Measuring the position of a shaft with both linear and rotary motion is a challenging design problem that usually involves two sensors, one for each axes of motion, and two input ports. Three engineers at MTS Sensors just received a patent (U.S. patent 6,600,310) for a sensor technology that does both, potentially saving engineers cost and complexity in their designs. The sensor is an extension of MTS' Temposonics non-contact position sensor technology, which exploits the capability of a magnetostrictive material to deform under the application of a magnetic field. The sensor works by inducing a sonic wave in a magnetostrictive waveguide through the interaction of a magnetic field from a ring-shaped permanent magnet that moves along the sensor tube and a current—or interrogation—pulse. By measuring the elapsed time for the resulting strain pulse to travel along the waveguide to a detector head, the magnet's absolute position can be determined with high accuracy. This sensor takes the concept a step further by employing a second permanent magnet that is helical in shape. In essence, this second magnet provides a reference position so that the amount of rotation of the linear magnet on the shaft can be determined. A first application for the technology is in automatic manual transmissions. Though that may sound like an oxymoron, automakers, in fact, have been looking at ways to take a standard transmission with clutch pedal and manual shift gear selector and automate the two steps. At least two companies are evaluating MTS's two-magnet magnetostrictive position for sensing both linear and rotary motion of the shift shaft as it moves through an H pattern to select the appropriate gear cluster. Engineers say that the sensor resolution can be up to 2 microns, although a version targeted at lower-cost applications has a resolution on the order of 40 microns.
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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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