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Design News Blogs
The Smart Money Makes Bets on Engineering Nylon
The nylon business may be weak right now, but the smart money says it has a bright future. Last week, I reported from the National Plastics Exposition that Invista, a major chemical producer, is entering the engineering nylon business. Now, there’s another new name in the business- Ascend Performance Materials. That’s what the nylon business formerly owned by St. Louis-based Solutia ... More
About this blog
Engineering materials is a discussion led by Design News Contributing Materials Editor Doug Smock on important new developments and applications that affect mechanical design.
The Adventure of the Clogged Fins
Contributing Writer Harshwardhan Gupta I was once called in the late 90s to Mumbai (formerly Bombay) to solve a problem of a large motor of a hammer mill repeatedly burning out. The mill was used for grinding spices, and was originally supplied with a 15 horsepower, 2-pole DOL start 3-phase AC motor. The mill was regularly used to grind a variety of spice blends, and worked perfectly for about 12 ... More
About this blog
Famous investigations into the most diabolical real-world cases in engineering
Bogus Bearings Seized, Cunning Counterfeiters Thwarted
In a press release posted on its website, Swedish bearing maker SKF Group reports that over 30 tons of bogus bearings carrying the SKF name were confiscated from a non-authorized dealer in the Czech Republic. The company points out that the manufacture and trade of counterfeit products is a growing global problem. In a blog post for Electronics Weekly after a trip to China to research the i ... More
About this blog
Products that somehow slipped by the QC Cops - Email us your examples at kfield@reedbusiness.com!
EV Manufacturers Will Need Those Loans
The U.S. Department of Energy’s decision to dole out money to electric cars makers is an important one, because if manufacturers are going to build practical, affordable electric vehicles, they’re going to need all the help they can get. If you missed last week’s news, the U.S. DOE said it would grant $1.6 bill ... More
About this blog
Hybrids, electric vehicles and more
When I go to buy a light bulb, the packages seem to indicate light or color temperature in something called Kelvin. What is this and how can light have temperature?
For me this is a really fun topic because it connects a label on the packaging of common consumer product, i.e. light bulbs, to some of the cool properties of thermal radiation, worked on by such physics legends as Max Planck and Albert Einstein. In fact, these very properties helped disprove many of the commonly held notions surrounding classical physics, replacing them with the modern not ... More
About this blog
Strange but true things; tales of what happens without cables and why
Dytran Instruments’ Ultra-Low-Noise Miniature Triaxial Accelerometers with TEDS
ELECTRONICS: Dytran Instruments’ new miniature triaxial accelerometer is designed for modal analysis testing. The 3273AT series features a robust, laser-welded titanium design, which includes ceramic sensing elements coupled to ultra-low-noise JFET electronics. It includes IEEE 1451.4 TEDS. With a low end frequency response of -10 percent down to 0.31 Hz, the 3273AT series acceleromet ... More
About this blog
Highlighting notable new products and company announcements
Free Webcast: Learn How Engineering Tools Work Together
For some time engineers have labored with stand-alone tools that help solve specific problems such as circuit design, testing, and modeling physical systems. New design tools, though, easily work together and exchange engineering information. So, you can model a physical system, simulate operations, write code, and then run hardware in the loop to perform tests. To help you better understand what ... More
About this blog
Interpreting trends, analyzing tools and techniques and exploring cross-discipline skills for electronic, mechanical and system designers.
NASA Offering $1.65 Million for Research on Training Through Virtual Worlds
Since late 2007, I have touted the revolutionary training, product design, and test capabilities of virtual worlds like Second Life (SL). In January 2009, I implored the engineering community to stop thinking of SL as a game and embrace it as a product design tool. For my trouble, a reader with the handle JWM commented, “It’s a game, get back to work.” (See “Second Lif ... More
About this blog
This alternative energy and sustainable power blog covers alternative energy and fuel technologies buzzing through the media.
Dassault, Microsoft Marry Technologies Around PLM
IBM and Siemens aren’t the only partners working to make Product Lifecycle Management more turn-key. Dassault Systemes is expanding its partnership with Microsoft, integrating the ENVOIA V6 product development collaboration platform with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and the suite of Office tools. By marrying the two platforms, the pair are hoping to take some of the heavy lifting involved in d ... More
About this blog
Where you\'ll find the latest news and trends in the areas of CAD/CAM software, PLM, innovation, and product development.
Tiny server robot
Here’s another cool tiny robot from MiddleCreekMerchants. This is a very small all-analog real working robot. It walks forward a little less than 1 inch per Second. The robot moves in psuedo-organic behavior. Two Servos twist left then right in a pattern which places each foot on the ground at different times in order to give him a forward stride. The robot has a NiMh battery which runs fo ... More
About this blog
After nearly 20 years as an electrical engineer, I suffered two horrible blows last year - literally and figuratively. First, I was hit by a bus and second, my position at a premier semiconductor company was outsourced to penguins in Antarctica . While physically I am in one piece, the bus a ccident has traumatized me. Symptoms include gadgetary hallucinations and horrid lapses in vocabulary. So I\'ve decided to travel the U.S. looking for new gadget s (hellooo Mid America! Like engineers, farmers are a great source of ingenious gadgets). M-I-C...K-E-Y. Just call me The Gadgeteer (someone should tell the bus company whose bus hit me, there\'s a gadget called brakes!)
Voids found in lead-free solder joints
According to an article in Electronics Weekly, a UK-based sister publication of Design News, a researcher at the UK’s University of Leicester has discovered detrimental voids in lead-free solder joints. The article quotes researcher Sergey Belyokov as noting that he “discovered a process which has not been described yet: the formation of crystallographically-faceted voids in the bul ... More
About this blog
Hi, this is Design News contributing editor, Rob Spiegel. Welcome to my Lead-Free Zone blog. This is your opportunity (and mine) to discuss RoHS and other environmental issues. Green regulations have produced waves of industry confusion, and I do not expect things to clear up quickly. So use this blog to inform us of your opinions, to instruct us all on what you\'re doing about this initiative, or just to blow off some steam.
Saturn Demise Might Be Saddest Of All
The demise of Pontiac has grabbed auto industry headlines over the past few days, but little has been said about GM’s abrupt change in plans for its Saturn Corp. Yesterday, the giant automaker said it no longer plans to build Saturns through the end of 2011. Instead, it will phase out Saturn at the end of the 2009 model year. That’s sad. Those who recall the history of Saturn know th ... More
About this blog
The latest news and information on analog/digital control, components/hardware, embedded systems, power/thermal management, and sensors for design engineers.
Amazing display of questionable engineering
Here’s some astonishing video of “Gallopin’ Gertie” (the Tacoma Narrows Bridge) from November 7, 1940, just before the bridge was demolished by a gale. ... More
About this blog
Looking at the top engineering breakthroughs that came during the 60-year history of Design News.
Google, Harvard's Wissner-Gross debate CO2 from Web Search
Harvard graduate student Alex Wissner-Gross created quite a stir with his claim that every web search creates between 5-10 grams of CO2 from the power required to keep those massive server farms going. Google officials apparently thought he was singling it out, but he later said he was speaking about generally about web searches and had no axe to grind with Google.But who does not equate web searc ... More
About this blog
Your Guide to Going Green
Banner’s New Vision System Needs No Computer
Machine vision systems don’t necessarily need lots of extra computing power and complex software to carry out difficult inspection tasks. That’s the guiding principle behind Banner Engineering’s new image sensing system, which is designed to be both simple and smart. Called the iVu Series TG, this self-contained image sensing system features a 2.7-inch LCD touchscreen for fact ... More
About this blog
Read about the latest developments in motion control, factory automation, machine tools, and robotics.
Mediocrity in the Design Process: Marinara sauce gone wrong.
An end user should not be using a mediocre product, and let me explain how marinara sauce relates. Before super-mega-markets, I would imagine markets had fewer varieties of many products. Those products were likely produced to try to please as many customers’ taste buds as possible. Let me presume that customers only had different preferences between texture and spice of sauces. The two a ... More
About this blog
In this blog you\'ll find posts about mechatronics, engineering, and engineering education. Stefan Wolpert will discuss various aspects of mechatronics, some of which include computers, control, electronics, mechanics and design. Also, Stefan will explore his engineering education and its integration of mechatronics.
$28 Million Settlement Reached in Death of Woman Killed in Big Dig Collapse
Read more on the Big Dig materials failure and see appalling aftermath photos and diagrams at Design News’ Big Dig coverage page. The family of a woman killed two years ago when the car she was riding in was crushed as a portion of a ceiling collapsed inside a Big Dig tunnel settled a wrongful death suit for more than $28 million last night. In July 2006, 39-year-old Milena Del Valle was ki ... More
About this blog
Straight talk about today\'s headlines and how they affect the engineering community.
Chevy Volt, Performance Capabilities Subject to Change
Did I hear that right? A Chevy Volt radio ad this morning concluded with a line like performance capabilities subject to change or may vary. I think it was the former. Should I be surprised given the GM’s rush to get this electric car into production by late 2010? That’s how fluid the battery situation is. The ad touts that you might seldom buy gasoline if you travel 40 miles or less ... More
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Scanning for Fraud
Art and technology have started to come together in an unlikely place–under the gaze of 3D digitizers. The VanDuzen Archives of Dallas has built a growing business around the use of imaging hardware and digital shape sampling software as tools to authenticate and conserve works of art. And in one recent job, the company helped ferret out a forged copy of Picasso’s Tete de Fernande, a ... More
About this blog
News about the technologies you turn to when time isn\'t on your side--everything from rapid prototyping machines and high-speed machining to rapid tooling and rapid manufacturing.
Avnet Tech Games Give Product Ideas a Chance in the Real World
This week Avnet announced the winners from its third annual Avnet Tech Games, an annual competition featuring several multi-disciplinary technology events. The competition, held April 5, presented more than 150 students from colleges and universities in Arizona with several technology challenges. Among the Avnet Tech Games events are "AMD Build the Fastest Computer," where teams use pre-selected ... More
About this blog
This blog is your resource for news and updates on the latest developments from design engineering competitions across the globe. Be sure to visit our Design Engineering Competitions and Challenges content package for more coverage, a schedule of upcoming events and entry materials.
When to Embark on a New Engineering Position
Should you move from that company of long standing? Are you waiting patiently for the retirement party and that “gold watch”? Last weekend I sat down for coffee with a design engineer from an industrial lighting products company. With him were two of his twenty-something-year-old kids, helping Dad gather tools for a career move. They were as interested in advice for their own career ... More
About this blog
Negotiating your path to success in engineering’s changing work world.
Sponsored Content
Design News Partner Zones
Light Matters: The Unsung Heroes of
Modern Health Care
First, let's define "no-compromise." In an ideal configuration, this lamp would use a high-brightness LED (HBLED) that is built into a small, integrated package and is able to produce a large quantity of focused light, operate with a high level of reliability and generate no audible noise. Is this difficult? Yes, but it is possible.
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Design Engineers' Portal for Sensing and Machine Safety
Whatever industry you're in, or whatever product you manufacture, the right sensors to automate your plant, and to improve your overall efficiency, quality and safety are a must. You'll find Banner Engineering to be an amazing resource of products, training and people with expertise.
Test & Measurement World Machine Vision & Inspection Report
Topics include machine-vision software, Power over Camera Link, thermal imaging and frame grabbers. Read More
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