When machining, most people focus on the part or product they are producing. Purdue professor Srinivasan Chandrasekar and his colleague, Dale Compton, however, find the scrap most interesting. While studying machining processes, the researchers found that the metal chips produced were composed of nano-crystalline structures, which possessed characteristics such as high strength and wear resistance. "After that, we lost all interest in the more complicated processes and concentrated on the residue," Chandrasekar laughs. Typically the chips are collected as scrap, melted down and reused. But melting turns these natural nanocrystals back into ordinary bulk metals, removing their super strength and other unusual properties. "We've known that if a material is deformed beyond recognition, one can create a new stronger material with different characteristics," Chandrasekar continues. The shaving tool applies the correct amount of pressure to deform the metal shaving. He believes that a machining process could be designed to create materials with specific crystal sizes, which could have a number of applications. For example, the shavings could be made into powder and added to other materials to form a new class of composites. Or the powder could be compressed into solid bodies and used to build fuel system components, turbocharger blades, bearings, or gears with better wear resistance than those used today. Nanocrystal materials have long been a pie-in-sky material because they cost about $100 per pound to produce. Chandrasekar expects that, with the new patent pending process, will cost only $1 per pound above the cost of the raw material. For more information, contact either: Srinivasan Chandrasekar at (765) 494-3623, email: chandy@purdue.edu; or Dale Compton at (765) 494-0828, email: dcompton@ecn.purdue.edu.
For 3D printing to make the jump from rapid prototyping to manufacturing, engineers will need to find easier ways to move products from their CAD screens to their printers.
Gigabit and PoE are two networking technologies moving ahead in tandem as industrial users power remote Ethernet devices such as IP security cameras at 1,000 Mbps over existing CAT5 cable.
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.
From Dell / Intel® New Paradigms in Design Work Scott Hamilton, vertical market strategist for Dell Precision workstations, 5/2/2013 5
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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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