| February 12, 2013 | Volume 09 Issue 06 |
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 | New Full Line Catalog -- Full of New Fasteners
Micro Plastics introduces its new catalog #39. With 290 pages of nylon fastener items, 12 new product lines, and over 500 new items added. Contents include: standard and metric machine screws, cap screws, nuts, washers, spacers, insulators, grommets, bushings, rivets, hole plugs, clamps, printed circuit board accessories, suspended ceiling hooks, and wire routing kits. FREE samples are available upon request.
Click here for more information. |
 | Born to Design: The Next Level of Extreme Machines
The DTV Shredder is the latest innovation in vehicles from the creative minds at BPG Werks. The company founder Ben Gulag continues to push the boundaries of mechanical design and engineering. He and his team rely on the tools in SolidWorks® to help them design vehicles such as the DTV Shredder - an extreme all-terrain dual track vehicle that goes through sand, mud, and snow.
Click here to watch the Shredder in action. |
| | Feature articles | U.S. Army embracing 3D design
If a picture is worth a thousand words, what is a 3D picture worth? Engineers at Picatinny Arsenal, NJ, and Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, are working on a project to find out. They plan to reap a daisy chain of dollar savings by developing technologies that will be at the center of a revolution in how the Army meets its constantly changing needs for equipment.
A prominent feature of the plan has the Army providing manufacturers the specifications for a needed part in an interactive 3D model format.
Read the full article. |
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 | Mike Likes:
World's most energy-efficient LED light bulb?
Three young innovators got together and pitched their NanoLight project on Kickstarter. They reached their goal of $20,000 in project seed money in the first three days. What's so cool about the NanoLight? It's a super-economical, omnidirectional 12W LED bulb created from folded PCB boards that puts out the equivalent light of a traditional 100W bulb (1,600 lumens) and has a lifespan of 30,000 hr. Better yet, this device needs no heat sink. Check out this unconventional but very cool design.
View the video. |
 | Great alternatives to riveting or spot welding
PEM SpotFast self-clinching fasteners enable two sheets to be joined permanently in a flush-attachment connection without protrusions on either side. These practical alternatives to riveting or spot welding provide ideal solutions to attach two metal sheets too thin to weld, fasten sheets of unequal thicknesses, join dissimilar metals, attach ultra-thin metal sections, or join metal sheets to PCB or plastic panels. Their rotational capability offers additional application advantages by allowing the fastener to act as a hardened pivot point. SpotFast fasteners install smooth with the top sheet and flush or sub-flush with the bottom sheet. Can be installed in aluminum or steel sheets as thin as .030 in./0.8 mm.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Motors for large-diameter direct-drive projects
Applimotion routinely scales its LARC (Linear Arc) motors for large-diameter applications greater than 1 m in diameter. The modular nature of these motors allows them to integrate with large assemblies for scanning, imaging, and metrology applications where size requirements take priority over high torque requirements. LARC motors come in modular pieces and will bolt into any large-diameter servo motor application. The motors operate from standard brushless motor amplifiers from 24V to 300V. They work nicely with encoders, resolvers, or the recently introduced magnetic encoders for direct-drive applications.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Geomagic Spark:
Scan and design in the same program
Geomagic Spark is the only 3D software that combines a live 3D scanning interface, built on Geomagic's robust 3D point and mesh editing platform, with a comprehensive direct modeling package, built on the innovative SpaceClaim platform. In addition, Geomagic Spark includes powerful assembly modeling and 2D drawing capabilities. The result is an intuitive and powerful product that will allow CAD experts and CAD novices alike to create models for conceptualization, prototyping, manufacturing, or documentation easily and in one complete package. Geomagic Spark's direct modeling CAD environment relies on a gesture-based user interface, a simple push/pull toolset, and a familiar ribbon-based GUI. Now, users can skillfully create accurate, manufacturable solid models and assemblies using scan and CAD data in the same application within minutes, even from partial scan data.
Click here to learn more. |
| | Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action | What do drones see?
Wow. In this brand new PBS NOVA video clip, an engineer describes the super-secret (up to now) 1.8-billion-pixel surveillance sensor called ARGUS used by some high-level UAVs. The sensor makes for the world's highest-resolution camera. UAVs equipped with the device can see objects as small as 6 in. on the ground from 17,500 ft up, stream all their video in real time, and also record everything spotted: up to 1 million TBs of video a day. Wait a sec for video to load after clicking.
View the video. |
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Incredible PCB motors
Danish motion control innovators at PCBMotor put piezo ceramics to impressive use in this excellent introduction to their system of building one or more motors directly onto a PCB. There are numerous applications that can use this technology, including laser and optics, camera, medical, telecom, aviation/aerospace, robotics, and instrumentation.
View the video. |
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