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March 26, 2019Volume 15 Issue 12


Image - Cobots Take Over Undesirable Tasks, Optimize Assembly and Packaging by 30%
Cobots Take Over Undesirable Tasks, Optimize Assembly and Packaging by 30%
Darex, a manufacturer of drill and knife sharpeners, runs fast-paced production lines with many repetitive and ergonomically unfriendly tasks. The company has implemented Universal Robots in screw-driving and box-erecting applications, quickly scaling the initial install into a full-blown automation line with multiple work stations programmed through the UR interface. The entire system is developed in-house.
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In this issue of Designfax

  • NASA's Mars 2020 mini helicopter faces big challenges
  • Why would you need a sapphire piston?
  • New treatment helps in cutting advanced metals
  • Tow big or go home: All-new Chevy Silverado HD
  • Top Tech Tip: Mechanical bellows as an alternative
  • App Note: Quadcopter torque/thrust testing
  • Variable frequency drives benefit constant speed applications
  • Reduce component failure with the HELI-CAL Flexure
  • New counterbalance hinge for heavy panels and lids
  • Turn any hose or tube into a powerful conveyor!
  • Software: New Maple 2019 offers greater math power to all
  • Recommended Reading: 'Shoot for the Moon'
  • Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
    • The Power to 3D Print Parts -- Fast
  • Most Popular Last Issue
    • New Bugatti is most expensive new car
    • Scientists weld glass and metal together
    • 50 Years Ago: Apollo 9 launched
  • New Products
    • Electrical, Mechanical, Motion
    Cover Image: Chevy debuts all-new 2020 Silverado HD

News

New on-chip electro-optic frequency comb could be used for many applications including optical telecommunication

Researchers create 'meta-mirror' that reflects sound waves perfectly in any direction

Motor fire avoided! Electrical wire sensor monitors building or ship and signals when equipment repairs are needed

Researchers develop higher impact resistant foam -- inspired by pomelo fruit



Image - Designing for Manufacturability
Designing for Manufacturability
Optimizing your part design from concept through production will assist you in eliminating unneeded costs and reduce the time frame to produce your custom, plastic injection molded parts. Learn how to incorporate features like draft, threads, hinges and overmolding in order to gain efficiencies.
Discover manufacturing best practices including:
  • Learning the basics of the injection molding process.
  • How to obtain optimal performance out of materials and resins.
  • Gaining insights on best practices for part design for the injection molding process.
  • Determining what features to incorporate into your design to maximize time and cost savings.
  • Avoiding common pitfalls that impact injection mold design.
  • Download now.

Feature articles
NASA's Mars 2020 mini helicopter faces big challenges
The problems facing the Mars Helicopter design team are daunting. The vehicle, a companion to the Mars 2020 rover, must fly in Mars' thin atmosphere (the Earth equivalent of flying 100,000 ft up), survive brutally cold nights, and operate essentially on its own.
Read the full article.
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From Google to NASA, automotive to medical, and even for interstellar travel, learn all about hexapod applications.


Image - Why would you need a sapphire piston -- and who could make one?
Why would you need a sapphire piston -- and who could make one?
If you want a prototype piston made of metal for research purposes, you have a lot of options -- you can even 3D print your own. But what if you need something much more exotic, like the second-hardest natural material? When Mid Michigan Research had just such a need, it turned to Insaco for the company's long history of custom fabrication of sapphire precision parts, often in unusual forms.
Read the full article.

Image - New treatment helps in cutting advanced metals
New treatment helps in cutting advanced metals
The conventional method of using advanced metals in manufacturing is high in cost, in part because they tend to be difficult to sculpture. Now, a new process for cutting these metals may help make them easier to use and lead to significant changes in the future of manufacturing.
Read the full article.

Image - Copper Foam: Properties of the Parent Metal, Benefits of a Foam
Copper Foam: Properties of the Parent Metal, Benefits of a Foam
Copper foam combines the outstanding thermal conductivity of copper with the structural benefits of a metal foam. It is a true skeletal structure -- not a sintered, coated, or plated product -- and its purity is typically that of the parent metal, with no voids, inclusions or entrapments. Different porosities and dimensions are available. Provides optimal heat transfer, high strength-to-weight ratio, and high surface area-to-volume ratio.
For more information, click here or email info@goodfellowusa.com.

Image - Tow big or go home: All-new Chevy Silverado HD
Tow big or go home: All-new Chevy Silverado HD
If your need for hauling big stuff has gotten even bigger, Chevy has answered your call. The all-new 2020 Silverado HD can "tow, tow, tow your boat" and whole lot more, since its max towing capability has been increased a whopping 52 percent. And with 15 available camera views, including an impressive new Transparent Trailer view, you have every angle covered. The HD will be available in five distinct trim levels. From a design standpoint, the 2020 Silverado HD has the most differentiation from light duty ever.
Read the full article.

Image - Top Tech Tip: Mechanical bellows components are an alternative solution
Top Tech Tip: Mechanical bellows components are an alternative solution
In today's digital world, mechanical components such as metal bellows serve as an extremely reliable mechanism to gather information. The movement of Servometer® electrodeposited metal bellows under hydraulic or pneumatic pressure (internal and external) can create the information needed for a system w/o electricity. Using bellows technology; temperature, gauge, barometric, and differential pressure can be compensated for. With miniature sizes available, Servometer bellows can be added to instrumentation and manifolds of almost any shape or size.
Request a free sample today.

Image - Application Note: <br>Quadcopter propeller torque/thrust testing
Application Note:
Quadcopter propeller torque/thrust testing

The quadcopter's four propellers are designed to work in conjunction with each other to ensure that there are no torque imbalances that could send the vehicle spinning out of control. But just how would a professional developer or hobbyist perform accurate propeller torque and thrust testing? Advanced sensor specialist FUTEK has the answer.
Read the full article.

Image - Variable frequency drives benefit constant speed applications
Variable frequency drives benefit constant speed applications
Using a variable frequency drive (VFD) can be beneficial in many constant speed applications driven by electric motors, such as those that require controlled starting and have been historically served by a reduced-voltage soft-starter (RVSS). While an RVSS and a VFD can both provide a controlled start, let's examine the benefits of each technology and when it makes sense to use one over the other.
Read this informative Parker Hannifin blog.

Image - Reduce component failure with the HELI-CAL Flexure
Reduce component failure with the HELI-CAL Flexure
Discover how to eliminate vibrating failure, prevent premature component wear, prevent motor seizure, and stop bearing failure by incorporating Helical Products' flexure technology into your machinery components.
Learn more by downloading our white paper.

Image - New counterbalance hinge for heavy panels and lids
New counterbalance hinge for heavy panels and lids
Southco has expanded its Positioning Technology portfolio with the addition of a new Counterbalance Hinge that neutralizes the weight of heavy panels and lids, reducing safety and liability concerns while improving end-user ergonomics. The aluminum, black anodized hinge provides precise control when opening and closing heavy panels, enabling the panel to be lifted and lowered effortlessly. Its compact, adjustable design provides for mounting inside enclosures with minimal protrusion, and it can be fine-tuned to precise requirements. Applications include transportation, military, industrial machinery, and medical equipment
Learn more.

Image - Turn any hose or tube into a powerful conveyor!
Turn any hose or tube into a powerful conveyor!
EXAIR's new 2 1/2-in. (64-mm) and 3-in. (76-mm) 316 stainless steel Line Vacs are powerful in-line conveyors that transport high volumes of material through ordinary hose or tube. Designed for areas like food and pharmaceutical processing that require the benefits of 316SS including excellent chemical and corrosion resistance, performance in high or low temperatures, long service life, and low maintenance. These two new sizes make it possible to convey more material over long vertical and horizontal lengths. Other sizes available.
Learn more.

Image - Software: New Maple 2019 offers greater math power to all
Software: New Maple 2019 offers greater math power to all
Maplesoft has just announced a major new release of its flagship product, Maple, the mathematical software that makes it extremely easy to analyze, explore, visualize, and solve math problems. Maple 2019 includes substantial improvements to its mathematical engine, for both core routines and specialized tools. The release also provides advances to the Maple programming language, more education tools, new visualizations, and other improvements for the mathematicians, educators, students, engineers, and scientists who use Maple.
Learn more.

Image - Recommended Reading: 'Shoot for the Moon -- The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11' by James Donovan
Recommended Reading: 'Shoot for the Moon -- The Space Race and the Extraordinary Voyage of Apollo 11' by James Donovan
What the publisher says: "Seen through the eyes of those who lived it, 'Shoot for the Moon' reveals the dangers, the challenges, and the sheer determination that defined not only Apollo 11, but also the Mercury and Gemini missions that made it possible. Based on exhaustive research and dozens of fresh interviews ... (it's) the definitive and thrilling account of one of humankind's most extraordinary feats of exploration."
What we say: Mix two cups technical journal with three scoops engineering history. Fold in equal parts of drama, mystery, and suspense thriller. Add differing personalities, egos, and personal and national ambition for flavor and kick. Top with a tremendous sense of pride. Result: Delicious. You'll eat it up.
Available on Amazon.

Most popular last issue

Image - New Bugatti is most expensive new car, one-off homage to past, and full of mystery
New Bugatti is most expensive new car, one-off homage to past, and full of mystery
If Batman drove a Bugatti, it would probably look like the new "La Voiture Noire," a one-off creation made for a single, discerning, and very rich collector. The inspiration comes directly from a particularly exotic and rare 1936 Bugatti that mysteriously disappeared. Interesting stories and designs that could be right out of a comic book!
Read the full article.

Image - Scientists weld glass and metal together
Scientists weld glass and metal together
Scientists from Heriot-Watt University in Scotland have welded glass and metal together using an ultra-fast laser system. They consider the feat to be a breakthrough for the manufacturing industry. The new process could have direct applications in the aerospace, defense, optical technology, and even healthcare fields.
Read the full article.

Image - 50 Years Ago: Apollo 9 launched -- Spider, Gumdrop, and Red Rover in space
50 Years Ago: Apollo 9 launched -- Spider, Gumdrop, and Red Rover in space
At precisely 11:00 AM EST on March 3, 1969, the five F-1 engines roared to life generating 7.5 million lb of thrust that slowly lifted the Saturn V rocket and its three Apollo 9 astronauts off Launch Pad 39A at Kennedy Space Center. The goal of their 10-day Earth orbital mission was to test the Lunar Module. [Countdown Series: 50th anniversary of Apollo 11]
Read the full article.

Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action
The Power to 3D Print Parts -- Fast
From the inventor of 3D Printing, we present 3D Systems On Demand. When designers and engineers need a partner for subtractive and additive services, we're here to help. Watch the video to see how our capabilities can augment you production process, and to get a free online quote!
View the video.
Learn more about 3D Systems On Demand.

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