Slideshow: The Greenest Cars of 2013
Blog 5/21/2013 4 comments We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers Improve Potential for Lithium-Air Batteries
Blog 5/21/2013 1 comment Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
It's Still About the Battery
Captain Hybrid 5/17/2013 20 comments The Tesla Model S' performance in Consumer Reports tests was a major victory for electric cars, but a bigger challenge still lies ahead.
Slideshow: Is Tesla's Model S the Best Ever?
News 5/16/2013 47 comments Tesla Motors’ Model S sedan “blew away” its $90,000 gasoline-burning competitors in a recent review and may be the best car Consumer Reports has ever seen.
Slideshow: Aston Martin Puts Hydrogen on the Race Track
Electronic News & Comment 5/9/2013 26 comments In yet another sign that hydrogen is creeping into the consciousness of global automotive designers, sports car maker Aston Martin plans to run a hydrogen-fueled vehicle in a 24-hour Grand Touring race later this month.
Who Needs That Much TV?
Blog 5/3/2013 21 comments Front-seat television technology is beginning to creep into the worldwide automotive market. Is it really necessary?
Front-Seat TV Unwelcome in US Auto Market
Electronic News & Comment 5/2/2013 39 comments Front-seat television technology is beginning to creep into the worldwide automotive market, but regulators, automakers, and suppliers say it’s unlikely to take hold in the US.
Researchers Use DVD Burner to Fabricate Microcapacitors
Blog 4/24/2013 4 comments UCLA researchers have designed a new way to fabricate microcapacitors that could provide a more efficient and cost-effective way to provide energy sources for micro devices that charge 100 to 1,000 times faster than standard batteries.
Slideshow: The Best Things to Come Out of a 3D Printer
Blog 4/22/2013 36 comments It seems like everything these days is being 3D printed. We have seen many different items -- bathing suits, shoes, and even cars -- 3D printed and it is truly transforming how we are making things.
Slippery Material System Can Start, Stop Liquids
News 4/17/2013 12 comments A new material system invented by researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering is continuously "tunable" for transparency and wettability: it repels water or oil to a greater or lesser degree as it becomes more or less transparent.
Slideshow: Spotlight on Plug-In Vehicles
Captain Hybrid 4/16/2013 31 comments Automakers large and small, from Detroit Electric to Fiat and Volkswagen, have unveiled pure electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the past six months.
Can EV Batteries Last 20 Years?
News 4/12/2013 42 comments Lithium-ion batteries for electric cars may last far longer than we’ve been led to believe, a battery expert told the American Chemical Society in a speech this week.
Car Radio Fires Up Check Engine Light
Sherlock Ohms 4/12/2013 19 comments Apparently the 2003 Saturn Vue has some interconnections between sensors that depend upon the integrity of the radio ground strap for proper operation of the engine and transmission control computers.
M2M Gives Eyes & Ears to the Enterprise
Features 4/12/2013 4 comments Just as mobile computing has transformed the lives of consumers, machine-to-machine telemetry is revolutionizing business operations in every field, from healthcare to manufacturing to transportation.
Slideshow: Porsche Plans Plug-In Hybrid
Captain Hybrid 4/10/2013 28 comments Porsche plans to roll out a powerful plug-in hybrid next year that will accelerate from 0 to 60 in 5.2 seconds and hit a top track speed of 167 mph.
Reference Guide: Light Matters Vol 1 In certain environments, HBLEDs may be subject to corrosion… and failure. While this doesn't happen too often, it is something you should be aware of if the high-brightness LEDs (HBLEDs) in your application will be exposed to the air without the benefit of a suitable enclosure. Perhaps most surprisingly, this problem does not occur with the less-expensive, lowerbrightness "commodity" LEDs that are encased in hard epoxy such as those below.
Reference Guide: Light Matters Vol 2 Building a Low-Cost, HBLED-based Fiber- Optic Illuminator (Part 1) Recently I needed to design and build a dual channel, high-output fiber optic (FO) illuminator. In the spirit of "open disclosure", the unit is intended as an upgrade for a cherished vintage Vision Engineering "TS-3 Dynascope" stereo microscope in my home lab. It was a simple two-weekend project; but the optical, thermal and software development reflect many of the tasks you may encounter in production-level designs.
Reference Guide: Light Matters Vol 3 Good things often come in big packages, at least for certain Solid State Lighting (SSL) applications. A general distinction can be made between two basic types of lighting requirements.
Reference Guide: Light Matters Vol 6 From time to time, I see "glaring examples" of visually discomforting lighting. Glare is annoying at best and a safety hazard at worst. Understanding and managing it is important for well-designed lighting products. In this issue of I’ll explain a common metric used to quantify glare and present a mathematical model to predict it.
Reference Guide: Light Matters Vol 7 Building a better light bulb, especially one intended to replace the ubiquitous pear-shaped A19 incandescent, is not as easy as it might first appear.
Reference Guide: Special Digital Edition: Logic Devices for Automotive Logic for automotive applications is similar in lots of ways to logic designed for other applications. However, it's just as dissimilar, and for a host of reasons. In this Technology Roundup, you'll find a multitude of resources to help you better understand these issues, including what types of devices are available, where specifically they should and shouldn't be deployed, and how automotive technology differs from other applications.
Chip Suppliers Target Vehicle Complexity
Electronic News & Comment 4/2/2013 21 comments Chip makers are hoping a new breed of microcontrollers will begin laying the foundation for a solution to one of the auto industry’s most vexing design problems -- electronic complexity.
Slideshow: Electronics Add Glitter to New Rolls-Royce
Electronic News & Comment 4/1/2013 21 comments Rolls-Royce is rolling out a new fastback-style vehicle that cranks out 624 HP, goes from 0 to 60 in 4.4 seconds, and employs more electronic technology than any vehicle in company history.
National Additive Manufacturing Institute Funds First Projects
Engineering Materials 3/29/2013 8 comments The National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute has funded its first seven projects. They span a range of technologies and focus on fine-tuning existing AM processes for a variety of goals, including tooling, materials development, and composite production.
Lithium-Ion Batteries Overheated in Mitsubishi Vehicles
News 3/28/2013 43 comments In yet another setback for lithium-ion battery technology, Mitsubishi Motors has acknowledged that it recently had a fire and an overheating incident involving the high-energy batteries.
Results: Your Opinions on a Design Ideas Forum
Engineering Materials 3/25/2013 22 comments Here's a summary of your ideas for starting a Design Ideas forum that poses design problems and asks for input from the community to help solve them in innovative ways. We also ask for a bit more feedback to help fine-tune things.
Slideshow: Volkswagen to Build World's Most Fuel-Efficient Car
Captain Hybrid 3/18/2013 50 comments Volkswagen AG is planning to roll out a production car that will combine a plug-in hybrid powertrain with low weight and an aerodynamic shape to reportedly achieve a startling fuel efficiency rating of 261 mpg.
3D-Printed Hybrid Car Drives Toward Mass Production
Blog 3/15/2013 17 comments KOR EcoLogic has teamed with Stratasys's RedEye On Demand 3D printing business unit to fabricate a lightweight electric car, Urbee, that could take to the streets in about two years.
We looked at a number of sources to determine this year's greenest cars, from KBB to automotive trade magazines to environmental organizations. These 14 cars emerged as being great at either stretching fuel or reducing carbon footprint.
Researchers at MIT and Sandia National Labs have observed a reaction in lithium-air batteries that could help improve the design of these cells for electric vehicles and other applications.
Healthcare might seem to be an unlikely target application for the Internet of Things technology, but recent developments show small ways that big-data is going to make an impact on patient care moving into the future.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 3
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 ...
A quick look into the merger of two powerhouse 3D printing OEMs and the new leader in rapid prototyping solutions, Stratasys. The industrial revolution is now led by 3D printing and engineers are given the opportunity to fully maximize their design capabilities, reduce their time-to-market and functionally test prototypes cheaper, faster and easier. Bruce Bradshaw, Director of Marketing in North America, will explore the large product offering and variety of materials that will help CAD designers articulate their product design with actual, physical prototypes. This broadcast will dive deep into technical information including application specific stories from real world customers and their experiences with 3D printing. 3D Printing is
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