New plastics/metal hybrids introduced at K 2007 by A. Schulman eliminate soldering for electronic parts and also create shielded housings. “Conductor paths and contact points for connectors and cables can be injection molded simultaneously,” says Thilo Stier, innovation manager, told me at the packed Schulman stand this morning. Traditional lead frame techniques are replaced by the hybrids, called TinCo. They consist of 15 percent thermoplastics, such as nylon; 30 percent of a low-melting alloy such as tin; and 55 percent copper fiber. Nylon is overmolded with the low melting metal in a two-barrel injection molding machine using conventional tooling. Siemens is a development partner. Five other OEMs are also beta testing the technology under secrecy agreements. The process was demonstrated at the K Fair on an Arburg press. Due to the high loading of copper, the hybrid has excellent specific electrical conductivity—greater than 106 S/m. Most plastic and elastomers can be used as the matrix in the compound. Cycle times are short due to the material’s high thermal conductivity.
A new process for laser-welding large-scale, steel-aluminum foam sandwich structures for lightweighting ships, which eliminates intermetallic phase, has been demonstrated.
A major advance in repairing composite structures combining robots and lasers bodes well for commercial aircraft such as the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Airbus A350XWB, which contain composites in large proportions of their structures.
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.
To save this item to your list of favorite Design News content so you can find it later in your Profile page, click the "Save It" button next to the item.
If you found this interesting or useful, please use the links to the services below to share it with other readers. You will need a free account with each service to share an item via that service.
Tweet This
16 
