Mechanical Engineering-CIME articles from February 2003

Mechanical Engineering-CIME archives from February 2003

The right answer. (Editorial).(controversy over who proved Fermat's Last Theorem first)(Brief Article)(Editorial)
February 1, 2003... If you're a fan of football's New York Giants, January was a cruel month. After a loss to the San Francisco 49ers that stemmed from a botched field-goal attempt in an important playoff game, the National Football League announced the following...

Letters.(Letter to the Editor)
February 1, 2003... ON ABILITY ALONE To the Editor: I belatedly read Monica Moman-Saunders' letter in the April 2002 issue replying to my letter in the February issue. I had suggested that ASME promote engineering among quantitative thinkers without favoring...

Bringing out the dead. (News & Notes).(AeroGo's air cushion systems were used to move two parts of decommissioned incinerator in Idaho Falls in 2002)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Weighing 55 tons between them, VV two parts of a decommissioned incinerator at the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory floated out of the Idaho Falls facility last year on a cushion of air. Actually, the feat took more than...

Variable-speed A/C. (News & Notes).(DynaMotors Inc. receives grant for cooling fan motor design)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Hoping to mirror the efficiency increases for the home that industry has gained by switching to variable-speed motors, the Department of Energy awarded Cleveland-based DynaMotors Inc. a $200,000 grant to begin commercializing its brushless...

Astronauts to fight fire with fog. (News & Notes).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... The latest mission of the Space Shuttle Columbia carried a new fire-fighting system that battles blazes with a fine water mist instead of using harmful chemicals or large quantities of water that could harm vital electronics. Water mist...

MEMS in the ring. (News & Notes).
February 1, 2003... A company in Burbank, Calif., is trying to kick-start commercial interest in its proprietary MEMS- building process by hosting a microdevice design competition. The company, MEMGen Corp., was formed a couple of years ago to market a...

Peacenik robot shares the love. (News & Notes).(research robot developed by University of Florida student)
February 1, 2003... As the United States moves closer to a possible war with Iraq--a war likely to be fought with aerial drones, laser-guided bombs, and other smart weapons--some might welcome the idea behind a little peacenik robot invented by a student at the...

MSC.Software Corp. (Briefly Noted).(releases application software)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... A provider of simulation software, MSC.Software Corp. of Los Angeles, has released MSC. visualNastran 4D 2003, a software application that allows designers to set three-dimensional assemblies in motion and animate the resulting stresses. It...

Tampa Bay Water. (Briefly Noted).(Tampa, Florida desalination facility starts up)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * The Tampa Bay Seawater Desalination facility, reported to be the United States' only operating seawater de-sal plant, started functioning in January. Tampa Bay Water officials expect the plant to reach its full capacity of 25 million gallons...

Sierra Pacific Resources Corp. (Briefly Noted).(subsidiearies sign long term power supply contracts with Duke Solar Energy L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Two Nevada subsidiaries of Sierra Pacific Resources Corp. -- Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power Co.--signed long-term contracts with Duke Solar Energy LLC to buy the output of a 50-MW solar power plant to be located near Boulder City, Nev....

PolyOne Corp. (Briefly Noted).(teams with Nanocor Inc. to develop nanocomposites)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * PolyOne Corp., a plastics compounder in Cleveland, and Nanocor Inc., an Arlington Heights, Ill., supplier of nanoclays, will team up to manufacture and market nanocomposites made from polyolefin, polyvinyl chloride, and related polymers....

American Superconductor Corp. (Briefly Noted).(sells equipment to Nordex USA Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * American Superconductor Corp. of Westborough, Mass., has sold a 1 mega-VAR voltage regulation system to Nordex USA Inc. of Grand Prairie, Texas. The system will protect the Minot, N.D., electrical grid from voltage sags as the 2.6-MW wind...

Watching a digital star explode. (Computing).
February 1, 2003... When a star dies, the violent explosion releases protons, neutrons, and all elements necessary to sustain the universe. Understanding this phenomenon, called a supernova, could open the door to scientific breakthroughs in biology, energy,...

Tire making on a grand scale. (Computing).(Michelin using SolidWorks CAD package)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Tire maker Michelin of Clermont-Ferrand, France, has purchased new CAD software to design the machines it uses. Michelin will not only use the CAD package, from SolidWorks of Concord, Mass., to design new tire manufacturing machinery, but...

Hyundai simulates, then stamps. (Computing).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Engineers at Hyundai Motor Co. in Seoul recently examined their current die manufacturing process to evaluate its speed and found there was room for improvement. They specifically sought to cut the time it took to make the outer dies for...

Volvo standardizes collaboration software. (Computing).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Volvo is standardizing all product development for its truck-making 3P division on the same computer-aided design and collaboration software. The standardization covers Renault, Mack and Volvo trucks, and Volvo buses, all made by Volvo 3P...

You can't beat plastic, one company says. (Computing).(DW Product Development Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... DW Product Development Inc. of Ottawa offers a variety of services, from design development to part production, rapid prototyping, and rapid tooling. The firm focuses on the consumer goods, telecommunications, medical, and appliance markets....

Database, heal thyself. (Computing).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... New software developed at Pennsylvania State University in University Park can detect and correct a database impaired by an attack while that database system continues to process transactions, said Peng Liu, a university researcher. Liu,...

Cooling metal by efficient means. (Computing).(Technomics L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... In the manufacturing industry, water is normally used to quench, or cool, metal. But in a move to increase manufacturing efficiency, Technomics LLC of Plymouth, Minn., has developed a method that uses a thermal processing system to carry out...

Does soccer heading hurt the head? (Computing).
February 1, 2003... Two mechanical engineering faculty members at Washington University of St. Louis are part of a research team studying the impact on the brain when a soccer player butts the ball with his head. Philip Bayly, an associate professor of...

EDS PLM Solutions. (Briefly Noted).(reaches agreement with Proficiency)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Proficiency of Marlborough, Mass., a maker of technology for engineering supply chain collaboration, has reached an agreement with EDS PLM Solutions of Plano, Texas, to ship CAD interoperability components built with the Unigraphics NX and...

Icam Technologies Corp. (Briefly Noted).(launches new simulation software)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Icam Technologies Corp. of Montreal has released a new machine simulation application called Virtual Machine, which ties the company's numerically controlled post-processing software, called Cam-Post, with graphical machine tool simulation.

Cadata Consulting Ltd. (Briefly Noted).(upgrades software)
February 1, 2003... * Cadata Consulting Ltd. of Calgary, Alberta, has upgraded its software dwgBase to version 2.04.

Software maker Autodesk Inc. (Briefly Noted).(to campaign against piracy in India)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Software maker Autodesk Inc. of San Rafael, Calif., a maker of CAD technology, says it will launch an aggressive campaign against software piracy in India. It said that unauthorized use of its products had increased in the past year.

CoCreate Software Inc. (Briefly Noted).(releases new version of OneSpace software)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * CoCreate Software Inc. of Fort Collins, Colo., a provider of collaborative product development software, has released version 11.61 of its OneSpace software. The upgrade includes improvements for customers in the automotive and aerospace...

SensAble Technologies Inc. (Briefly Noted).(introduces new version of modeling software)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * SensAble Technologies Inc. of Woburn, Mass., reports that FreeForm version 6, the latest release of the company's touch-based modeling software, is available.

Elysium Inc. (Briefly Noted).(makes distribution agreements in multiple nations)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * Elysium Inc. of Southfield, Mich., a provider of CAD translation software, has entered into distribution partnerships with firms in France, Germany, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.

GiveMe-Power Corp. (Briefly Noted).(provides free software to developers)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... * GiveMe-Power Corp. of New York now provides its PowerCAD software development systems free to AutoCAD developers.

Technical plotting in 3-D. (Software Exchange).
February 1, 2003... Capability: The technical plotting software for engineers and scientists known as Tecplot 9.2 includes 3-D visualization capabilities to create on-screen graphics and presentation-quality output. The update includes a new general text loader to...

Design viewing. (Software Exchange).
February 1, 2003... Capability: The TurboViewer application is designed for the quick viewing, sharing, and converting of 2-D and 3-D CAD files. The application is useful for users who want to view and print CAD drawings or quickly convert files from one format to...

Piping system design and optimization. (Software Exchange).
February 1, 2003... Capability: The premium version of the software application Flow of Fluids allows engineers to design, optimize, and troubleshoot small piping systems. The application provides a picture of the user's piping system by integrating multiple...

Thin-walled structure stability testing. (Software Exchange).
February 1, 2003... Capability: A computing program called CUFSM, developed by a civil engineering researcher at Johns Hopkins University, allows designers of thin-walled structures, including tanks, pipes, and ship hulls, to test their stability and safety before...

Parallel parking advice. (Technology Focus: Instrumentation and Control).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Not everyone can parallel park. In fact thanks to acres of pull-in, back-out parking lots in much of suburbia, many Americans may drive for months without facing down a curbside spot. The situation is different in Europe, and in cities like New...

Automated air sampling. (Technology Focus: Instrumentation and Control).(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Studies have linked a class of atmospheric pollutants known as aerosols to respiratory and heart problems. Until recently, though, scientists had no way to collect detailed, time-dependent information on aerosols. A new instrument, the...

In cold blood. (Technology Focus: Instrumentation and Control).(Alsius Corp.)
February 1, 2003... Controlling body temperature is important to patients who have suffered brain injury such as stroke or other neurological problems, because elevations in body temperature lead to metabolic or biochemical reactions that further damage brain...

Navigating urban canyons accurately. (Technology Focus).(Fibersense Technology Corp.)
February 1, 2003... The Americans With Disabilities Act requires that transit systems provide announcements to alert passengers of stops. Yet in congested cities such as New York, many drivers are so preoccupied with heavy traffic that they forget to make stop...

Listening for the good vibes. (Technology Focus).
February 1, 2003... Every 2 percent increase in the purity of hydrogen coolant can cut the cost of running an 800-megawatt generator by as much as $1,000 a day. The contaminants in hydrogen in this case are likely to be [CO.sub.2] or plain air. Carbon dioxide will...

How airtight is your house? (Technology Focus).(blower door test equipmment from The Energy Conservatory)
February 1, 2003... Knowing the airtightness of houses helps diagnose potential problems. Homes that are not well insulated may be drafty and waste energy. Leaky ducts can cause uneven heating, raise humidity, or release pollutants into the air. One way to...

Noise Immune Sensor. (Technology Focus).(Turck Inc.)(Brief Article)
February 1, 2003... Capacitive sensors have a difficult time in electrically noisy environments. In plastic injection molding plants, for example, where capacitive sensors measure the level of plastic pellets in hoppers, the noise can make readings unreliable....

ASME issues and the new Congress. (Washington Window).(American Society of Mechanical Engineers)
February 1, 2003... Every two years, at the start of a new Congress, ASME issues its Public Policy Agenda, a compendium of the federal and state issues that the Society members feel should be priorities. The Agenda is developed by surveying a representative sample...

Digital multimeter. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... OMEGA ENGINEERING INC., STAMFORD, CONN. The OmegaSays digital multimeter/thermometer/IR pyrometer is a full-function tool. It features non- contact infrared temperature measurement with built-in laser dot and circle, dual-type K thermocouple...

Industrial studs. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... GREER STOP NUT INC., JENKINTOWN, PA. The company, a subsidiary of SPS Technologies Inc., has industrial studs in sizes from 3/8 in. to 1 1/2 in. diameter and up to 9-in, maximum length in both double-end and single-end studs. Double-ended studs...

Steam separator. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... NICHOLSON STEAM TRAP DIV., SPENCE ENGINEERING CO. INC., WALDEN, N.Y. The Eliminator steam separator is a low-cost, low-maintenance solution for removing entrained moisture, condensate, dirt, scale, and other contaminants in steam, compressed...

Severe-duty motors. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... BALDOR ELECTRIC CO., PORT SMITH, ARK. Severe-duty motors in premium or standard efficiencies have ratings from 1/2 to 500 horsepower. For extreme applications where downtime is critical, IEEE-841 motors are recommended. These are NERRMA Premium...

Planetary gearheads. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... THOMSON INDUSTRIES INC., PORT WASHINGTON, N.Y. Three new metric models--with frame sizes of 60, 90 and 115 mm--have been added to the company's NemaTrue planetary gearhead series. The product line, which provides long life in a compact, low...

Oil seal. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... MINCO PRODUCTS INC., MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. The company's FG3015 oil seal offers a way to keep oil from wicking along wires where they exit machine housings. The compression seal conforms tightly to the cable jacket and keeps oil inside the machine...

Parallel valve system. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... LESLIE CONTROLS INC., TAMPA, FLA. The S Transfer System is a versatile parallel valve system designed to handle wide load variations beyond the range of a single valve. It uses a combination of control valves and regulators to transfer flow to...

Duct liner. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... CERTAINTEED CORP., VALLEY FORGE, PA. The ToughGard duct liner with enhanced surface repels moisture. But unlike reflective, continuous film coatings used on other duct liners, the "breathable" enhanced surface coating preserves the...

Air-coaled chiller. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... MCQUAY INTERNATIONAL, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. Designed for quiet, reliable, and efficient operation, GeneSys air-cooled screw chillers help increase occupant comfort and reduce operating costs in schools, hospitals, offices, and other buildings....

Air regulator. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... CLIPPARD INSTRUMENT LABORATORY INC., CINCINNATI, OHIO. An adjustable plastic knob has been added to the firm's Minimatic air regulator. The 1-in. knob has a nonslip surface for ease of adjustment and is attached to the stainless steel stem with...

Ultrasonic soldering system. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... MISONIX INC., FARMINGDALE, N.Y. The G-35 ultrasonic soldering system allows for the fluxless soldering of metals, and even exotic materials such as Noibium, ceramics, and glass by the application of heat and ultrasonic energy, as delivered via...

Zero grade air generators. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... PARKER HANNIFIN CORP., TEWKSBURY, MASS. Expensive, dangerous, and hazardous cylinders of zero grade air, used to supply nebulizer gas to multiple LC/MS instruments, can now be eliminated. Seven models of generators produce up to 140 1pm of...

System combination. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... TRANSDUCER TECHNIQUES INC., TEMECULA, CALIF. This system combination consists of the company's MLC Series (mini load column compression only load cell) and TMO-l (12-v dc-powered amplifier/conditioner module). The TMO-1 provides dedicated...

Multifunction fluid. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... HIRSCHMANN ENGINEERING USA INC., BUFFALO GROVE, ILL. The company has added Ionogrind multifunction fluid to its line of synthetic and semi- synthetic fluids. Developed by Oel-Held of Germany, the fluid comes in 55-gal. drums. It was developed...

Higher-capacity chillers. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... THE TRANE CO., LA CROSSE, WIS. Extended-capacity DuplexCenTraVac chillers can produce up to 3,950 tons of cooling in a single machine at ARI conditions. The new chillers, nominally sized for 3,000 and 3,500 tons, are an extension of Trane's...

Servo drives. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... PACIFIC SCIENTIFIC, DANAHER MOTION CO., ROCKFORD, ILL. PCE800 Series servo drives feature 480-v ac operation, making them powerful enough for big jobs and compatible with European voltage requirements. They have a footprint up to 40 percent...

Closed loop control. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... DANFOSS DRIVES, LOVES PARK, ILL. VLT 5000 flux closed loop drives provide genuine flux vector control for applications up to 250 hp, and are designed with digital signal processing technology. This series can replace many servo systems, at...

Continuous cleaning. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... STERIL-AIRE INC., CERRITOS, CALIF. X-Mount UVC Emitters are designed to provide continuous, non-chemical cleaning of ducts and other HVAC surfaces. The ultraviolet devices come in five tube lengths (16, 20, 24, 30, and 36 in.) to fit most...

Bimetal thermometers. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... PALMER INSTRUMENTS INC., ASHEVILLE, N.C. All Pro bimetal thermometers are an alternative for the HVAC and process industries. These bimetals have stainless steel construction and come in 2-in. back-connected dial and 3- and 5-in. dial sizes...

Reusable metal filters. (New Products).
February 1, 2003... AMISTCO SEPARATIONS PRODUCTS INC., ALVIN, TEXAS. Reusable metal filters suit applications where heat, abrasives, corrosives, high pressures, and vibration cause other media to disintegrate. The filters can be cleaned by back washing through...

Cable reels. (Product Information).
February 1, 2003... HANNAY REELS, WESTERLO, N.Y. This company's catalog has information on manual and power rewind cable reels for a variety of industrial applications. They are used in rescue and hazmat operations, grounds maintenance and repair, video...

Petroleum flow management. (Product Information).
February 1, 2003... FLOWSERVE CORP. PUMP DIV., IRVING, TEXAS. The company's Oil & Gas brochure explains technical and applications capabilities in upstream petroleum flow management. In addition, it covers Flowserve's line of pumps, which are designed for such...

Linear actuators. (Product Information).
February 1, 2003... NORCO INC., RIDGEFIELD, CONN. This manufacturer of power transmission and motion control products has issued its Value Added Systems brochure. It details how the company's design engineers can work with customers to develop its core...

Router cutter. (Product Information).
February 1, 2003... CARBOLOY INC., WARREN, MICH. The company's new brochure focuses on its high-productivity router cutter that is optimized for slotting, square shoulder, and pocketing operations in aluminum. The cutter offers a high metal removal rate of 185 to...

Load, force, and weight. (Product Information).
February 1, 2003... MAGTROL INC., BUFFALO, N.Y. Information on highly reliable systems for measuring and monitoring load, force, and weight is at the core of the company's brochure. Its product offerings include load measuring pins, load-force-weight sensors,...

Sealing science: tracking down leaks in the lab to keep them off the road. (Feature Focus: Fluid Systems).
February 1, 2003... AN EDGE-SEAL GASKET begins its final manufacturing stage stacked together with about a hundred identical paper frames. Each die-cut frame matches, edge for edge and hole for hole, the parts between which it will form a sealing interface. ...

Current from currents: in the quest for renewable energy, the oceans' tides and flow have gone largely untapped. (Feature Focus: Fluid Systems).
February 1, 2003... THERE HAVE BEEN ATTEMPTS to harvest the power of waves through tidal barrages, such as the one in use at the LaRance Tidal Power Station in France, but these have posed environmental problems, and proved costly to build and operate. Now,...

Planning a plant: a digital factory runs just like a real one, only on a computer.
February 1, 2003... ONLY A DECADE AGO, It took many years for a spacecraft to move from the drawing board to the launch pad. It now takes only about two years to design and build a satellite, thanks to recent advances in computer-aided design and other...

Carbon underground: much of the world points a finger at [CO.sub.2]. Now it needs a place to hide.(carbon dioxide)
February 1, 2003... ROBERT KANE COULD WELL HAVE been holding the salvation of the Earth's atmosphere in his hands. It usually sits on a shelf behind his desk, but to illustrate a point, Kane, an environmental scientist at the Department of Energy's Office of...

Radio jamming: an Illinois town blocks radium from its water.
February 1, 2003... RADIOACTIVITY IN WATER SUPPLIES is common enough in the United States that the Environmental Protection Agency has a rule about it: no more than 5 picocuries in a liter of drinking water. That posed a problem for the city of Ottawa, Ill., which...

Putting water back: looking for a reservoir to store a backup supply, one California district went directly to the source; its aquifer.(the Calleguas Municipal Water District in Ventura County, California)
February 1, 2003... ENGINEERING ADVANCEMENTS IN BASIC CLEAN WATER delivery have given major impetus to the establishment of great cities and small towns around the globe. However, as the size of the urban enclaves grows, so too does the controversy of water...

Hose Series turbine flowmeters for liquid service. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... The Hose Series turbine flowmeters are ideal for use in liquid applications where the flowmeter will be installed and fitted to hose or plastic tubing. This series is available in sizes 1/4" through 3" and provides extremely accurate flow...

Film indicates stress distribution. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Pressurex[R] enables you to quickly and inexpensively determine force distribution and magnitude between contacting surfaces. Microcapsules within the film burst at specific pressure levels and cause an instantaneous color change, producing a...

100,000,000 revolutions/strokes minimum. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Some Applications * Actuators * Robotic joints * Motor feedback * Directional sensing * Valve positioning * Instruments * Engine controls JDK's process produces a fluch circuit element superior to that of...

Bolted joint evaluation software. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... BoltFAST consists of three distinct components: Joint Analysis, Torque Analysis and Thread Analysis. By combining a large database of fastener and interface materials and their physical characteristics, BoltFAST allows the engineer to quickly...

Spiral Retaining Rings. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... The new Smalley Steel Ring Company Retaining Ring Catalog is now available. Smalley has over 4,100 rings in stock, sizes from 1/2" to 16". Special designs are available with No-Tooling-Charges[TM] with sizes from 9/32" to 84"; available in...

Idler Sprockets. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Martin carries a complete line of Idler Sprockets, including Ball Bearing, Needle Bearing, Bronze Bushed, Bronze Bearing and Non-Metallic. All Idlers are in stock and ready for immediate shipment. For more information, contact Martin Sprocket &...

High-speed rotating machinery & fluid recirculating systems. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... We design high-performance AC motors and integrated systems in power levels from fractional to 800 hp at speeds from 50k rpm to 15k rpm. We design and integrate cooling, lube and control systems with local or remote operation capability. Use of...

Orinted software system. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Gridgen is the interactive, graphically oriented software system for the generation of 3-D grids. Create quadrilateral and hexahedral grid cells, triangular and tetrahedral grid cells, mapped meshes, hybrid meshes including prisms and pyramids,...

Simplify linear motion design, setup, operation. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Amacoil/Uhing linear motion assemblies for positioning, indexing, scanning, winding, x-y table movement, cutting, grinding, other applications. Smooth shaft -- no clogging. Drive head travel direction automatically, instantaneously reversible...

Rotating electrical connectors. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Liquid metal wetted connectors are superior to conventional slip rings and feature sealed ball bearing construction. Durable, compact connectors offer increased reliability, low electrical noise and less than 1 milliohm resistance. Ideal for...

Storm/CFD2000--CFD software. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... Free Trial With Full Functionality All flow speeds, heat transfer, advanced chemistry, multi-phase, and FSI. Easily customizable BCs and equation source terms. (800) 326-5155; sales@adaptive-research.com. www.adaptive-research.com...

Centralized lubrication systems. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... A new color catalog is available on Oil-Rite's PurgeX[R] centralized lubrication systems. With explicit detail on dimensions, specifications and engineering data. Liquid or Grease delivery, Air or Electric Motor operated. Also available: Air...

Pressure vessel--heat exchanger software. (The Resource File).
February 1, 2003... COMPRESS and sister programs design and mechanically rerate pressure vessels and TEMA/ASME heat exchangers, design expansion joints, perform finite element analysis on nozzles, flanges, and appurtenances, estimate fabrication cost, and...