributed...

Omron on song again.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Omron has launched the W-Series of servo drives that offer improved response speeds and reduced settling times. The W-Series accepts pulse or analogue voltage inputs and can operate in speed position or torque mode. Another feature...

Parker connects to a myriad of devices.(BSL Engineering's Parker 6K controller)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... BSL Engineering has released the Parker 6K controller, a product designed to combine the power to control up to 8 axes of servos or steppers with the flexibility of Ethernet communications. According to BSL, an advantage of the Ethernet...

Get connected.(Aerco's coaxial connectors)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Aerco has created a new co-axial sourcing service designed to help customers overcome delivery problems on standard coaxial connectors. As we all know, coaxial connectors are used in all systems using data or RF communications but the...

One-piece contacts ready for war.(Tyco Electronics)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Tyco Electronics has introduced a new range of one-piece solder contacts for circular connectors. Raychem SolderTracts are said to be well suited to military, aerospace and defence equipment applications. The contacts eliminate the...

Coupling.(Safety Pneumatic Coupling from)(Nitto Kohki U.S.A. Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Nitto Kohki has introduced what it claims is the first ISO4414 compliant Safety Pneumatic Coupling. As well as a built-in safety lock and purge feature the Full Blow Cupia is also said to increase airflow by up to 40% over normal...

Phoenix.(Phoenix Contact Inc. 41A Combicon plug connector)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... The 41A Combicon plug connector from Phoenix Contact has been designed to handle currents up to 41A and will carry a rated voltage of 1,000v. Cabling flexibility is said to be guaranteed and additional spring reinforcement provides a safe...

Road to high shaft speeds.(rotary lip seal from James Walker)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... James Walker's new Walkersele Ultraglide rotary lip seal will, hopes the company, benchmark the low-maintenance demands of hardworking industrial plant. Ultraglide employs a new hydrogenated nitrile (HNBR) elastomer, developed by James...

Gee whizz - a graphite brochure.(Gee Graphite)(Brief Article)(Pamphlet)
September 1, 2001... Gee Graphite, Yorkshire based purveyor of graphite gaskets and related products, is expanding its production plant and marking the occasion with a new brochure, which is free to readers of DE. The brochure outlines all of Gee Graphite's...

Lubrication.(S-Ecopur sealing material from Economos UK Ltd.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... S-Ecopur from Economos is a self lubricating sealing material, developed to handle media with poor lubricating properties. S-Ecopur is a modified version of H-Ecopur material with enhanced sliding properties. Through the incorporated...

Steam loving seal.(John Crane Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... John Crane has introduced a non-contacting seal, Type 28ST, for steam turbine drivers in the hope of eliminating the loss of steam energy leakage caused by corrosion and shaft damage. By improving bearing reliability, which normally...

On the edge.(SolidEdge Version 10 from UGS Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Drawing on the collective design knowledge of its tens of thousands of users, UGS has introduced Version 10 of SolidEdge. One of the biggest enhancements is the introduction of powerful tools that streamline modelling of families of...

Learn about fluid design.(FluidSIM CAD-CAM software from Festo Corp. Festo Didactic)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... Festo's training and education arm, Festo Didactic, has introduced a new version of its FluidSIM software package. Aimed at schools, training establishments, universities and industry, FluidSIM3 is intended for use as both a self-learning...

Bi-directional translation.(Theorem Solutions Ltd. history translators)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Theorem solutions is now shipping the first deliverable Unigraphics / Catia CAD features and history translator. Theorem claims that its features and history translators represent a landmark in the development of CAD interoperability....

Brand new Airpak.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... Fluent Europe Ltd, has released version 2 of Airpak, its airflow modelling software, which made its debut last year. Airpak, an easy-to-use CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) tool, lets the user accurately model airflow, heat transfer,...

Version 18.(Unigraphics Version 18 from UGS Inc.)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2001... UGS has announced the release of Version 18 of Unigraphics, its acclaimed integrated product development software. Building on UGS' innovations in knowledge-based engineering, industrial design, process automation and design collaboration....

Time is on your side.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2001... This year's TCT 2001 (Time Compression Technologies) conference and exhibition, will be held at the Manchester International from 26-27 September Coherent RPD (Rapid Product Development) practices have never been more important. Forward...

The rapid guide.(history of prototyping companies, equipment, and materials)
September 1, 2001... Rapid prototyping (RP) has developed over the past decade into a $1 billion per year industry with around thirty manufacturers globally providing a variety of technologies, says Ed Grenda of the Worldwide Guide to Rapid Prototyping. ...

The latter days of evolution.(CAD software industry history with emphasis on England)
September 1, 2001... While all the changes with Unix and the 'engineering workstation' in the late 80s and early 90s were taking place, one of the original leviathans trundled on, apparently unchanging CATIA, developed by Dassault Systemes and marketed by IBM...