Yes, Nancy, location is everything. a couple months ago there was a discussion about problems with a European car that was not holding up in the desert Southwest. While the car maker was happy to sell cars here, they were not testing their cars for our climate.
I was just in Clovis a couple of weeks ago, Rob. It sure was nice - much cooler during the day and especially in the evenings than Texas at the same temperature. I think Texas humidity is a factor as well. Just goes to show that when you are designing for outdoor environments, there are all kinds of variables that need to be considered! Location, location, location!
Good point on the cold weather, Nancy. It could be that the repetitive swing from hot exposure to cold exposure breaks down the material. So UV resistance may not be enough. In my New Mexico backyard, plastics don't last long. While the temperature may only be 95, the sun beating on the plastic goes to a much higher temp.
Probably so, Rob. The nice thing about our obstacles is that they are portable - they are easy to put up and break down in five minutes or less. If riders store them in their duffle bag out of the sun after using them - they should last for years. I think anything left baking in this heatwave will eventually have an effect. Same problem leaving them out in cold weather - pvc is known to get brittle.
I would imagine the heat itself would have a long-term effect on the hoarse obstacles. So even if they're UV protected, they still may suffer from getting baked in the heat.
I agree Rob, I really like Flow-Rite's innovation and careful consideration of both environmental factors and seeking ways to error proof connections. The Texas sun is brutal as well - I am wondering how long one can expect the UV protection to hold up and what the specs are for that type of testing...we have UV protected furniture grade pvc pipe for some of our horse obstacles to protect against degradation but extended exposure will eventually have some effect. Of course horse obstacles aren't made to withstand acid so I am guessing these couplers are pretty tough in comparison.
I also really like their ease of use - it is so nice to be able to carry out a task without having to wrestle with the connectors first!
Sounds like Flow-Rite had made some advances in the materials used in quick coupler materials. I can imagine these couplers take a beating outside in the Phoenix sun.
A new battery design, which replaces lithium with abundant and low-cost elemental sulfur, is still in its nascent stages but shows real promise for giving batteries more energy potential.
PTC will offer a virtual desktop environment for its Creo product design applications, potentially freeing engineers to run them from remote desktops on a variety of operating systems and mobile devices.
The push to achieving more intelligent, integrated manufacturing is putting a strong focus on networking and connectivity as key enabling technologies.
Now that solar and wind harvesting technologies are a thriving market, researchers are seeking other environmentally related energy sources for which they can create harvesting devices.
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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