Yesterday's articles included one about rare earth metal shortages caused by China cutbacks. The product described in this article uses a neodymium magnet. Is its component materials sourced from China? Could this product have been made with a magnet that was not rare-earth, or something other than neodymium?
TJ: I don't know if they could have used a different magnetic material, but I do know that they wanted a very powerful coupling force between the magnets because they are phyically separated by the plastic tube. It takes very strong hands to pull them apart. That's why they wanted neodymium.
Charles, I assumed that to be the case, which is why I don't really believe trying to switch to non-rare-earth materials is a valid option to deal with political problems.
I love these examples of small, relatively simple medical device applications that can deliver such big value and comfort to patients. Chuck, you say that the device has already been used on upwards of 1,000 patients. Does that mean it's an available offering that's cleared the requisite FDA approval process?
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.
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.
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.
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