Product News 5-4-98Product News 5-4-98

May 4, 1998 Design News

Product News

Latest and greatest offerings in the engineering marketplace

Liquid Level Indicator

Model 5101 bi-stable, flag-type liquid level indicator installs in a 2-inch NPT boss at the points of indication. The unit is non-electrical and for use in applications where leaks can develop at pressures or clear and opaque liquids do not warrant the use of glass-type sight windows. The large indicating flag is readable at 100 ft. This model can be used with pressures up to 900 psi/gm and has a temperature range of -40 to 225F. The indicator is available in brass and SST, or all SST.
Thomas Products Ltd., Flow Switch Div., 987 West St., Southington, CT 06489, FAX (860) 621-1470.

Hinge

Living hinge is a 1-inch wide strip with a single groove running down the center of the strip. The strip is bent along the grooved portion, allowing the strip to be used as a hinge. Living hinge can be attached using common tacks, nails, screws, rivets, or staples. The living hinge can be cut to length using common scissors, and is available in natural polypropylene on 100-ft rolls.
Ark-Plas Products Inc., Hwy. 178 N., Flippin, AR 72634, FAX (870) 453-2567.

Composite plane bearings

Simplicityr plane bearings are made of FrelonGOLD^TM material and have a C.O.F. equal to a sealed, packed-with-grease ball bearing. The material eliminates metal-to-metal contact and provides consistent frictional characteristics. The bearings are compatible with existing drive mechanisms.
Pacific Bearing, Box 6980, Rockford, IL 61125, FAX (815) 389-5790.

Guarding system

The MICRO-SCREEN^TM compact point-of-operation guarding system is for smaller production machines. Using an optoelectronic emitter, receiver, and controller, the system generates an infrared light screen between personnel and hazardous machine components. When any beams are broken, the system takes less than 38 millisecs to send a "stop" signal to the guarded machine. MICRO-SCREEN miniature emitters and receivers measure 1.25 3 1 inches, and are available in lengths from 4 to 48 inches in 4-inch increments.
Banner Engineering Corp., Box 9414, Minneapolis, MN 55440.

Motor control center

The DeviceNet MCC industrial-grade motor control center features a flexible design that gives each structure 72 inches of mounting space in 6-inch increments. This allows operators to use any combination of NEMA motor or solid-state starters, adjustable frequency drives, power distribution components, and logic and power control to suit specific application requirements. Using DeviceNet technology, operators can now control and monitor the system from a single PC or PLC in conjunction with a man/machine interface.
Cutler-Hammer, 4201 North 27^th St., Milwaukee, WI 53216.

Air conditioner

The Pro-Ozone high-capacity air conditioner is for demanding industrial applications and delivers 13,800 BTU/hour of cooling output. Applications include ones with high cooling requirements, such as large drive systems. The unit is available in both a 400V microprocessor version for reliable system monitoring and 230V standard thermostat version. The air conditioners use environmentally friendly CFC/HCFC-free R134a refrigerant.
Rittal Corp., 1 Rittal Pl., Springfield, OH 45504, FAX (937) 390-5599.

Software

Version 1.2 of EUCLID QUANTUM, a CAD/CAM/CAE and PDM product, contains two products for styling and drafting. EUCLID STYLER and EUCLID DRAFTER can be used as stand-alone solutions or linked to other EUCLID QUANTUM application. This single scalable system supports product and process engineering, available on both UNIX and NT, with an architecture open to all "best of class" solutions.
Matra Datavision, 1 Tech Dr., Andover Technical Center, Andover, MA 01810, FAX (978) 685-7100.

Printer

The MADAG MPG150 pad printer is a large surface multi-color pad printer, and features a closed ink cartridge. The 150 3 500-mm closed inking systems allows ink viscosity to be automatically maintained throughout an entire workday through preset programming and solvent addition. Once every cycle, the cliche is dipped into the ink cartridge, resulting in a complete and constant ink mixing.
Automated Industrial Systems Inc., 4238 W. 12^th St., Erie, PA 16505, FAX (814) 833-5661.

Data acquisition system

Model DI-222 portable data acquisition system is a 16-channel, single-ended/8-channel differential analog input system that features expansion to 256 analog inputs. The system features 12-bit resolution with inputs up to ±10V and four gains from 1 to 1,000. The DI-222 is equipped with one analog output, eight digital inputs, and eight digital outputs. The system is available in two versions: one that supports portable battery-powered PC field applications, and one that supports desktop PC applications.
Dataq Instruments, 150 Springside Dr., Suite B220, Akron, OH 44333, FAX (330) 666-5434.

Fiber-optic network

MACRO fiber-optic digital communications network provides a noise-free, high-speed communications network for large multi-axis motion control applications. MACRO operates in a ring topology at a speed of 100 Mbits/sec. The digital interface connects motion controllers, servoamplifiers, and input/output devices. Each station on the ring has an "in" port for receiving data and an "out" port for transmitting data, which is transmitted serially.
Delta Tau Data Systems, 9036 Winnetka Ave., Northridge, CA 91324, FAX (818) 998-7807.

Dictation/transcription system

PowerScribe for radiology version 2.0 is a completely integrated dictation and transcription system that uses advanced continuous speech recognition technology, allowing radiologists to dictate reports directly into computer text. With version 2.0, users have the added flexibility to incorporate real-time speech recognition along with server-based speech recognition in the same installation to maximize system performance and radiologist acceptance.
The MRC Group, 23240 Chagrin Blvd., Suite 400, Cleveland, OH 44122, FAX (216) 464-4019.

Specification software

SpiMic Windows-based specification program is for reviewing the performance characteristics of high-frequency RF microwave capacitors. The software works with high-frequency AQ and "U" Series ceramic capacitors, plus the Accu-F and Accu-P Series of thin-film microwave capacitors. The software calculates equivalent series resistance, equivalent series inductance, self-resonant frequency, and impedance values for each capacitance and voltage rating in the product families.
AVX Corp., Box 867, Myrtle Beach, SC 29578.

Software

COSMOS/Works 4.0 for SolidWorks 98 lets users perform analysis of complete SolidWorks assemblies, with an Assembly Analysis module that may be added to COSMOS/Works Basic. Release 4.0 also helps design team members communicate all pertinent design information through the office or the world by means of design reports that can be reviewed and distributed via the Internet in HTML, VRML, AVI, or TXT files. The program will identify the model geometry and apply appropriate loads and boundary conditions automatically.
Structural Research & Analysis Corp., 12121 Wilshire Blvd., 7^th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90025.

Workstation

EM-CO61 industrial workstation is a 14-inch embedded computer module for OEMs and system integrators. The workstation includes a 13.8-inch active matrix TFT color LCD display, supporting 4,096 colors with 1,024 3 768 resolution. The embedded workstation provides a turnkey solution for a compact and fully integrated operator interface. The system's single-board computer accepts Pentium P54T-class CPUs including 100, 133, and 166 MHz processor speeds.
Lucas Control Systems Products, Deeco Systems, 31047 Genstar Rd., Hayward, CA 94544, FAX (510) 489-3500.

Input rectifiers

Input rectification products include SAFEIR^TM diodes and thyristors that increase safety margins by protecting equipment from line disturbances; QUIETIR^TM soft-recovery diodes that offer emitted and conducted noise reduction and low forward-voltage drops; and SMALLIR^TM input devices in small footprint D-Pak and D²Pak surface-mount packages.
International Rectifier, 233 Kansas St., El Segundo, CA 90245.

3D processor

The RIVA TNT^TM 3D processor features a 250 million pixels/sec fill rate and can process two pixels per clock cycle, enabling true single-pass multi-texturing. Using more than 7 million transistors, the RIVA TNT delivers 3D quality and performance. The RIVA TNT's TwiN Texel processing engine integrates a dual-pixel, 32-bit color pipeline; 24-bit Z-buffer; and eight-bit stencil buffer.
NVIDIA Corp., 1226 Tiros Way, Sunnyvale, CA 94086.

Software

Macsymar 2.3 and UNIX Macsyma 421 expands the software's user-friendly features and adds to coverage of numerical, symbolic, and graphical mathematics. Macsyms 2.3 enhances the help system that appeared in version 2.2, which allowed users to type in questions in their own words and receive executable "MathTips^TM." Version 2.3 has 100 new template buttons and many type-in templates for simple access to the full range of Macsyma commands.
Macsyma Inc., 20 Academy St., Arlington, MA 02174.