Packaging engineers must be a quiet bunch, bobjengr. In popular culture, there's nary a mention of packaging engineers. You wouldn't know they exist if there were no trade journals. Yet, here we have 43,000 engineers showing up for Pack Expo.
Chuck--This looks like a terrific show. 43,000 + has to exceed their expectations. In just about every place I have worked over the years, packaging has been somewhat of an afterthought. At GE Appliances (Roper Corporation) we did have a packaging engineer but that was only one of his responsibilities. In the appliance industry a good number of the DOA problems have been due to transportation issues and not relegated to product design. Great post and thank you for showing it.
I should have been clearer in stating my question: I know there are tradeoffs in general, but wondered what they were with this specific battery. OTOH, glad you replied in detail because now I know more, especially about top speeds and how to get there. Thanks!
I don't know what the range of the motorcycle is either, Ann. As to your question about the tradeoff...yes, there is absolutely a tradeoff between power and energy. In some cases, one is realized at the expense of the other. By boosting a battery's current collector and reducing the amount of active material, EV designers can provide the amps needed for high torque and fast launch. But when they do that, they diminish the battery's energy density and, therefore, its ability to drive longer distances. Having said that, I don't think that's the case here. Electric motorcycles have gone much faster than the BOLT. An electric motorcycle called the KillaCycle hit a speed of 168 mph four years ago, and I'm quite sure the figure is much higher now. I have little doubt that en electric motorcycle could hit speeds in excess of 200 mph (if one hasn't already) by making the battery changes I described above. I don't know about this specific battery, however, having only seen it at the Kollmorgen booth at Pack Expo.
Chuck, my question was regarding whether there's a tradeoff between acceleration/top speed--needed in a racing bike like this one-- and the range. I spent some time Googling to find out what the range is, without success. Do you know?
You're right, Ann. The energy density is more a measure of a vehicle's range. The power density is more about its ability to accelerate. For proof, check out our earlier article about EV drag racing.
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.
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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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