I found out some interesting things why the threads my Delta model 474 NN faucet stripped. Delta director of quality John Wright said he did some checking and found that there is a problem with soft threads. How widespread he did not say. "There have been reports of it. I'm not satisfied with what I found and there's been more than I'd like," he said in a phone interview this week. In my original post, I complained that the aerator's plastic threads in the spout stripped (see picture). I thought the plastic was too soft. Wright says it's made of glass-filled polypropylene (a common plastic) for several reasons: 1) to bond with plastic nubs that create the spray option, 2) to fasten to the metal housing, and 3) to look good. A colorfast material was important, too.
The model 474 NN (NN stands for brushed nickel), which is made in a Delta factory in Jackson, Tenn. among other Delta factories, came out in the late nineties, according to Wright. Apart from its design, it represented a departure in materials for Delta which at the time was moving from mostly brass parts to plastic. Several million units have been sold and the unit has won a couple of prestigious design awards, says Wright.
In my original post, I praised Delta customer service (the product carries a lifetime warranty) for shipping out a new spout on Monday. Now it's Friday, four days later, and unless it's here in a week, my patience could wear thin. But it's the Friday befrore Christmas and time to lose the edge.
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 disc magnet motors fit into the design trend of stepping up to closed loop performance while maintaining the cost advantage of stepper motor technology.
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.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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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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