Next-generation LEDs brightened the famous CITGO sign overlooking Fenway Park this weekend as the Boston Red Sox played the Toronto Blue Jays. The new LEDs feature lenses molded from highly weather-resistant modified acrylic resin.
A statement from CITGO noted: “The technology of the new lights has passed more than 1,000 hours of reliability testing and elevated temperatures, and the acrylic material is an impact-modified product designed to stand up to wind and the movement of the sign itself. These materials have been used in more than 1 million feet of gas stations canopies, border trimming on buildings, signs and bridges.”
The new sign uses roughly half the electricity and saves more than $18,000 per year in electrical bills than the original neon lighting used in the sign. It uses 24 volts to power the sign versus around 15,000 volts in the original sign.
CITGO is replacing LED lighting installed just five years ago. The company says exposure to weather extremes damaged the lights and caused colors to fade. In addition to the acrylic lens, the new LEDs also feature flexible connections that allow for expansion and contraction during temperature changes and extreme wind. This prevents cracking and potential water damage. Advanced materials are also employed to ensure the sign’s colors withstand the impact of UV rays and remain bright.
The 60-foot by 60-foot sign dates to 1940 and uses more than 9,000 feet of lights on both sides.
CITGO’s lighting contractor rushed to get the sign up and running in time for the Major League Baseball playoffs, which are schedule to begin Oct. 6. However, it will take a minor miracle for the Red Sox to make it. They also suffered significant wear and tear and they are seven games behind the New York Yankees.
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.
New versions of BASF's Ecovio line are both compostable and designed for either injection molding or thermoforming. These combinations are becoming more common for the single-use bioplastics used in food service and food packaging applications, but are still not widely available.
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.
GE Aviation expects to chop off about 25 percent of the total 3D printing time of metallic production components for its LEAP Turbofan engine, using in-process inspection. That's pretty amazing, considering how slow additive manufacturing (AM) build times usually are.
A $1,500, hand-operated, bench-model, plastic injection machine crowdsource-funded via Kickstarter can be used to mold small, quality, plastic parts inexpensively, on demand.
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.
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
0 
