In consumer product, automotive and industrial applications, thermoplastic elastomers often have to work as part of a materials system that includes a rigid substrate made from engineering plastics. And when TPEs can readily bond to that substrate, all sorts of benefits follow. Among these are manufacturing efficiency and cost reduction since bondable TPEs can often be overmolded onto their substrates in a single manufacturing step — doing away with adhesives, surface treatments and manual assembly steps. And as bondable TPEs become compatible with more varieties of thermoplastics, it gives engineers the ability to work with new materials combinations that better meet performance goals. So important is bonding that most TPE suppliers continually work on bondable grades. They've been able to dramatically increase the ability of these materials to bond to rigid engineering thermoplastics — including nylon.
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.
Designing and filling a new type of water bottle might take less engineering work, but the description will help kids understand how science, math, and engineering influence their lives even through things that seem mundane.
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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