I'm pretty sure newer CE regulations require captive fasteners on industrial machinery covers, in the hopes that covers will be replaced using all the fasteners required by the cover.
Without these, covers are almost always replaced with a single fastener, just enough to keep it from falling to the floor.
I enjoyed this article - I really like these types of fasteners and would love to see them in more designs. My laptop was acting cranky the other day and when I examined the bottom I could see lots of dust lodging in the fan grill. I decided to take the bottom panel off to blow it out and it was such a delight when I discovered it had captive panel screws. I kept telling hubby how cool they were as I unscrewed each one and didn't have to worry about chasing small bits of hardware!
I have designed in many captive fasteners over the years and found these design solutions to be very effective. They are versatile and offer many advantages (as listed in the article).
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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