| December 10, 2013 | Volume 09 Issue 46 |
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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.
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| | Feature articles |
 | Engineering a safer bounce
Ask a kid if they like trampolines and their eyes are sure to light up with joy, but how can all the fun go wrong? In a number of ways, thanks to the unavoidable laws of physics. Dr. Keith Alexander, an associate professor of engineering at Canterbury University, New Zealand, felt there had to be a safer way to enjoy the trampoline, so he began working in his garage. His clever Springfree Trampoline moves the frame below the jumping surface, creates a soft edge to the mat, and surrounds the whole thing with tensioned, UV-resistant netting that bounces users back to the center if they go off-kilter.
Read the full article. |
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 | Mike Likes:
Plastic parts with no molds required
How often have you wondered what life would be like without having to worry about paying tooling charge after tooling charge for products in early development? The "No Molds Required" (NMR) manufacturing technology from Envision Plastics & Design could be your answer. This unique production process harmonizes a combination of sheet metal fabrication and woodworking practices to produce plastic parts used for enclosures, panels and shrouds, brackets and shields, medical-based products, and more.
Read the full article. |
 | Product Spotlight:
New Line of Phillips Pan Machine Screws
Micro Plastics has added a new line to their inventory of 250 million parts! The Phillips Pan Machine Screws are molded in tough, resilient, and corrosion-resistant Nylon 6/6 material. Thread sizes included are: 4-40, 6-32, 8-32, 10-32, 1/4-20, and 1/4-28. Available in 25 standard lengths ranging from 3/32 in. up to 3 in., Micro Plastics also offers an extensive line of machine screws, including head styles such as Binder, Binder Combination, Fillister, Hex, Pan, Round, Socket, Flat, Oval, and Thumb Screws, as well as Studs, Grubs, and Flat Head Wing Screws.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Product Spotlight:
Lexium MDrive premium integrated motors now available in smaller size
Lexium MDrive integrated motors from Schneider Electric Motion USA are now available in an even smaller size with the release of NEMA 17 motor products, completing the premium brand MDrive update that already includes NEMA 23 and 34 motors. The ultra-compact and robust NEMA 17 integrated motor product is available in four communication versions for ease of interface with a wide range of motion applications. Lexium MDrive LMD42 products integrate a high-torque NEMA 17 stepper motor with a 12- to 48-VDC drive, controller and I/O, and an internal encoder with closed-loop performance feature.
Click here to learn more. |
 | Product Spotlight:
ANSYS 15.0 for structures, fluids, and electromagnetics simulation
ANSYS 15.0 provides new, unique capabilities and enhancements that offer the most advanced approach to guide and optimize product designs. Highlights for structures in this release include giving users greater insight into simulating composites. Enhancements to the fluids portfolio include the capability for studying turbomachinery flow paths with greater fidelity than ever, while in electromagnetics ANSYS 15.0 offers the most comprehensive electric motor design process. This release enhances ANSYS' industry-leading pre-processing capabilities, enabling users to quickly and accurately mesh the widest range of model size and complexity regardless of type of physics simulated.
Click here to learn more. |
| | Most popular last issue |
 | Watch out graphene: 2-D tin may be the next super material
A single layer of tin atoms could be the world's first material to conduct electricity with 100 percent efficiency at the temperatures that computer chips operate, according to a team of theoretical physicists led by researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory and Stanford University.
Read the full article. |
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| | Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action | M3-R rotary micro drive has no measurable jitter
At 44 mm x 44 mm x 36 mm, the M3-R rotary micro drive from New Scale Technologies is smaller than -- and can replace -- a servo drive. It also offers higher position resolution. The M3-R rotary micro drive has no measurable jitter, holds position without power, and generates no magnetic fields. It exhibits excellent velocity, acceleration, and repeatability characteristics. Learn more about this awesome little piezoelectric drive.
View the video. |
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Disney researchers develop algorithm for rendering 3D tactile features on touch surfaces
By altering the friction encountered as a person's fingertip glides across a touchscreen surface, a new algorithm by Disney Research, Pittsburgh, can create a perception of a 3D bump on a touch surface without having to physically move the surface. The method can be used to simulate the feel of a wide variety of objects and textures. The algorithm is based on a discovery that when a person slides a finger over a real physical bump, the person perceives the bump largely because lateral friction forces stretch and compress skin on the sliding finger. The Disney researchers used electrovibration to modulate the friction between the sliding finger and the touch surface with electrostatic forces. The algorithm dynamically modulates the frictional forces on a sliding finger so that they match the tactile properties of the visual content displayed on the touch screen along the finger's path.
View the video. |
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