R & D articles from September 2007

R & D archives from September 2007

The loner is even more alone.(EDITORIAL)
September 1, 2007... We've become a very empirical society, where data analysis controls every aspect of our lives and businesses. Our world is ruled by the interpretation of large amounts of data with statistical tools that are mostly hidden from view. In the...

Star Power: Star-P software brings parallel cluster muscle to the researcher's desktop.(SOFTWARE)
September 1, 2007... The world's most powerful computing systems used to be the domain of the world s most elite technical users. A new type of user, however, has appeared. The emergence of low-cost Linux cluster hardware based on off-the-shelf standard processors...

CODE V 9.8 delivers improved optical system modeling and optimization.(Tools of the Trade)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The newest release of CODE V optical design software from Optical Research Associates (ORA) delivers features to improve both the modeling and optimization of optical systems. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In...

DNASTAR presents Lasergene.(Tools of the Trade)
September 1, 2007... DNASTAR introduces its new comprehensive software for DNA and protein sequence analysis, and sequence project management, with expanded next-generation sequencing assembly capability. Lasergene consists of an integrated suite of seven...

Photoshop Lightroom 1.1 available as a free upgrade.(Tools of the Trade)
September 1, 2007... Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.1 is now available as a free upgrade for existing users, with added functionality and support for Windows Vista. Lightroom 1.1 adds a flexible image management system for multi-computer workflows, improved noise...

FACSDiva 6.0 software maximizes data consistency.(Tools of the Trade)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... BD Biosciences introduces BD FACSDiva 6.0 software. With this automated package, researchers and clinicians are no longer limited in the design and performance of high-level, multi-color experiments by the complexity of their flow cytometer...

Deeper in the zone: key updates to the Elzone, an electrical sensing zone particle characterization instrument, supports a growing range of applications.(ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENTS)
September 1, 2007... Over the years, the electrical sensing zone (ESZ) method for particle size and count analyses has become a standard in industry. There has even been an ISO (International Organization for Standardization) standard developed for this analytical...

GC systems verify quality of biodiesel.(Tools of the Trade)(gas chromatograph)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Four biodiesel GC systems provide the biofuels industry with a choice of high quality analyzers for verifying pure biodiesel (B100) to meet ASTM standards as well as the European CEN Method EN14105 standard. The same...

Titrator determines total acid analysis in biodiesel.(Tools of the Trade)(AQUACOUNTER COM-300A)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The AQUACOUNTER COM-300A automatic titrator performs pH, acid/base, complexometric, redox, Karl Fischer, photometric, non-aqueous titrations and ion-selective electrode measurements. The unit can determine total acid/total base in oils....

Miniature back-thinned CCD spectrometer.(Tools of the Trade)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] B&W Tek introduces BRC641E, a low stray light spectrometer with plug-and-play USB interface. The compact and lightweight spectrometer has a concave holographic grating for lower stray light. The BRC641E employs a...

Cross-cultural: partnership creates a new medical school: success for a new medical school in Singapore hinges on clear strategy.(LABORATORY EQUIPMENT/DESIGN)
September 1, 2007... Increased competition for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding and tougher visa regulations are driving medical schools to Asia and the Middle East in search of more robust research environments: Harvard Univ., Cambridge, Mass., has a...

Ergonomic seating added to online catalog.(Tools of the Trade)(2000, 4000, 5000, 7000, and 9000 Series)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A selection of rugged and dependable ergonomic workplace chairs and stools are available for review, configuration, and pricing on our Web site. The ergonomic seating products combine ergonomic features with industrial strength design. The...

Laboratory casework and fume hood catalogs.(Tools of the Trade)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Two new catalogs have recently been released, comprising laboratory casework and fume hoods. The casework catalog features a wide assortment of base cabinets, aprons, utility tables, and storage cabinets. The fume...

Hexapod six-axis precision parallel kinematics systems.(Tools of the Trade)(Stewart Platform)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... PI (Physik Instruments) L.P. offers a new brochure on Hexapod 6-axis parallel kinematics robots and positioning systems. The Hexapod system (also known as Stewart Platform), which is supplied with a special motion controller, has unique...

Celebrating 45 years of innovation: researchers from around the world offer the year's best innovations at the forefront of technology.(Exclusives)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The editors of R&D Magazine are proud to announce the winners of the 45th Annual R&D 100 Awards. This annual competition recognizes the best in innovation--on a global scale. Indeed, the products and technologies highlighted on the following...

A real-life transformer.(Exclusives)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... In wartime situations, speed is a critical element of success, not just for the front line of battle, but also for the U.S. military's support structure. The U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command, for example, requires rapid response...

Seeing the unseen.(Exclusives)(Integrated Primary Flight Display)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] According to the Flight Safety Foundation, the two chief causes of commercial aviation fatalities are controlled flight into terrain and approach-and-landing accidents. In an effort to curb the estimated loss of...

Weaving a suit of armor.(Exclusives)(Dow Coming Active Protection System )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... When selecting protective wear, motorcyclists have to consider trade-offs. A hard helmet protects the head in a crash, but similar armor for the body would get in the way of riding and would be impossibly uncomfortable. Researchers at Dow...

Turning thoughts into actions.(Exclusives)(BrainGate Neural Interface System)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] People who experience spinal cord injury, stroke, or ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig's disease) suffer a myriad of losses. These losses take away their very basic ability to interact with their...

Turn up the signal, turn down the noise.(Analytical Instruments)(High Speed Electro-Mechanical Shutter)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... There has been a need in the scientific community for a technology that temporally gates a light pulse down to the microsecond timescale. That need is now satisfied with the High Speed Electro-Mechanical Shutter for Imaging Spectrographs...

Gas chromatography gets hot.(Analytical Instruments)(Zebron Inferno (1HT and 5HT))(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... In the field of gas chromatography (GC), not much has changed for the past 15 years. Scientists have resigned themselves to the fact that if they want to do high-temperature applications, they will have to use metal columns. A new series of GC...

Speedy spectrofluorometry.(Analytical Instruments)(Multi-Frequency Fluorometer)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Researchers in chemistry, biology, and materials science require sensitive, rapid reporting of fluorescence lifetimes. To that end, researchers at HORIBA Jobin Yvon, Edison, N.J., have introduced the Multi-Frequency Fluorometer, or [MF.sup.2]....

Detecting radioactive materials.(Analytical Instruments)(Pharos Neutron Detector System)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Imagine a system that can detect nuclear material which could not be defeated by attempts to shield it with steel or even lead. The Pharos Neutron Detector System, developed by Richard Riedel, Ronald Cooper, and Lloyd Clonts at Oak Ridge...

Automating XPS.(Analytical Instruments)(Thermo Fisher Scientific's new X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Conventionally, x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) requires a large piece of expensive equipment and expert users who spend most of their time performing routine operations. However, a new instrument from Bryan Barnard at Thermo Fisher...

Optimizing chemical analysis.(Analytical Instruments)(NanoESCA )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Conventional laboratory instruments for x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), also known as ESCA (electron spectroscopy for chemical analysis), are generally limited to approximately 3 [micro]m resolution at best. However, the NanoESCA from...

Atomic Spectroscopy on the Benchtop.(Beam/X-Ray Devices)(Rigaku Americas Corp's NANOHUNTER)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A principal tool for contamination metrology in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, total reflection x-ray fluorescence (TXRF) has historically been relegated to the semiconductor fabrication environment because of its size, cost,...

Brilliant x-rays.(Beam/X-Ray Devices)(Bruker AXS Inc's MICROSTAR ULTRA)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... There is a need in protein crystallography for a high-brilliance laboratory x-ray source. To meet this need, Bart Kerpershoek at Bruker AXS Inc., Madison, Wisc., introduced the MICROSTAR ULTRA, a microfocus rotating anode x-ray generator with a...

Making up time in TOF.(Beam/X-Ray Devices)(time-of-flight )(SGE Analytical Science's MagneTOF Electron Multiplier Detector)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... In time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry, pulse width and timing accuracy are critical to the mass spectrometer's overall performance. Typically, the ion source and time electronics have received attention in improving timing accuracy....

Getting to the root of the matter.(Beam/X-Ray Devices)(Phenotype Screening Corp's ROOTVIZ FS)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Every plant in the world has a unique root system which is key to its survival. These root systems have not been extensively studied due to the severe limitations of the instrumentation available to study them. All...

Multiplexing into high gear.(Communications)(Ciena Corp's CN 4200 FlexSelect Advanced Services Platform)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Optical fiber provides a fast, high-bandwidth avenue for data transmission. The never-ending quest for greater throughput continues, however, and researchers at Ciena Corp., Linthicum, Md., in conjunction with IBM Corp., Poughkeepsie, N.Y.,...

Mini motors enable nano movement.(Communications)(Integrated Fiber Alignment Package )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The explosion of optical fiber-based infrastructure demands accurate micro-motors and adjustment devices to allow for physical alignment of optical axes with lasers and fiber-to-fiber connections. To that end, the Integrated Fiber Alignment...

Schrodinger's key.(Communications)(High-Speed Fiber Quantum Key Distribution System)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, Md., have taken a step into the quantum realm in cryoptography with their High-Speed Fiber Quantum Key Distribution System, (QKD). [ILLUSTRATION...

Advertising that jumps off the page.(Communications)(Motorola Printed Active Display)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... When advertisers write copy, they want the words to grab the attention of the potential consumer. Using light-emitting inks and paper-thin printed circuits, Motorola, Inc., Shaumburg, Ill., has almost literally accomplished this with the...

No fault, no blame.(Electronic Equipment)(Astronics-Advanced Electronic Systems Inc. and Sandia National Laboratories' ArcSafe)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Ensuring the integrity of complex wiring systems is crucial to the safety of aircraft. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, N.M., in conjunction with Astronics-Advanced Electronic Systems, Inc.,...

Characterization, quickly.(Electronic Equipment)(Antenna Near-Field Probe Station Scanner )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The need for good-quality, non-destructive ways to obtain data about printed circuit antennas has generated a new product out of the Antenna, Microwave, and Optical Systems Branch of NASA Glenn Research Center and Analex Corp., both of...

Camera on a chip.(Electronic Equipment)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Little did Louis Lumiere, the inventor of the first motion picture camera, know that one day there would be a camera able to capture pictures at exposure times as short as 50 nsec. Created by researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory, N.M.,...

Memory without power.(Electronic Equipment)(Freescale Semiconductor's MR2A16A)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Magnetoresistive random access memory (MRAM) combines the best features of nonvolatile memory with random access memory (RAM). Researchers at Freescale Semiconductor, Austin, Texas, have taken the next step with a new MRAM technology, MR2A16A,...

Turning lead into carbon.(Energy)(Firefly Energy's Carbon Foam Graphite Battery)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Two primary effects reduce the life of a lead-acid battery--corrosion of the battery's positive plate and sulfation of the battery's negative plate. Kurt Kelly at Firefly Energy, Inc., Peoria, Ill., found a solution...

Enabling fuel cell commercialization.(Energy)(GrafTech International Ltd's GRAFCELL Expanded Graphite Flow Field Plates)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... In fuel cell assemblies, the flow field plates make up the bulk, by weight and volume, of the fuel cell stack, as well as being one of the most expensive components to manufacture. A research team at GrafTech International Ltd., Lakewood, Ohio,...

Hot to generate.(Energy)(Spectrolab Inc and National Renewable Energy Laboratory's High-Efficiency Metamorphic Multijunction Concentrator Solar Cell )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Richard King and Raed Sherif at Spectrolab, Inc., Sylmar, Calif., and Martha Symko-Davies at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, Colo., have collaborated to develop a High-Efficiency Metamorphic Multijunction Concentrator Solar...

Simple sensor, big potential.(Energy)(Ohio State University's High-Temperature Total NOx Sensor)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... There is a significant need for measurements of NOx species in combustion environments due to the negative effects these gases have on ecosystems, health, and government regulations. Solid-state electrochemical sensors are attractive due to...

Planning for the future.(Energy)(Low-Swirl Combustion)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Low-Swirl Combustion for Fuel Flexible Near-Zero Emissions Gas Turbines (LSI) is a tremendously promising, elegant, cost-effective technology for significantly reducing greenhouse emissions, including nitrogen oxides, from electricity...

Free power.(Energy)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Geothermal power is an ideal renewable base load; however, all of the high-temperature steam-dominated resources located close to U.S. population centers have already been developed. What remains is a large number of...

Superconducting milestone.(Energy)(LMOe-HTS Wire)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The SuperPower/ORNL High-Performance, LMOe-HTS Wire is the culmination Of several years of research aimed at developing a superconducting cable that can replace copper cables in the U.S. power grid. In addition to having a high current-carrying...

Really fast switching.(Energy)(Super-Gate Turn-Off Thyristor )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Power device users have long assumed that the temperature, switching, and packaging limitations of thyristors and GTOs (gate turn-off thyristors) would improve over time. They have not. A research team at Silicon Power Corp., Malvern, Pa., the...

Remote chemical detection.(Environmental)(Passive Millimeter-Wave Spectrometer for Remote Chemical Detection)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... With increased concerns about national security has come the realization that acts of nuclear or chemical terrorism could endanger large numbers of people in a short span of time, as could industrial accidents in densely populated areas....

Making wells SEQURE.(Environmental)(SEQURE Well Finding Technologies)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... With the widespread injection of large volumes of C[O.sub.2] into oil bearing formations for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), well searches have expanded to areas comprising hundreds of square kilometers. This need was the impetus for the...

Generating power from waste energy.(Environmental)(Advanced Cerametrics Inc's The Harvestor)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A new technology exists that could fundamentally change the way power is generated. The Harvestor, developed by Farhad Mohammadi, Richard Cass, and Stephen Leschin at Advanced Cerametrics, Inc., Lambertville, N.J., is an energy harvesting...

Mitigating corrosion.(Environmental)(Corrosion Inhibiting Aircraft Primers 02GN083, 02GN084, and 44GN098)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] There is a pressing need for environmentally friendly and benign methods and materials to mitigate corrosion on aluminum, especially aircraft. Until recently, chromates were the only corrosion inhibitors used on...

Recovering hydrogen.(Environmental)(QuestAir H-6200 Rapid Cyde Pressure Swing Adsorption System)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Oil refineries around the world are facing a shortage of hydrogen, brought about by increased processing of heavy, sulphur-laden crudes, as well as environmental regulations. The QuestAir H-6200 Rapid Cyde Pressure Swing Adsorption System...

Using BUD to clean up.(Environmental)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Department of Defense (DoD)is tasked with cleaning up more than 3,300 sites comprising more than 28 million acres of land that are contaminated with unexploded ordnance (UXO). The problem is that as much as 99%...

These aren't your daddy's LEGOs.(Environmental)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Most of us remember assembling imaginary creations with colorful LEGO blocks. Who would have dreamed that one day these simple building tools would be transformed with a programmable 32-bit microcomputer processor allowing consumers to control...

On-site chemical anaylsis.(Environmental)( HAPSITE Viper Chemical Identification System)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Military personnel around the world need fast, accurate analysis of volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds, toxic industrial chemicals and materials, and chemical warfare agents (CWAs). To fill that need, researchers at INFICON, East...

Sounds better than light.(Lab Equipment)(Portable Acoustic Cytometer )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Flow cytometers are used throughout biomedical science to measure the physical and biochemical characteristics of cells. Their most common clinical use is in producing complete blood cell counts, leukocyte subpopulation counts, and monitoring...

The Hawk is on the watch.(Lab Equipment)('46 Hawk )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The '46 Hawk is a leak detection instrument that automatically and continuously detects, analyzes, and displays a full range of natural gas (methane) concentrations. Developed by Mark Paige and Joel Silver at Southwest Sciences Inc., Santa Fe,...

Precision spotter for biotech.(Lab Equipment)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... In proteomics studies, tissues are homogenized and all proteins are measured, but the patterns of distribution of these proteins within the tissue are destroyed in the process. The Portrait 630 Reagent Multi-Spotter, developed by a research...

Better barcodes on boxes.(Lab Equipment)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Historically, it has not been possible to print data, such as high-resolution barcodes, directly onto corrugated boxes. To that end, Chris Wyres at DataLase, Inc., Norcross, Ga., developed DataLase Casemark, an...

Detecting the void.(Lasers)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Our national goal of achieving energy independence requires increasing coal production by nearly 50% by 2025 compared to the 2003 baseline. Because the easy-to-mine coal reserves are nearing exhaustion, future mining will be in deeper, thinner,...

Unlocking the potential of fiber lasers.(Lasers)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Fiber lasers could revolutionize the application of lasers to real-world problems, but their fundamental limitations have rendered many of these applications impractical. All of that has changed with the...

Finding fiber faults.(Lasers)(Optical Backscatter Reflectometer)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Testing of fiber optic components, accessories, and networks requires optical monitoring while products undergo various stresses. To facilitate this testing, the Optical Backscatter Reflectometer (OBR) with Distributed Sensing was developed by...

Enabling control of high-power laser systems.(Lasers)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... High-power laser systems utilized for inertial confinement fusion (ICF) research, such as the National Ignition Facility (NIF), at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Calif., require precise characterization and control of laser beam...

Keeping it together.(Life Science)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Conventional technologies for surgically closing skin consist of using absorbable sutures and metal staples. Absorbable sutures provide a cosmetic, convenient closure, and the patient does not have to return to the...

Optimizing drug discovery.(Life Science)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Clinical trials of drug candidates are both time consuming and expensive while offering little guarantee of eventual success. To accelerate drug testing, raise the probability that a drug candidate will be successful in human trials, and to...

Have it both ways with DMF.(Life Science)(Dual Mode Fluorescence Module)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The current state of microscopy requires a researcher to take a number of still shots of an object at different frequencies and overlay the images to produce a flail image. Consequently, the imaging is not conducted in real time. However, a new...

Improving the view.(Life Science)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A growing population of over 10 million people worldwide with vision-threatening complications of diabetes and over 50 million people with ocular hypertension require treatments with retinal laser photocoagulators. However, approximately 40% of...

Save your breath.(Life Science)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Pneumothorax is a medical condition caused by air trapped in the space between the wall of the chest cavity and the lung. It often results in reduced lung capacity or a collapsed lung, and if not properly diagnosed...

Quickly quantifying molecules.(Life Science)(Qubit Quantitation Platform)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... DNA, RNA, and protein are the key molecules used in biomedical research. Despite their importance, it has been difficult to measure the exact amounts in an experimental sample. To overcome this difficulty, Matt Beaudet, Jill Hendrickson, and...

Peering deeper into the eye.(Life Science)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Through a joint effort between Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Calif., the Univ. of Southern California Doheny Eye Inst., Los Angeles, the Univ. of California, Berkeley, School of Optometry, the Univ. of Rochester Center for Visual...

Diagnostic medical lab on a patch.(Life Science)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] A critical need exists for techniques that can measure a wide range of biomedical analytes at the point of care, generating an instant, comprehensive picture of a patient's health for a rapid, accurate diagnosis....

Healthier humidification.(Life Science/Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Hospital gases (oxygen, air, and custom combinations of gases) are necessarily cold and very dry, while the body requires them as close as possible to 37[degrees]C and 100% relative humidity, if it is not to be stressed due to the need to heat...

A little goes a long way.(Life Science/Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Adding lithium to aluminum is a well-known way to reduce its density and increase its stiffness. Alcoa Inc., Alcoa Center, Pa., has mastered a technique for making Aluminum alloy 2099 extruded shapes (T83 and TSE67...

Nanotextiles sew up conductivity.(Life Science/Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Among the potential uses for electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) are electronic textiles, which could serve as mobile sensor platforms, electromagnetic shields, and mobile power sources. NanoSonic Inc., Blacksburg, Va., in conjunction with NASA...

Kitchen in a carton.(Life Science/Materials & Metals)(Unitized Group Ration-Express)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Something as simple as a warm meal can greatly improve the morale and quality of life of military personnel. Formerly, the Army's view of field feeding involved heavy, cumbersome, costly, and largely ineffective methods. However, the U.S. Army...

Invisible nanotubes lead the charge on conductor design.(Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Ultra-thin and optically transparent, conductors are the technological heart of commercially popular liquid crystal displays, solar cells, and touch screens. Successful growth of this billion-dollar industry will require innovative new...

Polyols go bio.(Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... More than 3 billion pounds of petroleum-based polyols are required for the production of foams, coatings, and adhesives in the U.S. As crude oil prices rise, so do the prices of petroleum polyols. Weaning industry off of an oil-based...

Nano-coating locks out heat, water.(Materials & Metals)(thermal and environmental barrier coatings)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Intent on improving gas turbine engine efficiency, NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, Ohio, has introduced a new coating approach for creating Defect clustering thermal and environmental barrier coatings (TEBCs) for Si-Based Ceramic Turbine...

New foam has crushing advantage.(Materials & Metals)(IMPAXX Energy Absorbing Foam)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A combination of lightweight materials and computer-assisted designs has given modem automobiles impact-absorbing body structures that transmit energies throughout the vehicle body, protecting occupants from harm. Advanced foam...

Eliminating hot roll blisters.(Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Heat treating plate and pipe steel involves temperatures of up to 954[degrees]C, a level that exposes furnace rolls to severe swings in temperature and moisture. This punishment causes blistering oxidation of conventional austenitic stainless...

Basic coal yields tough foam.(Materials & Metals)(CSTONE)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Carbon composites are typically based on graphite, which requires time-consuming and expensive processing. Researchers at Touchstone Research Laboratory Ltd., Triadelphia, W.V., have offered an alternative to graphite with CSTONE, carbon foam...

Hardening steel.(Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Overlay materials used in welding are usually macrocomposites developed from hard particles such as carbides or nitrides. A binder, typically nickel-, cobalt- or iron-based, is needed to hold the hard materials together during use and provide...

Titanic savings in titanium production.(Materials & Metals)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Titanium is well known for having the greatest strength-to-density ratio of any metal. However, titanium manufacturing costs have proven difficult to keep down. Researchers at International Titanium Powder Inc., Lockport, Ill. have accomplished...

Quick-change tooling.(Mechanical Devices)(Reconfigurable Engine Assembly Pallet)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The Reconfigurable Engine Assembly Pallet (REAP) is an innovative concept for quickly rearranging a manufacturing fixture to accept a new part for processing. Developed by Phillip Bojda, Dave Leander, and Chi-Hung...

The need for speed.(Mechanical Devices)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A team of researchers at Hitachi, Ltd., Tokyo, Japan, and Hitachi Via Mechanics, Ltd., Ebina-Shi, Kanagawa, Japan, has developed a novel linear drive actuator or tunnel actuator (TA) with a uniquely shaped armature core, creating a magnetic...

Smoother ride.(Mechanical Devices)(Continuously Variable Planetary system)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Named after Leonardo DaVinci, who theorized the first continuously variable trans mission (CVT) in 1490, the NuVinci Continuously Variable Planetary (CVP) system, from Fallbrook Technologies, Inc., San Diego, Calif., has improved upon...