| January 07, 2014 | Volume 10 Issue 01 |
 | Mobile Measuring Systems Deliver Best-In-Class Precision
Powered by DC micro-drives, a miniature, vibration-free measuring device that detects even the smallest irregularities has been created. Measuring devices for surface roughness measurement are usually rather large. In the past, the measuring object has always been brought to the measuring device rather than vice versa. In order to give this micro device best-in-class precision, vibration resistance, and portability, FAULHABER DC Motors from MICROMO were used.
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 | FEA aids Deepwater Horizon failure forensics
On the evening of April 20, 2010, Deepwater Horizon suffered a blowout while drilling in the Macondo Prospect, an area in the Gulf of Mexico 40 miles off the southeast coast of Louisiana. The platform caught fire, and two days later, it sank. Eleven crewmen were killed. The spewing oil caused the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. In this article, engineers use Abaqus Finite Element Analysis to do some of the detective work concerning what went so terribly wrong with the rig's blowout preventer stack.
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 | 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.
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 | Top 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.
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 | Top Mike Likes:
Brighter, stronger, cooler flip-chip LEDs
TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LEDs from Lumex feature "flip chips" that are up to 15 percent brighter than any others in the market. In addition to the standard 3-W and 6-W LEDs, Lumex's TitanBrite Wireless Bonded LED is also available in 9 W. Wireless bonded LED technology, also referred to as "flip chip," offers several key performance benefits over traditional surface-mount technology (SMT) LEDs, including enhanced durability, enhanced heat dissipation, and superior light performance. A flip-chip LED is up to 15 percent brighter, 5x stronger, and 25 percent cooler than alternative technologies. Applications include: automotive interiors, appliance backlighting, industrial control lighting, medical lighting, signage, construction, and military.
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 | Top Product:
Mini rotary actuator has highest torque and power output
New Scale Technologies has demonstrated a miniature rotary actuator module (M3-R) with torque of 0.17 Nm and speeds of more than 400 degrees per second in a compact, 60-mm-diameter by 8-mm-thick design. Resulting from the successful completion of a Phase 1 SBIR project for the U.S. Navy, the non-inductive rotary actuator module delivers higher power output in a smaller footprint than electromagnetic pancake motors or other piezoelectric actuators. Applications include guided munitions and missile systems, MRI-compatible medical devices, unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) controls, gimbal systems, and computer equipment.
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 | Top Product:
TI 20-W stereo speaker amplifiers reduce BOM cost for mid-power audio applications
Texas Instruments has introduced a new family of four digital-input, closed-loop I2S amplifiers for mid-power stereo audio applications including TVs, soundbars, portable docking stations, Bluetooth speakers, and aftermarket automotive audio products. The TAS5760xx devices feature high switching frequency, allowing designers to use smaller output filter components to reduce overall solution size and bill of materials (BOM) cost. They stream 20-W continuous power per channel without a heatsink and deliver the industry's best performance specifications, including THD+N of 0.03 percent at 1 W, crosstalk of -92 dB, and 66-uV idle channel noise.
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| | Most popular last issue |
 | Most Popular Stories Part 1
What's the No. 1 most-read story in Designfax for 2013? What research stories did readers find most interesting in the past six months? What products and tools generated the most buzz? Find out these answers and more in our best-of issue Part 1.
Read the full article. |
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| | Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action | Bigger really is better:
'Impossible dream' achieved in Sikorsky human-powered helicopter challenge
After 33 years of trying, a team has finally won the American Helicopter Society (AHS) Igor I. Sikorsky Human-Powered Helicopter Competition -- and its $250,000 prize! The challenge: fly a human-powered helicopter above 3 m and hover for more than 60 sec in a 10-m x 10-m space. Canadian team AeroVelo Inc., comprised largely of students at the University of Toronto, flew its extremely novel (and huge!) ATLAS pedal-powered helicopter for 64 sec June 13. A single pilot powered the craft, which featured four, nearly 70-ft rotors attached to a 115-lb carbon-tube and polymer frame. The AHS first issued the human-powered flight challenge in 1980, with an initial prize of $10,000. More than 20 human-powered helicopters have been designed and built since the competition began, though only a handful have gotten off the ground. Officials from AHS International verified the flight data over several weeks and concluded that it met all of the criteria necessary to win the competition. Sikorsky increased the prize to a quarter-million dollars in May 2009. Who would have guessed that this would be the winning design? Incredible.
View the Sikorsky video. |
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How do you stamp out prototype sheet metal parts without "stamping" them in a single blow -- and without a die to boot? No, it's not a Zen riddle. It's a question that Ford engineers have been working on for a while, and now they think they have the answer.
