| January 07, 2020 | Volume 16 Issue 01 |
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 | Custom Wave Springs from Smalley
Smalley can manufacture custom Wave Springs quickly and economically to meet your specific application requirements. Because force and deflection requirements are application-specific, custom springs are often needed. With Smalley's No-Tooling-Cost™ manufacturing process, customs can be produced from .157 to 120" diameters in carbon steel, stainless steel, or other readily available exotic alloys. Prototypes can be available in as little as two weeks for testing. Free samples are available of standard parts for testing.
Learn more. |
 | Highest Speeds or Highest Torque?
Discover the new FAULHABER 1660 BHx series: a high-power, slot-less brushless DC motor based on 2-pole technology that's setting new standards for performance, speed, and power. 16mm in diameter and 60mm in length, the 1660 BHx motor is ideal for handheld tools and devices requiring impressive power and high efficiency. Offered in two motor design options, optimized for high speed (BHS-version) or high torque (BHT-version) performance.
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 | Ford Bronco R race prototype is sneak peek at new production model
The Bronco is set to be reborn in 2020, and Ford gave us a sneak peek (although a cryptic one) of what it may look like recently when it entered the Bronco R race prototype in the punishing Baja 1000 off-road race. The heritage-inspired design gave a hint of the new vehicle's boxy proportions and was built using the upcoming production model's body-on-frame architecture.
Read the full article. |
 | Harley goes electric with LiveWire motorcycle
There's a new sound at Harley-Davidson, and it's not that deep rumbling roar you hear from their traditional two-wheelers. It's more of a high-pitched zip, and it comes from LiveWire, the company's first electric production motorcycle. LiveWire's instant torque rockets riders from 0 to 60 mph in under 3.5 sec.
Read the full article. |
 | Mustang Shelby GT500: Most powerful street-legal Ford ever
We were excited in June 2018 when Ford released details of its 526-hp 2019 Mustang Shelby GT350, but now the pony car maker has gone one better. The all-new 2020 Mustang Shelby GT500 is the most powerful street-legal Ford ever -- with a supercharged 5.2-liter V8 producing more than 700 hp, it's capable of doing a mid-three-second 0 to 60 mph.
Read the full article. |
 | Harvard/MIT engineers reinvent piston using soft materials
A team of roboticists has developed a new way to design pistons that replaces their conventional rigid elements with compressible structures inside a membrane made of soft materials. The resulting "tension pistons" generate more than three times the force of comparable conventional pistons, eliminate much of the friction, and are strikingly more energy efficient.
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 | Top Product: New world record for strongest adhesive
DELO, one of the world's leading manufacturers of industrial adhesives for automotive, consumer, and industrial electronics applications, has broken the world record for achieving the heaviest lift using adhesive. The company lifted an 18-ton truck and held it in the air for one full hour -- suspended from a bonded aluminum cylinder.
Read the full article. |
 | Top Tip: HVACR -- How to properly clean a condenser coil
Condenser coil cleaning is one of those subjects where there is a fair amount of confusion. Parker Hannifin provides answers to common questions to set the record straight. Why do condenser coil cleaners foam, and evaporator coils usually don't? What is the difference between the acid and non-acid condenser coil cleaners? Learn these things and more in this informative post.
Read the Parker Hannifin blog. |
 | Top Product: Gecko Gripper with NASA tech comes to market
End-effector tooling specialist OnRobot is now taking orders for its Gecko Gripper, which uses millions of micro-scaled fibrillar stalks that adhere to a surface using powerful van der Waals forces -- the same way that geckos climb. The technology was first developed at Stanford and perfected by NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. It's fascinating how it works. It's kind of like Velcro -- if you only needed one side of the Velcro tape.
Read the full article. |
 | Top Mike Likes: ClampDisk micro fastener is new alternative for automotive and consumer electronics
Designed as a unique alternative in assemblies for the automotive and consumer electronics markets, the ClampDisk Press-on Fastener is a new offering from PennEngineering that delivers a fast, simple way to achieve sheet-to-sheet clamped attachment while replacing the use of standard screws, nuts, and adhesives. The most common challenges that can be eliminated or reduced by using ClampDisk include over installation, cross threading, stripped screw heads, broken screws, and damaged product. This fastener can be removed easily with a sharp-edged tool.
Learn more and see ClampDisk in action. |
 | Top Product: Allite Super Magnesium
Weighing 33 percent less than aluminum, while also being stiffer and stronger pound for pound, the new Allite Super Magnesium alloy has shown its mettle in classified defense and aerospace applications. Now it's available for wider use. Less expensive than carbon fiber, its applications include home improvement, sporting goods, aerospace, automotive, biking, and more. Three alloy variants are available to suit welding, forming/forging, or casting. These alloys feature excellent shock-absorption properties, good electromagnetic shielding performance, good heat dissipation, and recyclability. Allite received the Award of Excellence under the Process category by the International Magnesium Association in May 2019.
Learn more. |
 | Top Product: Is Excel hindering your engineering projects?
While Excel is a great tool for performing quick calculations, it cannot handle the scope of mathematical computation required for advanced engineering projects. Discover why engineers from around the world reap the benefits from the move to robust, interactive mathematical systems such as Maple. Learn how, with the right tools, you can arrive at the right solution faster, while minimizing errors, delays, and rising costs.
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 | Top Resource: Comparison guide for plastic material performance
When you're choosing the best plastic material for your injection molding project, you have literally thousands of materials to choose from and lots of factors to consider, such as cost, strength, and temperature range. Wouldn't it be nice if a chart compared the most common plastic materials? ICOMold has made one and put it in the shape of penguin, because they're clever and, well, it's fun. Their Plastic Performance Penguin is very useful too. Save this one for future reference.
Read the full article. |
| | Most popular last issue |
 | New kind of shape-shifting airplane wing
A team of MIT and NASA engineers has built and tested a radically new kind of airplane wing, assembled from hundreds of tiny identical pieces. The wing can change shape to control the plane's flight, and could provide a significant boost in aircraft production, flight, and maintenance efficiency.
Read the full article. |
 | 8 ways to improve your sheet metal parts
All sheet metal parts start out flat. And no matter how convoluted or complex their final shapes may be, the wall thickness of those parts must be uniform throughout. Engineers from Protolabs share their eight quick sheet metal design tips, focusing on material and finishing options along with design elements like bends, reliefs, holes, and slots when developing your metal components. Really useful info.
Read the full article. |
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| | Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action | Hoverboard wows Paris parade crowd
Your dreams of having a jet pack are so 2018. Franky Zapata, the French inventor of the jet-fuel-powered, gyrostabilized Flyboard Air platform, stole the show at France's annual Bastille Day parade in Paris. At the invitation of the French Armed Forces, Zapata sported a rifle and a very confident look-Mom-no-hands attitude as he soared above the Champs-Elysees to the amazement of politicians, military personnel, and the public. The board can go to 10,000 ft, has a max speed over 90 mph, uses four 250-hp turbine engines, and has been demonstrated to fly up to 10 minutes so far. Jaw dropping and also scary. The France 24 site posted the incredible video and short report.
View the video.
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Boston Dynamics shows off radical warehouse robot
Looking something like a beefy robotic ostrich on wheels, Boston Dynamics' latest version of its Handle "mobile manipulation robot" concept autonomously performs mixed-SKU stacking and unstacking. The Handle on-board vision system tracks the marked pallets for navigation and finds individual boxes for grasping and placing. The bot's creators say the boxes used in this video weigh about 11 lb, but the robot is designed to handle boxes up to 33 lb. Impressive and strange design all in one.
View the video. |
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History: Caterpillar first steam tractor with tracks
Learn about how big-machine juggernaut Caterpillar got its start when Benjamin Holt decided it was time to test his prototype steam-powered, track-type tractor on Thanksgiving Day in 1904. Lee Fosburgh, Caterpillar's corporate archives manager, tells the story of "the machine that changed everything." A really interesting take on reinventing the wheel. Bonus: Also learn how Caterpillar got its name.
View the video. |
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