I worked on the battery charger for the Peacekeeper missle in Minuteman silo. There are two battery systems; megga lead acid traction batteries and lithium primaries. The battery charger had .1 farad capictor which required discharge in 30 sec to less that 30 V and the circuit had to be redundant. If the drawer is pulled out for maintenance the caps are discharged so as to not shock and possibly kill someone. In the lab we are doing reseach to make sure we have met all the specs. We have a device to defeat the micro switch that completes the circuit when the drawer is pulled out. We installed the ciruit and defeat test aid. I left for the weekend knowing there would be testing. So the last words to the other engineer and tech was Don't forget the interlock defeat. I got in Monday morning and did I ever hear about it. They forgot. The four wire wound resisters blew like dynamite. There was white powder over everything from the ceramic core. And the wire sprange out of each of the Al houseings of the resisters. No one forgot after that.
I agree William L Weaver, it was the manned space program, specifically Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, walking on the moon that made me want to be an engineer. I was 5 in July 1969, and I caught the Apollo bug bad. I knew that we could send men to the moon, then we could do anything.
I have the opportunity to manufacture product that is used by emergency crews when they need to help people. It is a great feeling to see a firefighter using one of your chainsaws to help people in need.
I like finding simple solutions to complex problems, whether it be a circuit with a handful of components or a fragment of code that only requires a few lines. As Engineers we tend to over-design so I really love it when a simple solution can be found.
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
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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