Aluminum Extrusion Gives Shape Options
Blog 6/18/2013 2 comments At the Design News webinar on June 27, learn all about aluminum extrusion: designing the right shape so it costs the least, is simplest to manufacture, and best fits the application's structural requirements.
100-Percent Solar Plane Flies High on Advanced Materials
Engineering Materials 6/13/2013 16 comments The 100-percent solar-powered Solar Impulse plane flies on a piloted, cross-country flight this summer over the US as a prelude to the longer, round-the-world flight by its successor aircraft planned for 2015.
Feds Launch Metals Lightweighting Institute
Engineering Materials 6/3/2013 29 comments The federal government is launching competitions to kickstart three more manufacturing innovation institutes, including one focused on Lightweight and Modern Metals Manufacturing Innovation.
Researchers Poke Holes in Solar Cells to Improve Efficiency
Blog 6/3/2013 11 comments The method, called “dark solar,” has been developed by the US Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), and it enables the cells to reflect only 2 percent of the sunlight that reaches them.
NASA Tests Biofuel, Reports Reduced Emissions
Engineering Materials 5/28/2013 7 comments Initial reports from NASA's first round of flight tests of a jet biofuel based on camelina plants show fewer emissions than from conventional jet fuel.
Slideshow: Energy Harvesters Lift Power From Surprising Sources
Blog 5/20/2013 24 comments As energy efficiency becomes more and more a concern for makers of electronics devices, researchers are coming up with new ways to harvest energy from sound vibration, footsteps, and even electromagnetic fields in the air.
Green Power Breaks Records in the West
Engineering Materials 5/10/2013 74 comments It has often been said that as California goes, so goes the nation. This spring, the state's wind power is setting energy generation records and solar energy generation is expected to rise sharply during the second half of 2013.
Slideshow: Next-Gen Wave Glider Robot Propelled by Solar
Engineering Materials 5/7/2013 21 comments The latest model of Liquid Robotics' Wave Glider autonomous, unmanned marine vehicle (UMV), the SV3, is reportedly the world's first hybrid wave- and solar-power-propelled unmanned ocean robot.
How Safe Is Safe Enough?
Electronic News & Comment 5/6/2013 53 comments One of the ugly truths of engineering is that life has a price. Cars, buildings, power plants, and industrial machinery can always be made safer for a cost, but manufacturers are at the mercy of the market.
Researchers Harvest Energy From Planes
Blog 4/30/2013 18 comments A team of Viennese researchers has come up with a way to harvest energy from airplanes to power sensors attached to a plane’s fuselage that can be used to monitor and collect data on aircraft structural health.
Slideshow: Profs Say Fukushima Plant Passed Ultimate Test
Electronic News & Comment 4/26/2013 158 comments The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear powerplant performed beyond its best expectations after being struck by a mammoth earthquake and a 40-ft-high tidal wave in 2011, experts said.
Wind Turbines Coming to a City Near You
Blog 4/24/2013 54 comments Professor Farzad Safaei of Australia’s University of Wollongong has developed a wind turbine that can be used in urban areas via positioning on skyscrapers and other buildings.
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.
Corn, Wheat & Rice Trash Make Concrete Stronger
Engineering Materials 4/15/2013 24 comments Kansas State University civil engineers have used the waste products of biofuels to make a stronger cement, a major ingredient of concrete, that also gives concrete a smaller carbon footprint.
Researchers Develop Recyclable Solar Cells From Trees
Blog 4/10/2013 13 comments Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have come up with a way to use a natural material in trees to develop solar cells that pave the way for recyclable, sustainable, and renewable solar-cell technology.
Charge Your Mobile Device via Text Message
Blog 4/9/2013 34 comments The BuffaloGrid Project aims to provide energy in electricity-poor regions by targeting mobile-phone recharging through the use of portable micro generators.
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.
NASA Starts Biofuel Flight Tests
Engineering Materials 3/12/2013 20 comments NASA has begun flight tests of biofuels based on nonfood plants to determine their emissions and performance effects on jet engines.
Slideshow: Automakers Roll Out Dream Cars
Features 3/11/2013 57 comments Nevermind all the talk of fuel efficiency mandates. Judging by product rollouts at recent auto shows, some consumers still want racy, stylish cars.
What's Your Opinion on a Design Ideas Forum?
Engineering Materials 3/6/2013 40 comments What do you think about starting a forum on Design News that focuses on innovative, problem-solving design ideas where individual engineers and companies can trade comments and suggestions for solving design problems?
Making the Case for Vertical Axis Wind Turbines
Guest Blogs 3/5/2013 13 comments The marketplace is littered with companies that have tried to make a success of vertical axis wind turbines. But not all turbine designs (and sites) are created equal.
Dow Plans North American Plastic Waste Recovery Facilities
News 1/28/2013 18 comments Dow Chemical and Klean Industries are collaborating to build waste recovery facilities throughout North America for recovering energy, chemicals, and oil from nonrecycled waste plastics. The agreement especially targets used plastic packaging materials.
Update on 100-Percent Non-Food Jet Biofuel
Engineering Materials 1/28/2013 29 comments The 100-percent non-food biofuel that meets petroleum jet fuel specifications used in the historic Canadian test flight reduced emissions by 50 percent.
DuPont Recruits 500 Farmers for Non-Food Biofuel Project
Engineering Materials 1/17/2013 42 comments One of the first, and biggest commercial-scale cellulosic biorefineries in the world is targeted for completion next year by DuPont, which will make cellulosic ethanol from corn stalks and leaves.
McDonald's Trucks Log 800,000 Miles on Recycled Cooking Oil
Engineering Materials 1/16/2013 19 comments McDonald's delivery trucks in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have logged more than 800,000 miles on 100-percent, unblended biodiesel made from recycled cooking oil used in the chain's restaurants.
KiOR's Non-Food Biofuel Scales Up
News 12/12/2012 10 comments Renewable fuels company KiOR has left the development stage and entered scaled-up production of its biofuel based on non-food biomass.
Stanford Engineers Invent All-Carbon Solar Cell
Engineering Materials 12/6/2012 20 comments In a major first, researchers at Stanford University have built a prototype of an all-carbon solar cell that includes carbon nanotubes in the photoactive layer and in the electrodes.
Wind Power Operating, Maintenance Costs Drop 38 Percent
Engineering Materials 11/28/2012 41 comments The costs of wind power are falling, not only for turbine cost and performance, but also for operating and maintaining onshore wind farms. In just the last four years, operation and maintenance costs have dropped 38 percent.
European Commission Limits Food-Based Biofuel
Engineering Materials 11/2/2012 21 comments The European Commission wants to limit the use of food crops as a source of biofuel and instead promote non-food sources, such as algae, straw, and various types of waste.
GM President: It's Time to Electrify & Educate
News 10/18/2012 59 comments This week, General Motors North American president Mark Reuss reinforced his company's commitment to electrified vehicles, but cited a need for better education to foster the breakthroughs needed for next-generation EVs.
Biofuel From Seaweed Saves Water, Land Area
Engineering Materials 10/18/2012 16 comments Making biofuels from seaweed is one of the latest ideas for creating sustainable fuels that don't compete with food crops. Two different teams, one US-led and one in India, are working on solutions.
Study: Wind Could Power World Energy Needs
News 9/28/2012 50 comments Researchers at Stanford University's School of Engineering and the University of Delaware claim there's enough wind over land and at sea combined to produce at least half the world's power demand by 2030.
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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