Click this link if you cannot read the issue below: Designfax - Tech for OEM Design Engineers
August 13, 2013Volume 09 Issue 30


Image - New Full Line Catalog -- Full of New Fasteners
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.


In this issue of Designfax

  • 12 key factors in bellows design
  • 3D-printing update
  • New coating makes super glass
  • Wheels: New process joins aluminum and steel
  • Mike Likes: New approach to composites optimization
  • Engineer's Toolbox: New twist in wind blade design
  • MISUMI discounts automation components
  • Actuators: Rotary-to-linear motion
  • Autodesk extends HSMWorks to Inventor
  • ADT ships TURBOdesign Suite 5.2.1
  • Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
    • Five favorite no-cost engineering tools
    • Small SUV overlap crash test results
  • Most Popular Last Issue
    • Picking the pattern for a stealth antenna
    • Supersonic car getting 3D-printed nose
    • Electric bus flash-charging
  • New Products
    • Electrical, Mechanical, Motion, Special: Software
    Cover Image: BYU manufacturing systems grad student Lile Squires bonds metals together with friction bit joining.

News

Better than diamond: NRL researchers discover novel material for cooling electronic devices

SMDI: Lightweight steel wheels can be produced at 40 percent cost savings over aluminum

Frost & Sullivan: All-electric aircraft buzz gets louder at the Air Paris Show

Latest release of Siemens' Syncrofit reduces airframe design processing time by 40 percent; optimizes design of fastened parts



Image - Get useful, usable content with <br>Rexroth Resource Kits
Get useful, usable content with
Rexroth Resource Kits

Rexroth's Resource Kits provide carefully selected collections of useful content focused on key engineering topics such as mechatronics, linear motion, hydraulics, and factory automation -- all packaged on a convenient USB drive. Each kit features technical information relevant to its core topic and includes Rexroth's most popular case studies, technical papers, handbooks and guidebooks, online tools, and product information. These free digital archives put Rexroth Drive & Control expertise at your fingertips. Order yours today!
More on Linear Motion & Mechatronics @ Work Kit
More on Hydraulics Performance Kit
More on Advancing Factory Automation Kit

Feature articles

Image - 12 key factors in bellows design
12 key factors in bellows design
What do you need to know to design your own custom bellows? The specialists at Servometer have prepared this handy resource for you. Typical bellows applications include: volume compensators, actuators, electrical spring contacts, pressure switches and transducers, flexible shaft couplings, and more.
Read the full article.

Image - 3D-printing update: <br>Stratasys acquires MakerBot and venture capitalists discover key to 3D printing money; Is home 3D printing really safe?
3D-printing update:
Stratasys acquires MakerBot and venture capitalists discover key to 3D printing money; Is home 3D printing really safe?

3D-printing giant Stratasys announced June 19 that it was acquiring MakerBot, the New York-based privately held manufacturer of desktop 3D printers. No surprise there, although the Stratasys shareholders may have been a little taken aback by the price. Meanwhile, a new scholarly article suggests that emissions from the melted plastics used in some desktop 3D printers may not be safe.
Read the full article.

Image - New coating turns ordinary glass into super glass
New coating turns ordinary glass into super glass
A new transparent, bioinspired coating created by Harvard researchers makes ordinary glass tough, self-cleaning, and incredibly slippery.
Read the full article.

Image - Wheels: <br>BYU's friction bit joining process aims to help automakers lighten up
Wheels:
BYU's friction bit joining process aims to help automakers lighten up

Researchers at Brigham Young University and their commercial partner have found a way to successfully create an extremely strong bond between lightweight aluminum and ultra high-strength steel. It's called friction bit joining, and it may be the breakthrough the automotive industry is looking for.
Read the full article.

Image - Mike Likes:<br> A whole new approach to composites optimization
Mike Likes:
A whole new approach to composites optimization

Version 6.4.5 of HyperSizer composite structural analysis and optimization software from Collier Research Corp. not only runs up to 200 to 400 percent faster across the board, it's now based on a reconfigured core technology with built-in "intelligence" that produces more accurate answers with less user input. As the first-ever software commercialized out of NASA, HyperSizer provides stress analysis and sizing optimization, reducing the weight of aircraft, space vehicles, wind turbine blades, and other structures, whether designed with composite or metallic materials.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Engineer's Toolbox: <br>New twist in wind blade design promises higher energy output
Engineer's Toolbox:
New twist in wind blade design promises higher energy output

NSE Composites uses Abaqus FEA to validate a Sandia-funded sweep-twist design that captures 12 percent more energy.
Read the full article.

Image - MISUMI announces deep discounts for volume automation component orders
MISUMI announces deep discounts for volume automation component orders
MISUMI USA has deepened its volume discount pricing program that reduces prices on larger volume orders of fixed and configurable components used in production machinery, automated work cells, and testing equipment. The company says that the price reductions are the result of achieving manufacturing cost savings across its global operations. The new price reduction program spans over 50 different product groups, including machined components, linear motion products, gears, pulleys, bearings, and other hardware and materials. Price reduction percentages vary depending on the quantity ordered. Examples: Precision linear shafts average 16 percent lower, up to 46 percent for higher quantities; gears average 16 percent lower, up to 37 percent for higher quantities.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Product Spotlight: <br>Linear actuators convert rotary motion into precise linear motion
Product Spotlight:
Linear actuators convert rotary motion into precise linear motion

Zero-Max is now offering Roh'lix linear actuators made from stainless steel for use in operations where cleanliness is a priority. Used to convert rotary motion to linear travel, Roh'lix linear actuators carry loads at speeds up to 70 in./sec, depending on size. Ideal for positioning operations in all types of machinery, Roh'lix linear actuators turn rotational motion into linear motion much like a ball screw, except the Roh'lix has the added feature of overload protection.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Product Spotlight: <br>CAM: Autodesk extends HSMWorks technology to Inventor users
Product Spotlight:
CAM: Autodesk extends HSMWorks technology to Inventor users

Autodesk Inventor HSM Express is a free CAM solution for Autodesk Inventor users. Powered by HSMWorks technology, Inventor HSM Express has all the capabilities of HSMXpress -- the free CAM solution for SolidWorks -- and is seamlessly integrated inside the design environment of Autodesk Inventor. The integration allows Inventor users to take advantage of workflow and tools they expect when programming CNC toolpaths for machining projects involving 3D printing, mills, lathes, routers, waterjet cutters, and more. You can become a beta user.
Click here to learn more.

Image - Product Spotlight: <br>ADT ships TURBOdesign Suite 5.2.1
Product Spotlight:
ADT ships TURBOdesign Suite 5.2.1

This version of the first commercially available 3D inverse design software system for turbomachinery products -- an evolution in blade design -- introduces a new elliptically smoothed mesh generation routine in TURBOdesign CFD for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. There is also a new ability to predict stage performance, including volute performance, that previously was only available for pumps. Turbomachinery design engineers and manufacturers across most industries can now benefit from even greater functionality and develop products in far less time.
Click here to learn more.

Most popular last issue

Image - Picking the pattern for a stealth antenna
Picking the pattern for a stealth antenna
A frequency selective surface that acts as an RF filter and helps reduce the radar cross-section of antennas consists of a pattern of geometrical objects. There are literally thousands of possibilities, and testing each one physically would take enormous amounts of time. With simulation, though, we can find promising candidates in just minutes.
Read the full article.

Image - Wheels: <br>Supersonic car getting 3D-printed nose
Wheels:
Supersonic car getting 3D-printed nose

British additive manufacturing specialist Renishaw is contributing its machine and materials knowledge to create key prototype parts for the U.K.'s BLOODHOUND supersonic car, which will attempt to break the 1,000-mph speed barrier during the summer of 2015.
Read the full article.

Image - ABB demonstrates technology to flash-charge electric bus in 15 sec
ABB demonstrates technology to flash-charge electric bus in 15 sec
Power and automation juggernaut ABB has developed a new technology that will help to power the world's first high-capacity flash-charging electric bus system.
Read the full article.

Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
Five favorite no-cost engineering tools
Jeremy Regnerus, product marketing specialist for SolidWorks, takes a look at his five favorite free tools (not all SolidWorks!) for engineers. Each tool provides valuable time-saving capabilities. Watch and learn how each tool works and where to find it.
View the video.

Video Image
IIHS: Overlap crash test results for small SUVs
The 2014 Subaru Forester is the first vehicle to ace every aspect of the challenging small overlap front crash test conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). The Forester, the only one of 13 small SUVs to earn an overall rating of good in the test, and the 2013 Mitsubishi Outlander Sport, which earns acceptable, are the latest vehicles to qualify for the Institute's recently inaugurated top honor, TOP SAFETY PICK+. Each of the other 11 SUVs earns either a poor or marginal rating.
View the video.

Video Image

New products

Electrical/Electronics
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Mechanical
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Software
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