FLUID POWER: Zero-Max Inc.’s Composite Disc Couplings for the wind turbine industry are designed with composite disk packs at both ends of a center spacer. These patented designed disk packs provide the true strength and calculable flexibility of the coupling. The composite disk packs (flex elements) provide an advantage over other coupling component designs by allowing a surplus of parallel and axial misalignment while remaining torsionally stiff through all harmonic ranges of the wind turbine’s oscillating load. Depending on the application, Zero-Max’s center spacers can be machined out of steel, composite glass fiber or 6061-T6 aluminum. Through the use of Finite Element Analysis (FEA), these center spacers can be engineered to withstand in excess of 70,000 Nm of torque depending on the material selected. The coupling’s composite material withstands all types of environmental elements including temperature extremes from -57 to 121C and from moisture and chemicals native to wind turbines.
Almost every automaker has had to 'pick a side' when it comes to alternative fuel options and ways to divest from a reliance on gasoline. Fiat is looking to back compressed natural gas or liquid propane as an interim solution.
Plastic may not be the most beloved of materials to the more environmentally minded, but Plasti 2012 aimed to mold a different opinion of the material in people's minds.
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Against a backdrop of mounting product complexity and a need to keep a lid on development costs, companies are recognizing a need to make simulation a more integral part of the design process. In response, vendors in the CAD world are building out CAE functionality as part of their CAD suites while simulation vendors are building tighter integrations to leading CAD tools. Keith Meintjes, Ph.D., Practice Manager, Simulation and Analysis at CIMdata, Inc., joins Design News CAD Editor Beth Stackpole in this radio program to explore the new face of integrated CAD and CAE, how companies are benefitting from this tighter partnership between platforms, and how integrating CAE earlier in the development cycle pays off in optimized product designs.
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