Top 5 Roadblocks to Digital Factory of the Future
Features 10/24/2011 29 comments The digital factory of the future faces challenges of cost, compatibility and programmability as PLCs and PACs lurch towards a fulling integrated production cycle.
Slideshow: CAD's New Age of Functionality
Features 9/9/2011 15 comments After a semi-lost decade, CAD vendors have reinvigorated their focus on CAD, introducing an array of innovative functionality and 3D modeling advances that take CAD to the next level.
Design News 2011 Salary Survey: Best News in Years
Features 8/10/2011 7 comments The results of our annual salary survey show solid improvements in pay, as well as overall satisfaction with the engineering profession, despite rising stress levels and a still-tight economy.
My Chevy Volt Test Drive
Features 7/22/2011 15 comments The Chevrolet Volt accelerates better, offers more space, and costs more than you might expect.
New Breed of Lithium Batteries
Features 7/20/2011 14 comments Higher capacities are enabling cylindrical, prismatic, and flat lithium batteries to move into medical instruments, power tools, and computing applications.
Design for Recyclability
Features 7/12/2011 10 comments Component reduction through modular design and fastener standardization is paving the way for faster disassembly.
Hardened, Robust Switches & Routers
Features 7/5/2011 3 comments Industrial networks can use upgraded technology to address concerns about temperature, redundancy, data creep, security, and software standards.
Strategies for Energy Monitoring
Features 6/29/2011 5 comments Standard Ethernet networking and PAC technology, new software tools, and demand-response programs team up to identify energy savings and reduce consumption.
Miniature Motion in Medical Devices
Features 6/24/2011 4 comments Solutions offer more compact, mobile, low power, and lightweight motion control to help spur advances in medical device design and development.
Lunar Crane Design
Features 6/3/2011 18 comments Designing a robotic tool changer for use on the moon not only means dealing with the vacuum of space and moon dust, but also the changing scope of requirements for the device.
A Strategy for Better Test Equipment Management
Features 6/3/2011 4 comments At the heart of advanced product innovation and development speed in the aerospace and defense industries lies the improvement of test equipment utilization rates.
Integrated Safety Moves Beyond Outlier Status
Features 6/2/2011 4 comments Though still considered a heretical idea by some engineers, the integration of safety and machine control on one controller is gaining increased acceptance with the help of new safety standards and the never-ending push for greater productivity.
Drone Design
Features 5/31/2011 4 comments As unmanned drones play an increasingly important role in defense strategies and tactics, the demands on the electronic control systems in these vehicles include extreme portability, ruggedness and safety. Every component in these systems carries with it the weight of mission success or failure - all the way down to the switches.
Unified Components and Controls for Robot Kinematics
Features 5/31/2011 1 comment With the automotive industry employing 95 percent of the robots in use for industrial purposes, this industry's robotic trends points the way toward future robot designs, which increasingly involves modularization, reduction in the number of assemblies and elimination of proprietary hardware.
Simplifying the Complex in High-Risk Duty Robots
Features 5/26/2011 2 comments With the right design strategy going in, the creation of a robot using high-torque, compact motors and rugged design does not necessarily negate the creation of an economical, lightweight bomb-disposal robot.
How Advanced Materials Improve Aerospace Engines
Features 5/26/2011 1 comment As aerospace manufacturers look for high-temperature materials that increase performance, improve fuel efficiency and satisfy safety standards, while lowering manufacturing costs, advanced ceramics and high-performance superalloys play an increasingly important role in aerospace engine design.
Putting Physics into Human Modeling
Features 5/25/2011 1 comment Using complex mathematical models, predictive dynamics and a sprinkling of robotics technology, the Santos digital human modeling software is helping the U.S. military and large manufacturers test quality, safety and ergonomics factors in a virtual world.
High-Tech Implants
Features 5/19/2011 1 comment Recovery rates for wounded U.S. soldiers are improving dramatically because of advanced processes for producing custom cranial implants.
Engineers Give Bioplastics Thumbs Up
Features 5/5/2011 1 comment Many problems remain, however, including cost, properties, their claimed environmental benefits, and potential impact on food supplies.
Designing for Wind Turbine Reliability
Features 5/5/2011 1 comment Advancements in motion control are pivotal to delivering greater system reliability and serviceability as wind turbines grow larger and move offshore.
Auto Manufacturers' Drive to Simplify
Features 5/3/2011 3 comments Hybrid powertrains are adding complexity to electrical architectures that may already be reaching their limits. Moves to incorporate dual-core MCUs and more Flash memory may be the solution.
Lab Innovation Based on Toy and Material Handling
Features 4/25/2011 Post a comment How a flat-panel TV handling system and the simplicity of the Etch-a-Sketch resulted in the design of a miniature, automated, two- axis laboratory sample handling system.
Pile Driving Machine Design
Features 4/21/2011 Post a comment Sixteen precision 112.5-degree gearboxes regulate timing for the Octa-Kong pile driver that is being used to build the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge in China.
High Frequency Hexapod Testing
Features 4/21/2011 Post a comment Hydraulic hexapod simulation table expands frequency range up to 100 Hz, increasing the speed, range and flexibility of automotive component testing.
The Pneumatic-Electromechanical Connection
Features 4/21/2011 Post a comment Flexible pneumatic technology offers multi-position, force control and industrial network support for distributed architectures to bridge the abilities of standard pneumatic and electromechanical actuators.
Choosing Electric, Hydraulic or Pneumatic Drives
Features 4/18/2011 1 comment Understanding how electric, hydraulic or pneumatic drive systems function is critical to comprehending their affects on machine performance, ease of use, flexibility and reliability.
Applying Lean to Product Development
Features 4/15/2011 Post a comment Rather than mapping lean manufacturing principles directly to product development, engineering teams need to consider information flow and knowledge capture to truly reduce inefficiencies and optimize the process.
RBC Series
Features 4/15/2011 Post a comment Regulated dc/dc bus converter combines high efficiency with wide input range for distributed power applications.
IEC61131-3 as an Integration Tool
Features 4/14/2011 Post a comment Understanding the benefits of IEC61131-3 and why its programming methods are becoming preferred for mechatronic designs.
Designing Systems for Remote Access
Features 4/14/2011 Post a comment Using standard industrial Ethernet technologies, forward-thinking machine builders can leverage an array of enterprise technologies that allow for their machines to more easily be used by partner service organizations increasingly relied upon by manufacturers of all sizes.
In System Integration, Software Rules
Features 4/14/2011 Post a comment To address machine builder needs, the automation industry is increasingly focused on delivering application-specific software that is highly tailored to specific machines and easy to use.
Mini PC
Features 4/14/2011 Post a comment With the latest Intel Core i7/i5/i3 Mobile Processor Family.
Digital Pressure Gauges
Features 4/14/2011 Post a comment Gauges use a temperature-compensated 316L stainless steel sensor with ±0.25 percent accuracy (±0.1 percent optional).
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.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
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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