Mechanical Engineering-CIME articles from September 2007

Mechanical Engineering-CIME archives from September 2007

The August question of the month: when do the most innovative designs emerge?(Only on M.E. MAGAZINE ONLINE: @www.memagazine.org)
September 1, 2007... More than three-quarters of the readers who responded to our Question of the Month believe that teams of engineers were mere innovative than engineers working alone. According to one reader, "Most innovative designs emerge from teams...

Creative together.(mechanical engineering )(Editorial)
September 1, 2007... What happens when we're paid to be imaginative but the creative juices just aren't flowing? Perhaps you have surmised that today, as I sit in front of my computer, is one of those days. At certain times, being alone with my thoughts can inspire...

New reader.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: I am a senior mechanical engineer from Brazil and yesterday I visited the Mechanical Engineering Online site for the first time. I would like to congratulate you for the high quality of this magazine. It has a rich content...

Plane facts.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: The November 2006 News and Notes section had an article titled the "The Airplane in the Garage" about the Terrafugia Transition. The flying car concept is daunting, to say the least, with all the tradeoffs which must be made...

Engineers' forum.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: The spirited exchange of views in the May Letters column regarding the technology employed in designing the Wilson Turbopower recuperative heat exchangers demonstrates once again the unique value of this column as an engineering...

Thanks for the heat.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: I have been a member since 1948 and many times in previous years I would scan the magazine and not find anything that I really wanted to read in detail. Many times, the content of articles was outside my fields of interest and,...

Job drain.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: As a former international student, I really enjoyed reading Alan S. Brown's article on the brain drain (May). While he has written the article as a professional, I am going to write a note as a former job seeker. First, I have to...

A more public road.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: Why does the road not taken have to be a road? (Feature article, April.) Why are we fiddling with the faraway impracticalities of expecting Joe Sixpack to handle hydrogen fuel, or wasting our precious time with hybrid or...

Catching up?(letters)(Letter to the editor)
September 1, 2007... To the Editor: Your article "A Major in Robots" (Computing, March) claims that Worcester Polytechnic Institute has developed the first robotic engineering degree in the United States. If this is the case, then engineering degrees in the...

Jet auction online.(news & notes)(Eclipse Aviation Corp.'s Eclipse 500 was sold in an auction by eBay )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... All kinds of things have been sold on eBay--stuffed bears, concert tickets, pilot gear, plans for build-it-yourself airplanes, and a very light jet. Actually, the very light jet, an Eclipse 500, was sold last month for $1.8 million, not...

Humanitarian group founder at IMECE.(news & notes)(ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress )(Bernard Amadei of Engineers Without Borders-USA)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Bernard Amadei, the founding president of the humanitarian group Engineers Without Borders-USA, will be the keynote speaker at the 2007 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress this November in Seattle. Amadei, a professor of...

Equipment time shares.(news & notes)(Tangible Express' service)
September 1, 2007... Tangible Express, which opened its doors last February in Springville, Utah, thinks it has a more cost-effective way for companies to do rapid prototyping: fractional ownership of equipment. It wants companies to buy a share of its high-end...

Canada funds plant for cellulosic ethanol.(news & notes)(Sustainable Development Technology Canada provided finance to Woodland Biofuels Inc. for its ethanol plant)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Sustainable Development Technology Canada, a not-for-profit corporation created by the Government of Canada, has awarded $9.8 million to a project led by Woodland Biofuels Inc. of Mississauga, Ontario, for the construction and testing of a...

U.S. Department of Defense announced more than $605 million in contract awards to business units of General Dynamics.(Briefly Noted)
September 1, 2007... The U.S. Department of Defense announced more than $605 million in contract awards to business units of General Dynamics. Three awards valued at $428.9 million were made to General Dynamics Land Systems of Sterling Heights, Mich., for system...

Fourteen airlines signed up to use Boeing's Maintenance Performance Toolbox in the first half of this year.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Fourteen airlines signed up to use Boeing's Maintenance Performance Toolbox in the first half of this year. Toolbox, a software package for efficiency-conscious carriers, represents the industry's first set of productivity tools designed to...

Veyance Technologies Inc. of Akron, Ohio, an exclusive manufacturer and marketer of Goodyear Engineered Products, strengthened its position in the conveyor belt industry.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Veyance Technologies Inc. of Akron, Ohio, an exclusive manufacturer and marketer of Goodyear Engineered Products, strengthened its position in the conveyor belt industry with the purchase of assets of the former Industrial Specialty Fabrics of...

American Society for Engineering Education.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... The American Society for Engineering Education has honored ASME Fellow William N, Sharpe, Jr., with its 2007 Ralph Coats Roe Award. The award, which includes a $10,000 honorarium, recognizes engineering educators for outstanding teaching skills...

ITI TranscenData.(Briefly Noted)
September 1, 2007... ITI TranscenData of Milford, Ohio, has released version 7.1 of its data interoperability tool, CADfix.

Passing CAD around.(computing)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A MANUFACTURER IN HORB, Germany, makes car interior pieces such as ashtrays and air vents. The products are small and numerous, so over time the company, Fischer Automotive Systems GmbH, has developed a large repository of data. Fischer has...

Super-quick PC.(computing)(personal computers)
September 1, 2007... ALTHOUGH YOUR NEW COMPUTER may seem lightning fast, one that sits on your desktop is pretty slow compared to a supercomputer. Now researchers at the University of Maryland in College Park say they've developed personal computers powered by...

Stronger part.(computing)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... A PRECISION TOOL AND DIE MAKER for the plastic, aluminum, and zinc injection industries, J&M Mold of Fairport Harbor, Ohio, is using plastic flow software to design molds faster, according to David Martin, the company's owner. Martin has...

Analyzing pipeline routes.(computing)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... MECHANICAL ENGINEERS OFTEN RELY on finite element analysis software to test models of parts and systems. The software has also been used to simulate large-scale events, like the effect of storms on pipelines. For instance, a pipeline and...

What do women in IT want?(computing)(information technology )
September 1, 2007... RECRUITERS SEEKING TO HIRE women for information technology positions should emphasize job promotion and job security over other aspects of the job, according to a Pennsylvania State University research study of 92 female IT employees. ...

Xerox Corp.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Xerox Corp. of Stamford, Conn., has launched its 7142 color printer, which targets the CAD market. The machine offers resolution from 360 to 2,880 dots per inch, using print heads that control each individual droplet size.

Wolfram Research.(Briefly Noted)
September 1, 2007... Wolfram Research of Champaign, Ill., has released Wolfram Workbench 1.1, an up grade to its integrated development environment for Mathematica applications.

SolidWorks' solutions partner in San Diego, SolidProfessor, has made available a self-paced multimedia training course for the SolidWorks Routing application.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... SolidWorks' solutions partner in San Diego, SolidProfessor, has made available a self-paced multimedia training course for the SolidWorks Routing application. The course teaches users how to create routed systems in SolidWorks, such as...

Prostep of Darmstadt, Germany, a product lifecycle management integration company, has launched the Prostep exchange manager, an application bundled with the Synergy software sold by UGS PLM Software of Plano, Texas.(Briefly Noted)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Prostep of Darmstadt, Germany, a product lifecycle management integration company, has launched the Prostep exchange manager, an application bundled with the Synergy software sold by UGS PLM Software of Plano, Texas. This solution provides a...

Computational Engineering International.(Briefly Noted)(EnSight DR software )(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Computational Engineering International of Apex, N.C., said its EnSight DR software customers can now run a Windows-based PC to interact with and control distributed rendering on a Unix cluster. EnSight is a visualization tool designed for the...

Bluebeam Software Inc.(Briefly Noted)(new Bluebeam PDF Revu 5.5)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... Bluebeam Software Inc. of Pasadena, Calif., has released Bluebeam PDF Revu 5.5, which enables portable document format text editing and improves PDF markup for greater efficiency. The application can be used with AutoCAD 2008 and SolidWorks...

EDS Technologies Ltd., a PLM application and 3-D visual simulation provider in Bangalore, India, has partnered with Virtools, a Dassault SystEmes company located in Paris.(Briefly Noted)
September 1, 2007... EDS Technologies Ltd., a PLM application and 3-D visual simulation provider in Bangalore, India, has partnered with Virtools, a Dassault SystEmes company located in Paris. Virtools is a 3-D application development and deployment platform.

ITI TranscenData of Milford, Ohio, has launched DEXcenter 5.3.(Briefly Noted)(International TechneGroup Inc.)(Brief article)
September 1, 2007... ITI TranscenData of Milford, Ohio, has launched DEXcenter 5.3, the upgrade to its Web-based CAD collaboration solution application for data exchange across an extended enterprise in a multi-CAD and PLM environment.

Cut file size.(software exchange)
September 1, 2007... Capability: With the 3-D CAD and computer-aided manufacturing program KeyCreator 6.5, users can directly edit history-free 3-D models. Model features can be easily found, isolated, and their values updated and changed. A new feature provides...

CAD with design feedback.(software exchange)
September 1, 2007... Capability: The 3-D CAD software SolidWorks has been upgraded to SolidWorks 2008. The upgrade provides feedback about quality and manufacturability during the CAD design process. One new feature, Swift Instant3D, lets users create and modify...

Plotting and animating.(software exchange)
September 1, 2007... Capability: Engineers can plot and animate simulation data with EnSight Lite. Data can be analyzed and explored via interactive rendering combined with multiple transient 2-D plots. Engineers can extract plot data from probe position versus...

Drawing to document.(software exchange)
September 1, 2007... Capability: Solid Converter DWG converts DWG and DXF files to vector-based portable document format files. You don't need to be running AutoCAD to use it. Drawings can also be converted to image formats, including TIF or JPEG. Users can select...

Cost-free calculation.(software exchange)
September 1, 2007... Capability: Tedds Lite is a free platform for publishing and using Tedds calculations. Users have access to some of the developer's Ted& calculations, which are used for repetitive calculation to replace handwritten math. The calculations aid...

Film role for a premium polymer.(technology focus: MATERIALS AND ASSEMBLY)(Imperial Chemical Industries PLC's Victrex PLC )
September 1, 2007... A company that supplies a single, patented material has a measure Of protection. No one else can offer quite the same thing--until the patent runs out. Then anyone anywhere in the world is free to offer a competing version of the product. It's...

Erector set for cartesian robots.(technology focus: MATERIALS AND ASSEMBLY)(Bosch Rexroth Corp.'s camoLINE )
September 1, 2007... From simple linear and pick-and-pack systems to gantries and booms, Cartesian robots are increasingly common in assembly and production environments. Vendors have come a long way in providing off-the-shelf solutions. Yet most Cartesian systems...

Stiffer than diamond.(technology focus: MATERIALS AND ASSEMBLY)
September 1, 2007... Tin is a fairly malleable substance--the tinsmiths of old used to hammer sheets of the metal into household objects. Barium titanate is crystal that is only half as stiff as steel, used mainly as a piezoelectric element in microphones. One...

Going up.(technology focus: MATERIALS AND ASSEMBLY)(factory management)
September 1, 2007... Walk into most factories and look up. You're likely to see lots of unused space. Now, a new wave of vertical automated storage and retrieval systems is using that space to improve worker productivity. The concept is simple. Instead of...

The creative impulse: you know it when you see it, but just what is that spark that changes things? Is it even a spark? And can a cross-functional team achieve it?(mechanical engineering DESIGN)(Cover story)
September 1, 2007... Engineers prize creativity, and for good reason. Innovation powers corporate success. Henry Ford's low-cost mass production line, the Wright brothers' airplane, and Thomas Edison's phonograph all launched new businesses and created fortunes for...

Mastery of the complex: after a half-century of development, CAD continues to extend control over the design of ever-more-challenging systems.(mechanical engineering DESIGN)
September 1, 2007... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Consider the iPhone. Even in the likely event you don't own one, you've heard the buzz: The Apple hybrid combines a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, and Web-surfing capability all rolled into a handheld device about...

Seeing mechanical: a case for advancing the role of sketching in the art of engineering.(mechanical engineering DESIGN)
September 1, 2007... "THOUGHT IS IMPOSSIBLE WITHOUT AN IMAGE."--ARISTOTLE Designing innovative new products entails uncertainty. That is where risk comes in. It is in order to manage risk that rules have been created to make product development processes, as...

The path to invention: some companies have found a way to reach an elusive goal.(mechanical engineering DESIGN)
September 1, 2007... Innovation is difficult. Creating new products is something everyone must do, but you may wonder at times how anyone succeeds. The pressures of creating a new product, assessing the risks involved, and getting the product out to market first...

'Ordinary innovation': the phrase may put everyday inventiveness outside the protection of patents.
September 1, 2007... The U.S. Supreme Court, making one of its rare U forays into patent law, in late April decided a case that will raise the bar for inventors. After the High Court's decision, there is now something called "ordinary innovation" that is not...

Interface converters.(new products)
September 1, 2007... OMEGA ENGINEERING INC., STAMFORD, CONN. Miniature IC11 converters provide features required of high-quality interface converters in a miniature package and at a low cost, according to the company. The IC11 intelligent RS-232 to RS422/485...

Load/force sensors.(new products)
September 1, 2007... LOADSTAR SENSORS INC.. MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIF. The iLoad Series of digital load/force sensors is based on the company's patented capacitive sensing technology. These sensors combine the core load or force sensing function with integrated...

Roll adjuster.(new products)
September 1, 2007... PINPOINT LASER SYSTEMS, NEWBURYPORT, MASS. A new alignment tool facilitates the alignment of rollers, shafts, and web-handling systems. The tool is compact and easy to use in all industrial environments. Typical applications include paper...

Pressure transducer.(new products)
September 1, 2007... SETRA SYSTEMS INC., BOXBOROUGH, MASS. The Model 231 Multi-Sense wet-to-wet, differential pressure transducer is useful for monitoring control pump differential pressures, chiller or boiler differential pressure drops, and flow measurement of...

Pressure relief valve.(new products)
September 1, 2007... TYCO FLOW CONTROL, STAFFORD, TEXAS. This division of Tyco International Ltd. now offers the Anderson Greenwood Series 5100 pilot-operated pressure relief valve. The modulating-action, non-flowing, soft seatpilot-operated pressure relief valve...

Testing rounded surfaces.(new products)
September 1, 2007... FASTEST INC., ROSEVILLE, MINN. The Twistmate is designed specifically to seal and test threaded ports on round parts. Engineers have combined a special chamfered seal design with a sleek outer body shape to allow quick sealing on round...

Brushless blowers.(new products)
September 1, 2007... AMETEK TECHNICAL & INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTS, KENT, OHIO. Nautilair variable speed brushless dc blowers deliver a measured air and fuel mixture in gas-fired burner systems for optimized combustion and reduced nitrous oxide and carbon monoxide...

Rigid shaft couplings.(new products)
September 1, 2007... STAFFORD MANUFACTURING CORP., WILMINGTON. MASS. Rigid clamp-type couplings can mate dissimilar shafts and drive components, including inch and metric sizes and smooth or keyed designs. Featuring one- and two-piece designs and three-piece styles...

Multipurpose ball valves.(new products)
September 1, 2007... SWAGELOK, SOLON, OHIO. SK multipurpose ball valves offer positive, quarter-turn shutoff for general process and control applications in fluid systems. Key features of the new valves are 316 stainless steel construction, spring-loaded seats,...

Linear ball bushings.(new products)
September 1, 2007... MISUMI, SCHAUMBURG, ILL. The company has 259 types of linear ball bushings for most factory automation applications. With varying shape, length, material, and surface finish combinations, the linear ball bushings feature a range of available...

Gearmotor.(new products)
September 1, 2007... BODINE ELECTRIC CO., CHICAGO, ILL. The CG gearhead was developed for Bodine's most powerful electric motors, the 48R-ac inverter-duty, and 42A permanent magnet dc motors. This gearmotor design allows the CG to deliver up to 1,000 lbs.-in, of...

Aeration system.(new products)
September 1, 2007... TIDEFLEX TECHNOLOGIES, CARNEGIE, PA. What the company calls a revolutionary aeration system combines coarse and fine bubble aeration components to improve mixing and oxygen transfer while preventing backflow and clogging. The custom engineered...

Magnetic flowmeter.(new products)
September 1, 2007... OMEGA ENGINEERING INC., STANFORD, CONN. The FMG201 Series of flowmeters is capable of measuring the pulsating flows from both air and solenoid-driven metering pumps. They are designed for use with electrically conductive chemicals and fluids of...

Infrared analyzer.(new products)
September 1, 2007... CONTROL INSTRUMENTS CORP., FAIRFIELD, N.J. The AcuPro inflared analyzer is an industrial-strength product with a sampling system, heated optical cell, and integrated controller for continuous measurement of flammable and some combustible...

Rotary position sensor.(new products)
September 1, 2007... NOVOTECHNIK U.S. INC,, SOUTHBOROUGH, MASS. The RSC 2800 Series of non-contacting rotary sensors has a measurement angle determined by detecting variation in the orientation of a magnetic field due to a magnet attached to the shaft. Custom...

Drain valve assemblies.(new products)
September 1, 2007... ASCO, FLORHAM PARK, N.J. The company's new condensate drain valve assemblies are designed specifically for use in compressed air systems where drainage of moisture is critical. According to the manufacturer, these assemblies are a "significant...

Liquid silicone rubber.(new products)
September 1, 2007... DOW CORNING, MIDLAND, MICH. Silastic LC-50-2004 is a 50 shore hardness liquid silicone rubber designed to provide high clarity, superior mechanical properties, and short cycle time for high-speed manufacturers. It is well-suited for food-grade...

Flowmeters.(new products)
September 1, 2007... EMERSON PROCESS MANAGEMENT, BOULDER. COLO. Emerson has expanded its Micro Motion Coriolis flowmeters with the F-Series in Hastelloy C-22 construction. This makes it suitable for use across many industries and applications where the process...

Process controllers.(new products)
September 1, 2007... ALLEN-BRADLEY, MILWAUKEE, WIS. Process control applications (temperature, level, flow, etc) requiring individual or multiple controllers can operate more effectively using a single-loop process controller to manage the process. According to the...

Foam gaskets.(new products)
September 1, 2007... TECH-ETCH INC., PLYMOUTH, MASS. The benefit that sets 2700 Series conductive foam gaskets apart from others, according to the company, is that they are conductive on x, y, z axes, and not just on the outside surfaces. The gaskets are useful for...

Sealing solution.(new products)
September 1, 2007... SKF USA INC., KULPSVILLE, PA. The Speedi-Sleeve offers a cost-effective sealing solution when machine shaft surfaces have been damaged or worn in operation. Simple replacement of the original radial seals over a worn surface cannot provide...

Metering systems.(product information)
September 1, 2007... FLUID METERING INC., SYOSSET, N.Y. The company's 2007 36-page catalog covers precision dispensers and metering pumps for laboratory, industrial, process, and OEM applications. The catalog includes the new VMP Series of programmable variable...

Test tools.(product information)
September 1, 2007... FLUKE CORP., EVERETT, WASH. The Fluke Tools Catalog is now available in a digital format. 'Users can flip through the 72 pages with a click of the mouse, zoom in and zoom out of content, search for specific products or topics by keyword, and...

Proximity sensors.(product information)
September 1, 2007... TURCK, MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. The company's latest catalog covers its inductive, capacitive, analog, and ultrasonic proximity sensors. The 600-plus page catalog also contains specialty sensors for non-traditional applications. Among the new items...

ASME codes & standards.
September 1, 2007... ASME International, Codes 8, Standards, Three Park Ave., New York, NY 10016-5990 (212) 591-8500 Fax: (212) 591-8501 e-mail: cs@asme.org We invite you to visit our Web site: www.asme.org/codes. If you are looking...

Villain of sand.(input output)
September 1, 2007... When Spider-Man 3 swung into movie theaters this spring, James Kakalios, a University of Minnesota physics professor, was waiting. A diehard fan of superhero comics, he took a particular interest in Spidey's foe, Sandman, who can transform...