Articles
The Lead
Kickstarter of the Week: Make Any Smartphone a Laptop
May 20, 2013 | by Melissa Fassbender, Associate Editor, PD&D | Comments
A self-proclaimed nerd by trade, John Andrus, Founder of Livi Design, is turning ordinary smartphones into laptops with the launch of the Casetop. After the iPhone debuted, Andrus knew that smartphones were going to become a disruptive technology. So why not do more to harness the devices power? After asking this question, he sat down and started designing his idea.
Automation GT Speeds Up Medical Syringe Assembly
May 17, 2013 1:56 pm | by Justin Levine, Futurestech | Comments
Pharmaceutical companies often assemble medical syringes by hand. Manual assembly is time-...
Top 5 Design Tools of the Week
May 17, 2013 9:05 am | by Melissa Fassbender, Associate Editor, PD&D | Comments
Your Top 5 Design Tools of the Week include a new add on for your Raspberry Pi, a DIY...
MIT Student Inventor Awarded for Innovative Medical Devices
May 15, 2013 4:52 pm | by Melissa Barnes, Associate Editor PD&D | Comments
Each year, MIT’s Lemelson program awards an outstanding student inventor for his or her...
Interpreting the Human Genome
May 21, 2013 11:44 am | by Silicon Mechanics | CommentsWhen Knome needed a turnkey hardware platform for its knoSOFT genome interpretation application and kGAP informatics engine, it turned to Seattle-based solutions provider Silicon Mechanics. The result was the knoSYS100, which is a combination of Knome’s software and a hardware platform configured by Silicon Mechanics.
Case Study: Reliability in Portable Sound Equipment
May 21, 2013 8:48 am | by NKK Switches | Nkk Switches, Inc. | CommentsProfessional Sound Corporation (PSC) has designed and manufactured highly portable, rugged audio equipment for the television and motion picture industries since 1986. The rigorous demands placed on PSC’s equipment present unique switching challenges that NKK’s switches have helped to overcome.
Galactic Thermal Management
May 14, 2013 3:09 pm | by Chris Fox, Associate Editor, PD&D | CommentsA prominent enemy of efficiency and functionality is heat. From bearings to computer systems to intergalactic hardware, rising temperatures have a tendency to make life a nightmare for design engineers. Thermacore recently experienced the rigors of temperature management while contributing to the design of the NASA’s Landsat Data Continuity mission.
Engineering Answers: The Bionic Dragonfly
May 13, 2013 2:39 pm | by Melissa Fassbender, Associate Editor, PD&D | Festo Corporation | CommentsThe Bionic Learning Network takes its design inspiration from nature. A partnership between Festo, various colleges and universities, and development companies, the network has produced a variety of intriguing products throughout the years. After successfully mimicking bird flight with the SmartBird, the developers at the Bionic Learning Network took on their next big challenge, modeling the dragonfly at a technical level.
Reinventing the Wind Turbine
May 10, 2013 5:23 pm | by Chris Fox, Associate Editor, PD&D | CommentsGreen energy is the wave of the future, but more often than not the technology is sadly disappointing when it comes to output and high price-point. Wind energy, in and of itself, seems like a cheap means to utilize a never-ending resource, but turbines are massive, expensive, and don’t produce huge amounts of energy. That’s why there are fields full of massive propellers, attempting to catch a breeze.
Top 5 Design Tools of the Week
May 10, 2013 10:16 am | by Melissa Fassbender, Associate Editor, PD&D | CommentsThis week's Top 5 Design Tools include a BeagleBone, a piece of Adafruit, and a 3D scanning technology.
Succeeding in Today’s Economy with Track, Trace & Control
May 8, 2013 11:40 am | by W. Scott Fillebrown, President & CEO of ACD, and François Monette, Co-President of Cogiscan Inc. | CommentsTo survive and be successful in today’s economy, manufacturers must assemble high-quality products at the lowest possible cost. The total cost of production must take into account the complete product lifecycle including warranty, recalls, and repairs. Track, Trace and Control (TTC) systems are an essential element of success in achieving these objectives.
UV-/light-Curing Adhesives Improve Manufacturing Productivity
May 7, 2013 11:42 am | by Torsten Uske, President DELO Industrial Adhesives LLC, and Dr. Martin Kluke, Product Manager DELO Industrial Adhesives | CommentsThe manufacturing world is constantly looking for processes that can accelerate production while lowering unit costs and improving product reliability. Each innovation must mesh with the overall production process to achieve high output levels. Bonding processes should be capable of smoothly running in automated processes requiring short cycle times.
Mold Design & Tooling for Injection Molding
May 6, 2013 2:10 pm | by Kaysun Corporation | CommentsInjection molding is a high-precision manufacturing process that injects molten plastic into a carefully designed mold, where the plastic cools and hardens into the specified part or product. The piece is then ejected from the mold, either as the final product or as a near-final product that is sent on for secondary finishing.
Fibrelite Covers Pass the Test
May 3, 2013 1:58 pm | by Fibrelite | CommentsFibrelite’s composite manhole covers have successfully passed load testing for both the AASHTO H20 and H25 highway load ratings for manhole covers. In testing performed at Lancaster University, Fibrelite’s 30” and 36” diameter composite covers were tested per the American load testing standards for manhole covers, grates, and castings.
Comparing Low Harmonic Drives in Light of IEEE 519
May 2, 2013 12:46 pm | by Wolfgang Hilmer, Project Manager, Siemens Industry | CommentsThe most commonly used standard in the electric industry for limiting the harmonics in supply systems is IEEE 519. For purposes of this discussion, we’ll define harmonics as currents or voltages with frequencies that represent integer multiples of the fundamental power frequency.
A Fireside Chat: A Bonding Moment
April 30, 2013 2:57 pm | by PD&D Staff | CommentsDELO Industrial Adhesives has named Torsten Uske president of its North American subsidiary, DELO Industrial Adhesives LLC. Uske, 38, joined DELO in Germany in 1999 as an application engineer after he completed technical university studies.
Welcome to My Nightmare
April 29, 2013 4:03 pm | by David Mantey, Executive Editor, PD&D | CommentsEd Edmunds and his wife Marsha Taub-Edmunds have been in the fright business since 1978. The heads of Distortions Unlimited, and current stars of Making Monsters on the Travel Channel, started with horror-themed masks and props, but in 1995 they designed Shake n Bake, an animatronic electric chair that was unlike anything the industry had ever seen.
New Software-Defined Storage Paradigm Based on Open Standards
April 25, 2013 5:03 pm | by Silicon Mechanics | CommentsGlobal Legal Discovery, an Atlanta, Georgia-based firm that provides electronic discovery services, is riding the wave of a new and exploding market — storing, retrieving, and searching millions of documents that may be required in the event of an electronic discovery (eDiscovery) request.
From Zero to Maze-O: At Home Engineering Leads to Real World Success
April 23, 2013 11:36 am | by Melissa Fassbender, Associate Editor, PD&D | CommentsDan and Jessica Friedman’s son loves mazes. He often finishes the mazes on cereal boxes, and even started building them with random toys from around the house – much to his younger sister’s pleasure as she would come and knock them over. So the parents went in search for a better, more dependable, way to build mazes.
