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Noisy Bearings? Single turn wave springs are ideal for bearing preload. The spring preloads the bearing through its outer race, taking up play in the bearing. This reduces bearing damage, wear, noise and vibration. Smalley has stock parts from 1/4" to 16". Specials are available from .200" to 120".
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In this issue of Designfax |
News |
Cover Image: Nelson Publishing
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'Open innovation' battery lab established at U-Michigan with Ford, MEDC Australian researchers turn plastic grocery bags into expensive, high-tech nano materials Despite budget crunch, military's Humvee-replacement purchase plans remain unchanged |
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Nature-Inspired Robotics Powered by DC Micro-motors Replicating the sophistication and perfection of nature is one of the core challenges for scientists and engineers today. The LAURON walking robot, inspired by the Indian stick insect, meets this challenge. With a high-performance, low-weight drive solution being essential, the project team choose a FAULHABER DC motor and gearhead combination from MICROMO.
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| Featured Articles |
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Aerospace machine tools and assembly systems: Joint strike fighter requires new technology to make pieces fit |
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 When you decide to build an aircraft piece by piece, in different places, on different machine tools and assembly systems, then ship all those pieces to another location for final production, challenges abound. In the case of the F-35, the Joint Strike Fighter, these production challenges require an international partnership that includes a machine tool control scenario that "pushes the envelope" for CNC design, engineering, and application technology.
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SURVIVOR flexible disc pack couplings aim for infinite MTBF R+W is introducing its SURVIVOR series of maintenance-free, flexible disc pack couplings. Not to be confused with a servo coupling, the flexible disc pack coupling is ideally suited for many of the most demanding industrial power transmission systems and makes further advancements toward the goal of infinite service life. Andy Lechner, product manager, R+W America explains what makes this new kind of coupling so different -- and beneficial.
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Flywheels inside make for surprisingly simple self-assembling robots Researchers at MIT have created some amazing small cubes with no exterior moving parts that can propel themselves forward, jump on top of each other, and snap together to form arbitrary shapes.
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Wheels: Volvo Car Group making big strides on building supercapacitors into car bodies Volvo Car Group has developed a revolutionary concept for lightweight structural energy storage components that could improve the energy usage of future electrified vehicles. The material, consisting of carbon fibers, nano-structured batteries, and supercapacitors, offers lightweight energy storage that can be molded and formed to fit into a car's door panels, trunk lid, wheel bowl, and more.
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Mike Likes: Clever enclosure provides a stow-away workspace for multiple development boards Bud Industries has come up with a really smart solution to the problem of organizing multiple development boards and a maze of wiring. Using a "flat or folded" approach, the patent-pending Board-ganizer enclosure provides a tidy work platform, keeps components of a design project in one place, and makes breadboarded designs easy to store and transport. Popular PC development boards such as the Raspberry Pi, Arduino, Freescale Freedom, etc. easily attach to the Board-ganizer using adhesive rubber feet. Up to three development boards and a breadboard may be installed on a single enclosure. The enclosure's hinged design makes it easy to work on a project with the boards located side by side. Fold the project into a compact 5 in. x 5 in. x 3 in. enclosure for storage or transport -- no need to disconnect any wires.
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Engineer's Toolbox: Retaining rings replace nut-and-bolt fasteners in rocker arm assembly High-performance rocker arms add horsepower to an engine, and retaining rings have played a role in their development. Learn how and why retaining rings are used in this application.
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Product Spotlight: HumidIcon combination sensors Honeywell's new 6000, 7000, 8000, and 9000 Series of the HumidIcon combination digital output relative humidity (RH) and thermal sensor solutions are primarily targeted for medical, HVAC, and industrial applications. These sensors offer industry-leading long-term accuracy, stability, and reliability plus true temperature-compensated digital I2C or SPI output. They provide a cost-effective solution for device and system developers who want to reduce design time and time to market, and also save space on the board.
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Product Spotlight: Sensors teach grippers to see SCHUNK has enlarged its number of available sensors for its modular system of grippers with the OAS sensor. When grippers such as the PGN-plus and the MPG-plus are equipped with this integrated distance and presence sensor, both modules quickly transform into seeing grippers without needing an expensive vision system. The optical system can be directly integrated into the gripping center and continuously supplies the control unit with information, such as measuring the distance of the gripper to the component. This is done during the process without any loss of time. With the OAS sensor, PGN-plus and MPG-plus grippers can differentiate components, recognize position, pick parts from a running belt, detect wrongly gripped components, and increase the reliability of the gripping operation.
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Product Spotlight: Powerful CAD viewer for fast viewing and markup of over two dozen CAD formats KeyMarkUp CAD from Kubotek USA views and marks up over two dozen CAD file formats -- but this product does so much more. It gives engineers a powerful method to measure, analyze, annotate, print, and export CAD data for better collaboration and more accurate quoting. A dynamic selection tool, for instance, allows users to create simple cross-sections easily of complex parts or assemblies to complete difficult measurements or geometry checks. Multiple dimensioning, measuring, and mass property features and calculating tools, as well as mold design tools, simplify quoting and estimating. And there is a lot more. See all that KeyMarkUp CAD can do.
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| Most Popular |
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Wheels: Diagnosing car noises with visualizations How have Hyundai vehicles scored J.D. Power Initial Quality Study top ratings year after year? By evolving their quality testing procedures and equipment again and again. In one instance, Hyundai has helped to make dramatic improvements in a portable sound camera it uses for buzz, squeak, and rattle studies based on LabVIEW and FPGA. A sound camera visualizes sound in color contours similar to the way a thermal camera visualizes temperature.
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Printable pressure switches used for variable speed control in new electric drill design At Peratech, touch technology is a sensitive subject. It's how the North Yorkshire, U.K., company makes its money: creating ultra-thin pressure-sensing Quantum Tunnelling Composite (QTC) technology and licensing it to other companies to incorporate into their products.
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Researchers raise the IQ of smart windows Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have designed a new material to make smart windows even smarter. Their thin coating of nanocrystals embedded in glass allows for dynamical control of visible light and heat-producing near-infrared (NIR) light, so windows can maximize both energy savings and occupant comfort in a wide range of climates. Their work is the cover story in the Aug. 15 issue of Nature.
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| Videos+: Technologies and inspiration in action |
| NASA aims to do 3D printing in space in 2014 | |
| Just like on Earth, parts on the International Space Station break or get lost. But if the astronauts don't have multiple spares, their only option is to wait for replacements to be sent. The ability to conduct 3D printing in space could change all of that, and a new Made in Space printer has already been tested on zero-gravity parabolic flights. This video shows a cable tie being printed as an example. NASA says their 3D-printing tech for space is scheduled to launch in June 2014.
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