Video: Robotic Droplets Will Assemble Satellites
Blog 2/28/2013 23 comments Researchers at the University of Colorado at Boulder are developing small, swarming robots that will assemble a space station or a satellite, or clean up oil spills on Earth. Dubbed droplets, they form a "liquid that thinks" when they swarm together.
3D Printing & Robots at MD&M West
Engineering Materials 2/26/2013 34 comments There are lots of ways to build a product, from high-speed robotic assembly lines to small, refrigerator-sized 3D printing machines that make actual metal production parts for medical or aerospace uses. Many were on display at MD&M West and co-located shows.
A More Natural Way to Learn
Guest Blogs 2/26/2013 11 comments With MapleSim, students can easily connect the analytic models in textbooks to the numeric solutions that result from the simulation. This openness is critical to student learning.
Startup Devises Liquid Metal Batteries for the Electricity Grid
Blog 2/26/2013 28 comments The founders of Boston-area startup Ambri have invented new liquid-based heavy-duty battery technology they hope will be the foundation of the next-generation electricity grid in which alternative energy will play a key role.
SoCs Target Motor Control
Blog 2/26/2013 2 comments Freescale, TI, and STMicroelectronics offer SoCs that bring together a lot of features to address particular application areas.
New Class of Mobile Industrial Robots
Blog 2/25/2013 17 comments A new category of mobile robots uses a localization and navigation engine to enable self-driving operation in indoor plant and warehousing environments.
Free Compiler in the Cloud
Blog 2/22/2013 9 comments Arrow and Freescale have partnered in the cloud so you can more easily design a product for the "Internet of Things."
Running Robots off the Cuff
Sherlock Ohms 2/22/2013 16 comments When they order the wrong robot and you have to keep the line running, it's time to find a hack solution.
AC-DC Power Supplies Are Shrinking
Guest Blogs 2/21/2013 20 comments Power-supply design trends are clear and dramatic. For the AC-DC supplies, these changes are due to multiple factors combining to yield these more-compact designs. Some of the factors are obvious, but others are not.
Floodlights in the Spotlight
Guest Blogs 2/21/2013 19 comments Floodlights provide the bright conditions necessary for nocturnal leisure or industrial activities and can increase security. However, with some lights powered for up to 10 hours a day, electricity and maintenance costs can really add up.
MD&M Show Highlights New Technologies
Electronic News & Comment 2/20/2013 4 comments From sensors to electronics to additive manufacturing systems, the recent Medical Design & Manufacturing Show in Anaheim demonstrated thousands of new and existing products.
Saving Energy: Best-Practices & System View
Blog 2/20/2013 11 comments Looking at the options for saving electrical energy in US factories, industry experts say it’s important not only to look at a number of different technologies but also to adopt a new mindset.
Slideshow: Technology on Display in Anaheim
Blog 2/19/2013 29 comments Thousands of companies came together at the Anaheim Convention Center last week to display their technologies during the Pacific Design & Manufacturing, ATX, and MD&M West shows, among others.
Sensor Performance Key to Process Improvement
Guest Blogs 2/19/2013 4 comments Eddy current, noncontact displacement sensors are very different from the common inductive proximity sensor and can provide submicron resolution in harsh environments.
Polyurethane Composite Toughens Up Seawalls
Engineering Materials 2/19/2013 10 comments A pure polyurethane glass fiber composite designed for seawalls is tougher and stronger than standard glass fiber composite materials.
Engineering Education Starts at an Early Age
Guest Blogs 2/18/2013 31 comments It's National Engineers Week! As the level of system complexity escalates, and we begin solving some of the world’s biggest problems, our society will grow increasingly dependent upon the talents of generations who are just now beginning to explore their creativity and learn about the way things work.
Futurist: 3D Printing Will Pave the Way for a New Era of Manufacturing
Electronic News & Comment 2/14/2013 25 comments Future manufacturing will be shaped by the consumer's desire for individually tailored products that can be created quickly and on the spot, a futurist told an audience of engineers at this week's Medical Design & Manufacturing West Show.
Electronic Innovation Will Drive Medical Design
Electronic News & Comment 2/13/2013 18 comments Most of us are only vaguely aware of it, but there's a mini revolution taking place in the medical device industry that's going to change the way we monitor our health in the coming decade.
Video: Biggest 3D Manufacturing Machine Builds Jet Fighter Wing Boxes
Engineering Materials 2/12/2013 19 comments What may be the biggest build volume in additive manufacturing, at least for metal parts, is being done by Sciaky Inc. by combining an electron beam welding gun with wirefeed additive layering. It can make parts as large as 19 ft x 4 ft x 4 ft.
The European Pump Market, Post Financial Crisis
Guest Blogs 2/12/2013 3 comments What’s the trend that will shape the pump market in Europe’s building services industry in the future? The answer lies in the incorporation of more electronic features in pumps, leading to greater connectivity and integration into the overall system.
Onshoring: A Trend in Automation?
Blog 2/11/2013 22 comments With automation, companies are able to bring manufacturing back to the US, respond to changing market demands quicker, protect Intellectual Property, and have total quality control.
Auto Execs: Plug-In Hybrids Will Soar, Pure EVs Decline
Captain Hybrid 2/8/2013 33 comments Automotive executives foresee a big future for plug-in hybrids over the next five years but are less bullish on the future of pure EVs, a new study from KMPG International says.
Metal/Plastic Car Wheel Boosts MPG
Engineering Materials 2/8/2013 36 comments A wheel made of metal and plastic designed for the 2012 MYFord Focus SE has shown an increase of 1.1 MPG highway in third-party tests, compared to the car's standard production wheel.
Korean Researchers Invent Bendable Battery
Blog 2/7/2013 41 comments Korean researchers have developed what they are claiming is the world's first bendable lithium-ion battery, an invention that could pave the way for more flexible mobile and electronic devices.
Distance-Based Sensors Measure Up
Guest Blogs 2/7/2013 8 comments When some objects must be seen and others ignored, or when the object’s presence and its position must both be known, SPT, MPT, or PRT distance-based sensors are the best options.
UK-based Plastic Logic and French company ISORG have created what the pair tout as a first in flexible printed electronics: a large area, conformable, organic image sensor printed on plastic.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
Early in my career, I worked as a draftsman and remember the days of drawing on vellum with numbered pencils and Mylar with plastic lead. This was a fun experience in the sense that I ...
I've been using workstations for more than 10 years and love finding ways to get more performance from my system. With demanding professional applications that require more power each ...
A lasting memory from my first job as an engineer in an auto assembly plant is standing on hard concrete at six in the morning, vending-machine coffee clutched in hand, listening to ...
For industrial control applications, or even a simple assembly line, that machine can go almost 24/7 without a break. But what happens when the task is a little more complex? That’s where the “smart” machine would come in. The smart machine is one that has some simple (or complex in some cases) processing capability to be able to adapt to changing conditions. Such machines are suited for a host of applications, including automotive, aerospace, defense, medical, computers and electronics, telecommunications, consumer goods, and so on. This radio show will show what’s possible with smart machines, and what tradeoffs need to be made to implement such a solution.
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