When you talk about syncing electrical and mechanical design it makes me think about cars, and their wiring harnesses. Of course, I don't do too much on my current cars. They are too complex and I don't have all the diagnostic tools. In the past, though, I had cars I could work on (actually take apart with basic tools) and I did. What I noted was that the wiring was always problematic. It was like an add-on, although it was essential. If only they had these tools back then... (and then was a long time ago).
In fact this article triggered me to finally join this forum... The topic of integrating the e- and m-silo (but also s-oftware and o-ptics) has been part of my life for a long time. Talking about carradio-sets with built in cassette-recorders and limited space it was quite natural that placement of e-components would be synced with the drive-belt of the recorder competing for the same space. At the time (70's) the Computervision CAD system was our system of choice because it featured one integrated data-base for electrical and mechanical data. Conceived by genius and ruined by later managerial decisions to grow through aquisition with incompatible cie's, as a consequence of which the grand idea died and CV as well... pity and shame! So hooray for SolidWorks to revive this ideal and make true collaboration and concurrent engineering possible accross classical silo-boundaries!
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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