Machine Design 14 June 2012

June 14, 2012A Penton Media Publication

Tune in to EngineeringTV.com

“Looks good!”Amateurs chase

rocket prize,page 54

THE CHANGING DYNAMICS OF LED

FABRICATION,page 62

U. S. MANUFACTURING

STRENGTHS,page 68

PRECISION PARTS WITH

HYDROFORMING,page 76

VARIABLESPEED PUMPS MAKE HYDRAULICS

ENERGY EFFICIENT, page 82

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RS# 101

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Universal Inputs

' Thermocouple

' RTD

' Process Voltage

' Process Current

' Strain

Choice of Outputs' Ethernet TCP/IP

' Serial RS232/485

' PID Control

' Relays

' Analog Control

Sizes and Styles' 1/32, 1/16 and 1/8 DIN

' Big Display

' Compact Case

' DIN Rail

' Panel/Bail

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Monitor and control your Wafer FAB, MEMS, Micro Electronics, Semiconductorprocess and manufacturing, and much more.

The and INF-B temperature controllers, panel meters, and signal conditioners connect to an Ethernet network and can email or send text messages to your cell phone. You can monitor and control temperature or any process through a web browser over the Internet!

RS# 102

FEATURES

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK

pressure data to the researchers through the entire crash event.

The original ESA engineer worked to convert the foil into a strip of about 50 individual sen-sors, each about a square centi-meter. At the end of each strip is a flexible printed-circuit board with a 50-channel amplifier. When it is attached to a fender or bumper, it lets test engineers know how fast that metal is bending, as well as whether it is bending 20° in one direction or 60° in the other.

VW has now used the sen-sor in several crash tests and it has contributed to changes that make the cars safer, according to VW managers.

A Swarm heads for spaceThree identical Swarm satellites will launch from Rus-

sia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome next month on a four-year mis-sion to explore the Earth’s magnetic field. This is the first

person responsible for ground software devel-opment at ESA’s Ger-man operations center.

Tech transfer for piezo foil

Back in the early 1990s, a German en-gineer was developing a new type of pressure sensor that would coat the wings of Hermes, a reusable manned-shuttle that would be launched into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket and then return to Earth on it own, much like the Space Shuttle. The sensor had to be light and thin so it would not add bulk or drag to the airfoil. The engi-neer turned to piezoelectric foil to do the job. Like other piezo materials, the thin foil (30-microns thick) converts vibrations and pressures into electrical pulses that can be measured and interpreted.

The foil senors were successfully tested in a hyper-sonic wind tunnel, but the Hermes project was cancelled. So over the years, ESA has been looking for civilian uses for the piezo sensors. One of the earlier applications was converting the foil to paint and putting it on a human mo-lar. Scientists used this ”instrumented” tooth to measure forces a toothbrush puts on teeth.

But just recently, Volkswagen saw the sensor demon-strated at the Hannover Fair at a booth set up by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office. They quickly de-cided to use the piezo sensors on crash-test vehicles. Tradi-tional sensors do well at recording pressure up to the point of impact, then they are too often destroyed in the crash. The foil versions, however, survive the crash, sending

Eventually ordinary

Earthlings may be able to

access spacecraft from a

browser screen.

U.S. citizens tend to think of NASA when the topic turns to space exploration. But the European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975 to combine the efforts of 19 European nations, has its own ideas for advancing space technology. Among the most interesting efforts with which ESA is involved is one aimed at extending Internet connections to spacecraft. Though its annual budget is about $5.2 billion compared to NASA’s $18 billion, ESA is making important strides in fundamental space research.

Nanosats to test softwareEngineers and technicians at ESA today control satel-

lites and space experiments using Packet Utilisation Stan-dards, a software suite that dates to 1994. There have been upgrades since then, but the stumbling block to moving to newer software is that space scientists and the organi-zations that fund them must ensure the software, includ-ing operating systems, languages, and interfaces, is fit for space.

“No one wants to use new and possibly problematic software on a multimillion-euro mission in space,” says Mario Merri, head of the Mission Data Systems Div. at ESA operations center.

Unfortunately, the only real way to prove software is fit is to take it into space and run it through its paces.

To lower the cost of validating software, and to en-sure no missions are endangered, ESA researchers devel-oped Operations Satellites, dubbed Op-Sats. The 30 × 10 × 10-cm satellites’ mission is to test and validate critical onboard and ground software. The spacecraft is outfitted with off-the-shelf processors that have more computing power than a satellite usually carries. It is also designed to recover easily and quickly from “buggy” software. Re-searchers on Earth can replace the entire onboard software suite with new and fresh code daily, letting developers troubleshoot their work in a real but safe environment.

The first Op-Sats could launch next year.

Spinning an interplanetary WebPeople increasingly take reliable and fast Internet ac-

cess for granted. Now space scientists want to extend the same simplicity and reliability of the Web to astronauts on the Moon or Mars. The first goal will be to let astronauts communicate among themsleves, with control centers on

Earth, and with space ships and bases. But who knows; someday top level Internet domains may include such names as .moon, .mars, or .sstation.

To this end, ESA, NASA, and other major space or-ganizations and industrial partners have been working together as part of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. They have developed standards for hard-ware and data exchange that should pay off even in the short term for commercial space-flight businesses, satellite manufacturers, and space agencies.

Satellites have already been used for links between Earth and mission spacecraft. In 2008, for example, ESA’s Mars Express acted as a data-relay node between NASA technicians on Earth and their Phoenix Lander during de-cent and landing on Mars, It will repeat that task in August this year with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory.

And last December, ESA’s worldwide tracking station network handled contact between Russian controllers and that country’s Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars. Then, in October of this year, an astronaut on the International Space Station will practice at remotely controlling a plan-etary rover at ESA’s operations center, simulating orbiter-rover communication links on a planet like Mars.

“Establishing technical standards and communica-tion architectures isn’t the most high-profile part of space exploration, but it’s absolutely vital for ensuring that the more-exciting efforts, like sending an astronaut to Mars, will work when that time comes,” says Nestor Peccia, the

Authored by:

Stephen J. MrazSenior Editor

stephen.mraz@penton.

com

Resources:European Space Agency, www.esa.int

Internet in

Space?

continued on page 22

EAAS used its 35-m-diameter deep-space dish antenna in Spain to relay transmission from a Russian Mars mission to controller in Russia.

The pressure senor used in VW crash tests is based on pressure-sensitive piezo film and consists of 50 individual sensors, each 1 sq cm, and a 50-channel amplifier, all flexibly printed on a thin and bendable circuit board.

Piezo material suspended in a paint was applied to a human molar to let scientists measure the force of a toothbrush on a tooth.

Op-Sats, here shown in an artist’s conception, are simple spacecraft

designed solely to test software. They will have a volume of about three

liters but will carry off-the-shelf components

such as three-axis attitude control systems,

deployable fixed solar arrays, GPS receivers,

and UHF communication systems. It will also

have state-of-the-art components such as

S-band communications with an uplink rate four times greater than any other ESA spacecraft and a miniaturized X-band

transcmitter providing up to 50 Mbps downlink. These rates are up to several hundreds times better than any other satellite flown

before.

JUNE 14, 2012MACHINE DESIGN.com20 JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com 21

SEMICONDUCTORS

Most light-emitting

diodes are made in Asia,

but future generations

of LED manufacturing

equipment could

still be marked

“Made in the U. S. A.”

The bad news for makers of semicon-ductor-manufacturing equipment is that sales of most kinds of fab gear are flat to down. The good news is that the U. S. could end up playing a bigger role sup-plying manufacturing equipment for the emerging area of solid-state lighting.

“The U. S. Dept. of Energy used stimulus funds to amplify the supply-chain strengths of the U. S. The DOE recognized that the U. S. would be an unlikely place for LED fabs, so it tried to seed the development of LED-manufacturing equipment here,” ex-plains Tom Morrow, executive vice presi-dent, emerging markets group and chief marketing officer for SEMI, the association

Authored by:

Leland TeschlerEditor

Resources:Intel, www.intel.com

Semicon West and Intersolar 2012, http://

semiconwest.org/

Will the U. S. be an

LED ASSEMBLY MECCA?

Though the 300-mm wafer has become the industry standard, chipmakers are transitioning to 450-mm versions, like this example at Innolas Semiconductor GmbH, a maker of wafer-sorting and laser-marking systems.

JUNE 14, 2012MACHINE DESIGN.com62

Access our Reader Service Web site to quickly find and request information on the

products and services found in the pages of MACHINE DESIGN.www.machinedesign.com/rsc

VOLUME 84

ISSUE 9

JUNE 14, 2012

Internet in space?

Eventually ordinary earthlings may

be able to access spacecraft from a

browser screen.

20

Will the U. S. be

an LED assembly

mecca?

Most light-emitting




equipment could still

be marked “Made in the

U. S. A.”

62

54

82

76

68

From Engineer to Rocketman

A trained mechanical engineer who

seriously dabbled in rocketry as a

hobbyist builds a rocket that climbs

to over 100,000 ft.

Made in America?

What it takes to competitively

manufacture in the U. S.

Hydraulic controls

transform press technology

Hydraulic motion controllers

bring hydroforming presses into

the 21st century.

Energy-efficient

hydraulics slash machine

operating costs

Unlike traditional constant-speed hydraulics,

variable-speed pump drives supply only the

power a process requires.


A

B

P3-HSI P3-HSO

Machine Process Start

1

Enable

VELOCITY MOVEModule Name: Feed Conveyor

Channel: 2 Channel Name: CHAN-2-0.1.1

Move Setup

Direction Positive

Velocity Fill Index Speed

500

Ramp Rate Conveyor Ramp Rate

1000

Stop Setup

Immediate Stop

In Progress ConveyorMove In Progress

1

Complete Conveyor Move Complete

0

Move Status Conveyor Move Status

2

P3-HSO2-channel

High-speed Output

$349Pulse/Direction, Quadrature X1and Quadrature X4

P3-HSI2-channel

High-speed Input

$329Pulse/Direction, Step Up/Step Downand Quadrature

With the Productivity3000controller, you get the power youneed for advanced applications.

Download the free programming softwareand check it out!

Start with the $599 CPU - 50Mb of memory supportslarge programs, with tagname database and programdocumentation stored onboard. The huge (100,000+)I/O capacity gives you plenty of room to plan andexpand. And the CPU’s seven built-in communicationports make integrating a large system easier thanyou can imagine.

Now with High-speed Motion ControlThese new 2-channel modules add high-speed and motion

control applications capability to the Productivity3000 controller,

and they’re easy to use! Add up to 22 P3-HSO or P3-HSI modules

in any combination to any P3-550 CPU and P3-RS base group.

That gives you up to 44 axes of motion or high-speed counting

capability in a single base group. These modules are supported

and fully functional in the CPU base, local and remoteexpansion bases.

Simple InstructionsOur standard instructions were designed to make your

everyday motion applications simpler. The Find Home, Set

Position, Simple Move and the Velocity Move instructions

(to name a few) were created to get you up and running

sooner. Capabilities such as Registration, Jerk Control and

Channel Scaling were included to give you the flexibility

to accomplish those jobs.

Drop-in Hardware ConfigurationInstall a high-speed module into the system hardware

configuration and define each channel’s behavior, status bits,

limits and scaling … without the need for an external

configuration utility or software.

Application Example High-speed outputs synchronize

the speed of the servo drive

controlling the fill conveyor. The

conveyor is synchronized with the

rotational speed of the

turntable based on the

signal(s) from the table

encoder feedback via the

high-speed input module.

http://bit.ly/p3000RS# 103

DEPARTMENTS

For customized article reprints and permissions please contact: Penton Reprints, 1-888-858-8851, e-mail at [email protected] or visit pentonreprints.com.

Editorial content is indexed in the Applied Science Technology Index, the Engineering Index, SciSearch and Research Alert. Microfilm copies available from National Archive Publishing Company (NAPC), 300 N. Zeeb Rd., P.O. Box 998, Ann Arbor, MI 48106-0998, Ph: 734-302-6500 or 800-420-NAPC (6272), extension 6578.

Permission to photocopy is granted for users registered with the Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) Inc. to photocopy any article, with the exception of those for which separate ownership is indicated on the first page of the article, provided that the base fee of $1.25 per copy of the article, plus $.60 per page is paid to CCC, 222 Rosewood Dr., Danvers, MA 01923 (Code No. 0024-9114/12 $1.25 + .60).

Subscription Policy: MACHINE DESIGN is circulated to research, development, and design engineers primarily engaged in the design and manufacture of machinery, electrical/electronic equipment, and mechanical equipment. To obtain a complimentary subscription see our Web page at submag.com/sub/mn. For change of address fill out a new qualification form at submag.com/sub/mn.

Printed in U.S.A., Copyright © 2012. Penton Media, Inc. All rights reserved. MACHINE DESIGN (ISSN 0024-9114) is published semimonthly except for a single issue in January, February, June, July, and December by Penton Media, Inc., 9800 Metcalf Ave., Overland Park, KS 66212.

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ON THE COVER

Derek Deville launches

one of his early rockets.

EDITORIAL

PowerPoint can kill

EDITORIAL STAFF

LETTERS

SCANNING FOR IDEAS

Air-powered grinder boasts high power-to-weight ratio

Ion cannon cleans as it shoots


LOOKING BACK

SENSOR SENSE

World’s biggest sensor: an ice cube?

COMMENTARY

Does model-based engineering make sense?

VANTAGE POINT

Benefits of a focused distributor’s program

INVENTOR’S CORNER

App helps kids fight leukemia

SOFTWARE REVIEW

Professional desktop 3D printer is easy to use

SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

PRODUCT SPOTLIGHT

Plastics & elastomers

PRODUCTS

DATA FILES

AD INDEX

BUSINESS INDEX

BUSINESS STAFF

BACKTALK

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RS# 104

ED

ITO

R’S

WE

B P

ICK

SWhat’s new online machinedesign.com

FREE WEBCAST: HOW PROPER HOSE MAINTENANCE CAN REDUCE EXPENSIVE FAILURESTuesday, June 26, 2012, 2:00 p. m. ETHigh pressures and temperatures associated with hydraulics make

component selection, installation, and maintenance critical to

efficiency. Hose-system failure can grind productivity to a halt, but some

straightforward steps can help prevent downtime or injury. This Webinar,

presented by Gates Corp., will cover key components to a hydraulic-hose

preventive-maintenance program, explain how to select proper hose and

couplings, discuss cutting-edge technologies available to solve common

problems, and offer important tips for a safe, productive working

environment. A Q&A session will follow the presentation. Learn more and

register at http://hydraulicspneumatics.com/events.

CASINO GAMING EMBEDDED APPLICATIONSEngineering TV talks with experts at AMD about the

company’s new R-Series APU (accelerated-processing

unit) for modern casino games. It features high-end

graphics and animations, and supports up to 10

displays for side bets and ordering refreshments right

from a slot machine. It meets regulatory requirements

for secure but accessible embedded components,

and the devices are also suited for digital signs, sales

kiosks, and medical-imaging

displays. Learn more at http://www.

engineeringtv.com/video/Casino-

Gaming-and-Other-Embedde;Only-

Engineering-TV-Videos.

Free data translationDelcam’s online data-exchange

service, Delcam Exchange, which nor-

mally costs about $50 per model, will

be free for anyone who likes the com-

pany on its Facebook page at www.

Facebook.com/DelcamAMS. Users

download and store the software on

a computer. This makes translations

quick and secure because CAD mod-

els are not sent to an outside service

provider. The software reads and

writes all common CAD format files.

New motors Web sitePittman Motors, a manufacturer of dc-

brush and brushless motors and gear-

motors, has launched a new Web site at

www.Pittman-Motors.com. Resources

include tech articles, white papers, and

catalogs, as well as downloadable CAD

models for virtual prototyping. A “buy

online” feature lets users order standard

parts for same-day shipping or custom-

ize motors with special shafts, lead-wire

assemblies, motor windings, and other

options to meet most any engineering

requirement.

Webcast on simulation-data managementAnsys will offer a free, 1-hr Webinar on

June 21 to discuss storing and manag-

ing engineering-simulation data. It will

examine simple strategies for getting

started with database management

and how to securely use and share data

in a mobile-computing environment.

Learn more at https://marketing.ansys.

com/rc/ansysinc/tp/scalable_4.

Video demonstrates tubular linear motorsA new 3-min video from

Dunkermotor lets design engineers

see the capabilities of tubular

linear servomotors. Constructed

of a stainless-steel rod filled with

rare-earth magnets and a forcer

containing a series of coils connected

as three-phase windings, the motor

generates linear force when excited.

This design provides smooth,

cogging-free motion and high heat

dissipation at speeds to 250 ips and

12-μm repeatability. Watch the video

at www.dunkermotor.com/videos.

FREE WEBINARS ON INDUSTRIAL CONTROLS

Take 30 to 45 min and watch free

Webinars on industrial controls

topics. See equipment in action,

and take advantage of the

question and answer period at the

end of each session.

WHAT’S NEW IN 2012Join us while we show you all of

the new products we’ve added

for the first half of 2012 and

how they can save you time and

money. These include buck-boost

transformers, counter/timer/

tach units, and high-speed I/O for

the Productivity3000 controller.

We will take questions from our

audience at the end of the 30-min

live show.

June 13, 2012, 2:00 p. m. ET

SENSORS OVERVIEWJoin us for this short 30-min talk

show that will provide information

on all sensors AutomationDirect

sells including: photo, proximity,

fiber optic, magnetic, capacitive,

ultrasonic, light curtains, and

more. We will cover real-world

applications and take questions

from our audience.

August 15, 2012, 2:00 p. m. ET

Visit www.automationtalk.com to

check the schedule and register

for upcoming presentations.

Recordings of past Webinars are

also available to view at your

convenience. Popular topics

include dc motors, process control,

and pneumatics.


RS# 106

EDITORIAL

PowerPoint can kill

To most engineers, the idea of using graphs or models to convey concepts comes as second nature. In many cases, these representations get shared through a PowerPoint presentation. You might think that a presentation tool like PowerPoint couldn’t get you into much hot water — at worst, it might inflict acute boredom on colleagues. But taking PowerPoint lightly is particularly dangerous for engineers.

So warns Franck Frommer, who recently wrote a book (How Power-Point Makes You Stupid) about PowerPoint’s downside. For instance, take the idea of expressing concepts in a PowerPoint chart. “Diagrams kill thought!” cautions one business veteran. She explains that drawings are okay for detailing processes, circuits, and other well-defined relation-ships. But they are a terrible way of expressing anything dynamic such as a strategy. Her point was diagrams are prone to lull viewers into accepting a static and oversimplified outlook on problems that are inherently mo-bile and changing.

Bad PowerPoint even played a role in the Columbia Shuttle disaster. After Columbia broke up reentering the atmosphere in 2003, a series of NASA-prepared slides about the shuttle came under intense scrutiny. All these slides were prepared using PowerPoint. Data-visualization pioneer Edward Tufte took issue with one in particular that, he said, portrayed a “festival of bureaucratic hyperrationalism.” Among the problems he noted was that the author had used six different levels of text to arrange and classify 11 phrases. The primary information in the slide got rel-egated to small print several layers down.

What is troubling about the NASA example is that PowerPoint itself encourages such problems through its built-in templates. The software imposes what Tufte calls a summary style that can be confusing and lets users prepare slides using letter fonts that are inappropriate for the sub-ject at hand. In the case of the Columbia slide, for example, the author had used a “pitch-style typography” that tended to belie the seriousness of foam damaging the heat shield.

Organizations also have a tendency to let PowerPoint slide decks sub-stitute for more-detailed forms of technical communication. Frommer points out that the board investigating Columbia criticized NASA on this point as well, saying that the use of PowerPoint briefing slides instead of technical papers illustrated problematic methods of technical communi-cation at the Agency.

Many of the problems arising from PowerPoint come from the misuse of bullet points, especially because this practice leaves out the logical connections that give the points meaning in the first place. Worse, bullet points can be a screen hiding a “certain intellectual laziness” on the part of users who never bothered to think out the connections, says Frommer.

There are, in fact, a few individuals who have mastered PowerPoint. One in particular was Apple’s late great Steve Jobs, Frommer claims. You’d never see cornball images, poorly formed ideas, or a font festival in a Jobs slide deck. His slides were always simple, contained a well-organized argument, and used analogies to make numbers in the presen-tation memorable.

But then again, there was only one Steve Jobs.— Leland Teschler, Editor

RS# 107 JUNE 14, 2012

The engineer’s choice

s4HE�ELECTRONICS�ARE�COMPLETELY�INTEGRATED�INTO�

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RS# 108

Beyond measuring angles, Novotechnik’s R-Series of rotary position sensors can beprogrammed and reprogrammed for your application’s angle, CW/CCW direction and single or redundant output can be selected.

R-Series sensors utilize the orientation of a magnetic field to determine measurementangle. An embedded microprocessor converts the magnetic orientation to an analog output that is repeatable to within0.03% or 0.1° of measurement range –depending on model.

For complete R-Series information, visit www.novotechnik.com/rs

Novotechnik U.S., Inc.155 Northboro Road • Southborough, MA 01772Telephone: 508-485-2244 Fax: 508-485-2430

Key specifications include:• Resolution: 12/14-bit • Protection class: to IP67• Measurement range:

up to 360°

What’s Your

Angle?Wha

t’s Your

Angle?

EDITORIAL STAFF

EDITORLeland E. Teschler

[email protected]

MANAGING EDITORKenneth J. Korane

[email protected]

SENIOR EDITORSLeslie Gordon

[email protected]

Stephen J. [email protected]

ASSOCIATE EDITORRobert J. Repas, Jr.

[email protected]

INDUSTRY COVERAGE

AUTOMOTIVE, PACKAGING, MEDICAL

Stephen J. Mraz

CAD/CAM, MANUFACTURING Leslie Gordon

ELECTRICAL, ELECTRONICS Robert J. Repas, Jr.

FLUID POWER, MECHANICALKenneth J. Korane

EDITORIAL PRODUCTION Denise Greco

Editorial Production Manager

Randall L. RubenkingArt Director

1300 E. 9th St. Cleveland, OH 44114-1503

RS# 110

RS# 109


Ever wonder how producers of extremely advanced

consumer electronics, like smart phones, manage to

keep launching new generations of these products at

such a ferocious tempo with consistently high quality?

SKF product manager Satyen Bohidar and SKF’s

sales team have part of the answer – SKF-SNFA high-

speed super precision bearings. They allow the machine

tools used for manufacturing key components of these

products to run flawlessly and precisely at up to

60.000 rpm 365 days a year.

The result? Smart products are brought to the

market even faster. It’s another great example of

knowledge engineering at work. Find out more at

www.skf.com/poke

The Power of Knowledge Engineering

Milling spindle running

at 40.000 rpm

Satyen Bohidar,

SKF Product Manager

SKF-SNFA high-speed

bearings

Produce smart phones fasterwith high speed bearings

RS# 111

LETTERS

a sustainability standard (“Do We

Need a Sustainability Standard?”

March 22). You can bet that this

is another way of making money

by the “standards” freaks and a

way for the government to put

more cost burdens on manufac-

turing. It’s also just more buzz-

words to fill the law books by the

environment crowd.

The government will see this

as a way to force employers to

hire more people to shuffle the

sustainability paperwork. Larger

companies wil l feel forced to

spend millions on this stuff be-

cause they seek government

contracts, and the costs of the

standard will be passed on to the

customer, the American taxpay-

ers. And smaller companies will

be forced to divert resources from

innovation and breakthroughs to

more nonproductive paperwork.

As usual, American citizens will

be the ones paying for this useless

stuff.

Thanks for your comments. It

will be interesting to see if other

business people have the courage

to speak against this hare-brained

idea of another standard.

Gerald W. Yankie

This is no more than a job-secu-

rity program for third-party qual-

ity-control “consultants” and eco

freaks. You would have to be crazy

to even consider establishing this

program in your company. Endless,

mindless, and never-ending make

work for want-to-be bureaucrats.

Leo V. Cranch

We can fix for the patent officeThe U. S. patent system is suffering

from two basic problems. It is be-

sieged by submittals that are funda-

mentally flawed, but inventors are

encouraged to patent them based

on exaggerated promises from their

patent lawyers. And second, the

Patent Office employs technically

weak staff that is overwhelmed by

the sheer number of patent applica-

tion. But we can fix this.

From 1977 to 2000, I was in-

volved in an effort to evaluate

concepts submitted to the Na-

tional Institute of Technology. It

was funded by the Energy Dept.

and was eventually called the Of-

fice of Technology Innovations.

Ideas were analyzed and evalu-

ated by experts in the invention’s

subject matter, and not all ideas

revolved around energy genera-

tion or conversions. There was no

charge to inventors for this service,

and promising entries went on to

further investigation in a second

phase. If they survived the second

round, inventors could receive up

to $200,000 to develop working

proof-of-concept models.

I worked at NIST in this Office

and analyzed about 750 concepts

over a 12-year period. About 5%

of them involved patents. The vast

majority of the concepts were dis-

missed at first glance because they

were obviously impractical or fun-

damentally incorrect. The rest got

closer scrutiny, but few went on to

the second stage of evaluations.

I believe that reestablishing this

Office of Technology Innovations

and broadening its scope to cover

all newly received patent applica-

tions would save inventors consid-

erable effort and money, as well

as taking pressure off the patent

office. Of course, the patent of-

fice would also have to hire more

knowledgeable staffers as well.

Andrew Wortmang

Not another standard

You are correct; we do not need

Crank up the apprenticeshipsI read the recent column (“Don’t

Wait for Government to Address

Skills Gap,” March 8) with great in-

terest. But I contend that the Soci-

ety of Mechanical Engineers (SME),

together with the National Tooling

& Machining Association, has failed

miserably at ending the shortage

of skilled machinists and at creat-

ing quality, long-term machining

training. What’s needed is a mod-

ernized machining apprenticeship

run on a national level.

Instead, here is a typical example

of the kind of short-term program

that the NTMA puts on (www.train-

ingcenters.org/ ). It reminds me of a

late-night infomercial, a really bad

one. After years and years of failure,

SME and the NTMA should no longer

have anything to do with machining-

apprenticeship programs.

Jon Banquer

Lasers make bad table lampsRegardless of how “pleasant” a nar-

row-band laser light might be for il-

lumination (“Your Next Table Lamp

Could Be a Laser,” Feb. 9), it still is

composed of several narrow bands.

This means objects that are reflec-

tive over narrow bands of frequen-

cies that do not match up with the

laser’s illumination spectrum may of-

ten look unnatural under such light-

ing when compared to lighting hav-

ing a “black body” spectrum similar

to daylight or incandescent lighting.

Christopher James

Yes and noReaders say no to unions and a new sustainability stan-

dard, as well as to using lasers in lamps and lighting for

houses. But they say yes to apprenticeships as a way to

reinvigorate the U. S. manufacturing base and to

efforts at streamlining and upgrading the U. S.

Patent Office. And one of many readers pointed

out that 180-hp outboard motors for boats were rare as

hen’s teeth in 1962.


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RS# 112

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LETTERS

pens when the pendulum swings

too far, unions become too pow-

erful, and union executives be-

come too greedy?

America became great because

of its manufacturing power, but

overly powerful unions now seem

to be more of a hindrance than

a help to economic prosperity.

Huge salaries to union execs who

get full pay even when working

union members are on strike with

measly strike benefits is no more

fair than Wall Street execs pulling

down huge bonuses when they

run their companies into the red.

Do union leaders really rep-

resent the best interests of their

members if they keep them out

on long strikes to negotiate ridic-

ulous overtime rates that bank-

rupt the company and throw

members onto unemployment?

I’m not so much anti-union as I

am pro-American worker.

Name withheld by request

CorrectionsIs there the slightest possibility

that there is a m ispr int in the

“Looking Back” section (March

22)? It is hard for me to believe

that a “rubber” boat, with sizes

from 10½ to 15 ft, could support

a 180-hp outboard. In fact, go-

ing back to 1962, if my memory

serves me, the largest outboard

engine you could buy was a

100-hp Mercury, which was an

in-line six cylinder.

Robert Herol

It should have read 18 hp. — Leland

Teschler

In the article, “How Servos and

Steppers Stack Up” (Feb. 9), the

stepper and servo profiles were

m i s t a k e n l y s w a p p e d i n t h e

graph ic titled “Stepper versus

servo profiles.”

No to the unionsThere’s a reason they call Boeing

the “Lazy B” (“Time for Engineers

to Think About Unionizing?” Jan.

19). There’s a reason Boeing is

expanding production into the

South. There’s a reason GM went

into bankruptcy. There’s a reason

American companies are shifting

production to foreign soil. And

there’s a reason unemployment

is high, especially in traditionally

strong union regions. And it’s be-

cause overly strong unions are

strangling the ability of Ameri-

can companies to remain com-

petitive, resulting in domestic

layoffs , bank ruptcies , and in-

creases in the offshore content of

American products.

Unions indisputably raised our

standard of living and established

fair wages in the sweat-shop era

of early America, and they were

responsible for great increases in

safety standards. But what hap-

RS# 113JUNE 14, 2012MACHINE DESIGN.com14

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RS# 114

SCANNING FOR IDEAS

Request free information via our

Reader Service Web site at

www.machinedesign.com/rsc

Edited by Stephen J. Mraz

For a short article on

another innovative tool,

scan this code or go to:

http://machinedesign.

com/article/nascar-team-

impacts-tool-design-0208

The VT22 Turbine

Grinder makes life

easier for workers

by cutting deeper and

removing more material with less

effort, according to its manufacturer,

Ingersoll Rand (www.ingersollrand.

com) with North American HQ in

Davidson, N. C. Its 3-hp axial-turbine

air motor and 4.6-lb weight reportedly

give it the highest power-to-weight ratio of any 5-in.

(125-mm) air-angle grinder on the market. And the

small spindle offset (0.89 in.) lets it cut up to 1.6-in.

deep.

The 5-in. wheel spins at up to 12,000 rpm, with

a governor to maintain speed under load. Air

consumption under load is about 84 cfm, and it

generates 86.4 dB(A) of noise. The tool will operate in

temperatures from 32 to 120°F.

For safety and comfort, the 5-in. safety guard has

10 different position settings, each 15° apart. The

thumb-operated spindle lock lets operators change

abrasive wheels quickly and easily. There’s also an

optional top-mounted handle for jobs where lateral

space is limited.

RS# 401

Air-powered grinder boasts

high power-to-weight ratioTwo-stage, axial-turbine

air motor with 3 hp

Governor

optimizes speed

under load

Low-profile, self-

locking throttle lever

Pushbutton

spindle lock and

wheel guard

Matched wheel

flanges for

grinding and

cutting

Spindle offset

of 0.89 in.

Sealed angle

head for

best gear

performance

and life

Vibration-damped side handle

adjusts for left or right-handed users

Exhaust direction can be

adjusted for user comfort

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RS# 115

How do you

select the

right sensorfor applications withmultiple types of metals?

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SCANNING FOR IDEAS

The Ion Air Cannon from Exair, Cincinnati (www.exair.com), can neutralize

static electricity and clean surfaces up to 15 ft away using a stream of

ionized air. It can be useful for processes such as opening bags, cleaning

molded parts, removing static electricity from electronic assemblies, and

neutralizing shrink wrap and containers.

The cannon uses a relatively small amount of compressed air, at

about 10-psig pressure, to induce much more air to flow through the

Ion cannon cleans as it shoots

cannon. This air can be delivered

from a remote, cleaner space

through a hose if necessary.

At the end of the cannon, an

emitter powered by a

5-kV power supply (not

included) ionizes the

entire airstream,

creating a conical

beam of ionized

air. The air volume

and velocity are

adjustable over

a wide range for

light or heavy-

duty applications.

And operators can

increase air velocity by

installing thicker shims

in the cannon. The cannon

can be bench, wall, or machine

mounted, and comes with a

swivel for directing the airflow.

RS# 402

RS# 116

Compressed air

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Air from

surroundings

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cannon

Stainless-steel

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RS# 117


Op-Sats, here shown in an artist’s conception, are simple spacecraft

designed solely to test software. They will

have a volume of about 3 liters but will carry off-

the-shelf components such as three-axis

attitude-control systems, deployable

fixed-solar arrays, GPS receivers, and UHF-

communication systems. It will also have state-

of-the-art components such as S-band communications with an uplink rate four times

greater than any other ESA spacecraft and a miniaturized X-band transmitter providing up to 50 Mbps downlink. These rates are up

to several hundreds times better than any other satellite flown before.

Eventually ordinary

earthlings may be able to

access spacecraft from a

browser screen.

U. S. citizens tend to think of NASA when the topic turns to space exploration. But the European Space Agency (ESA), established in 1975 to combine the efforts of 19 European nations, has its own ideas for advancing space technology. Among the most interesting efforts with which ESA is involved is one aimed at extending Internet connections to spacecraft. Though its annual budget is about $5.2 billion compared to NASA’s $18 billion, ESA is making important strides in fundamental space research.

Nanosats to test softwareEngineers and technicians at ESA today control satel-

lites and space experiments using Packet Utilisation Stan-dards, a software suite that dates to 1994. There have been upgrades since then, but the stumbling block to moving to newer software is that space scientists and the organi-zations that fund them must ensure the software, includ-ing operating systems, languages, and interfaces, is fit for space.

“No one wants to use new and possibly problematic software on a multimillion-euro mission in space,” says Mario Merri, head of the Mission Data Systems Div. at ESA operations center.

Unfortunately, the only real way to prove software is fit is to take it into space and run it through its paces.

To lower the cost of validating software, and to en-sure no missions are endangered, ESA researchers devel-oped Operations Satellites, dubbed Op-Sats. The 30 × 10 × 10-cm satellites’ mission is to test and validate critical onboard and ground software. The spacecraft is outfitted with off-the-shelf processors that have more computing power than a satellite usually carries. It’s also designed to recover easily and quickly from “buggy” software. Re-searchers on Earth can replace the entire onboard software suite with new and fresh code daily, letting developers troubleshoot their work in a real, but safe, environment.

The first Op-Sats could launch next year.

Spinning an interplanetary WebPeople increasingly take reliable and fast Internet ac-

cess for granted. Now space scientists want to extend the same simplicity and reliability of the Web to astronauts on the Moon or Mars. The first goal will be to let astronauts communicate among themselves, with control centers on

Earth, and with spaceships and bases. But who knows; someday top-level Internet domains may include such names as .moon, .mars, or .sstation.

To this end, ESA, NASA, and other major space or-ganizations and industrial partners have been working together as part of the Consultative Committee for Space Data Systems. They have developed standards for hard-ware and data exchange that should pay off even in the short term for commercial space-flight businesses, satellite manufacturers, and space agencies.

Satellites have already been used for links between Earth and mission spacecraft. In 2008, for example, ESA’s Mars Express acted as a data-relay node between NASA technicians on Earth and their Phoenix Lander during de-cent and landing on Mars, It will repeat that task in August this year with NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory.

And last December, ESA’s worldwide tracking station network handled contact between Russian controllers and that country’s Phobos-Grunt mission to Mars. Then, in October of this year, an astronaut on the International Space Station will practice at remotely controlling a plan-etary rover at ESA’s operations center, simulating orbiter-rover communication links on a planet like Mars.

“Establishing technical standards and communica-tion architectures isn’t the most high-profile part of space exploration, but it’s absolutely vital for ensuring that the more-exciting efforts, like sending an astronaut to Mars, will work when that time comes,” says Nestor Peccia, the

Internet in

Space?


ESA used its 35-m-diameter deep-space dish antenna in Spain to relay transmission from a Russian Mars mission to controller in Russia.

The pressure sensor used in VW crash tests is based on pressure-sensitive piezo film and consists of 50 individual sensors, each 1 sq cm, and a 50-channel amplifier, all flexibly printed on a thin and bendable circuit board.

Piezo material suspended in a paint was applied to a human molar to let scientists measure the force of a toothbrush on a tooth.

pressure data to the researchers through the entire crash event.

The original ESA engineer worked to convert the foil into a strip of about 50 individual sen-sors, each about a square centi-meter. At the end of each strip is a flexible printed-circuit board with a 50-channel amplifier. When it is attached to a fender or bumper, it lets test engineers know how fast that metal is bending, as well as whether it is bending 20° in one direction or 60° in the other.

VW has now used the sen-sor in several crash tests and it has contributed to changes that make the cars safer, according to VW managers.

A Swarm heads for spaceThree identical Swarm satellites will launch from Rus-

sia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome next month on a four-year mis-sion to explore the Earth’s magnetic field. This is the first

person responsible for ground software devel-opment at ESA’s Ger-man operations center.

Tech transfer for piezo foil

Back in the early 1990s, a German en-gineer was developing a new type of pressure sensor that would coat the wings of Hermes, a reusable manned-shuttle that would be launched into space atop an Ariane 5 rocket and then return to Earth on it own, much like the Space Shuttle. The sensor had to be light and thin so it would not add bulk or drag to the airfoil. The engi-neer turned to piezoelectric foil to do the job. Like other piezo materials, the thin foil (30-microns thick) converts vibrations and pressures into electrical pulses that can be measured and interpreted.

The foil sensors were successfully tested in a hyper-sonic wind tunnel, but the Hermes project was cancelled. So over the years, ESA has been looking for civilian uses for the piezo sensors. One of the earlier applications was converting the foil to paint and putting it on a human mo-lar. Scientists used this ”instrumented” tooth to measure forces a toothbrush puts on teeth.

But just recently, Volkswagen saw the sensor demon-strated at the Hannover Fair at a booth set up by ESA’s Technology Transfer Programme Office. They quickly de-cided to use the piezo sensors on crash-test vehicles. Tradi-tional sensors do well at recording pressure up to the point of impact, then they are too often destroyed in the crash. The foil versions, however, survive the crash, sending

Authored by:


stephen.mraz@penton.

com

Resources:European Space Agency, www.esa.int

Continued on page 22

JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com 21


RS# 118

An astronaut on the International Space Station will control a planetary rover, like this European Ground Prototype (EGP) at the Mars-like terrain of Spain’s Rio Tinto mines. Here the rover is working with an astronaut in an Aouda.X spacesuit mock-up.

Here’s an artist’s concept of what Philae, the

Rosetta lander, will look like when deployed on the comet. In this view, the arm holding a drill

is extended and taking samples.

time a team of satellites has been deployed on a single, dedicated mission. Two of the satellites will travel side by side in a near-polar orbit about 305 miles above the Earth. The third Swarm or-bits slightly higher, 330 miles, and about 40° off axis from the other two. During the four-year mission, this third Swarm will drift to 90° off axis from the other two. The 1,100-lb satellites will circle the Earth 15 times each day.

A single rocket will carry all three Swarms into space, and it will take about three months to get them in their final orbits and check out all subsystems and payloads. The satellites each measure about 30-ft long, but half that length is taken up by a tail which will extend back from the satellite during the check-out phase. A pair of magnetometers mount on the tail, isolating them magnetically from any interference from the sat-ellites and its electronics.

For simplicity, the Swarms do not carry or

Continued from page 21

JUNE 14, 2012

RS# 119

When in orbit, two of the Swarms

will travel side by side at a lower

altitude while the third is at a higher altitude

and offset orbit. This gives better

coverage and lets the satellites triangulate more

accurately.

One of the Swarm Satellites, with its 4-m boom deployed,

undergoes testing in a magnetically clean environment

— hence the wooden floor. The satellites measure 5-ft wide,

2.7-ft high, and 30-ft long, which includes the 13-ft boom.

extend solar arrays. Instead the two sides of each triangular-hulled satel-lite that face outer space will be cov-ered with GaAs solar panels that de-liver 608 W of power at the outset of the mission. The cells will charge a set of 48 A-hr lithium-ion batteries for power when the satellites are not in the sun.

The satellites will record and transmit to Earth high-precision, high-resolution measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field strength, di-rection, and variation. They will also provide accurate navigation data tied to magnetic and electric-field mea-surements, all of which are needed to map the geomagnetic field.

Having three satellites in two dif-ferent orbits will improve sampling in terms of space and time, letting scientists distinguish between the ef-

fects of different sources of magnetism.It is hoped the data gained will give scientists insights into the dynamics of

the Earth’s liquid-metal core and crust, as well as into their interactions with Earth’s protective shield in the ionosphere and magnetosphere.

Catching a cometEight years ago, the Rosetta probe was launched on an 11-year convoluted

journey to chase down the comet 67P⁄Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The space-craft has already made three swingbys of Earth and one of Mars, and managed to fly by a pair of asteroids, 2,867 Steins, and 21 Lutetia, and circle the sun four times. Currently, it’s traveling at about 2,600 fps and is on schedule for a May 2014 rendezvous with Comet 67P.

Rosetta weighs in at 6,750 lb, but carries 3,200 lb of fuel. It measures 9 × 7 × 6 ft, but the twin solar panels deployed once Rosetta was in space give the space probe a 104-ft “wingspan.”

Rosetta took some measurements and images when close to the aster-oids and Mars during the trip, but for the most part, it is hibernating, with


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The Rosetta spacecraft carries a 7.2-ft steerable communications antenna. Both of its solar arrays contain five panels and can rotate ±180° to track the sun regardless of attitude.

On the comet, Philae will be sending data to Earth relayed through the Rosetta orbiter. Its instruments will detect alpha particles and X-rays to determine the comet’s composition. Cameras will take high-resolution images of the descent and surroundings of the landing area. Gas ana-lyzers should identify organic molecules and isotropic ra-tios of light elements. Another set of sensors be will mea-suring the density, thermal, and mechanical properties of the soil on the surface. And a drill will go up to 8-in. deep to collect geological samples that will be dried onboard Philae and examined microscopically.

The main objective of the 1-billion-Euro mission is to make the most detailed observations of a comet’s icy nucleus, surface, and tail. According to astronomers, com-ets represent a relatively unchanged environment from 4.6 billion years ago. So a close examination will give sci-entists a snapshot of what the solar system was like when planets were first forming. MD

most electrical systems shut down except for thermal control, radio receivers, and computers.

Several challenges have made it difficult for ESA controllers to keep Rosetta on track and healthy. For example, at some points in its journey, it has taken 100 min for signals to travel to Rosetta and for receivers to get a response. And com-munications have been constrained by an 8-bps rate for data and relatively little power available, compared to other satellites. This is the first solar-powered spacecraft to fly farther than 3.1 astronomical units (288.3 million miles) from the sun.

Eventually, Rosetta must brake to match its speed to the comet’s as they both head toward the sun. Once within a few miles of the comet, Rosetta will begin observing it with its onboard instruments. They include a UV spec-trometer, ion-mass analyzer, impact analyzer and accumu-lator, and an imaging system. These last three are designed to examine cometary dust.

Once established in orbit above the moving comet, Rosetta will release Philae, a 220-lb lander, and it will be-come the first spacecraft ever to make a soft landing on a comet. It is made mostly of carbon fiber with a hood of solar cells.

While Philae and its suite of 10 instruments investi-gates the comet from ground level, Rosetta will orbit and study it for a year as it continues to its perihelion or clos-est approach to the sun. Rosetta will then remain with the comet for another six months as the comet heads towards the orbit of Jupiter, ending its mission in December 2015.


SOFTWARE & SERVICESIT INFRASTRUCTURE

RS# 120

runs at high efficiencies and current

densities, several factors higher than

standard LEDs that are fabricated on

foreign materials,” says Krames. “We get many more

lumens per wafer. This brings dramatic benefits in low-

ering overall LED cost and in higher brightness.”

Soraa’s first product to use GaN substrates is an LED

replacement for a 50-W halogen that only consumes

12 W. A point to note is that the lamp uses only passive

cooling. “Other companies that are doing this have

to use tricks like fans to cool the LED and get enough

power,” says Krames. “Our lamps also use just a single

LED rather than an LED array found in competing de-

vices. This lets them produce a single clean beam with

a single shadow rather than a multishadowed beam

which some consumers dislike,” Krames says. MD

The surest way to make light-emitting

diodes that are efficient and bright

is to fabricate them on a substrate

made of the same material as the

LED itself.

So says LED maker Soraa Inc.in Fremont, Calif. The company

produces LEDs that it claims emit

more light per unit area than any

other LED and handle more electric

current per area than any other

LED. Soraa gets this kind of perfor-

mance by building the LEDs on a

substrate consisting of GaN. This dif-

fers from the usual practice of build-

ing LEDs on top of either sapphire or

SiC, materials that are cheaper than

GaN and which are compatible with

it. The problem with these substrates is that they can

induce imperfections in the LEDs grown on top and

these imperfections reduce the amount of light the

LED can generate.

“Because we use a GaN substrate, we don’t have

such issues as wafer strain, wafer bowing because of

the strain, and (crystal) dislocation densities that arise

because of different substrates,” says Soraa CTO Mike

Krames. “That allows a higher-quality crystal material

which leads to higher-performing devices.”

The LEDs made this way also are more efficient.

“We have been able to engineer the layers on the

native substrate to create an active layer stack that

Resources:Soraa Inc., www.soraa.com

RS# 406

Transmission electron-microscope images show the imperfections present in conventional gallium-nitride material (above, right) compared to the Soraa GaN on GaN crystals (below, right). The first light to use the technology is an LED bulb that replaces an MR16 halogen light.

GaN substrates bring brighter LEDs

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RS# 121

Super concreteshielding Iranian nukes?

Some of the world’s experts in ultrahigh-performance concrete (UHPC)

are working in Iran, a country regularly beset by earthquakes. They want

to use the material, a mix of Portland cement, silica fume, quartz flour, fine

silica sand, and either steel or plastic-reinforcing fibers, to build durable

bridges, sewer pipes, dams, and other structures.

But U. S. military officials and others around the world are worried the

Iranians will use the high-strength material to protect nuclear-weapons

labs and to build other military bases and underground bunkers.

UHPC’s compression strength is on the order of 30,000 psi, while that

of normal concrete is just 4,000 psi. And UHPC has a tensile strength of

1,000 psi, far above normal concrete’s 400 psi. Strength is critical for de-

fensive structures. Tests of a 13-ton bunker-busting bomb, for example,

showed it could penetrate 180 ft of ordinary concrete, but only get

through 25 ft of concrete that was twice as strong. So it’s possible that the

same bomb might only dent UHPC, with its compressive strength seven

times that of normal concrete.

So why isn’t UHPC more widely used?If UHPC is so great, why isn’t everybody using it to build roads and

bridges that could last 75 to 100 years with minimal maintenance? The

Federal Highway Administration points to five factors:

1. Contractors are slow to change currently approved practices and

adopt new ones until they are sure of the safety and benefits of the

new approach.

2. Highway and infrastructure owners, usually the government,

are even less likely to adopt new, potentially risky technologies,

especially those that add costs.

3. The dearth of design codes covering UHPC adds to the risks. And

contractors don’t want to conduct tests to prove a technology will

work.

4. Not many projects using UHPC have been completed and the

material lacks a long track record. This means there’s limited

experience with inspecting, maintaining, and repairing it. In fact,

new methods for inspecting UHPC will need to be developed before

its widely used.

5. Customers are aware of the high costs but are unsure of the long-

term benefits.

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Ultrahigh performance concrete (UHPC) was used to make these thin, curved

canopies over a train station in Calgary, Canada. The 24 canopies are only 0.8-in.

thick, so the project used only 105 yd3

of UHPC.

UHPC also resists chemicals such as salt at rates 100 times greater than

that of normal concrete. And the steel or polymer fibers add ductility and

strength. For example, when microcracks start in the brittle cement matrix,

the fibers take up the load and prevent further slipping and cracking. In

normal cement, the small cracks grow larger and weaken the structure. The

fibers can also totally replace traditional rebar used to reinforce concrete.

Silica fume, or ultrafine silica powder, also adds several benefits to

UHPC. On a chemical level, it reacts with calcium hydroxide released by the

cement, turning the silica into a strong binder that helps hold together the

UHPC mixture. And on a physical level, the silica particles, together with

the quartz flour, fill in all the small spaces between cement grains and any

coarser aggregate. This tight packing keeps out water and chemicals that

can seep in and damage the concrete.

U. S. military leaders worry that Iranians are testing even smaller par-

ticles, nanoparticles, as additives to UHPC. Some material experts estimate

that nanoparticles could boost UHPC’s already impressive strength by a

factor of four.

The downside of UHPC is it is cost – 10 times that of normal concrete.

It can also be more difficult to work with. To maximize its strength, for ex-

ample, UHPC must be steam cured, a process that takes about 48 hr. MD


RS# 123

Get ready for CAD in

the cloud.

At least, that is what

graphics chip and sub-

system maker NVIDIA Corp., Santa Clara, Ca-

lif., says will be possible

thanks to its newly de-

veloped VGX platform.

With this scheme, a sin-

gle server carrying one

VGX graphics- proces-

sor board can handle

up to 100 users doing

heavy-duty graphics.

NVIDIA says servers

equipped with VGX

will make it possible to

access a cloud server

from any device — thin

client, laptop, tablet or

smartphone — regard-

less of its operating

system.

Even computation-

intensive applications such as first-person shooter

video games can be virtualized this way, NVIDIA says,

with no discernable degradation in performance. And

3D solid models and simulations that characterize so-

phisticated engineering design work will work equally

well when run from a VGX-equipped server.

There have already been attempts to make some

kinds of engineering software cloud-based. But re-

sponse time has been an issue. Users seeing a CAD

model called up from a server, for example, might

notice a perceptible lag between moving a cursor on

a model and seeing the software finally respond. This

lag can be just an annoyance or it can bad enough to

make real-time server interactions impractical.

NVIDIA says it has eliminated such effects by

removing about 100 msec from the chain of events

that transpire between generating an image on a

server and producing it on a remote PC or tablet.

Superfast graphics let CAD go to the cloud


Game input lag(In milliseconds)

Gaikai

powered by

NVDIA cloud-

based GPU

50 10 30 5 66

Cloud gen 1

Console + TV

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Game pipelineCapture/encode

NetworkDecodeDisplay

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A graph of the response time involved in multiplayer gaming applications shows why cloud computing hasn’t been able to handle such uses. A similar argument applies for CAD applications. The first generation of cloud servers couldn’t respond fast enough to generate screen updates without inserting an input lag that players found annoying. NVIDIA says it has reduced the delay through use of new GPU technology optimized for cloud servers. NVIDIA demonstrated the idea on a game from Gaikai called Hawken at its recent GPU Technology Conference.

ResourcesNVDIA Corp., www.nv

com

RS# 407

RS# 124

ics particularly well.

To solve this dif-

ficulty, NVIDIA devised

a hypervisor optimized

to work with graphic-

processing units

(GPUs). Memory-man-

agement techniques

then effectively create

a mini-dedicated GPU

on the server for each

virtual user. During

interactions between

the server and the re-

mote user, graphic data

streams directly out

of the GPU frame buf-

fer to the appropriate

network interface card

(NIC) without first hav-

ing to go to the main

CPU.

“We can push pixels

run concurrently on a host com-

puter. It is so named because it is

conceptually one level higher than

a supervisory program. It lets mul-

tiple instances of a variety of op-

erating systems share virtualized

hardware resources. The problem,

though, is that hypervisors to date

haven’t been able to render graph-

The better performance comes

thanks to several fundamental

patents by NVDIA researchers

that pertain to memory manage-

ment technology.

The company also wrote a

special hypervisor program for

virtualized graphics. A hypervisor

lets multiple operating systems

or frames directly into system

memory,” says Jeff Brown, general

manager of the Professional Solu-

tions Group at NVIDIA. “The remot-

ing protocol can grab the data at

that point. I can’t imagine a sce-

nario in which there is no available

system memory (to slow things

down) given the trivial size of the


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How to solve latency issues: Currently, the display of graphics from the cloud involves passing data between the GPU, GPU RAM, through the graphics driver and graphics API into system memory, and the CPU where it’s converted into a color image and then converted into an H.264 video stream before being sent off to the end user. With NVIDIA VGX, the data passes between the GPU, GPU RAM and immediately converts into the H.264 video stream, bypassing the GPU driver, graphics API, system memory, and the CPU. What makes this process possible is NVIDIA’s Kepler GPU, the first such device that can be virtualized in hardware, or shared, by many users in the cloud. Service providers can install a few high-end NVIDIA Kepler-based VGX cards into servers and serve multiple users and application instances.

RS# 125

frame buffer.”

NVIDIA also says delivering

virtualized desktops this way can

minimize the security risks inher-

ent in sharing critical data and

intellectual property. For example,

source data for CAD models need

never leave a secure server, but

can be manipulated by users

across the globe in real time using

the VGX scheme.

Finally, NVIDIA says integrating

the VGX platform into the corpo-

rate network also lets enterprise IT

departments handle “BYOD” com-

puting, that is, employees bringing

their own computing device to

work. It delivers a remote desktop

to these devices, giving users the

same access they have on their

desktop terminal.

There are three parts to the

NVIDIA VGX technology:

VGX boards — These carry

NVIDIA Kepler GPUs. The first

NVIDIA VGX board is configured

with four GPUs and 16 Gbytes of

memory and fits into the industry-

standard PCI Express interface in

servers. Each Kepler GPU has 192

NVIDIA CUDA architecture cores

and 4 Gbytes of frame buffer.

VGX GPU Hypervisor — This

software layer integrates into com-

mercial hypervisors, such as the

Citrix XenServer, letting multiple

users share common hardware

and ensures virtual machines run-

ning on a single server have pro-

tected access to critical resources.

NVIDIA User Selectable Ma-

chines — This option lets compa-

nies configure the graphics they

deliver to individual users in the

network, based on their demands.

Capabilities range from PC experi-

ences to professional 3D design

and engineering experiences. MD

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RS# 126

Prewired motor plug speeds service and repair

A new motor connector lets qualified employees connect or disconnect

motors, pumps, generators, and other electrical equipment quickly and

safely by simply plugging them in. Meltric Decontactor connectors from

Meltric Corp., Franklin, Wis., consists of prewired, switch-rated combination

plug/receptacle devices that are UL approved for disconnect switching.

Replacing electric motors has always involved deenergizing power cir-

cuits and tagging and locking out the branch to prevent accidental reap-

plication of power. This means technicians must open the motor service

box to expose the motor power leads and disconnect the associated wir-

ing. Then, once replaced, the new motor must be connected to the elec-

trical service and power restored through proper procedures to remove

the tag/lockout. All these steps add to the maintenance time.

The plug-and-play Decontactor features a dead front, an enclosed arc

chamber, and a switching function that ensures live electrical contacts

are safely deenergized before the technician withdraws the plug from the

receptacle. Once withdrawn, the plug visual verifies that power is shut-

down, eliminating the need for voltage testing. Maintenance work can

then proceed without any need for hard field rewiring. This cuts motor

change-out times by up to 50%.

Plugs are switch rated up to 200 A and 60 hp, and carry a NFPA 70E

hazard risk rating of zero, eliminating the need for technicians to don

protective gear during service. Typical uses include installation on waste-

water, manufacturing, mining, food processing, and power generation

equipment. MD

Resources:Meltric Corp., meltric.com

RS# 408

The switch-rated Meltric Decontactor plug offers simple motor power disconnection to speed motor replacement and maintenance.

JUNE 14, 2012

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RS# 127

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RS# 128

Emergency-room staff

and EMTs routinely rely

on trauma shears to cut

through a patient’s cloth-

ing and access a wound

that needs immediate

treatment. These cutting

tools must slice through a

wide range of materials, in-

cluding denim, leather, and

even bulletproof Kevlar.

Most trauma shears are

flimsy and poorly constructed

with blades that dull quickly.

And they are typically used once

then thrown away. But two inven-

tors — Scott Forman, an ER physi-

cian, and Mark Reece, a materials

engineer at Sandia National Laboratory — got together to

redesign the shears. Reece was

able to participate thanks to

the New Mexico Small Busi-

ness Assistance Program,

which pays scientists and

engineers inside Sandia

to work with outside

entrepreneurs.

The result: a pair

of trauma shears

with an ergo-

nomic, am-

bidexterous

handle and a

built-in cara-

biner. The

carabiner, a

common tool

for mountain

climbers, lets

physicians and

EMTs easily attach

the tool to a belt loop, keeping

it close at hand. The hand length

and handle pivot point lets users

generate considerable torque

and expend less effort for heavy

cutting. And the high-carbon

stainless-steel blades hold an

edge longer than previous models

but can also be resharpened. The

entire shears can be sterilized in

an autoclave. One of the blades is

serrated, letting it cut

through Kevlar, bal-

listic nylons, thick

fabrics, and even

fiberglass.

The team also

incorporated sug-

gestions from EMT

personnel. So the

shears include a rip-

per attachment with

replaceable blade for

quickly slicing though

clothing, a bottle opener

for medications, a key

for opening and clos-

ing oxygen tanks, and

a window punch.

The shears will

likely be sold

and marketed by

Héros, a com-

pany founded

by Forman. The

Innovative trauma shears make the cut

shears will

cost from

$20 to $60,

compared

to $5 to

$10 for

typical

throwaway

versions. But

those who

have tested

the pro-

totypes

say

they are

much

better

and well

worth the

extra cost. MD

JUNE 14, 2012

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RS# 129

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RS# 130

Tens of thousands of engineers and technical managers from across

Europe gathered in Northern Italy last month for a series of events loosely

termed Technology Exhibition week. These included Fluidtrans Com-

pomac (fluid power), Mechanical Power Transmission and Motion Control,

Plast (plastics and plastics-processing machinery), Xylexpo (woodworking

machinery) — all held in Milan — and Lamiera (metal-forming equip-

ment), held in Bologna.

Widespread interest in Italian components, machines, and technology

belies the country’s current economic conditions. It’s no secret that Italy

is caught up in the European financial crisis and in a recession, with 2012

first quarter GDP declining 0.8%.

ITALIAN TECHNOLOGY WEEK: Small and nimble manufacturers are

global problem solvers

Resources:Assiot, www.assiot.it

Assofluid, www.assofluid.it

Cariboni, www.cariboni-italy.it

Deutsche Messe, www.hfusa.com

Federmacchine, www.

federmacchine.it

Fiera Milano, www.fieramilano.it

Saes Getters, www.saesgetters.

com

UCIMU, www.ucimu.it

Yet many Italy-based companies continue to prosper in spite of the

downturn. Consider data from Federmacchine, the federation of Italian

machinery associations, based in Milan. Its members manufacture every-

thing from machine tools, packaging equipment, and plastics injection-

molding machines to hydraulic and pneumatic components, robots, and

automation equipment. Last year, production for the sector rose 13.2%

and exports were up 15.8%. Italy accounts for 18% of the European

Union’s machinery production, second only to Germany.

Why the ongoing success despite general hard times? Giancarlo

Losma, President of Federmacchine, cites several reasons, and they basi-

continued on page 36

Cariboni’s ultralight hydraulics for sailing and racing yachts are half the

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RS# 131

cally revolve around performance,

customization, and after-sales

support.

First, successful Italian manu-

facturers make machines of the

highest quality and take advan-

tage of the latest technological

innovations, says Losma. Produc-

tivity and reliability need to be

second-to-none. And because

the average manufacturer is fairly

small by U. S. standards, with only

about 60 to 70 employees, this

lets them focus on problem solv-

ing and gives them the flexibility

to customize and personalize the

end product to exactly match cus-

tomer requirements.

“Italians are the champions of

special machines,” says Luigi Gald-

abini, Vice President of UCIMU, the

Italian machine-tool association.

“We are innovative and competi-

tive, and we are artists, a little bit.

Who is solving problems? It is the

Italians.”

He notes that OEMs from

around the world don’t look to

Italian manufacturers for a cheap

price on conventional, run-of the-

mill equipment. “We will always

get beat by China and India in

terms of costs, with simple ma-

chines. Our aim is to be tops in

performance, quality, and innova-

tion,” Galdabini says.

The expertise of Italian en-

trepreneurs lies in overcoming

technical hurdles, crafting unique

designs, and wringing out more

efficiency, speed, precision, and

productivity from a machine.

Some manufacturers might invest

thousands of engineering hours

yet only produce a single — albeit

extremely complex — machine a

year, he adds.

Galdabini sees investment in

R&D as critical, but notes most

research by companies is done

hand-in-hand with the customer

as a project progresses, creating

applied solutions to specific prob-


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RS# 132

Last year the Italian machinery

sector exported 70% of its produc-

tion. In some segments it was even

higher, for instance about 80% of

textile machines were shipped

abroad last year. For many Italian

manufacturers, Germany is the

number-one customer, while ma-

chinery exports to the U. S. were

up about 35% last year, according

to Federmacchine.

Another strength, notes Losma,

is many of these companies are

multi-generational, family-owned

operations with their livelihood

on the line. “The way to survive is

invest in technology, innovation,

and internationalization,” he says.

“Export-oriented companies that

have invested over the last five

years are still growing despite the

poor domestic market.”

Smart materialsCase in point is Saes Getters, a

medium-size manufacturer head-

quartered in Lainate. The company

manufactures a range of what can

be considered “high-tech” prod-

ucts such as ultrahigh vacuum

systems for semiconductor manu-

facturing, organic LED displays,

and medical devices. It invests 11

to 12% of earnings on R&D and

98% of its sales are outside Italy,

according to Managing Director

ficiency and substantially lower

energy and operating costs —

ensuring a practical, long-term

investment.

The firms also stress train-

ing and support after the sale,

building long-term relationships,

says Losma. “Customers need to

understand we’re in for the long

term.” All these factors give Italian

manufacturers a leg up in global

markets, according to Losma.

Despite the companies’ relatively

small size, they have structured

their internal operations to focus

on, and sell their products, in for-

eign markets.

lems. It’s the life blood of most

firms, which on average count 35%

of their employees as engineers,

technicians, designers, or software

developers. “We typically turn

to outside experts for specialty

research, for example in measure-

ment systems or optics,” he says.

Sustainability and energy effi-

ciency are growing in importance,

particularly in markets such as

Germany and Switzerland and,

to a certain extent, the U. S. But

increasing efficiency can raise the

price of a machine, he cautions,

which often makes the sale more

difficult. The goal is to raise ef-

New trade show for power transmission and controlDeutsche Messe, based in Hannover, Germany, and Milan’s Fiera Milano

have announced a joint venture, TPA Italia, a trade fair for power transmis-

sion and control, hydraulics, and pneumatics.

It will be held every two years and alternate with MDA (Motion, Drive &

Automation), Deutsche Messe’s trade show for power transmission and con-

trol held in odd-numbered years as part of the Hannover Fair in Germany.

Deutsche Messe looks to leverage its expertise and extensive network

of international contacts to create a strong regional trade show in Italy, ac-

cording to Andreas Gruchow, a member of the company’s managing board.

“This will give companies in the power transmission and control industry a

high-caliber, well-run platform in the heartland of one of Europe’s leading

industrial nations,” said Gruchow.

TPA Italia is endorsed by Italy’s leading power transmission and fluid

power industry associations, including Assofluid and Assiot. The show will

include an exhibition and a supporting program of conferences and net-

working forums. The inaugural event is slated for May 2014 in Milan.



LONGHORN® MEGAFLEX®

PETROLEUM TRANSFER HOSE

With its 1-to-1 Ratio, it’s Amazing Where This Hose Will Go.

Find out more at Gates.com/LonghornMFRS# 133


RS# 134

for sailing and racing yachts, and

counts among its customers lead-

ing teams from America’s Cup and

the Volvo Ocean Race.

An innovation award winner

at Fluidtrans, Cariboni showcased

a design that slashes the weight

of a traditional hydraulic system

without hurting performance. Key

aspects include cylinders made of

titanium and carbon-fiber com-

posite, with titanium fittings, for

controlling the sails, steering, and

other onboard operations.

Three hydraulic pumps are

made of aluminum. One axial-

piston unit running at 300 bar

(4,400 psi) is for propulsion and a

second, rated to 350 bar (5,150 psi),

“operates what we call low-pres-

sure systems, such as winches,”

explains company spokeswoman

Paola Cariboni. A high-pressure,

rotary-piston pump, at 700 bar

(10,300 psi), is for the cylinders that

control sails, steering, and handling.

Linear-position sensors inside the

cylinders permit PLC control.

“There’s a huge difference re-

placing steel with aluminum. And

the higher the pressure, the smaller

and lighter all the components,”

note Cariboni. “Compared to con-

ventional industrial hydraulics, our

system weighs 50% less.”

Other weight-saving techniques

include arranging pumps in a de-

centralized circuit to minimize the

length of hoses to the cylinders;

using tanks of plastic, fiberglass,

or carbon fiber, depending on the

pressure; and making mounts,

flanges, and manifolds from alumi-

num or other lightweight materials.

Reliability cannot be compro-

mised, stresses Cariboni, so a lot

of engineering work is needed to

minimize the weight and maintain

the structural integrity and dura-

bility of the parts. The company’s

engineers walk a fine line in build-

ing ultralight, high-performance

components that don’t compro-

mise reliability, she emphasizes,

and no detail is insignificant.

“Gram by gram, you reduce by

kilos the weight of the boat,” says

Cariboni. MD

Giulio Canale.

By leveraging its expertise in

special metallurgy and high-vol-

ume manufacturing, coupled with

ongoing research, it has devel-

oped a diverse portfolio of shape

memory alloy (SMA) semifinished

shapes and components for the in-

dustrial and biomedical markets.

These superelastic “smart” mate-

rials, based on Nitinol (Ni-Ti alloy),

return to a predetermined shape

when heated and can be effectively

packaged into compact, light, pow-

erful, and silent actuators to replace

piezo materials and electric mo-

tors. They’re inexpensive, produce

direct linear or angular movement

with no EMI, and tolerate harsh

environments. Actuator wires, for

example, have a maximum stroke

of 5.5%, force at 150 MPa loads as

high as 3,000 gm, and life exceed-

ing 200,000 cycles at 150 MPa and

3.5% stroke.

The company’s production

equipment converts ingots to wire

as small as 19 μm in diameter, with

exacting repeatability for high-vol-

ume applications. Other products

include ribbons, strips, thin sheets,

and springs.

Typical uses include small actua-

tors, fire-protection equipment,

safety valves, and vibration-control

devices, as well as surgical tools and

medical implants. One potentially

lucrative application on the draw-

ing board is an image-stabilization

SMA actuator for handheld digital

cameras. The extremely small de-

vices would mount inside a camera

and compensate for shaky hands to

ensure stable, well-focused images

and video. It competes with soft-

ware and piezo solutions. The de-

vice is perhaps a year from release,

but potential sales could range in

the hundreds of millions per year,

says Canale.

Ultralight hydraulicsCariboni, based in Ronco

Briantino, is a 28-year-old, family-

owned company with fewer than

20 employees. It is recognized as a

world leader in ultralight hydraulics



REPORTER’S NOTEBOOKLOOKING BACK

10 YEARS AGO — 2002Cooling duct gives pistons lon-ger life: High-ignition pressure

and specific output of direct-in-

jection diesel engines place heavy

mechanical and thermal loads on

pistons. Pistons with conventional

salt-core cooling ducts often cannot

withstand these

loads.

Mahle Inc., Mor-

ristown, Tenn., has

developed a piston

with a cooled ring carrier formed by

a steel plate welded directly onto

the carrier. By cooling the piston,

areas subject to high thermal load (the

first groove and cavity perimeter) can

handle higher loads, giving the pistons

a longer running life.

According to the company, com-

parative finite-element calculations

on passenger vehicles show this tech-

nology lowers the temperature at the

bottom of the first groove by approxi-

mately 50°C.

30 YEARS AGO — 1982Humvee prototype to Army: The first

of 11 prototype Humvees produced

by Teledyne Continental Motors has

been delivered to the Army for testing.

TCM, Chrysler, and AM General are

competing for the Humvee contract.

In December, the Army is expected

to start buying 53,000 of the vehicles

configured as weapon carriers, am-

bulances, and utility vehicles. In the

TCM version, the engine is an Inter-national Harvester 6.9-liter V8 diesel

rated at 170 hp at 3,000 rpm. It delivers

310 lb-ft of torque at 2,000 rpm. Top

speed of the vehicle is 70 mph, and

speed on a 60% grade (low gear) is

10.6 mph.

50 YEARS AGO — 1962Inaudible impulses, on one track of

a two-track magnetic tape, change

pictures in exact predetermined rela-

tion to the

sound in

this slide

or filmstrip

projector.

During

playback,

the low-

frequency

impulses are

detected by a sensitive transistorized

relay circuit, which actuates a solenoid

to change the picture. The 500-W Syn-

chro-Mat IV measures 10 × 13 × 17½ in.

and weighs 37 lb. The projector is built

by Synchro-Mat Equipment Corp.,Jackson, Mich. MD


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Withstand 10,000 Gs of Shock

This projectile’s guidance system sustains 10,000 Gs of shock force when fi red. That’s why Cicoil high performance fl at cables have been specifi ed to form the Control Systems Actuator Harness. Cicoil’s unique StripMount feature saves space while providing a strong, anti-vibration mounting.

Save Space with Custom Flat Cables

Cicoil custom cables solve many critical space, weight, and assembly issues. Packaging many conductors using fl at cables provides solutions in high performance, tight-fi tting military and aerospace applications. And Cicoil’s unique cable forming capability means cables can take virtually any shape, eliminating costly fl ex circuits or wiring costs.

Bring on the Heat...and Cold!

Cicoil delivers exceptional reliability under a broad range of temperatures. Our cables retain their electrical properties and fl exibility in temperatures from -65°C to +260°C. They also withstand exposure to high levels of ultraviolet, radiation and ozone with no adverse eff ects.

Approved by NASA for space fl ight, Cicoil fl at cables exceed outgassing specifi cations for vacuum and space use. They provide very broad temperature capability, ranging from -65°C to +260°C, and also deliver exceptional resistance to radiation and ozone.

Certifi ed for Space Travel

Cicoil fl at cables are used extensively within a variety of modern guided missiles and their delivery systems. Their fl at profi le saves space and weight, while a seamless silicone encapsulation provides incredible shock absorption. When one launch can make the diff erence rely on Cicoil.

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Cicoil® High Flex Flat Cables

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Sophisticated, Versatile, Mission Ready...

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And that’s just the Cicoil Cables! The fi ghter is pretty cool too.

��1FSGPSN�JO�

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��&OBCMFT�DPNQBDU �

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Visit Cicoil at Booth 6646,

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RS# 136

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOKCOMPANY NEWS

RS# 137

PERSONNELRobert E. Pietrafesa has joined

Tegra Medical, Franklin, Mass., as

president and CEO. Mr. Pietrafesa

has more than 16 years of experi-

ence as a president and CEO in the

medical-device manufacturing

industry. Tegra Medical produces

complex components and fin-

ished devices for leading surgical,

interventional, and orthopaedic

companies.

DISTRIBUTOR AGREEMENTSDunkermotor, Elgin, Ill., has

entered into an agreement with

Cymatix Inc., Petaluma, Calif., and

Texas-based Shepherd Controls & Associates, to distribute both its

linear motor line and subfractional

horsepower brushed and brush-

less dc motors and intelligent ser-

vomotors.

NAME CHANGERexnord Corp., Milwaukee, has

changed the name of its indepen-

dent laboratory from Rexnord Technical Services (RTS) to the

Rexnord Innovation Center. The

Center handles confidential test-

ing and analyses of products in the

areas of fatigue and wear; shock

and vibration; failure mode and ef-

fects; and field-load measurement.

AWARDSAgilent Technologies Inc., Santa

Clara, Calif., received the 2011

Global Frost & Sullivan Award for

Company of the Year for its perfor-

mance in the oscilloscope market.

Frost & Sullivan noted Agilent’s

concerted efforts to become a

market leader by introducing

products in all segments of the

oscilloscope market, as well as

Agilent’s involvement in various

technology standards groups.

Danfoss Power Electronics, Loves

Park, Ill., a provider of VLT drives

and panels, has been named the

Silver Winner for the 2011 Global

Awards for Excellence in Business

Process Management (BPM) and

Workflow. This award recognizes

products leading to significant

business benefits. The Awards Pro-

gram is managed by Future Strat-egies Inc. and sponsored by BPM.com, Object Management Group

(OMG), and Workflow Manage-ment Coalition.

OMG is an international not-for-

profit computer-industry consor-

tium and Workflow Management

Coalition is a nonprofit, interna-

tional organization of workflow

vendors, users, analysts, and uni-

versity/research groups.


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RS# 138

IT‘S ALWAYS GOOD TO HAVE THE CHOICE.

IMS.techline offers the customization of

the modular standard gear drives to exactly

match your needs. Ultimate flexibility for

high volume production.

FOR EVERY PROBLEM THERE IS ONE SOLUTION.

With our standard modular system for

Pla netary Gears you have over 10,000 con -

fi guration possibilities to choose from.

Small and medium volume production or

prototypes? Then IMS.baseline is the fast

and reliable solution with a selection of

Standard Planetary Gears.

Germany | USA | Mexico | China

Gear Technology. Worldwide.

Unlimited possibilities. Unique solutions.

Planetary Gears.High quality for all volumes. IMS Gear off ers the optimum solution and the process that you need.

From prototypes to high-volume series.

IMS Gear Planetary Gears Inc.

440 Viking Drive Suite 110

Virginia Beach, VA 23452

phone 757-227-5553 x401 www.imsgear.com

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOKCOMPANY NEWS

RS# 139

EXPANSIONTÜV SÜD America, Peabody,

Mass., has expanded its battery-

testing capabilities at its Auburn

Hills., Mich., and Newmarket,

Ontario, Canada lab facilities. TÜV

SÜD America is part of the TÜV

SÜD testing, inspection, and certi-

fication organization.

SUSTAINABILITY ROADMAPFreudenberg-NOK Sealing Tech-nologies (FNST), Plymouth, Mich.,

has developed a strategic sustain-

ability roadmap to guide its long-

term efforts in reducing energy

usage, lower its carbon footprint,

and produce greener, cleaner

products and processes.

FNST specializes in

seals and vibration-control

technology,nonwovens, filtration,

lubricants, and release agents.

NETWORK LAUNCHXenon Corp., Wilmington, Mass.,

a maker of pulsed UV-light tech-

nology, has launched the Printed Electronics Test Center Network. The Network consists of manufac-

turers, integrators, and universities

that will make their labs available

to researchers and product devel-

opers for testing ideas and pro-

cesses in printed electronics.

CERTIFICATIONThe C-Lite fam-

ily of lightweight

marine cables from

TE Connectivity, Harrisburg, Pa., has

been awarded the

Germanischer Lloyd (GL) Approval

Certification.

TE Connectiv-

ity, Harrisburg, Pa.,

designs and manu-

factures products

that connect and protect power

flow and data. GL is a technical

supervisory organization that of-

fers certification, inspection, and

consulting services.

TECHNICAL SEMINARSAvnet Electronics Marketing, Phoenix, an operating group of

Avnet Inc., began its North Ameri-

can its 2012 X-fest technical semi-

nar series. The X-fest 2012 pro-

gram features 12 technical courses

based on Xilinx’s new Artix-7, Kin-

tex-7, and Virtex-7 FPGAs, as well

as the new Zynq-7000 Extensible

Processing Platform (EPP) family.

Upcoming locations include Bal-

timore, Dallas, and Minneapolis.

For more information, go to www.

em.avnet.com/xfest. Avnet has cre-

ated a short video of the event.

The video can be viewed at http://

avnet.me/01625. MD


[ MOTOR TRUTH #7 ]

sewmotortruth.com

Can I save

energy by using

a VFD (inverter)?

The truth is that it depends on your application. If you have a high-cycling application, a VFD can save money by reducing the starting current.

Or, if you have a hoisting application (such as a storage retrieval system), a VFD can provide energy regeneration.

Also, if your VFD has flux control, it can maximize the motor efficiency when the motor is oversized on a small load.

Otherwise, a VFD acts as a load and actually consumes energy, especially if you are using a high carrier frequency.

Visit sewmotortruth.com to get the whole story on VFDs and energy-efficient drivetrains.

YES

NO

MAYBE

RS# 140

UPTIME, ALL THE TIME

EPIC® connectors can stop electrical failures before they stop your packaging lines.

KEEP RUNNING WITH LAPPEPIC® Connectors thrive in harsh environments.

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RS# 141

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SENSOR SENSE

Over 5,000 digital optical modules (DOMs) like this are used in the IceCube neutrino detector in Antarctica. Each DOM consists of a glass bubble housing a photomultiplier tube and associated circuitry to detect the faint blue light of a neutrino traveling through ice.

the ice up to 2.5-km deep. Each

hole holds a string of 60 DOMs

spaced along the kilometer

depth of ice used as the sens-

ing element. Once buried in

the ice, the DOMs are no

longer accessible. How-

ever, electronic service

and software upgrades

are handled remotely us-

ing technology similar to

that developed for space

missions.

The DOMs record the di-

rection and intensity of the

light as the high-energy neu-

trino passes through the ice.

This lets researchers determine

where the neutrino came from.

While only in service a short

while, the IceCube observatory

has already changed the way sci-

entists look at the generation of

cosmic rays and other high-energy

particles. For example, it has been

a long-held belief that cosmic rays,

a major source of neutrinos, were

emitted from gamma-ray bursts

or GRBs.

GRBs arise when a massive star

many times the size of our sun

goes supernova, creating a light

that shines many millions of times

brighter than our sun. In looking at

over 300 GRBs, IceCube found no

corresponding neutrino emissions,

refuting the role of GRBs in the cre-

ation of cosmic rays. MD

This flash of light is recorded

by 5,160 digital optical modules

(DOMs) buried in the ice. Each

DOM contains a photomultiplier

tube (PMT), a device that ampli-

fies the amount of light it receives,

along with its associated circuitry.

A typical use of PMTs is in night-

vision goggles.

Researchers drilled 86 holes in

Or more precisely, the IceCube

Detector, part of the South Pole Neutrino Observatory that

searches for one of the most

elusive of the low-mass

subatomic particles: the

neutrino.

Neutrinos are similar

to the more familiar elec-

tron, with one crucial

difference: Neutrinos

do not carry an electric

charge. Because neutri-

nos are electrically neutral,

they are not affected by

the electromagnetic forces

which act on electrons. And

conversely, they have little ef-

fect on matter and are capable of

passing through objects larger

than the Earth with little difficulty.

This makes detecting neutrinos

extremely difficult.

IceCube is the world’s largest

neutrino detector, encompassing

a cubic kilometer of ice. The top

array of the detector is 1,400 m

(4,590 ft or almost 1 mile) beneath

Antarctica. The high pressure at

that depth drives all gases out of

the water, making the ice clearer

than crystal. It is also extremely

dark as no light penetrates the ice

to that depth. Darkness is a critical

need, as the detection of neutrinos

depends on seeing the small flash

of blue light emitted when neutri-

nos pass through molecules of ice.

World’s biggest sensor: an ice cube?

Edited by Robert Repas

RS# 142

DOM

mainboard

Penetrator

HV divider

LED

flasher

board

Mu-metal grid

RTV gel

Photomultiplier

tubeDelay

board

Glass pressure

housing


COMMENTARY

Does model-based engineering make sense?The concept of “model-based engineering” (MBE) has generated a lot of buzz lately and perhaps rightly so. As you probably know, this approach tackles product devel-opment using a kind of digital “master model” (not nec-essarily CAD) from which all downstream activities can be derived to build the product. The approach replaces ambiguous documents and can eliminate the need for physical prototypes before a particular design has been chosen. Engineers can simulate and iterate as much as necessary to refine the model while meeting requirements and adhering to design constraints.

In this regards, it is helpful to distinguish between “design” and “engineering.” Design is merely creating the geometry. Any CAD jockey can do “design.” Engineering, on the other hand, uses physics-based rules to de-velop functional machines and mechanisms.

A few firsthand examples of MBE came from one of the many workshops conducted at the recent Congress of the Future of En-gineering Software (COFES), held annually in Scottsdale, Ariz. Speakers there each gave an example of how they used the approach to build two entirely different systems. It seems that the master model can be quite different in scope and setup, depending on the nature of the problem. But it must usually allow for a certain fluidity. Why? Because product devel-opment itself is fluid. There is also the underly-ing assumption that it is necessary to logically model and simulate the entire system operat-ing in its setting to understand the system’s behavior.

In one example, David Thomas, Sr. Project Leader, of The Aerospace Corp., Los Angeles (www.aero.org), says model-based engineering only works when design models at the appropriate level of fidelity are integrated across engineering discipline boundaries. His example: A small, interdisciplinary team of engineers had higher-fidelity models for mechanical CAD, structures, thermal, and optics. They combined these with lower fidelity, Excel spreadsheet models for a spacecraft bus and its associated components. The result was an initial design for an infra-red telescope created in less than 400 hr. In this case, engi-neers generated initial optical, CAD, and structures mod-els for the telescope in Comet Solutions MBE software. First-order constraints for the telescope were determined during an earlier predesign phase that described the orbit and the telescope.

Integration of the CAD and structures model in the MBE environment let the designer optimize for launch vibration loads in only 4 hr. The resulting CAD design for the telescope then became an input to a spreadsheet-

Leslie GordonSenior Editor

leslie.gordon

@penton.com

based conceptual design for the mission. This design produced additional information (orbit details, solar array size, overall payload geometry) needed to complete a thermal design for the telescope. Designers completed their initial design of the infrared telescope payload in the MBE environment by integrating models for thermal (Thermal Desktop), structures (MSC Nastran), and optics (Code V). The resulting MBE let them evaluate changes to the telescope

image quality during orbit.Integration of engineering-design

models within an MBE workspace helps diagnose design-performance problems as they arise. For example, initial analysis revealed bending of the primary mirror (optics) was degrad-ing the telescope image. The structures model showed the culprit to be exces-sive clamping force at the mirror hub mount, due in part to low temperature. With this root cause determined, de-signers could change designs and re-peat the integrated analysis much more quickly (by factors of 2× to 3×) com-pared to standard practice.

In another case, Matthew Loew, a new-product development chief engi-neer at Joy Global in Milwaukee (www.joyglobal.com), is using model-based engineering to develop mining equip-

ment that weighs millions of pounds and stands several stories high. Again, the master model consists of multiple domains (structures, performance, reliability, cost, as well as product geometry) and mixed fidelity models.

For example, engineers initially investigate the struc-tures models with closed-form calculations in a spread-sheet. They ultimately develop a finite-element model with fine shells and solids meshes, coarse meshes, and beams. Loew loosely coupled the models (unlike the tele-scope example) because, as he put it, “The design process in this case lacked a formal order.” The models range from those for nonlinear static FE, multibody dynamics, deterministic and stochastic reliability calculations, 1D performance simulations, and engineering-content CAD. Typically, models need more fidelity as systems mature. However, it is possible to actually degrade the fidelity in some areas to concentrate on areas of continued interest in development.

What do you think about the model-based design approach? Write us and we might print your answers here. MD

Integration of

engineering

design models

within an MBE

workspace helps

diagnose design

performance

problems as

they arise.


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RS# 143

RS# 114

VANTAGE POINT

Benefits of a focused distributor’s program“Quality over quantity” is often quoted but not often imple-mented. The idea that more isn’t better but, rather, better is better isn’t difficult to comprehend. Putting it into practice, however, takes planning, dedication, and a focused drive for excellence. The results can be quite rewarding.

Simrit’s Preferred Distributor Program is based on this approach. That is, a small group of highly trained distribu-tors who deeply understand our specialized products and customer-focused solutions is much more valuable than a large group of distributors who are just familiar with the product portfolio.

The program has been successful overseas for a number of years — the average partnership between Simrit and its international Preferred Distribu-tors spans approximately 40 years — and we recently introduced the program’s proven advantages to our North American distributor network.

Cooperation and communication with key distributors benefits everyone. Distributors gain from access to in-depth training and ongoing communication regarding product innovations and improvements. Distributors are better able to consult and advise customers on the best solution for their specific needs. Ultimately, cooperation helps customers speed delivery and maximize the value of their end products. And this results in a more-coordinated, efficient, and valuable business structure for Simrit as well.

Simrit has devoted substantial resources to this effort. For example, a dedi-cated training program educates distributors on proprietary applications, ma-terials, and products at the Freudenberg Sealing Technologies Academy (also available online). Further, customized training can be provided at the distribu-tor’s facilities.

An active sales-support program coordinates joint customer visits and tech-nical consultation for customized products, technical alternatives, and proto-types, particularly for complex applications.

Preferred distributors have around-the-clock access to Simrit’s e-commerce platform, which provides daily updates on more than 43,000 items, including vital details such as pricing and availability, as well as product and material data.

Internally, Simrit has put in place separate distribution-management and cus-tomer-service teams to support the program and its participants, with a committed focus on better understanding how to help distributors best serve their clients.

For companies interested in developing a focused distributor program, keep in mind several notable factors:• Realize that distributors have special needs, such as for affiliate marketing

and point-of-sale support, that are different than requirements for an OEM or major global customer.

• The basics of how the company does business with distributors should evolve over time. Identify important issues (such as the need for incentives) and adjust to satisfy those demands.

• Develop a program that’s tailored to every aspect of a distributor’s business, including logistics, marketing, technical support, and customer service.

• Continually pursue key distributors that strategically align with your goals.• Base the partnership on trust, consistency, accountability, loyalty, transpar-

ency, and well-founded market knowledge.With a commitment to “quality over quantity,” a distributor that intimately

understands a product portfolio and provides valuable and timely solutions to cus-tomer problems can become a critical link in a company’s overall success. MD

Simrit (www.simritna.com) is part of Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies and offers

an extensive portfolio of precision manufactured products.

Edited by Kenneth J. Korane

Michael A. BaxterSales Director,

Distribution North

America

SimritElgin, Ill.

JUNE 14, 2012

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RS# 145

INVENTOR’S CORNER

Edited by Leslie Gordon

Inventor’s Corner usually show-

cases “midnight engineers” —

the inventors who come up with

patentable ideas in their spare

time, off the clock. Here, we are

doing something a little differ-

ent in featuring someone who

has created a few iPhone apps.

Typically, iPhone apps would be

outside of the normal scope of

this section, but the “inventor”

is a high-school student and we

felt that his products deserved a

little exposure.

Billy Barbaro, a junior at Car-roll High School, Dayton, Ohio,

created apps called SceneTimer,

TakeTimer, ShowTimer, and

Pediacenter. The first three are

for TV and radio production, with

SceneTimer and TakeTimer avail-

able on iTunes. According to Barbaro,

ShowTimer is in the approval process

and will hopefully join the other

two shortly. For more information,

see http://itunes.com/apps/

videoadventures

Barbaro is currently developing

Pediacenter and says it is the most

ambitious project he has undertaken

yet. The application was inspired by

his three-year-old cousin who was diag-

nosed with leukemia along with the fact

his physics class required him to enter

the science fair and he was looking for a

suitable project.

As a result of medical treatment, his

cousin needs to regularly monitor his

vital signs. For example, he must take

his temperature every 4 hr to make sure

he doesn’t have a fever. Pediacenter

provides an entertaining and efficient

way to handle this task. It graphs patient

temperature, date, and time, and also

logs the data in a chart. The app provides

quick and easy access to the patient’s

doctor and also displays hospitals near

the user with contact information and

directions.

The biggest challenge in this project

was building the hardware, says Barbaro.

The first hurdle was setting up an interface

to get data into the iPhone. The original de-

sign was to use either the iPhone’s 30-pin

connector or Bluetooth. Both are sanctioned

by Apple’s Made for iPhone (MFi) Program. But

Barbaro ran into some trouble trying to join

the program, so he looked for an alternative

route. The only other port on the iPhone is the

headphone device.

“I came across a technique called fre-

quency-shift keying (FSK),” says Barbaro. “It’s

what fax machines used with all the beeping

and noises they made. “In a nutshell, it’s turn-

ing data into sound then changing it back on

the other end. The digital values of 0’s and

1’s are modulated into sound waves of low

(the 0’s) and high (1’s) frequencies. The re-

sulting wave is sent through the headphone

jack and demodulated using libraries on the

iPhone side. This project relies on a HiJack

board made by Project HiJack, found online

at SEEED Studio (www.seeedstudio.com/de-

pot).” The board is used to modulate the data

received from the thermistor (or whatever

input you attach to it) into sound and send it

to the iPhone.

Barbaro then placed a thermistor in a

voltage divider circuit and attached it to the

board. The analog value is transmitted using

FSK to the iPhone. The resistance value gets

plugged into the Steinhart-Hart equation to

calculate the temperature, which is then used

throughout the application. The application

lets the child (or adult) play computer games

while taking his or her temperature. It will also

call the doctor if the temperature exceeds a

parameter set by the doctor or parent.

On the software side, Barbaro wrote all the

code in Xcode and tested it on an iPhone.

The current version of Pediacenter ended

up winning the county science fair. As a re-

ward, Barbaro was invited to present at the

International Science and Engineering Fair in

May and competed against other student sci-

ence projects from 65 countries.

Contact Barbaro at: bbarbaro@videoad-

venturesonline.com. MD

Are you (or do you know) a “midnight engineer”

who would like to get his or her product show-

cased in MACHINE DESIGN magazine? Please con-

tact Leslie Gordon: [email protected],

(216) 931-9242

App helps kids fight leukemia


www.pelicanoem.com/mdPELICAN PRODUCTS , INC.

23215 Early Avenue, Torrance, CA 90505 866.628.9890 (TOLL FREE) Q 310.326.4700 Q FAX 310.326.3311

All trademarks are registered and/or unregistered trademarks of Pelican Products, Inc., its subsidiaries and/or affiliates.

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RS# 146

AEROSPACE

Doom and Quake video games. The FAA examined the plans and by the end of July granted Deville a waiver for launch. Deville planned to launch his rocket in October at BALLS, an annual event held at Black Rock Desert, a dry lake bed in Nevada just north of Reno. The event draws rocketry enthusiasts from all over the world who launch large rockets, some with complex staging, others with multiple motors, as well as experimental and home-built designs. The event is sponsored by the Tripoli Rocket As-sociation, a group that helped the Qu8k project in several ways.

For example, Tripoli cut through a lot of red tape by getting an FAA waiver that covered the entire BALLS event, clearing it for rockets to fly up to 150,000 ft. Dev-ille and other hobbyists were allowed to piggyback on this waiver. “Tripoli also assisted with the high-impulse (Class 3) flight package that had to show the FAA an analysis of my rocket’s flight profile, charts of possible crash sites, what the dispersion pattern of wreckage should be if there

Last year while working at Syntheon LLC, a Miami com-pany that designs and develops high-tech surgical instru-ments, Derek Deville caught wind of the Carmack 100kft Micro Prize during the long Fourth of July weekend. The competition offered $5,000 to the first team to build a rocket that flew to over 100,000 ft.

Deville thought he was just the right person to take on such a challenge. After all, he was a lifelong rocketry hobbyist, a mechanical engineering grad from Purdue University, and he had worked professionally in rocket de-sign with Darpa, NASA, and the Air Force Research Lab, not to mention building rocket engines for Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne. He’d already built many rockets; this one just seemed like it would take a somewhat scaled-up effort.

Planning and red tapeDeville carefully but quickly drew up plans for the

rocket, which he named Qu8k in tribute to the man spon-soring the prize, John Carmack, developer of the popular

From

Engineer to

Rocketman


A trained

mechanical

engineer who

seriously dabbled

in rocketry as a

hobbyist builds a

rocket that climbs

to over 100,000 ft.

Authored by:


[email protected]

Resources:BALLS and the 2012 event, www.rimworld.

com/balls21

Derek Deville, ddeville.com/rockets.htm

Qu8k rocket and videos, ddeville.com/derek/

Qu8k.html

Tripoli Rocketry Association, www.tripoli.org

Symbiosis Foundation, symbiosis-foundation.

org

To read about another award-winning

amateur rocket, scan

this code or go to: http://

machinedesign.com/

article/prize-winning-

amateur-rocket-zooms-to-

120000-ft-1117

was an accident, and prove that the risk of injury and death were sufficiently low,” say Deville.

Tripoli also made rocket hobbyists’ life easier when working with one of the most-common rocket fuels, ammonium perchlorate composite propellant (APCP). “APCP had long been classified as an explosive by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, making it difficult to work with. For instance, you needed a license to handle APCP, an approved storage magazine to house it, and the magazine had to be inspected,” says Deville.

But Tripoli spent 10 years suing the ATF, trying to get APCP reclassified. About two years ago, it won that legal battle and ATF declassified the propellant so that a license and permit are not required to use it.

Keeping it simpleDeville designed Qu8k with a single rocket motor

and nozzle to keep things simple. With a cluster flight,

In 2008, Derek Deville (pictured) launched the Black Dragon, a 26-ft-tall, 375-lb rocket. Its engine generated 2,400 lb of thrust for 8 sec, enough to take the rocket to 13,000 ft.


AEROSPACE

To do this, he and his team carefully aligned the fins when they were welded in place. In fact, they used CNC to construct a jig from medium-density fiberboard to hold the fins square to each other while being welded onto a thin-walled cylinder that fit over the motor tube.

The rocket had several electrical components, in-cluding dual timers for parachute ejection, three video cameras, and four independent GPS units. To keep the layout simple, Deville had separate battery packs for each. The GPS devices, for example, drew power from lithium power packs, which Deville was unsure would work at altitude.

“We tested the pack in a vacuum chamber at our shop to make sure the lower pressure, nearly a vacuum at 100,000 ft, wouldn’t hurt their performance,” says Deville. “I expected them to swell and possibly open circuit or drop in voltage. And although they did swell somewhat, they

or rocket with several engines on a single stage, it be-comes challenging to get all the engines to ignite and shut down at the same time. If they don’t, the resulting asymmetric thrust veers the rocket off its straight-line course. “With those risks, I shy away from cluster rock-ets, though I’ve built and launched many in the past,” says Deville.

Because the goal was to reach the highest altitude pos-sible, Deville wanted his rocket to fly straight up. One way to ensure stable, straight flight is to have the rocket spin or roll. This evens out aerodynamic loads and tends to make the rocket fly straighter.

“But high roll rates give you horrible videos because of the camera spinning around with the rocket,” notes Dev-ille. “And one of my objectives was to get good video of the flight. So I designed Qu8k as a low-roll rocket, one that would spin about four to five times in 90 seconds.”

About that Prize . . . Derek Deville eventually received half the prize

money, $2,500, from John Carmack, the man be-

hind the Carmack 100kft Micro Prize.

In making the award, Carmack said: “I have de-

cided to award half the prize value for the Qu8k

rocket.

I am not waiving the offi cial requirement for

a GPS lock at altitude. However, I think Qu8k de-

serves something for the eff ort and project report.

“The full prize is still available to the fi rst rocket

that hits all the requirements. There should be no

expectation of future ‘half-prize’ awards. If a Qu8k

2 winds up fl ying and hitting all the requirements,

it is still eligible for the full prize — I’m sure a re-

port can be fi lled up with additional useful details.

Everyone else that off ered up additional prize

money is left to their own discretion, of course.”

The Qu8k rocket sits in its custom-built gantry, which was designed in SolidWorks. The gantry had to

be easy to assemble and strong enough to guide the rocket on a

straight course during takeoff. The rocket and gantry contact each

other at four points; there are no launch lugs or rail guides on the

rocket, which create drag. By not using these parts, simulations

showed Deville was able to increase peak altitude by over 10,000 ft.

The Qu8k rocket measured 8-in. in diameter, 167.5-in. tall, and weighed 320 lb at liftoff. The rocket engine exerted 4,000 lb of thrust for 8 sec, taking it to an estimated 121,000 ft, in 92 sec. Top speed during the ascent was 3,200 fps (almost 2,200 mph). The entire flight lasted 8.5 min and the rocket landed three miles from the launch site.

Qu8k breakdown

Radial

bolt

retention

forward

and aft

closures

Aft closure

retains nozzle,

extends

divergence,

and forms

vehicle tail

cone

Phenolic carrier

insulates throat

from case and

minimizes

thickness of

graphite throat to

prevent cracking

from differential

thermal expansion

Isomolded graphite throat

150 lb of

case-bonded

“fins-on-a-

cylinder” fuel

grains with a

progressive

burn profile

Tracking

smoke

grain

Timer mount with

duel g-switch timers

Pneumatic-

cylinder

mount

Recovery

piston

Shear pins

made of

polystyrene

withstand

60 lb/pin

Aluminum

nose cone

Stainless-

steel tip

Anodized

aluminum nose-

cone shroud

retainer

GPS

antenna

mounting

plate

Nose-cone

shroud made of

radiotranslucent

fiberglass

Payload section

Black-powder-

activated pneumatic

cylinder

Recovery attachment

points (dual forged

eyebolts)

Igniter

Fin can

made of

welded 6061

aluminum

Fins made of 0.25-in.-thick,

CNC-profiled aluminum


It took Deville and his team less than three months to go from concept to launch.

did not lose charge and continued working.”Other electrical devices relied on N-style disposable batteries.

Taking a mechanical approachWith most amateur-built rockets, the friction-fit nose cone pops off from the

pressure generated by a timed black-powder charge. The charge goes off based on calculations of when the rocket will reach its apogee or highest point. But most amateur rockets don’t soar to 100,000 ft.

Qu8k couldn’t use this method for several reasons. First, the rocket would run out of thrust before it got to its targeted altitude, so it would, in effect, “glide” there. But when the thrust abruptly stopped and acceleration slowed, the nose cone’s momentum might pull it off the rest of the rocket before the rocket reached 100k ft. And second, if the nose cone stays on, any air trapped behind it would remain at atmospheric pressure as the rocket climbed. Meanwhile, outside pressure would drop and no longer push down on the nose cone. So the trapped air would be like an inflating balloon pushing on the nose cone.

“Assuming air pressure at 100,000 ft is negligible, the 15-psi air trapped in-RS# 147


AEROSPACE

zle, a critical component that must withstand 1,000-psi gases flowing at Mach one and 3,000°F.

“I used a piece of graphite for the nozzle, which is tra-ditional, but put it in a machined phenolic carrier,” says Deville.

Deville and his team machined a nozzle with thin walls, which reduces thermal expansion. The thin cross section also means it heats up more evenly, so there is little dif-ferential expansion, which creates high internal stresses and can lead to cracks. The phenolic carrier mechanically supports and isolates the nozzle from the motor casing, shielding it from heat.

Payloads and problemsQu8k also carried a couple of payloads into the at-

mosphere. A GPS unit broadcasting the rocket’s posi-tion on the 70-cm ham-radio band let Deville and his

side would push on the 50-in.2 bottom surface of the nose cone with 750 lb of force,” says Deville. “So I had to vent the small area behind the nose cone. This meant I could not trap the pressure generated by a black-powder charge to release the nose cone.”

Deville fell back on his mechanical background and devised an approach never used before, a piston-cylinder actuator. Two timers (one for redundancy) were each set to activate an electrical match, a simple device that uses an electric current to ignite an explosive charge. The matches were set to light a black-powder charge inside the sealed 2-in.-diameter piston. At the right time, the matches lit the charge, and the resulting 200 psi of pressure extended the piston and pushed off the nose cone.

“We were able to ground-test this subsystems and it worked perfectly,” says Deville.

Deville also took a novel approach to building the noz-

The Qu8k team

Jorge Pinos and Angel Fernandez: Endless machiningGuy Kress: Launch towerGreg and Rowan Mayback: Financial, moral, and physical supportBret Ranc: Launch supportKorey Kline: Inspiration and design reviewCarlos Rivera: Road tripping to PittTripoli Pittsburgh: Motor transportAl Bychek: BRB, tracking, and launch supportChuck Rogers: Simulation and load calculationMiguel Hernandez: Late-night support and heavy liftingJim Harper: LogisticsMarc Devits: Electronics supportKy “The-Rocketman” Michaelson: ParachuteMichael and Danah Kirk and Ed Ampuero: Propellant castingSyntheon LLC: Machining and material support

Derek Deville and one of the motors he helped test and develop for Burt Rutan’s SpaceShipOne.

The curvature of the Earth and blackness of outer space can clearly be seen as the Qu8k rocket reached its apogee. The nose cone has also been popped off, but it is held to the rocket by a Kevlar shock cord.


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RS# 148

Advancing Automation

40years

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A parachute carried the Qu8k to a soft landing.

team monitor rocket position, though the GPS lost positional lock as the rocket climbed. But data resumed when the rocket began riding down under the parachute. “The GPS let us drive right to the touchdown point,” notes Deville.

The other payload was a cosmic-ray detector (Geiger counter), which was part of the Symbiosis Foundation’s Ergo project. The project’s goal is to equip at least a thousand classrooms across the globe with similar detec-tors to record and analyze high-energy cosmic rays coming from space. “The rocket carried one of their data packages, which consisted of a 5-in.-square circuit board and some daughterboards, and it was a challenge getting it to fit in the nose-cone area,” says Deville. “But apparently it detected cosmic rays with eight times the strength of readings taken at ground level.”

Qu8k carried other GPS units that also failed, a sticking point when it comes to claiming the $5,000 Carmack Prize. It stipulated that proof the rocket climbed to at least 100,000 ft would come from GPS, but all three units lost positional lock during the climb. And there are two theories as to why this happened.

The first postulates that the crystal oscillators used in the units to measure the time between signals received from GPS satellites was disturbed by the 15-g takeoff. This altered the timing, confusing the software, and making the GPS unit stop working.

The other theory, one Deville believes is more likely, is that the high speed of the rocket and the resulting Doppler shift confused the GPS circuitry do-ing periodic calculations. It couldn’t accept the high speed or vast difference in position between readings. “This could probably be remedied with the right software, but it would likely be expensive,” says Deville.

Still, Deville had other proof that his rocket met the Carmack Challenge. Experts could tell it climbed to at least 100,000 ft based on acceleration data recorded onboard the rocket. And flight times matched simulations of it traveling to that height. MD

AEROSPACE


RS# 150

SEMICONDUCTORS

Most light-emitting




equipment could

still be marked

“Made in the U. S. A.”

The bad news for makers of semicon-ductor-manufacturing equipment is that sales of most kinds of fab gear are flat to down. The good news is that the U. S. could end up playing a bigger role sup-plying manufacturing equipment for the emerging area of solid-state lighting.

“The U. S. Dept. of Energy used stimulus funds to amplify the supply-chain strengths of the U. S. The DOE recognized that the U. S. would be an unlikely place for LED fabs, so it tried to seed the development of LED-manufacturing equipment here,” ex-plains Tom Morrow, executive vice presi-dent, emerging markets group and chief marketing officer for SEMI, the association

Authored by:

Leland TeschlerEditor

Resources:Intel, www.intel.com

Semicon West and Intersolar 2012, http://

semiconwest.org/

Will the U. S. be an

LED ASSEMBLY MECCA?

Though the 300-mm wafer has become the industry standard, chipmakers are transitioning to 450-mm versions, like this example at Innolas Semiconductor GmbH, a maker of wafer-sorting and laser-marking systems.


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RS# 151

SEMICONDUCTORS

Worldwide spending in front-end fabs58

48

38

28

18

8

–2

–12

–22

EquipmentConstruction Change (%)

160

140

120

100

80

60

40

20

0

–20

–40

–60

19

95

19

97

19

98

19

99

20

00

20

01

20

02

20

03

20

04

20

05

20

06

20

07

20

08

20

09

20

10

20

11

20

12

20

13

Change (%)In $U. S. billions

0

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

0 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200

LED fab-equipmentspending

Total worldwide spending

36796021

5013231

0

125125215108

1,025925

1,167437

221260337621

314246320110

190150390482

2013 2012 2011 2010

1,960 1,917

2,520

1,892

EU andMideast

SE Asia

Americas

China

Taiwan

Japan

S. Korea

Equipment spending (in $U. S. millions)

2013

2012

2011

2010

serving the manufacturing supply chain for electronics makers. “Going forward, it looks as though assembly and automation areas, rather than front-end LED fabs, will be a likely focus for the U. S.”

LED-manufacturing equipment will be among the focus areas when the upcom-ing Semicon West show kicks off in San Francisco July 10. Though LED-manufacturing equipment is a promising area, it saw a modest drop in sales last year. “The display market was the big engine for LEDs, but it has declined partly because TV sales have cooled off, but also because set makers are backlighting more efficiently. Two years ago, a 40-in. TV might con-tain 240 LEDs for backlight-ing. Now some TVs only use 20 or 30 because the LEDs are brighter, and manufactur-ers have learned how to dis-tribute the lumens more ef-ficiently,” says Morrow.

Virtually all the recent investment in LED-manufacturing equipment has been for high-brightness LEDs, says Morrow. Much of this spending has been on MOCVD (metalorganic va-por phase epitaxy) equipment, which has led to overcapacity, particularly in China. Though solid-state lighting was the original application envisioned for the LEDs coming off these machines, some fabs have now switched over to making LEDs for mid and low-power uses, Morrow says.

Makers of high-brightness LEDs have several technical challenges to overcome. One is a transition from 4 to 6-in. (100 to 150 mm) wafers. LED makers are also trying to move away from sapphire substrates — used be-cause they are compatible with GaN material that goes into LEDs — and to-ward silicon substrates, which are less expensive but can have problematic interactions with GaN.

Overall, SEMI expects sales of semi-conductor-manufacturing equipment to decline about 10% this year after a boom in 2011. However, recent an-

SEMI’s world-fab forecast, made in April, saw a drop in semiconductor-manufacturing-equipment spending this year, but recent announcements of capital-equipment spending by some big-name chipmakers may make 2012 a flat year.

Hey big spender: China and Asia are still hotbeds of investment in fab equipment for making LEDs, according to figures compiled by SEMI.


RS# 152

SEMICONDUCTORS

degrade patterns put on chips.Another issue facing chip manufacturers this year is

the transition to 450-mm wafers from 300-mm versions. Wafers this large need handling equipment and metrol-ogy that is completely different than that for managing smaller wafers. What’s worse, it’s likely the first 450-mm facilities will also have to implement EUV lithography. This puts chip fabs in the position of having to iron out bugs in two new technologies simultaneously.

Finally, chipmakers are also transitioning away from planar transistors toward those that employ more of a 3D structure. This helps reduce leakage current during the off state of the device, a problem that becomes more severe with ever-smaller dimensions characterizing chip circuitry today. The typical approach is to locate several gates on multiple stacked surfaces, which more effec-tively suppresses “off-state” leakage current. The result is lower power consumption and a more-compact layout than on conventional planar transistors.

The difficulty with 3D designs is that they will only become practical with significant advances in semicon-ductor-manufacturing-process technology, says Morrow. For example, Intel has been working on its 3D transis-tor technology, which it calls a trigate architecture, since 2002. But the company only ironed out associated mass-production issues last year. Intel factories are expected to make upgrades this year so they can manufacture the company’s Ivy Bridge CPUs which will be built with trigate transistors. MD

nouncements about capital-equipment purchases from big chipmakers such as Intel, Santa Clara, Calif., suggest that 2012 could merely turn into a flat year, Morrow says. Booming sales of tablets, smartphones, and other mobile platforms, as well as the growing ranks of wealthier con-sumers in emerging markets such as China and India, are driving the demand for consumer electronics and ICs that power them.

Semicon West will also host discussions of several tech-nological issues that equipment makers must overcome to continue along the road toward higher chip densities that Moore’s Law predicts. “For the first time in the indus-try’s history, there are several challenges coming together at the same time,” says Morrow. One of these is extreme ultraviolet lithography (also known as EUV or EUVL), a next-generation lithography technology using extreme ultraviolet wavelengths on the order of 13.5 nm. EUVL is considered a “must” for making chips having features on the order of 11 nm, but it is significantly more complicated than the deep ultraviolet lithography used to make ICs to-day. For one thing, EUV lithography must take place in a vacuum. Because EUV technology requires high vacuum, the transfer of wafers into and out of the tool chamber is cumbersome and limits the speed at which wafers can be processed.

Moreover, the optics typically absorb over 95% of the available EUV light, so the EUV source must be super-bright. And there are other difficulties associated with shadowing, diffraction patterns, and imperfections that

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A listing of semiconductor fabs dedicated to LEDs, compiled by SEMI, shows where the action is. But the hope is that the U. S. could be a force in manufacturing LED-production equipment.


RS# 153

OEM SERVICES/ MADE IN AMERICA

This huge machine puts the chamfer on a nuclear-fuel rod.

turing. The company focuses solely on the U. S. economy and market. It has no suppliers outside the U. S.

“We don’t handle maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) or commodity products,” says CEO Frank Russo. And that is for a specific reason: The sourcing and pro-curement process for complex machinery is quite involved and demands a lot of information. The company has built an online platform to handle complex transactions.

Says Russo, “We feel ours is the right model for today as we try to bring back the U. S. manufacturing economy. “Specifically, the suppliers are relatively small companies with diverse specialties and they are located all over the U. S. The companies are typically so focused on specific manufacturing processes and expertise that they do not have a lot of marketing power, resources, or outreach.”

This lack of marketing power makes it hard for buyers to find potential suppliers that are capable and have the

No doubt, the economy is global. But there are compa-nies in the U. S. that believe strongly in the mantra “Made in America.” In fact, they base their corporate mission on this theme. Some companies are actively trying to bring back the manufacturing base from overseas. They want to make money, sure. But these companies also see man-ufacturing in the U. S. as a patriotic duty. Why? Because it has become evident that manufacturing is really the iron backbone of our economy and, without it, we are doomed as a nation. The interesting questions are, is this a prof-itable endeavor, and how did these companies remain afloat during the recent downturn?

Complex, custom manufacturingCompletely onboard with “Made in America” is Fabri-

cating.com in Hoboken, N. J., a recent start-up. The online marketplace for manufacturers targets custom manufac-

What it takes to

competitively

manufacture

in the U. S.

Authored by:

Leslie GordonSenior Editor

Key points:• Custom manufacturing is hot.

• Offshore facilities may not be competitive

when it comes to complex machinery.

• Manufacturing is the iron backbone of the

U. S.

Resources:Fabricating.com, www.fabricating.com

Omax Corp., www.omax.com

Salem Design & Manufacturing LLC, http://

salemndt.com

For more information on the issue of U. S.-

based manufacturing,

scan this code or go to:

http://machinedesign.

com/article/why-it-makes-

sense-to-manufacture-in-

the-u-s-0209

Made inAmerica?


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The Fabricating.com dashboard shows a buyer’s current activity, a list of “to-dos” and a quick lookup of “favorite” suppliers. This version shows the way it presents the actual part drawing while the buyer is reviewing the RFQ.

Salem Design and Manufacturing’s newest machine uses an eddy-current probe to inspect automotive spindles for cracks or flaws that cannot be seen by the naked eye under a microscope.

school bus full of kids. Huge liabil-ity. So we sell equipment whenever a company has had a problem re-

gardless of how their business is doing. This means that our sales don’t fluctuate as much as the others as the economy goes up and down.

The company also serves the nuclear-en-ergy market. It builds equipment used in the manufacturing and inspecting of nuclear fuel-rod tubing.

According to Warga, the company has stayed competitive while manufacturing in the U. S. primarily because it does not build a product such as a small widget. “We don’t have

to worry much about overseas competition,” he says. “I would equate us to a home contractor. For example, the Chinese would have a hard time competing on building a house for you. Because China is so far away, trying to meet with companies there periodically to see how your house is coming along would be impractical. That is probably the biggest reason we don’t have any offshore competition.”

Almost paradoxically, another advantage to compa-nies that build machine tools in the U. S. is that the dollar is weak right now, says Warga. So Europeans are looking here because we are a bargain compared to the Euro. “If a business such as ours were operating in Germany, let’s say, machines are going to be more expensive. Labor costs in Germany for machinists or engineers are similar to those in the U. S., so the big difference is which country has the weaker currency. Plus, the world still needs power, even

specific kinds of expertise and ma-chine capacity needed, says Russo. “This is where we fit in.”

Examples of capabilities manu-facturers might look for include machines with a specific capacity for making parts with unusual diameters, says Russo. “Com-panies might also be looking for suppliers, say, that can handle large or unusually heavy parts. Many machine shops typically have weight-limited capabilities in terms of overhead conveyors and cranes.”

Fabricating.com decided to re-strict suppliers to those from the U. S. because it saw a good mar-ket potential in doing so. “Also, we feel strongly about bringing manufacturing back to the U. S. because the strength of our country depends on it. We don’t see the market space as billions of dollars. Instead, we see it as pro-viding great quality leads for suppliers, connecting them to good-quality buyers.”

Russo also says that people have done a great job in the past few years of educating buyers and suppliers on the to-tal cost of ownership. “Even some of the larger companies are beginning to see that offshored products do not neces-sarily translate to larger profits.”

Additionally, recent news has described the rising mid-dle class in China. Labor costs there are, thus, going up, contributing to the total cost of ownership. “And it seems there are always quality issues,” says Russo. “Therefore, just the largest corporations that are currently basing their procurement decisions only on price will continue to do so,” he says. “But we think there is a large custom manufac-turing market here in the U. S. that is vastly underserved. Even smaller job shops have now invested in high-quality machines and CAM equipment. So they can compete if given the chance to find the right buyers.”

Target a critical marketIn another example, Salem Design and Manufactur-

ing LLC (SDM) in Salem, Ohio, designs and builds cus-tom manufacturing equipment along with gaging, eddy-current and ultrasonic testing machines to inspect safety-critical parts. Says President Phillip R. Warga III, such parts might be something like a ball joint, which if not heat treated properly could cause a catastrophic accident. The company remained successful even during the downturn because manufacturers that make safety-critical parts must invest in equipment to inspect them, to ensure they don’t have a lawsuit down the line.

Says Warga, our machines don’t build parts cheaper or make parts faster. The machines are an insurance policy. “Let’s say you are making automotive spindles and one of them is fractured,” he says. “It could go into a car and cause the wheel to fall off, which could result in the car hitting a


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RS# 155


The A-Jet cutting head accessory on an Omax waterjet

makes angled cuts and bevels

and automatically corrects for the taper normally

found in abrasive waterjet cutting.

called UniWest, Pasco, Wash., also developed a cost-com-petitive inspection machine designed primarily to inspect automotive spindles for the proper heat treatment or flaws. The machine includes two robots, one manipulates an eddy-current probe along the surface of the spindle while it rotates. The other robot is used to load and unload the spindles. The probe creates eddy currents in a localized spot, which generates a signal that can be detected should it sense a crack or a flaw. “The technology finds flaws that are difficult to see, even under a microscope,” says Warga. “The machines go in-line for the 100% inspection of auto-motive spindles.”

SDM has been in business for seven years. “Of course, there have been ups and downs like always,“ says Warga. “But I’ve reached a point where money isn’t really the main objective — I just really enjoy doing the work. And that is true for most of our employees. I think good employees are a huge factor in a company being successful. “We are not slave drivers, the profit just kind of came. Businesses have to make money to survive, but we have never priced things to make a lot of money right now. You can run your profitability high in the short term, but that just opens the door for competitors. So we came into the market at times, about half of our competitors’ price for the same test. I don’t think our competitors will be able to make a similar machine for the price.”

A main reason for the poor economy is greed, contin-ues Warga. “As a business owner, I do not strive to make a maximum profit every year. I would rather make less money and be patriotic and help this country than I would to make an extra 5 or 10% and end up hurting the country. I think that bigger businesses should consider that going to foreign countries in the long-term is damaging.”

True, some of the components SDM uses in its ma-

though there is talks of windmills and a lot of other methods, nuclear is not about to go away for a long time. So that market is increasing in size.”

Another reason SDM was able to hold its own during the downturn was because it is fairly lean, says Warga. “We reach around 3 million a year in sales with just six people,” he says. “Over the years, we have found extremely good people — some-thing I put a lot of effort into. We shopped around and went through a lot of individu-als and the result is we have ended up with an exceptional crew. We don’t even have a foreman. Everyone just knows what needs to get done.”

The machinery the company manufac-tures is quite complex. “One of our lines uses a lot of robotics,” says Warga. “In gen-eral, companies that build machines and become profitable usually don’t like to cus-tomize its products. They will say, “Here is the machine, take it or leave it.’” In con-trast, SDM always starts with a clean sheet of paper.

Our strength is we are mostly an engineering service and tackle difficult applications,” says Warga. “This ap-proach is always risky because if we promise a company that we can design a machine to do what the firm wants, should we fail, we are probably bankrupt.”

According to Warga, in the past few months, European nations have been looking internally to find their weak-nesses — whether from a natural disaster or a terrorist at-tack. “One area they discovered is in nuclear-fuel-rod pro-duction,” he says. “Fuel rods supply the energy for power plants to make the steam that runs the generator. Fuel rods last a couple of years and then need replacing. Analysts found problems with a certain rod and came to us to see if we could make a machine to produce them. The tubes required an exceptionally tight, specialized chamfer on the OD and ID. The tubes are about 15-ft long, 3/8 in. diam-eter, with 0.020-in.-thick walls.”

Cutting the chamfer is difficult because tube diameters can vary slightly, continues Warga. “So we developed a sys-tem that uses a laser to find the centerline of the tube down to 5 millionths of an inch. We also developed a mecha-nism that positioned the cutter to within 10 millionths of an inch. Integral to that, we developed the gaging system that would do a 100% inspection after every tube was chamfered.”

Up until that time, only one European company could make that specific kind of fuel rod. SDM’s goal was to pro-duce machined tubes that would equate to the European tubes, however, the end result was that SDM’s machine produced tubes with accuracy exceeding those from Eu-rope. This type of machinery costs approach 1 million dol-lars and is quite large.

SDM, in conjunction with an eddy-current company


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Machinetec Corp. of Fairfield,

Ohio, says its Omax waterjets

have saved costs, increased output,

and brought previously

outsourced work back in-house.

our programming system automatically takes into account.”

So producing a part just involves entering the CAD file and inputting the part thickness, material, and qual-ity — a rough cut or a fine cut. “The machine basically then programs it-self,” says Parry. “The result is great for short runs. The sweet spot for abrasive waterjets is one part to a cou-ple of hundred parts, 0.040 to 4-in. thick. Setup time is almost nothing.”

We have also been successful in manufacturing in the U. S. by always making continuous improvements to the technology, says Parry. “Improve-ments are more easily done because

we make parts as we need them,” he says. “We have ev-erything right here instead of in a long supply chain.”

Another reason Omax is continuing to be successful is its machines also give the company’s customers more flexibility. “Abrasive waterjets are kind of a new tech-nology and take a little bit of getting used to,” says Parry. “So we stand behind the product with training and sup-port. Waterjets are not like cars where you can just hand someone the keys and say, ‘Here it is, go and run it.’”

The machines are useful in that they can cut every-thing from superalloys to composites, coated materials, hardened tool steel, and really soft materials that are difficult to machine. “This capability lets U. S. manufac-turers make better-quality products,” says Parry. “One example is a shop that makes elevator-control panels. Not a really big thing, but our technology can cut the panels after the shop has them all nice and polished. There is no heat situation to cause problems.”

According to Parry, there are abrasive waterjets that are made in China. “But they lack high quality,” he says. “And, above all, the control system that lets us make quick-turnaround parts is just not there. We have seen people bringing over lower-cost Chinese cutting ta-bles — XY tables — and adding their own controllers. But we look at how it is being done and realize that we can actually build high-quality waterjets competitively priced in the U. S. simply by building them as we need them. We keep coming back to the idea that we can do a better job right here with our own people.”

Continues Parry, “The state of manufacturing in the U. S. is encouraging. One thing I am a little distressed about, though, is that youngsters today do not want to get into a trade or be a manufacturing engineer because it seems like manufacturing is all going away. But those of us in our 50s and 60s are not seeing it going away. We are getting smarter about how to stay competitive while manufacturing in the U. S. We must get more young people enthused about making stuff, so we can continue to compete in the future. We can be smart in the way we build and design things and use the latest technology, which offshore manufactures can’t necessarily do.” MD

chines are made offshore. But that is because there is no company in the U. S. it knows of that makes them. But the machine base, guarding, and other components are all made in America.

Make parts only as neededIn another case, H. Laird Parry, senior applications

engineer of Omax Corp. in Kent, Wash., says, “We are a small manufacturer that uses its own abrasive waterjets to make parts for abrasive waterjets that we sell to other companies. The nifty thing is we can make parts as we need them. When companies send things offshore, they have to order a big-enough quantity to make economic sense. And then they don’t have the flexibility needed to make a relatively small number of machines. They must purchase large containers of parts and often there is a design change before the parts even arrive.”

Omax is relatively small, with only about 275 em-ployees— up from 150 about two years ago — and it produces different variations on a theme, says Parry. “So as orders come in, we want to be able to make parts for those orders rather than have a whole bunch of in-ventory tied up on the shelves which may or may not be used that year.”

We held our own during the downturn because our machines complement rather than compete with other technologies such as machining, laser cutting, EDM, or plasma, says Parry. “For example, lasers cannot cut com-posites,” he says. “Smaller EDM shops can use blanks cut from waterjets then finish them off to close tolerances. And laser shops can’t cut copper or aluminum, but wa-terjets can. In addition, waterjets are set up for a quick turnaround. Just clamp the material down on the table and away you go.”

Omax also tries to always stay one step ahead of the competition. “One of the big technological advantages we have — although other companies are moving this way — is our control system. The challenge of a waterjet is that the cutting jet itself is flexible. So programming the ma-chine used to involve a lot of trial and error. Now we have a software model that models the behavior of the jet that


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RS# 157

FLUIDPOWER TECHNOLOGY GUIDE

The 24-in. model of the Triform sheet-hydroforming press has a clamp housing enclosing the bladder, visible at the center of the image. The operator interface supporting recipe controls is on the right.

Hydroforming is a process that uses fluid pressure to shape metal parts. Sheet hydroforming, one variation, can produce formed parts that are impossible to make using a stamping process. Also, sheet hydroforming shapes deep objects in a single operation, whereas stamping might require multiple operations.

Another advantage of hydroforming is that the tooling typically costs much less, as little as one-tenth the cost of that used in metal stamping. This can make hydroforming more attractive for low-volume applications.

Hydroforming basicsThe process has been used by metal fabricators for more than half a

century. Following initial interest during the aerospace boom of the ’50s and ’60s, however, development of new machines and technical innova-tion languished through the latter part of the 20th century. More recently, hydroforming has experienced a measurable resurgence, thanks to the

Hydraulic motion controllers enhance the precision

and repeatability of hydroforming presses.

Authored by:

Richard MeyerhoeferRegional Applications Specialist

Delta Computer SystemsBattle Ground, Wash.

Edited by Kenneth J. [email protected]

Key points:• Hydroforming can make parts not possible

with stamping, and the tooling typically costs

much less.

• Hydraulic motion controllers that control

tooling position and fluid pressure vastly

improve the precision and repeatability of the

hydroforming process

Resources:Delta Computer Systems, http://deltamotion.

com

RS# 621

Pryer Technology Group, www.

pryertechgroup.com

RS# 622

Hydraulic controls TRANSFORM press technology


Groschopp uses the Fast Track™ department to quickly build motors/gearmotors to meet customer’s demands. Because

Groschopp stocks components rather than fi nished motors/gearmotors, we can easily make modifi cations to the motor/

gearmotor to meet your requirements. Modifi cations include:

t� Various bolt hole patterns

t� Face/foot mountings with special fl ange

t� Shaft size/diameter/shape

t� Special bearings and seals

t� Terminal box

t� Insulation

t� Keyway

t� Threading

Because our Fast Track™ designs are based on standard product lines our experienced, on site machinists can quickly

alter bolt hole patters, create custom shafts, threadings and more.

After the entire build process is complete the Fast Track™ department has two rooms designated for testing the motors/

gearmotors. Computers and high tech testing equipment allow them to perform accurate tests on the hand-built motors.

From there the motors are packed with the help of a sophisticated Styrofoam® packaging system.

Need a few motors quickly? Submit your application specs at www.groschopp.com/specs or call (800) 829-4135 and

ask to speeak with a regional account manager.

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Connect with us:

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RS# 158


The RMC151E electrohydraulic motion controller can synchronize up to eight axes and control pressure and position simultaneously.

model, eight axes are under closed-loop control.Programs developed for the motion controller let oper-

ators select production “recipes” that contain up to 30 dif-ferent steps in a press cycle. Each step corresponds to a target bladder pressure and punch position. Besides the target values, motion instructions specify how the ma-chine will reach the next target.

For example, at the beginning of a machine cycle, a quick move instruction brings the punch cylinder to its start position. At the same time, the bladder is precharged to a designated pressure. Then, during the forming cycle, the punch axis receives a position command with an accel-eration and deceleration value for each step in the process. Meanwhile, to control bladder pressure and coordinate its operation with punch-axis movements, the RMC is given a gearing command. This sets up the punch axis as master and forces bladder pressure to follow the punch as a slave. To smooth motions between steps, acceleration of the axes ramps up and down gradually using an S-curve motion command.

An intensifier cylinder pressurizes the bladder. It works like a syringe to inject or remove oil under both position and pressure control. A pressure transducer monitors bladder pressure and sends the data to the motion con-troller. The transducer can typically read between 1 and 10,000 psi. The RMC also commands a directional valve to control the position of the intensifier cylinder. A lin-ear magnetostrictive-displacement transducer (LMDT) mounted inside the cylinder provides position feedback. A second LMDT monitors punch position. To ensure pre-

introduction of precision motion controls.Case in point is a new line of sheet-hy-

droforming machines called Triform presses, made by the Pryer Technology Group of Tulsa, Okla. In these presses, a bladder filled with hydraulic fluid surrounds the tool-ing form. A hydraulic-cylinder-driven punch presses the tooling and metal sheet into the bladder, causing it to con-form to the required shape.

As fluid pressure in the bladder builds, it clamps the material and forces it against and around the form. Simultaneously, a hydraulic cylinder presses the form against the bladder, bending the metal sheet to con-form to the tooling. It’s important to control how quickly the material bends. Otherwise, it will tear or wrinkle, according to Darrell Har-relson, technical director with the Beckwood Press Co. of Fenton, Mo., a design partner with Pryer on the new Triform hydroforming machine project.

Sheet hydroforming requires the manage-ment of several variables to ensure quality parts: position and speed of the punch; bladder fluid pres-sure; lubrication of the part, which is relatively easy to con-trol; and material variances, which can be controlled by working with metal suppliers.

When making complex parts on traditional hydro-forming presses, operators face differences in pressure from cycle to cycle, causing the position of the punch to vary, says Scott Pryer, president of Pryer Technology Group. Historically, highly skilled and experienced ma-chine operators were needed to deal with this variability.

And often, even that wasn’t enough. Some older ma-chines used two joysticks for control and dials to monitor pressure in the chamber. Operators couldn’t see the actual process, resulting in poor consistency among parts made by a single operator; and even less uniformity in parts pro-duced by different operators.

“Metal fabricators demand machines that perform consistently, every time, so that operators can focus on improving other process factors such as the materials and lubrication,” says Pryer.

Position and pressure controlTo solve the control problem, engineers designing the

Triform presses turned to RMC electrohydraulic motion controllers from Delta Computer Systems Inc. of Battle Ground, Wash. They precisely control position and pres-sure throughout the process and reduce the number of forming steps in the manufacturing cycle.

On smaller Triform machines, the Delta RMC controls two motion axes: the punch cylinder that pushes tool-ing into the bladder, and the cylinder that varies bladder pressure. On larger presses, it also controls containment clamps and the upper chamber that closes around the bladder and workpiece. On the largest machine, a 32-in.


RS# 159


Hydroforming operation

Intensifier

cylinder

Directional valve

LMDT

Pressure

transducer

Proportional

valve

LMDT

Motion controller

ClampBladder

Metal

sheet

being

formed

Tooling

Punch

cylinder

The Delta multiaxis motion controller synchronizes operation of the intensifier cylinder and punch cylinder, providing closed-loop control of the sheet-hydroforming process.

to close the outer shells before the pressurization cycle begins. Closed-loop position control for this operation en-sures smooth motion, avoiding any shocks that would cre-ate maintenance problems over time. The controller also monitors shell-position feedback to detect any faults or er-rors. For example, if a wrench left in the machine prevents the shell clamps from closing properly, a following error (a mismatch between target motion and actual motion) would signal a problem that needs to be fixed.

Similar controls activate the lid on a 32-in. deep-draw press. Four cylinders, one at each corner, each with its own proportional valve, raise the lid. The motion of these cylinders is linked using the multiaxis synchronization ca-

pability of the Delta controller to avoid wracking or jamming the lid frame.

“The biggest design challenge in developing the Triform was gearing the bladder pressure to the punch position,” says Har-relson. Getting them to synch requires calculating appropri-ate ramp times in the open-loop section. To test the design and tune it for optimal performance, Beckwood’s engineers used Delta Computer Systems’ RMCTools software. It includes a Plot Man-ager and pressure and position Tuning Wizards that analyze the system response to control outputs and produce the proper gains for the control-loop equa-tion. “It simplifies tuning the sys-tem for best performance,” says Harrelson.

ResultsThe design goal of the Tri-

form machines was to permit experienced operators to spend less time controlling the machine and more time improving the process, while also letting inex-perienced operators use the reci-pes to make complex parts con-sistently, with little training.

Precise control improves quality and performance. “On moderately difficult forming projects in the past, 10% of the material would often be wasted due to lack of precision,” says Scott Pryer. And on complex forming operations, it could be as high as 25%. Now, with the re-peatable process, the scrap rate is almost zero. MD

cise punch operation, outputs from the motion controller drive a servo-quality proportional valve that controls the punch hydraulics.

“The trick in the hydroforming process is to avoid wrinkling the sheet as it first bends around the corners of the tool,” notes Harrelson. To accomplish this, most of the programmable motion steps in each press cycle oc-cur within the first inch of punch travel. Cycle time varies, depending on the profile of the part and the needed pres-sure. The machine’s operator interface locks in all of this information for each part by calling up a preprogrammed recipe from the RMC. There’s no guesswork.

In some larger machines, the motion controller is used


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RS# 160

CONNECTING DEVICES.


Energy consumption is often the major contributor to overall costs of owning and operating industrial plants and machinery. On average, energy consump-tion accounts for between 20 and 30% of total equipment operating costs. And in energy-intensive hydraulic applications, the share of energy costs are often far greater. In such cases, variable-speed pump technology quickly pays for itself.

Fixed versus variableTraditional hydraulics run continuously at a constant speed to generate the

power required to operate a machine. In these circuits, an electric motor typically runs at its rated speed, say 1,800 rpm, and drives a fixed-speed pump. The pump, in turn, rotates continuously and generates flow without regard to the actual power needed by the machine at any given moment. The varying hydraulic flow a machine demands is regulated via internal adjustment mechanisms in the pump, or by divert-ing excess flow back to the tank.

Innovations over the years have improved the efficiency of fixed-speed pump circuits, but applying variable-speed techniques raises potential energy savings to a new level. Such systems use variable-speed electric drives to rotate pumps at their most-efficient speed — often less than 200 rpm — while supplying only the hydrau-lic power a process requires at any given moment. Depending on the application, this can produce energy savings between 30 and 80%, compared to fixed-speed op-eration, without sacrificing performance or limiting operating pressure.

In addition, lower energy consumption indirectly reduces the emission of CO2,

helping companies significantly reduce their carbon footprint.Operating the pump and motor at less than full speed also means they generate

less noise. In some cases, noise emissions have been reduced by as much as 20 dB(A).

Variable-speed

pump drives

supply only the

power a process

requires, cutting

energy costs

in hydraulic

systems by up

to 80%.

Authored by:

Neal GigliottiManager, Plastics Group

Jan KomstaManager, New Technologies &

Simulation

Bosch Rexroth Corp.Bethlehem, Pa.

Edited by Kenneth J. [email protected]

Key points:• Traditional hydraulics run at a

constant speed and generate flow

without regard to the actual power

needed by a machine.

• Variable-speed electric drives

rotate pumps at their most-efficient

speed to supply only the hydraulic

power a process requires.

• Engineers should consider using

variable-speed pump drives

whenever a machine cycle has

fluctuating flows.

Resources:Bosch Rexroth, www.

boschrexroth-us.com

RS# 623

Energy-efficient

HYDRAULICS slash operating costs

Variable-speed pump drives not only reduce energy consumption, they run quieter than fixed-speed units, generate less heat, and require less cooling.


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RS# 161


tion, providing high efficiency over a wide speed range. It is can run at more than 3,000 rpm, but in partial-load operation it reduces speed to less than 200 rpm without af-fecting operating pressure. This also substantially reduces noise from the hydraulic power unit.

The FcP 5000 is well suited for clamping and tensioning operations, such as required in machine tools. Depending on cycle characteristics, energy consumption falls by 30 to 80%, average flow is reduced over the entire machine cycle, and the oil stays cooler.

The second line, the DFEn 5000, consists of an axial-piston, variable-displacement pump driven by an asyn-chronous standard motor and a frequency inverter. It’s for high-performance, high-power applications.

Digital onboard electronics calculate the best operating speeds for the pump and motor. Destroking the variable-displacement pump lowers the flow rate and motor load, with optimum speed for maintaining pressure generally between 300 and 400 rpm. During production breaks, the software can stop the pump without affecting the operat-ing pressure. With machines that operate on a cyclical ba-sis, a teach-in process can be used to bring the system back up to speed just before a needed increase in flow rate.

With noncyclical machines, sensing demand lets the controller increase speed to the required minimum shortly before additional flow is required, for instance in case of a batch change. That way, the full output of the pump is available if and when it is needed.

Finally, for high-end applications, the Sytronix SvP 7000 servopump drives offer the greatest responsiveness and precision. They take advantage of the high dynamic capabilities of permanently excited synchronous servomo-tors to boost efficiency and substantially reduce energy consumption, for example in presses and plastics-process-ing machines.

The drives use an internal gear or axial-piston pump. A pressure transducer senses hydraulic pressure, which is

This eliminates potential hazards to workers and the need for personnel-protection measures. And the cost and has-sle of secondary noise containment or damping measures is cut accordingly. This adds to the potential savings of variable-speed drives, helping pay off the investment in relatively short order.

Due to lower energy consumption, another benefit is that the hydraulic fluid does not heat up excessively. In many cases, it is possible to eliminate heat exchang-ers or fans to cool the power unit. This, in turn, permits a more-compact design, which can reduce a system’s complexity and up-front costs. Commissioning becomes easier and quicker, and it simplifies troubleshooting and maintenance.

Finally, variable-speed pump drives can be integrated into existing equipment without major redesigns, thus letting them increase the energy efficiency in machines already installed on the plant floor.

High-performance drivesA number of fluid-power and motor manufacturers

offer variable-speed pump drives, and the available com-binations of pumps and motors seems to be growing by the day. For example, Rexroth’s Sytronix product line has more than 140 modular, variable-speed pump/drive com-binations, covering a broad spectrum of applications for demand-based control of hydraulic systems. The variable-speed pump drives currently fall into three general groups:

The frequency-controlled Sytronix FcP 5000 pump drive is the basic version. It consists of an asynchronous standard motor and a frequency inverter driving an inter-nal or external gear pump. This combination offers a good price/performance ratio, especially for high-power appli-cations. It’s primarily used in constant-pressure systems.

It maintains system pressure by matching flow with de-mand. For example, the unit’s PGH-3x internal gear pump has been designed specifically for variable-speed opera-

Rexroth’s Sytronix SvP 7000 servo-pump drives offer high responsiveness and precision. They combine permanently excited synchronous servomotors with an internal gear or axial-piston pump. They can be used in open hydraulic circuits to control pressure and flow, and for simple positioning. And highly dynamic position control is possible in closed-loop circuits, often eliminating the need for control valves.


RS# 162


ciently generate the required flow. In addition, the drives improve efficiency by eliminating throttling losses across control lands. Required oil flow is precisely metered, and the electric motor switched off when the press does not need flow or pressure. When retrofitting existing presses, they clearly improve a machine’s capacity while signifi-cantly reducing energy costs and noise.

In continuous papermaking, variable-speed pump drives can significantly improve energy efficiency. For example, during pressure-holding functions for rolling up paper, intelligently reducing speed directly saves up to 60% on electricity compared with power units with non-regulated fixed displacement motors. At the same time, variable-speed pump drives can run faster, permitting smaller-size units with lower cooling demands. Thus, they cut operating costs and space requirements.

In all these applications, variable-speed pump drives maintain the reliability and power density of hydraulics, and combine it with the flexibility of electric drives. The extended diagnostics options of these closed-loop drives also opens up additional options for preventing expen-sive machine failures, thanks to condition monitoring.

And keep in mind the possibility for upgrading ex-isting plant machinery by replacing fixed-displacement units with variable-speed pump drives. This lets users quickly reduce energy consumption without having to invest in new equipment. Simulation programs are avail-able that evaluate a machine’s hydraulic circuits and de-termine possible savings for an application, before in-vesting in hardware. And because existing hydraulic circuits often remain unchanged, the switch can be made with surprisingly little effort. It also opens up possibili-ties for replacing classic, constant-speed hydraulic power units with variable-speed pump drives. MD

controlled by software in the frequency converter. Here, pressure control has a limiting effect on pump speed. Closed-loop comparison of required and actual values for pressure and flow can be sent to the higher-level machine controller via analog signals (0 to 10 V) or fieldbus. As in the other versions, the pumps are designed for variable speed operations, combining low leakage and noise with high overall efficiency.

The SvP 7000 with an internal gear pump can be used in open hydraulic circuits to control pressure and flow, and for simple positioning. And highly dynamic position con-trol is possible with an axial-piston pump in a closed-loop circuit. Precisely metered flow allows for direct control of cylinder movements, letting the unit position an axis with-out the need for control valves. Thus, it can considerably simplify hydraulic systems.

And several servo-variable pump drives can be com-bined into one cascading system. Ethernet-based, real-time communication between several controls using Ser-cos III lets users synchronize an almost unlimited number of SvP 7000s to satisfy most any application demand.

Typical applicationsVariable-speed pump drives aren’t warranted for ev-

ery hydraulic system. But engineers should consider them whenever a machine cycle has fluctuating flows. “Intelligent” servodrives sense demand and regulate speed and, thus, power consumption of the electric mo-tors. The more time a machine spends running under partial-load conditions, the greater the potential energy savings. Applications where variable-speed pump drive offer substantial energy savings include:• Machine tools• Plastics-processing machines• Die casting• Presses• Woodworking and papermaking.

For instance, variable-speed pump drives in plastics-processing machines reduce pressure-holding losses during pauses and partial-load operation. High-per-formance units, like the SvP 7000, accelerate twice as fast as conventional variable-speed pumps, shortening cycle times for higher productivity. Digital speed control ensures high repeatability, and the setup compensates for pressure-related leakage losses. With sophisticated closed-loop pressure control, quick pressure changes are possible while minimizing under or overshoots. Software can even prevent cavitation when changing from high to low pressures.

In, hot-chamber die-casting machines, closed-loop control corrects for deviations in pressure and speed, and compensates for leakage past the pump. It can also sim-plify the hydraulic circuit. In one redesign, an SvP 7000 eliminated the need for separate pumps for high and low pressure circuits, replaced some high-response control valves, and supplied an accumulator-charging circuit for the shot cylinder.

For press automation, variable-speed controls effi-

0

1,000

2,000

0

5,000

10,000

5.6 kW1.3 kW

41.4% 2.2 kW 33.1% 8.4 kW

50-ton,

30-sec cycle time

160-ton,

15-sec cycle time

Energy savings

Variable-

speed

pump

Constant-speedpump

Comparing energy consumptionInjection-molding machines

Comparisons on plastic injection-molding machines show that replacing constant-speed, electrohydraulic variable-displacement pumps with variable-speed pump drives cuts energy consumption well in excess of 30%.


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RS# 163

FLUIDPOWER PRODUCTS

Low-temperature hosesNew 472LT and 722LT hoses are engineered to work in temperatures as low as –70°F (–57°C). The hoses are suited for high-impulse, heavy-duty mining, drilling, and construction equipment found through-out northern Canada and the Arctic Circle. They are also suited for snow groomers, side booms, snowmaking machinery, and cold-storage applications. Available in -4 to -16 sizes, two-wire braided 472LT hose is rated to 5,800 psi (40 MPa). Four-wire spiral 722LT is available in sizes from -6 to -24 and rated to 4,000 psi (28 MPa). Upper temperature limit is 212°F (100°C).Parker Hannifin, Hose Products Div., 30240 Lakeland Blvd., Wickliffe, OH 44092, (440) 943-5700, www.parkerhose.com

RS# 624

Air-pilot and manual valvesThe NITRA line of pneumatic prod-ucts has been extended to include air-pilot and manual-control valves. The AVS-5 Series now includes single and double-pilot directional control air-pilot valves, offering spring return or center-closed operation. All are body ported

five-port (four-way) spool valves available in 0.12 to 0.50-in. NPT port sizes with flow coefficients from 0.67 to 2.79. Manual valves in tog-gle-style hand lever, push-pull, and rotary-style hand lever models have aluminum-alloy bodies, 0.12 to 0.50-in. NPT ports, and flow coeffi-cients from 0.78 to 5.29. Models are available in two or three-position detented styles.AutomationDirect, 3505 Hutchinson Rd., Cumming, GA 30040, (800) 633-0405, www.automationdirect.com RS# 628

Pilot-control cartridge valvesNew 09 Series cartridge valves are for proportional and on/off pilot control of clutches, brakes, and directional-control valves. The hybrid units combine a 10 size cavity with an 08 size tube/coil, providing high flow in a compact pack-age with low-power consumption. They include two on/off solenoid valves and a proportional pressure-reducing valve. The solenoid valves are two position, three way or four way, and operate to pilot pressures of 100 bar (1,450 psi) and flows to 20 lpm (5.3 gpm). The proportional pressure-reducing /relieving valve gives pilot control of a clutch or direc-tional valve. The valve comes with standard reduced pressure settings of 20 and 25 bar (290 and 360 psi) with flow capability exceeding 25 lpm (7 gpm).Comatrol, 1407 Pelzer Highway, Easley, SC 29642, (864) 644-0055, www.comatrol.com RS# 626

Diaphragm pressure regulatorsMiniature diaphragm pressure regulators feature a low-friction pressure-sensing element and a propri-etary valve mechanism for regulation in small pack-ages. An innovative spring system provides a range of outlet pressures while also ensuring the lowest installed height and lowest weight in the industry.

Single (PRD) and two-stage (PRD3/PRD2) models are just over 1 in. in diameter. The single-stage regulator weighs only 25 gm in stainless steel and brass. The two-stage version weighs 66 gm in stainless steel and brass. Aluminum versions for ultralow-weight requirements are also offered.

The regulators accurately reduce inlet pressures as high as 500 psig down to an out-let pressure range of 0 to 30 psig. The regulators are available in 316 stainless steel, 303 stainless steel, brass, and aluminum. For applications with inlet pressures above 500 psi, the PRD3HP three-stage regulator can reduce inlet pressures as high as 3,000 psig down to an outlet pressure range of 0 to 30 psig.Beswick Engineering Co. Inc., 284 Ocean Rd., Greenland, NH 03840, (800) 354-5014, www.beswick.com RS# 625

ISO air cylindersExtruded body, ISO 6431-compliant air cylinders have standard magnetic pistons in seven bore sizes from 32 to 125 mm. Stroke lengths are to 1,000 mm. Adjustable air cushions at both ends and machined male rod threads with jam nut are also standard. The hard-anodized aluminum cylinder tube ID and OD ensures corrosion resistance and long product life, and lubrication is not required. Optional position sensor mounting brackets fit over any of four extruded housing rails. See Catalog #FAQR-09 for complete specs and prices.Fabco-Air, 3716 NE 49th Ave., Gainesville, FL 32609, (352) 373-3578, www.fabco-air.com RS# 627


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RS# 164

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FLUIDPOWER PRODUCTS

Pressure sensorsThe new Model IP pressure sensors are CE certi-fied and come in common pressure ranges (5 to 10,000 psi and 0.5 to 700 bar). IP sensors include tem-perature in its Total Error Band (TEB) configuration, improving measurement confidence and eliminating the need for supplementary calculations. Models IPG1 and IPG2 offer accuracies of 0.15 % and 0.25%, respectively. They are compatible with many liquids, chemicals, and gases and are designed for demand-ing industrial environments with temperature swings or pressure spikes. Typical applications include heavy-equipment monitoring, process and factory automation, and testing.Honeywell Sensing and Control, 2080 Arlingate Lane, Columbus, OH 43228, (800) 848-6564, http://sensing.honeywell.com RS# 629

ISO tie-rod cylindersMH Series metric hydraulic tie-rod cylin-ders meet ISO 6020/2 160-bar standards. The products have pistons with cast-iron rings and polyurethane U-cup seals; rod and rod bearings with hard-chrome-plated/high-strength steel and bronze construction; and carbon steel tie-rods with rolled threads. Ten different bore diameters range from 25 to 200 mm, with working pressures to 210 bar. Multiple mounting configurations, as well as double-rod versions, are available.Milwaukee Cylinder, 5877 S. Pennsylvania Ave., Cudahy, WI 53110, (414) 769-9700, www.milwaukeecylinder.com RS# 630

Check-valve assemblyA compact manifold assembly that includes a check valve and an inverted shuttle valve is for full-power brake systems. The assembly is suited for hydrau-lic-brake systems that must store energy in two separate accumulator circuits. The inverted shuttle valve isolates the higher pressure of the two circuits, while directing lower pressure to the switch port. A check valve prevents pressure from leaking back to the inlet port. Maximum flow capacity is 11 gpm and operating pressure is 3,625 psi. Applications include split systems with a pressure-compensated pump and electrohydraulic accumulator charging controlled by a pressure transducer at the switch port.MICO Inc., 1911 Lee Blvd., North Mankato, MN 56003, (507) 625-6426, www.mico.com RS# 632




Function-block libraryThe updated PLUS+1-compliant J1939 software function-block library supports EPA Tier 4 emissions-compliant systems and the company’s related products. The library contains 30 new function blocks, including support for messages commonly used in Tier 4-com-pliant systems, and 12 updated function blocks with protocol upgrades and new fea-tures. These include basic PGN Receiver, PGN Transmitter, and Diagnostic function blocks. The software supports CAN-based communications in the truck, bus, and off-highway markets, letting OEMs quickly develop custom control systems.Sauer-Danfoss, 2800 E. 13th St., Ames, IA 50010, (515) 239-6000, www.sauer-danfoss.com RS# 631


RS# 166

SOFTWARE REVIEW

much material remains in the

machine. In fact, the Mojo won’t

let you build if there isn’t enough

material to complete the job. From

here, just hit Print and the machine

starts building the object. When

the job is complete, a notice ap-

pears on the Control Panel.

The only nit-picky thing that I

can say is that a tad more vibration

damping could be in order. On

very fast moves (e.g., raster fill of a

thin wall) there is a minor amount

of shaking. I say nit picky because

it didn’t bother me or interrupt my

work.

So my first part built took less

than 5 hr. It comprised 0.007-in.

layers with a solid fill. All the de-

tails were present, including thin,

0.020-in. ribs, walls, and horizon-

tal surfaces. The part was good

looking and consistent. And the

machine is truly office friendly. It

didn’t throw off any heat, fumes,

or odor.

Also exceptionally easy is sup-

port removal. As part of the pack-

age price, the company includes a

nice support-removal carafe called

WaveWash 55. Again, it is small,

compact, and simple — just a

plug, on/off switch, and Cycle Start

button. Just drop in the EcoWorx

tablet, the part, and add water. To

accelerate support removal, the

carafe heats the water and agitates

it with a nifty magnetic-drive rota-

tor. Also nice is that you need no

plumbing connections, only access

to a tap and drain — no plumbing

is necessary. MD

process my first part. I selected a

Test Block from Windows Explorer

and had the first part ready to print

in 15 min.

The Print Wizard interface for

print preparation is clean, simple,

and intuitive, in part because the

only thing a user has to do is select

one of three support styles, and

orient the part. Both tasks are very

easy. There are also the options to

do part scaling and make multiple

copies. Once I knew how to pro-

cess a part, it took me just 30 sec to

open a test STL and make my selec-

tion. I then pressed Print to prepare

and send the STL to the control

software. That took just 19 sec.

When finished in Print Wizard,

users open the Control Panel. It

gives job details such as estimated

time, shows the model, and the

support material. It also lists how

The Mojo is a new desktop printer

from Stratasys, Eden Prairie, Minn.,

that I really like. At $9,900, it

opens the door to more users

such as small shops and small

teams. The Mojo has a small

build volume, but this is not a

problem since about 80% of all

parts designers create fit in a 5 ×

5 × 5-in. work envelope. The ma-

chine itself is 25

× 18 × 21 in.

Setup was

easy. In fact,

without rush-

ing, 95% of

users will be up and

building their first

part in less than 45

min. This includes

unboxing, setup,

software installa-

tion, learning the

software, processing

the first part, and

launching a build. In

fact, the entire pro-

cess was identical

to that of bringing

home a new all-in-

one printer. Clear-cut and easy.

Basically, users just places Mojo

where they want it and remove

the packing material. Next, they

install the print engines by drop-

ping them in and snapping them

in place. The print head is consum-

able, comprising the head and the

material. As such, it is as easy as

installing an inkjet ink cartridge.

Next comes installing the build

platform and plugging Mojo into a

computer via a USB cord and also

into a wall outlet via the power

cord. It was easy to load the Print

Wizard software and Control panel

software. I was very pleased that

there is no calibration or user-run

setup routines. All of that is done in

the background by the system.

Users need no tools except a

knife to open the box. With the

system ready to go, it was time to

Professional desktop 3D printer is easy to use

Authored by:

Todd GrimmPresident

T. A. Grimm & Associates Inc.Edgewood, Ky.

Edited by Leslie [email protected], Twitter @

LeslieGordon

Resources:T. A. Grimm & Associates Inc., www.

tagrimm.com

Stratasys, www.stratasys.com

RS# 426

The Mojo is sitting on a desktop and is hooked to a laptop.

The printed test part was complex and included 0.020-in. ribs, walls, and horizontal surfaces.


www.machinedesign.com/rscRequest free information via

our Reader Service Web site at

Accelerating the Speed of Design.™

Your one solution for design creation.

Avnet Memec focuses on a select group of leading suppliers to provide original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) a high level of technical expertise — enabling the swift and accurate design of leading-edge products.

With factory trained and certified support, Avnet Memec specialists offer a level of technical depth unmatched in the industry. With easy access to our industry experts, your projects move forward with greater velocity, driven by in-depth technical expertise. That translates into faster time to market for you, with greater ease and confidence. From Design to Delivery.™ Avnet is ranked Best-in-Class* for online seminars, technology education and training, design & engineering services, knowledgeable application engineers and our online 24-hour design support – proof that we consistently deliver:

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Visit the Avnet Design Resource Center™ at: www.em.avnet.com/drc

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*As rated by Hearst Electronics Group: The Supplier Interface Study, 2007.©Avnet, Inc. 2011. All rights reserved. AVNET is a registered trademark of Avnet, Inc.

Follow us on Twitter!www.twitter.com/avnetdesignwire

RS# 167

SOFTWARE PRODUCTS

Power SubD-Nurbs for modo

Power SubD-Nurbs for modo is a plug-in that lets

designers automatically convert subdivision surface

meshes into Nurbs-based CAD formats that can be

exported directly to standard CAD systems. With this

new plug-in, industrial designers in the early stages

of the design process can quickly create concept

models that can be exported and refined in the users’

CAD system. The plug-in exports IGES, SAT, STEP, and

Rhino files formats for compatibility with CAD pack-

ages. Additionally, modo materials assigned by the

designer can be used to derive surface boundaries in

the resulting file for maximum control.

Luxology LCC, 2525 E. Charleston Rd., Suite 104,

Mountain View, CA 94043, (650) 336-1380, www.

luxology.com RS# 429

Complete die-casting solutionsThe company now provides complete aluminum and

zinc die-casting solutions in as fast as three weeks. It

can assist users from design to casting. The company

provides many postprocesses, including machining,

plating, coatings, salt-fog testing, etching, stamp-

ing, and anodizing. Part runs can range from 100 to

100,000 parts. A free Design for Manufacturability

(DFM) review, (valued at $300) is offered to customers

working with the company on die-casting projects.

Quickparts.com Inc., 301 Perimeter Center N, Suite

500, Atlanta, GA 30346, (770) 901-3200, www.

quickparts.com RS# 430


™ motion solutions. These include an integrated controller,

Highest power density, smallest footprint, most durable.

Unrivaled power, performance and compactness comes from our T-LAM

stator design and rugged roller screw technology.

Compare and learn more at www.exlarcorp.com

Patented actuators from Exlar utilize planetary roller screws to outperform ball screw actuators in life, load, speed and acceleration.

Actuator

Motor

Amplifi er

Controller

Linear or Rotary ActuatorSolutions Available

Or try our totally-integratedelectric actuator solutionSave time and development costs.

Eliminate complex engineering and achieve signifi cant savings with our

low-maintenance Tritex II

amplifi er, motor and robust roller screw actuator, all in one effi cient, sealed package.

Social-business collaborationNuage Café is designed to bring

everyday personal social-media

practices to the workplace,

providing an environment to

securely share and manage

business’ intellectual property

while allowing virtual teams to

seamlessly communicate and

collaborate. The basic Nuage

Café subscription is free to us-

ers for up to 2 Gbytes of space.

Nuage is offering the first 1,000

subscribers 4 Gbytes of space

free. Up to 10 Gbytes of space

can be purchased for a fee of

$20 USD.

Nuage Corp., (855) 682-4344,

www.go-nuage.com RS# 431

CAD/CAM for the Indian marketPictures by PC CAD/CAM software intended for the Indian market includes

hybrid solid/surface and mesh modeling techniques, helping designers

transform their

conceptual

sketches into

working proto-

types. The ad-

vanced modeling

tools work well

with a mold and

tool setting, help-

ing to streamline

the process of

creating part core

and cavity molds.

The software

features a seam-

less integration

with machining

and comes with free machine postprocessors. For a software overview, visit

www.schott-systeme.com/index.php/en/cad-cam-videos/40-cad-software-

video-conceptual-design.html

Schott Systeme GmbH, Germany

RS# 169JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com 95

SPOTLIGHT PLASTICS & ELASTOMERS

Semirigid TPEA high-impact, semirigid

grade of thermoplastic

elastomer (TPE) comes

in black pellets with a

50 Shore D hardness. Des-

ignated 9050BX, the mate-

rial benefits processors

and end users with a wide

range of properties for trim

rings and panels required

for electronic consumer

products and various trans-

portation equipment and

interior instrumentation.

The TPE has the integrity

to be molded as an integral

part in fastening systems

that require a high level of

impact resistance. The new

TPE is said to perform well

in part designs that require

various screw bosses and

gusset-reinforced screw

boss designs.

The latex-free TPEs do

not require drying and are

for applications requiring

rubberlike properties, im-

pact resistance, colorability,

a good surface finish, easy

processibility, and reduced

material usage.

Elastocon TPE Technolo-gies, Marketing Dept., Box

463, Rochester, IL 62563,

(888) 644-8732, www.

elastocontpe.com RS# 446

BioplasticizerreFlex 100, a fast-acting bio-based plasticizer

produced from rapidly renewable plant-based

feedstocks, is an alternative to conventional

plasticizers such as BBP, DBP, and benzoates.

reFlex 100 can be blended into both traditional

phthalate and new nonphthalate systems,

providing a formulating tool that helps reduce

costs by improving productivity, eliminating

defects, and reducing consumption.

To improve productivity, reFlex 100 offers

faster setup times and

reduced viscosity versus

traditional plasticizers. It

helps eliminate defects

through improved air

release and thermal sta-

bility. Because it is more

efficient, reFlex 100 also reduces the amount of plasti-

cizer needed during processing. It acts inherently as a

thermal stabilizer as well, which may enable processors

to eliminate the need for stabilizers in their formulas.

PolyOne Corp., 33587 Walker Rd., Avon Lake OH

44012, (866) 765-9663, www.polyone.com RS# 447

Engineered plasticsStruktol TR 044W provides a combination of viscosity reduction and mold-re-

lease characteristics for polycarbonate resins and compounds. The new addi-

tives give greater processing and performance capabilities for compounders,

processors, and end users.

With loading levels as low as 0.2%, melt flow increases and allows signifi-

cant improvements in mold filling and release. Improved processibility results

in lower molded-in stress in injection-molding applications.

Struktol TR 063A, targeted for nylon 6 and nylon 66 compounds, has a novel

chemistry making it compatible with polyamides and perform better than al-

ternative lubricants such as montan ester waxes.

Struktol RP 28 is a compatibilizer and blending aid for incorporating re-

grind/recycled product for a wide range of polymers. It can also be used as an

alloying agent because it provides improved dispersion of the discreet phase

polymer and mechanical bonding characteristics that result in better physical

properties.

Struktol Company of America, 201 E. Steels Corners Rd., Box 1649, Stow, OH

44224, (330) 928-5188, www.4struktol.com RS# 448

Color and additive masterbatchesThe nBalance product line consists of color and additive masterbatches that

reduce impact on the environment. Features of nBalance products and ser-

vices include lower environmental impact, reduced consumption of natural

resources, and minimal energy use in manufacturing and distribution.

Offerings include defined palettes and technologies for PLA and bio PTT; a

PCR renewal additive for PET; nCore chemical-blowing agents used to reduce


TPE compoundsTwo new TPE brands — Copec and For-Tec E —

offer haptics; adhesion properties; resistance to

daily use influences, e.g., hand sweat, and alco-

hol; and media/weather resistance.

Copec offers products a texture similar to that

of velvet and silk. Products such as computer

mice, games consoles or ear plugs

are frequently handheld and

subject to heavy use. During de-

velopment, special attention was

paid to high resistance to skin fats

and cleaning agents. Copec gives

products a high-quality finish that

is dirt repellent and minimizes slip-

page on smooth surfaces, without

a sticky feel. The Series exhibits

excellent adhesion properties in

the multicomponent injection-

molding process with thermoplastic materials such as ABS, PC, or PC/PBT.

The For-Tec E Series was developed for reliable adhesion to semiaromatic

polyamides and PA 6.6. The adhesion properties in the 2K injection-molding

process permit the use of TPE, for example in the form of seals or plug-in con-

nections for mobile phones and MP3 players. For-Tec E is used in consumer

electronics and the power-tools sector.

Kraiburg TPE Corp., 2625 North Berkeley Lake Rd., Suite 100, Duluth, GA

30096, (678) 584-5020, www.kraiburg-tpe.com RS# 451

TPV replacement lineStarPrene is a line of TPEs (thermo-

plastic elastomers) that mold and

perform better than TPVs (thermo-

plastic vulcanizates – EPDM rubber

and polypropylene).

The advantages of StarPrene

TPEs over TPVs include similar flow

characteristics with the same rheol-

ogy; high-flow versions available;

better tensile strength and

elongation; good colorability;

and no need to dry the mate-

rial before processing.

The TPEs are resistant to

many acids, bases, aqueous

solutions, and various process-

ing options, and are available in

numerous stock grades.

Star Thermoplastics, 2121 W.

21st St., Broadview, IL 60155,

(708) 343-1100, www.starther-

moplastics.com

RS# 452




Bio-based resinThe Plexiglas Rnew bio-

based resins are designed to

be lower carbon-footprint

solutions. The compounds

stem from the synergistic

effect of compounding two

completely miscible poly-

mers, Plexiglas and Ingeo

biopolymer. The resultant

alloys feature lower process-

ing temperatures, greater

melt-flow properties, and

reduced carbon footprint.

The alloys don’t compro-

mise optics, scratch resis-

tance, color acceptance,

and surface aesthetics.

Altuglas International, Arkema Inc., 100 PA Route

413, Bristol, PA 19007, (800)

523-1532, www.plexiglas.

com/Rnew

RS# 449

raw-material usage, and natural fi-

bers such as flax used as fillers and

for unique aesthetic effects.

Americhem Inc., 2000 Americhem

Way, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221, (800)

228-3476, www.Americhem.com

RS# 450

Copec

For-Tec E


PRODUCTS

Mobile machine displayThe new PLUS+1TM-compliant DP600LX Series Mobile Machine Displays offer off-highway OEMs next-generation color and mono-chrome graphical displays for in-cab and open-air applications. The Series consists of three displays — DP600LX, DP610LX and DP620LX — that feature a more-powerful processor, a new operat-ing system, and enhanced industry-leading viewability.

The high-resolution, transflective thin-film LCDs have eight soft keys and six buttons for navi-gation and are user programmable with PLUS+1 GUIDE (graphical-user integrated-development environment).

A new ARM-11 processor provides greater responsiveness and faster screen updates. A multimedia capability and 532-MHz clock speed let the processor perform 10 times faster than previous models. The displays run on the LinuxTM operating system.

New features of the Series include two external video inputs for providing system overview; the capability of supporting both NTSC and PAL video feeds; USB host support for downloading machine application log data to a USB mem-ory stick; 9 to 70-Vdc voltage range; increased input/output functionality with software-controlled inputs (digital, analog, frequency, current); and 16 Mbytes of application and logging memory.Sauer-Danfoss, 2800 E. 13th St., Ames, IA 50010, (515) 239-6222, www.sauer-danfoss.com RS# 465

Rotary valvesManual rotary select valves let aircraft operators isolate hydraulic pres-sure from specific systems to permit ground maintenance of aircraft. De-signed with dual or multiple ports, the

valves are qualified for aerospace hydraulic systems up to 5,000 psi.

The Rudder isolation valve oper-ates at 5,076-psig pressure, with 7.92-gpm flow rate at 7.25-psid max.

The lightweight, titanium housing results in

an overall unit dry weight of 1.050 lb.

The valve isolates the rudder

actuator from the main

hydraulic system during maintenance, thereby prevent-ing movement of the aircraft rudder.Canyon Engineering Products,28909 Avenue Williams, Valencia, CA 91355, (661)294-0084, www.can-yonengineering.com

RS# 467




ShimsShims, used to achieve uniform spac-ing or fill space between mismatched components, are available in numer-ous sizes and materials. The shims can be custom made, with ODs ranging from 0.080 to 12 in. and in thick-nesses from 0.005 to 0.134 in. Shims are available in over 2,000 com-monly specified and difficult-to-find materials. Metallics include low-carbon sheet steel, various spring steels, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper and nickel silver. Nonmetallic versions include ABS, acetal, polyester, nylon, nylon MD, polycarbonate, fiber, polyethylene and various NEMA-grade laminates.Boker’s Inc., 3104 Snelling Ave., Min-neapolis, MN 55406, (800) 927-4377, www.bokers.com

RS# 466RS# 170


Learn more at www.nexengroup.com

Call 800.843.7445

The Nexen Roller Pinion System makes the new Flow

Mach 4 Waterjet cut faster with unrivaled precision. Get the same

competitive advantage for your machines with speeds up to 36 ft/sec and accuracy to

±0.00118" with zero backlash and less maintenance. This amazing system is also

extremely quiet, 99% efficient, and can be any length. Beat your competition by

overcoming the speed, accuracy, load and noise limitations of rack and pinion, ball

screw and belt drive technologies. Seeing is believing—request a free demo today!

The World’s Fastest, Most Accurate Waterjet.

Driven by Nexen.

RS# 171 RS# 172

RS# 173

To Get Samples and See for Yourself, Contact The Lee Company!

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Smallest Check Valve

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The Lee Company��0ETTIPAUG�2OAD7ESTBROOK��#4��53!4EL�� [email protected]

Innovation in Miniature

Make RETROFITS easy as 1,2,3.

1. Connect efficiently to transducers and fieldbuses.

Simulate to speed setup and testing.

2. Control electric, hydraulic and pneumatic closed-loop

motion smoothly and precisely.

3. Optimize swiftly with motion wizards and graphs for

more throughput and machine life.

Squeeze more from existing machines.

1-2 Axis Multi-axis

RMC75 and RMC150 Motion Controllers

4�1, 2, or up to 8 axes

4 User programs control

position and pressure/

force

4 Wizards for quick, easy

setup and tuning

4 EtherNet/IP, PROFINET

and PROFIBUS

connectivity

Call 1-360-254-8688 or

choose your controller

at deltamotion.com

©2012 Newport Corporation

• Precise 10 mm vertical and continuous 360 degree angular motion

• Low mass, high natural frequency (rapid step-and-settle applications)

• Simplifi ed vacuum chuck and utilities management

• Single location for electrical and vacuum connections

• Three-point bottom adjustable interface for stable mounting

Newport’s new ZVR-PP and ZVR-PC are integrated Z-vertical and Theta-rotation positioning stages designed to precisely focus and rotate up to 300 mm diameter wafer chucks. Our unique balanced approach rigidly supports and drives the payload at three points, a perfect fit for applications that have slight to extreme unbalanced loading such as wafer probing. Angular deflections due to theseoff-center loads are minimized and binding of the vertical motionis eliminated.

Discover Newport’s motion solutions to better wafer positioning. Visitwww.newport.com/ZVR-10 or call us at 800-222-6440.

The Perfect Fit

GUA

RANTEED

SPECIFICATIO

NS

PRODUCTS

Stepper-motor driver ICThe A4979 flexible microstep-ping motor driver with built-in translator is designed to operate bipolar stepper motors in full, half, quarter, and sixteenth-step modes, at up to 50 V and 1.5 A. The unit is controlled by simple step and direction inputs, or through the SPI-compatible serial interface. Many features, as well as diagnostic feedback, are programmed through the serial port.

The current regulator can be programmed to oper-ate in fixed off-time or fixed frequency PWM, with several decay modes to reduce audible motor noise and increase step accuracy. Phase-current tables are programmed via the serial interface to create unique microstep current pro-files to improve motor performance.

Circuit protection includes cross-conduction when switching between high side and low-side drives. Out-puts are protected from short circuits. Mixed decay, a key feature in the device, improves low load-current accuracy. Other protec-tion measures include stall detection and hot and cold thermal warnings, overtemperature shutdown, and undervoltage lockout.Allegro MicroSystems Inc., 115 Northeast Cutoff, Worcester, MA 01606, (508) 853-5000, www.allegromicro.com

RS# 468

AnalyzerThe new DeviceNet Analyzer checks, commissions, monitors, and maintains DeviceNet/CANbus instal-lations. The device lets users analyze signal square-wave quality; monitor overall network health by node; detect locations of cable breaks and short circuits; and locate weak points such as incor-

rect cable types, lengths, and faulty plug connections.

The Analyzer helps with day-to-day maintenance of DeviceNet instal-lations by identify-ing trouble nodes on the network, and over time, can see trends in net-

work health. The device also checks the cable quality (or field-wireable connections) and, during downtime troubleshooting, can help root out the zone where the trouble is occurring.Balluff Inc., 8125 Holton Dr., Florence, KY 41042, (859) 727-2200, www.balluff.com

RS# 469

RS# 174

Recipe for Perfect Fluid ControlStep 1: Choose Step 2: Customize Step 3: WinChoose from the largest range of fl uid sensors and controls

Partner with us to customize our standard products to your exact requirements.

Win with Gems: more performance, lower cost, quicker to market.

PRESSURE VALVESFLOWLEVEL

RS# 175RS# 176

RS# 177

Linear Velocity Transducers

for Velocity Measurement & Control

No Excitation High SensitivityVoltage Required High Frequency ResponseStrokes from 1/2 to 36 inchesInstantaneous Reading

Perfect for machine control, R&D and testing, includ-ing injection molding ram rate; glass pulling rate; shock absorber profiling; et al.

800/828-3964 www.lvdtsensor.net

Free 76-page catalog... Also includes LVDT Position, Angular Displacement & Gaging Transducers

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PRODUCTS

E-Stop button with illuminated baseA 30-mm emergency-stop (E-Stop) button combines status indication and safety in one. When the pushbutton is armed and the machine is in the “Run” position or is running, its bright,

highly visible yellow illuminated base provides users with enhanced safety. In the event of an emergency, users push the button to change the yellow illumination to a

flashing-red indica-tor. Users can reset only the pushed button or buttons, minimizing down-time. The yellow illumination also

turns to a steady-red indicator when a “Stop” condition exists by applying an external signal via the M12 QD con-nector. The E-Stops are available with two-color yellow and red lighting, red lighting, or a nonilluminated black base. For applications requiring a series of E-Stops, multiple buttons can be interfaced and series connected with CSS Series Hookup Cordsets. Banner Engineering Corp., 9714 Tenth Ave. N, Minneapolis, MN 55441, (888) 373-6767, www.bannerengineer-ing.com RS# 470

Body adapters and sanitary insertsThe MPC and MPX quick-connect lines now include back-to-back body adapters and sanitary inserts. Available

in polycarbonate and polysulfone, the adapters let end users connect off-the-shelf single-use systems that feature male coupling inserts on both parts. Being able to combine differing inserts provides a reducing option when us-ers need to transition between tubing with diameters ranging from ¹/ to ½ in.

The MPC and MPX ¾ and 1½-in. sanitary inserts allow connections to equipment or single-use systems that feature sanitary fittings.Colder Products Co., 1001 Westgate Dr., St. Paul, MN 55114, (800) 444-2474, www.colder.com RS# 471


OUR APPEARANCE HAS CHANGED

We’re not the same company we were yesterday. And we won’t be the same tomorrow. We adapt with the times and with our customers. Weare still present in many different markets, however, we are now focused completely on industrial technology.

www.itt.com | 1-800-852-8508

but our ability to meet all of your high expectations by providing

you with the most innovative technology has not changed at all.

RS# 179 RS# 180

RS# 181

www.nipponpulse.com | [email protected] | 1-540-633-1677

RELIABLE. ACCURATE.

NPM Nippon PulseYour Partner in Motion Control

Nippon Pulse has been designing and manufacturing stepper motors for the last 60 years, ensuring you get the most reliable product available.

SIXTY YEARS OF RELIABILITY

ECONOMICAL.

Easily integrated into any system, our stepper motors offer a cost effective and accurate motion control solution.

COST EFFECTIVE, ACCURATE

When you choose a Nippon Pulse stepper, you’ll also get one-on-one product support unmatched in the industry. If you have questions about integrating, prototyping, customizing, we have the answers.

UNMATCHED PRODUCT SUPPORT

STEPPER MOTORS

Tin-can

GearheadLinear Hybrid,

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ed Antivibration Components Turnpike ark, NY 11040�� r G� ��

ationmounts com

Soft silicone gel absorbs vibrations not eliminated by other materials.

Engineering ExpertiseYears of experience & customer specifications has led to an extensive & varied product line.

Excellent DurabilityUnique gel material performs in any weather, -40°F to +392°F, and is ozone, UV & chemical resistant.

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Call with your latest applicationor visit our Web site.

PRODUCTS

is available as a one, two, or three-convolution bellows in dimensions of 80 mm/Type 22 up to 435 mm/Type 816. Without a piston rod, strokes of more than 400 mm are possible. Lifting force ranges from 0.5 to 80 KN.ContiTech North America Inc., 136

Pneumatic air actuatorThe D-type Series of air actuators are designed so its components can be quickly and easily replaced. The actua-tor’s connecting plates, in diameters of up to 175 mm, are made from alu-minum. The D-type actuators come in eight different sizes, each of which

Summit Ave., Montvale, NJ 07645, (800) 654-0974, www.contitech-usa.com; www.contitech.de/iap

RS# 472

Air and filter regulators

The Type 330/340 Series of instrument air-filter regulators and air regulators withstand the harshest envi-ronments while providing accurate pressure regulation and filtration.

The Type 330 instrument air-filter regulator has been expanded to in-clude a regulator-only version, larger porting sizes, and an automatic drain. Designed for systems that require clean, accurate, instrument air, the 330 provides pressure regulation and filtration. It is now available in ¼-in. NPT porting for normal operation and ½-in. NPT porting for high-flow require-ments. The automatic drain option prevents moisture from being retained in the unit and carried downstream.

The new Type-340 regulator provides accurate, constant control under vari-able flow rates and supply pressures.

The Series come in three output ranges for control up to 120 psig (8 bar). Maximum supply pressure is 250 psig (17 bar). Two 1/4” NPT gauge ports are included.ControlAir Inc., 8 Columbia Dr., Am-herst, NH 03031, (800) 216-3636, www.controlair.com RS# 473

RS# 182

®

RS# 183 RS# 184

RS# 185

...your best source for Specialty AC/DC Electric:

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) DC Servo Motors) Explosion Proof Motors) Hermetic AC Motors) Military/Defense Motors) And MORE!

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Martin offers the industry's broadest product range with fast delivery from stock, same day / next day rebores and alterations, fast turnaround times on Made-to-Orders.

Our broad selection continues to grow with complete inventories in 30 North American branch locations.

PRODUCTS

in length from 120 to 88 mm (4.7 to 3.5 in.), while the length of the more-powerful BG45x30SI was reduced from 135 to 103 mm (5.3 to 4.0 in.).

The new BG45SI motors feature digital control and power electronics and the

45-mm brushless motorsTwo new iBLDC (intelligent brushless dc) motors with four-quadrant speed controls in the 45-mm frame size, have been reduced in size by 25%, while maintaining the same power and torque capabilities.

The new BG45x15SI was reduced

motor connector has been updated for

space saving and con-venience in mounting

and connection.With a 12 or 24-V power source, at a nominal

speed of 3,000 rpm, the BG45x30SI is con-

tinuous-duty rated for 80 W (¹/-hp) power output. The motors can achieve peak powers of four times the continuous duty rating and, therefore, a starting torque of up to 100 N-cm (142 oz-in.) is possible.

The motor target speed can be set using an analog ±10-Vdc input signal or be selected via digital inputs using simple start-up software.

The drive has four digital inputs — two for selecting the four operating conditions: rotation clockwise/coun-terclockwise, stop with free running, and stop with holding torque. The other two are for selecting the motor speed with acceleration and decelera-tion ramps.Dunkermotor USA Inc., A div. of Dunkermotoren GmbH, 2511 Tech-nology Dr., Suite 105, Elgin, IL 60124, (224) 293-1300, www.dunkermotor.com RS# 474

Dual-output switching power supplies

The new VGD Series of enclosed dual-output internal-switching power supplies comes in 30 and 60-W configurations.

The Series offers a universal input (85 to 264 Vac) and dual output volt-ages of either 5 V/12 V or 5 V/24 Vdc. Protections include short circuit, overload, and overvoltage. All models include an EMI filter.CUI Inc., 20050 S.W. 112th Ave., Tuala-tin, OR 97062, (800) 275-4899, www.cui.com RS# 475RS# 186


Connectable (“PC”) Belts available in diameters ranging from .093” through .562”.

CUSTOM MADE IN INCH, METRIC & O-RING SIZES

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Line Shaft Conveyor Belts��1*(*-"+��04*/,&-3��.--&$3"#+&

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COLORS AVAILABLE

Round, Flat and Connectable Polyurethane Belts

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Metric Sizes.

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Samples available at little or no costPOWER TRANSMISSION-PART CONVEYING

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RS# 188

RS# 189

Paper Tube Company1033 S. Noel Ave., Wheeling, IL 60090

COIL WINDING BOBBINSFabricated or molded, hi-dielectric,

hi-temp, choice of 12 electrical insulatingmaterials,extra strong, w/or w/o tie-offs, lowcost, 75 years experience, Made in USA!

Full PDF info: www.pptube.com��

More Than 75 Years - The Original

RS# 187

Distributed by Amacoil, Inc.PO Box 2228, Aston PA, 19014

Phone: (610) 485-8300

Zero backlash. Jam-proof design.

For positioning & reciprocating motion applicationsSmooth movement; ultra-low maintenanceUhing® Rolling Ring linear drives have zero play when the shaftis rotated – even during reversal. The threadless shaft won'tclog or jam. If the system is somehow overloaded, the shaftsimply slips instead of churning and grinding.

• Example applications: material handling machines, windingequipment, test and measurement devices, packaging &

converting equipment. • Uhing Drives are available separately or

on shaft in custom assembly.• Wide range of sizes for varying linear speeds & axial thrust requirements.

Simple set-up & operationSome models feature mechanical control

over speed and travel direction – withoutprogramming or electronics.

Request a Brochure or CD-ROM1 (800) 252-2645

Email: [email protected]

Manually slide drive using release lever

Rolling Ring linear drives

PRODUCTS

Features of the hourmeter include low operating current, wide operat-ing voltage and temperature range, interlock input, and a locking 10-pin connector harness. Users can preset total hours and replace a failed meter without losing total elapsed time. A key lock prevents unauthorized access

HourmeterThe Series PT12 hourmeter features two 6-digit, 7-segment LCDs. A ser-vice LED indicates when the preset setting is reached. Accumulated hours are stored on powerless, nonvolatile memory (no battery) using CMOS EE-PROM technology..

to reset and programming functions.ENM Co., 5617 Northwest Highway, Chicago, IL 60646, (888) 372-0465, www.enmco.com

RS# 476

Draw-wire linear position sensorsPosital’s MDW draw-wire linear posi-tion sensors, with analog voltage or current output, are for use in low-cost analog-control systems. Program-

ming operating parameters, including range and sensitivity, is through a pushbutton and LED interface.

The sensors are an alternative to conventional multiturn potentiom-eters. Based on a noncontacting mag-netic-measurement technology, they are not susceptible to the wear or corrosion that degrades a potentiom-eter’s accuracy. The sensors provide instantaneous measurement of linear displacement over a 0 to 16-ft (0 to 5-m) range.

The encoder’s rugged enclosures, seals, and bearings protect internal components for operation in harsh conditions. The sensor’s heavy-duty spools are rated for over 1 million draw/rewind cycles.Fraba Inc., 1800 E. State St., Suite 148, Hamilton, NJ 08609, (609) 750-8705, www.fraba.com

RS# 477RS# 190


PRODUCTS

Rotary stageCCS Series rotary stages, with in-tegrated captured collet chucks, provide automated material han-dling for a wide range of materials and applications. The unit’s collet chucks accept C, D, or Levin-style collets that are available from machine-tool component suppliers in sizes that support 0.1 to 27-mm tube diameters. The collets provide run-out characteristics for applica-tions requiring high-precision gripping of tubular material.

The collet-chuck design allows workpiece advance without manual realign-ment to compensate for axial tube motion during clamp/unclamp cycles. By moving the taper around the collet instead of drawing the collet into the taper, axial motion of the workpiece is reduced, eliminating the need for part reregistra-tion after tube advancement, thereby increasing system throughput.

Mounting features on the unit’s housing support customer-supplied wet-cutting accessories. The stage also tolerates moderate fluid leakage into the ap-erture, which is inevitable during wet-cutting operations. These features prevent encoder contamination and collet-chuck failure, minimizing machine downtime.

The CCS Series uses direct-drive brushless motor technology to maximize po-sitioning performance. Direct drive provides quicker acceleration and higher top speeds than gear or belt-driven mechanisms, for higher total overall throughput.Aerotech Inc., 101 Zeta Dr., Pittsburgh, PA 15238, (412) 963-7470, www.aerotech.com RS# 478

RS# 192

RS# 191JUNE 14, 2012

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Silicone solar cablesSilicone solar cables, rated for voltages up to 42,000 Vdc, provide absolute reliability in solar-panel intercon-nection and photovol-taic applications. The halogen-free cables are flame retardant, highly flexible, and perform well when exposed to severe heat and cold (–65 to 260°C).

The cable’s crystal-clear silicone encapsulation resists tearing, and will not deform, break, or wear during its 10 million cycles+ lifetime, even under tight bending radius and constant flexing conditions. The silicone “self-heals” from small punctures and cable jacket damage can easily be repaired in the field. The silicone-extruded cables do not require external “armor” or conduit for protection, and are unaffected when exposed to UV-radiation, sunlight, ozone, abrasion, salt, coarse sand, submersion, acid rain, ice, vi-bration, shock, humidity, mechanical stress, many chemicals, and difficult weather conditions.

The 30 to 4-awg cables are available in continuous lengths, cut to order, or as assemblies.Cicoil Corp., 24960 Avenue Tibbitts, Valencia, CA 91355, (661) 295-1295, www.cicoil.com RS# 480

Safety air guns with chip shieldsSafety air guns are now available with polycarbonate chip shields to protect workers from chips blown off machined parts. The shields also keep coolant from splashing during drying opera-tions and help businesses com-ply with OSHA standards. Chip

Shields can be used on safety air guns with or without an exten-sion pipe.

The guns use air nozzles that maximize entrainment of room air while minimizing compressed-air consumption.Exair Corp., 11510 Goldcoast Dr., Cincinnati, OH 45249, (800) 903-9247, www.exair.com/cs.htm

RS# 479

Angular-style grippersThe FKHW Series of 180° angular-style pneumatic grippers handle small parts in confined areas. The gripper’s rack and pinion synchronizes finger mo-tion. Features include heat-treated fingers, sealed bearings, magnetic pistons, and a hard-coated aluminum body with slots to ac-commodate optional sensors.Fabco-Air Inc., 3716 N.E. 49th Ave., Gaines-ville, FL 32609, (352) 373-3578, www.fabco-air.com

RS# 481


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NASA Low Outgassing

Approved Epoxy

154 Hobart Street, Hackensack, NJ 07601 USA

+1.201.343.8983�ì�[email protected]

www.masterbond.com

EP29LPSP Two Part Adhesive/Sealant

ì Optically clear

ì Chemically resistant

ì Cryogenically serviceableNon-stick

Chemicalresistance

Low coefficientof friction

We coat both small and large parts to close tolerances inquantities from 1 to 1,000,000. Call Donwell for customTEFLON® coating services to meet your specifications.

www.donwell.com

TEFLON®

COATINGSTo enhance product

performanceDonwell Company is a licensedDuPont applicator for all TEFLON®

Coatings. These coatings can improve the performance of your parts by providing them with one or more beneficial properties.

P.O. Box 906, 130 Sheldon Rd.Manchester, CT 06040Tel: (860) 649-5374Fax: (860) 647-0074

1-800-864-2702

TEFLON® is a registered trademark of the DuPont Co.

RS# 194RS# 195

RS# 196

PRODUCTS

Utility-scale inverter for wind and solarThe Series 6001 energy storage-grid-connect inverter provides improved power stability for wind and solar-energy users. The unit

provides high-performance conver-sion for wind, solar, and other heavy industrial applications by creating a link between the power source and battery. Downtime is reduced and faults are cleared faster by staying on-line during fault conditions. True

low-voltage ride through (LVRT) let the inverter run near-zero line voltage for extended periods, while maintaining line synchronization. High-voltage ride through (HVRT) is attained through conservatively rated components.

Designed for utility-scale grid-connect battery applications, the inverter lets users achieve full bat-tery storage because of a large direct-current operating-voltage window.

Features of the Series 6001 include a seismic zone-4-rated en-closure; indoor and outdoor rating; a dusttight section that protects the liquid-cooled inverter and elec-tronics-control components from harsh and dusty environments; and a vented section that houses air-cooled magnetics.

Rated for 500, 1,000, and 1,500-kW applications, the inverter has conservatively rated magnetics and liquid-cooled power modules with over 7 million hours mean time between failure.Eaton Corp., Electrical Sector, 1000 Cherrington Pkwy., Moon Township, PA 15108, (412) 893-3300, www.eaton.com

RS# 482

RS# 197


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Multiple DiskClutches and

Brakes

Multiple DiskClutches and

Brakes

RS# 198

PRODUCTS

Metrology DROsQuadra-Chek Models ND 1100 and ND 1200 and Gage-Chek Model ND 2100 metrology digital readouts (DROs) have been upgraded with new LED screens.

The DROs offer numerous functions for acquiring and statistically evaluating measured data. The Quadra-Cheks

support up to four axes, and are used for simple metrologi-cal positioning tasks and for 2D geometries. The Gage-Chek is for multipoint inspection apparatuses.Heidenhain Corp., 333 E. State Pkwy., Schaumburg, IL 60173, (847) 490-1191, www.heidenhain.us RS# 483

RS# 199


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Control cablesThe flame-retardant, self-extinguishing JZ 603 and JZ 603-CY control cables are suitable for me-dium mechanical stresses with free movements in dry, damp, or wet indoor environments. The PVC cables have oil-resistant outer sheaths and operate in temperatures from –5 to 90°C (flexing) and –40 to 90°C (fixed installation). The cables are UL (U. S.), HAR (Europe), CSA (Canada), CCC (China), and GOST-R (Russia) certified.Helukabel USA, 1355 Bowes Rd., Unit C, Elgin, IL 60123, (847) 930-5118, www.helukabel.com

RS# 484

Motorized microscope stageFully integrated, miniaturized ce-ramic linear drives works with the M-687 motorized microscope XYstage for inverted microscopes. The complete system includes a control-ler, joystick, and software.

The self-clamping ceramic/ce-

ramic linear motors in the positioner are more compact than electromag-netic motors and provide higher positional stability — once in place, no energy is consumed to hold posi-tion (no heat dissipation). Integrated, 100-nm resolution linear encoders provide direct position feedback to the controller, allowing closed-loop operation with high accuracy.

The device features constant ve-locity at low speeds to 10 microns/sec; travel range up to 135 × 85 mm; suitable for long exposure imaging, image stitching, etc.; speeds up to 120 mm/sec; and its design allows for free rotation of the turret for in-verted microscopes.Physik Instrumente (PI) L.P.,16 Albert St., Auburn, MA 01501, (508) 832-3456, www.physikin-strumente.com/en/news/fullnews.php?newsid=177&onl_pr

RS# 485


Faced with gaps, crevices, close tolerances, misaligned parts and awkward equipment

designs – a custom elastomeric sealcan be your solution to provide a

leak-proof closure.

These seals are not simplerubber extrusions. They are

engineered, built andmolded to fit your applica-

tion and to meet strict performance, safety and

environmental standards.

Fabric-reinforced for strength andstructural integrity for optimum

inflation/deflating operations, theyare not subject to the compression

set of ordinary seals.

Strong, versatile and flexible, Seal Master seals have been solving

troublesome problems for industry since 1974.

SOLVE DIFFICULT SEALING PROBLEMSCUSTOM

Seal Master® Inflatable Seals

TYPICAL INFLATABLE SEAL OPERATION

When inflated it expands to the striking surface creating a positiveseal. When deflated it returns to its original configuration allowingfree movement of one or both surfaces.

Inflatable seals and other custom rubber productsSEAL MASTER CORPORATION

368 MARTINEL DRIVE, KENT, OH 44240-4368 USA+88�'&&�+')*��:��))8�*&)�+'$8��:��,;�))8�*&)�+7'7

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Design assistance offered

© 2010 Seal Master Corporation

DEFLATED INFLATED

maxon motor control

Maintaining control has never been easier.

maxon motor is the world’s leading supplier of high-preci-sion drives and systems of up to 500 watts power output. Rely on the quality of the highly specialized solutions which we develop with and for you. www.maxonmotorusa.com

If decentralized drive intelligence is called for, maxon motor control provides the answer: All speed and positioning con-trollers are designed to match with DC motors up to 700 watts power. The EPOS2 positioning controller can be used with CANopen and Interpolated Position Mode.

RS# 202

RS# 203 RS# 204

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· Solid, Long Life Construction

· Push & Pull Type Designs

· Fixed Force or Adjustable Models

· Stainless Steel Models Available

· Expert Application Sizing

ACE Controls Gas

Springs provide

counterbalance motion

control for lifting and

lowering lids, hoods, hatches,

machine guards, panels and

more. Offered in a wide range of

body sizes, stroke lengths and forces.

Aerospace, Defense, Transportation,

RV, Medical, Furniture, Packaging,

Printing, Amusement and More

WE’LL DO THE

LIFTING & LOWERING

PRODUCTS

Tilt-float switchesAn expanded line of tilt-float switches for large-volume liquid-level applica-tions feature a watertight rubber float with a three-conductor cable.

Available in three different configurations, each float is made from EPDM for long service life and resistance to heat, oxidation, ozone, and aging due to weather. EPDM offers good electrical resistivity and resistance to solvents such as water, acids, alkalies, phosphate esters, and many ketones and alcohols.

The switches contain an 8-A (250-Vac) microswitch on an antivi-bration mount. The SPDT switch el-ement can be used for either “open” or “closed” contact configurations and measures both increasing and decreasing fluid levels. The resulting signal can be used to start or stop a pump, open or close a valve, or actu-ate indicator alarms.Madison Co., 27 Business Park Dr., Branford, CT 06405, (800) 466-5383, www.madisonco.com

RS# 486

Linear-shaft motorThe S605 linear-shaft motor offers up to 3,100 N of acceleration force, and a continuous force of 780 N, making it suitable for applications requiring

high force, high precision, energy efficiency, and high precision. The motor can hit submicron resolution.

Three types of windings are available — double, triple, quadruple. The S605’s ac-celeration current is between 34 and 35 A and acceleration force and current can be main-tained for up to 40 sec. The

motor has a 60.5-mm shaft diameter, is available with strokes between 200 and 2,000 mm, a 1.75-mm noncritical air gap, and a rated voltage of 240 V. The motor is available in 18 different sizes, ranging from 4 to 60.5 mm.Nippon Pulse America Inc., 4 Cor-porate Dr., Radford, VA 24141, (540) 633-1677, www.nipponpulse.com

RS# 487

Miniature diaphragm pumpThe 1410 Series dc diaphragm pump measures 3.3 × 1.2 × 2.1 in. and is designed to work with a range of motor options and several design con-figurations, depending on the life requirements and specifications of the application. The pump features a low sound level, weighs 0.4 lb (180 gm), and is EMC suppression qualified to EN55011-B on some designs. Maximum flow is 4.3 lpm, with a maximum pressure of 27.5 psig/1.9 bar, and a maximum vacuum of 22.0-in. Hg.Thomas Div., a Gardner-Denver Co., 1419 Illinois Ave., Sheboy-gan, WI 53081, (920) 457-491, www.gd-thomas.com/productlist.aspx?id=21044&tp=v

RS# 488


RS# 206

RS# 207

RS# 208

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16-mm spindle drive

The GP16 16-mm spindle drive con-verts rotary motion into linear mo-tion by combining the spindle drive with a dc motor. Gearheads, motors, encoders, and controllers drive the spindles. The drive, available in a self-locking metric M6 spindle or a 5-mm ball screw, offers high efficiency and load capacity. The axial bearing with-stands the high tractive and com-pressive forces of the spindle.

For the planetary gearhead, 14 dif-ferent reduction ratios are available, from 4.4 to 850:1. Depending on the reduction ratio and spindle type, feed forces between 35 and 370 N, and even up to 400 N for short durations, are possible.

Nine different brushed and brush-less motors can drive the system. For precise positioning, the motors may also be equipped with compatible sensors (encoders).maxon motor usa, 101 Waldron Rd., Fall River, MA 02720, (508) 677-0520, www.maxonmotorusa.com

RS# 489

Ultrasonic sensorsThe F77 Series ultrasonic sensors are an alternative to background-sup-pression photoelectric sensors in dirty and dusty applications or where color

variations or transparent targets are the norm. Highly im-mune to acoustic interference, the sensors have mini-mal dead-band, which is important when the

devices mount on machinery that uses numerous pneumatic cylinders.

The sensors are compact and pro-vide up to 50-Hz switching frequency for fast response times. They come in diffuse (up to 400-mm sensing range), retroreflective (up to 400-mm sensing range), and thru-beam models (up to 800-mm sensing range).Pepperl+Fuchs, 1600 Enterprise Pkwy., Twinsburg, OH 44087, (330) 486-0001, www.pepperl-fuchs.us

RS# 490

Intelligent power moduleSemistack_RE is an intelligent power module (IPM) targeting synchronous and double-fed induction generators (DFIG) in wind turbines, and central solar PV inverters.

The water-cooled three-phase converter comes in B6CI two-quadrant or 2 × B6CI four-quadrant configurations in a bookcase-type mechanical design.

The previous version of Semistack-RE based on the three-bay version of SKiiP 3 has a current capability of 1,200 /module. The bigger, four-bay SKiiP 4 version has a current rating of between 1,000 and 1,400 A.

SKiiP 4’s new digital gate driver provides a safe electrical isolation between primary and secondary side for all switching or control signals and for the tem-perature signal. The SKiiP driver features a CANopen setup and diagnosis channel, giving access to an error memory so errors in SKiiP 4 can be quickly identified and saved for later diagnosis.Semikron Inc., 11 Executive Dr., Hudson, NH 03051, (603) 883-8102, www.semikron.com RS# 491


RCP4ROBO Cylinder Series

PCON-CAPower Controller

IAI America, Inc. California: 800-736-1712 Illinois: 800-944-0333 Georgia: 888-354-9470

www.IntelligentActuator.com/RCP4

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RS# 210 RS# 211

RS# 212

Kep-O-seal�

Adjustable ReliefValves

Available as in-line or cartridge inserttypes, these valves feature the industryproven Flexible Seal Seat� design whichprovides dependable control of liquid orgas. Direct operating and spring loaded,they are designed for applications requir-ing fast acting relief performance andtamper-proof pressure adjustment. Fullyadjustable 50 to 2000 psi.

For details visit: www.kepner.com

C o n t r o l So l u t i o n s T h a t A c t u a l l y G i v e Yo u

. . . CON TROL !

- OEMs -

Let us Be Your Panel Builder

and Systems Integrator!

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For more information, please contact Aryan Zandieh at (312) 924-1688 or [email protected].

Partner: Organized by:

www.ia-na.com

at

To register for IANA and IMTS, please visit industrialautomation-na.com

V

International Trade Show for Factory, Process and Building Automation Systems and Solutions

September 10 - ��5�� +-)& '��(� "��%& �$+��((&*+&.

INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATIONNORTH AMERICA at IMTS 2012

�" '%+##��0/+)�/&+* provides advanced,

open automation products based upon

proven industrial technologies. Manufacturers

and machine builders can implement high

performance Beckhoff control systems

more efficiently and at a lower overall cost

than traditional PLC and motion control

systems. Visit them at booth E-4271

or www.beckhoff.com.

Static Control

800.787.7325e-mail: [email protected]

www.sealeze.com

SOLUTIONS

WithConductiveBrushes

Sealeze’s line of brushes for static control offers:

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PRODUCTS

Mini actuatorA new miniature actuator de-signed for the miniature robot-ics and life-science markets, consists of a small dc servomo-tor coupled to a ball screw.

Included in the assembly is a high-precision miniature 8-mm-diameter ball screw, a Faulhaber dc motor with graphite commu-tation, rotary encoder, and gear-less coupling for high-speed, backlash-free positioning with high dynamic performance. This product is ideal for applications in miniature robotics and preci-sion dispensing systems. The actuator comes in travels rang-ing from 10 to 300 mm, with resolution of 1 micron, speeds up to 120 mm/sec, and capable of peak axial loads to 800 N.Steinmeyer Inc., 56 Middlesex Turnpike, Suite 200, Burlington MA 01803, (781) 273 6220 (781) 273-6220, www.steinmeyer.com

RS# 492

Rugged circular connectorThe new Circular High Density (HD) connec-tor line is a low-cost alternative to 38999 and other circular connectors for rugged non-Mil Spec applications. The connectors offer ease of push-to-latch/pull-to-unlatch mating as

well as the advantage of blind mating into small spaces that nor-mally requires clearance for hand tightening to mate.

Other features include scoop-proof, blind mating; operating

range of –65 to 125°C; durability of 1,000 mating cycles; five shell bodies ranging from 14 to 27-mm diameter; panel-mount recep-tacles; IP68 rated with potted, solder cup or PCB termination; 96-hr salt-spray exposure; withstand 37 g’s of vibration and 50 g’s of shock; cable-attached plugs and receptacles; up to 40 signal contacts; and up to 20-A cur-rent rating.TE Connectivity, 1050 Westlakes Dr., Ber-wyn, PA 19312, (800) 522-6752, www.te.com

RS# 493

Switching power suppliesA new family of 24-V power supplies converts ac to dc and provides safety ex-tralow voltage (SELV).

With a wide input range — between 90 and 260 Vac — the supplies can be used in diverse supply networks. An onboard potentiometer adjusts output voltage from 22.5 to 28.5 Vdc, and styles are available with an output current strength of 2.5,

5, 10, or 20 A. This highly-efficient power supply can be run in parallel for applica-tions requiring redundancy and includes up to 150% overload protection.

A power relay guaran-tees a reliable functional check, monitoring itself for

voltage, eliminating potential wire breakage or system malfunction. The device can automatically bypass power failures, which lets the ac input disappear for up to 30 msec without any effect on the output.Turck Inc., 3000 Campus Dr., Minneapolis, MN 55441, (800) 544-7769, www.turck.us

RS# 494


JUNE 14, 2012MACHINE Design.com122

RS# 255

Digital Pressure Gauge

AP60 digital pressure gauge is CR2032 battery powered, offers wide viewing angle and provides an accurate readout. They are rated for pressures up to 1.0MPa (145 psi) with

user-programmable display pressure units for MPa, kgf/cm2, bar and psi. Suitable for filtered air and non-combustible and non-corrosive gases; excellent repeatability of +0.2% F.S. +1 digit or better.

Adsens Technology Inc.City of Industry, CA

Brushless DC and Intelligent Servo MotorsDunkermotor releases its 2012 Low Voltage Brushless DC and Intelligent Servo Motors catalog.

Expanded catalog includes specifications on custom config-urable BLDC motors, controls, gearheads, brakes, encoders and accessories. Available for complimentary download at

Dunkermotor website or email request for hard copy.

DunkermotorEmail: [email protected]

Web: www.dunkermotor.com/2012_BLDC_catalog

New tutorials and podcasts on Learn Web site “What is a PLC” plus many more

topics on industrial control prod-

ucts including new videos and

podcasts on AutomationDirect’s

free self-service learning site.

Visit http://learn.automationdirect.com

to watch these and other tutorials

on a range of industry topics.

Rotary DampersMinimize noise, shock, and

safety hazards. Soft and smooth motion enhances functionality and provides

that touch of quality. Use on computer hardware, flip top phones, lids, access panels

and more.

19 new series introduced.

ACE Controls Inc.Farmington Hills, MI

(800) 521-3320 (248) 476-0213Fax (248) 476-2470

e-mail: [email protected]

RS# 261

Galil Motion Control

Galil’s “Pocket PLC”Has Lots of I/O

RIO Pocket PLC is smart, compact, low-cost, and packed with I/O. 32 digital and 16 analog I/O in 3.9 x 4.3 x 1.3” package. Ethernet/RS232, RISC processor,

PID process loops, counters, timers, data logging, email alerts. Network multiple RIOs. $295 qty 1/$195 qty 100. Call Galil at 800-377-6329 or http://www.galilmc.com/pocketplc for specs and free tutorials.

B&B Electronics is a global source for rugged, reliable wired and wire-

less data connectivity systems.

Backed by strong technical support, B&B’s Ethernet, USB,

Wireless and Serial solutions are known for being easy to order,

install and use.

For more info, please contact:

B&B ElectronicsPhone: 888-948-2248

Email: [email protected]: http://www.bb-elec.com

Download B&B’s latest white papers: http://bb-elec.com/technical_library.asp

UL TC-ER listed TOPSERV® Motor /Servo/VFD Cables HELUKABEL® USA’s new motor and

servo cables are suitable for fixed

and continuous flexing applications

in harsh industrial conditions. These

high-quality, Oil Resistance I & II

cables are tested for multimillion

cycles in cable tracks and ambient

temperatures ranging from -30°C up

to +90°C. The cables have multiple

global approvals, including UL

(USA), CSA (Canada), VDE

(Germany), CE (Europe) and

GOST-R (Russia), and are available

in stock.

HELUKABEL® USA Inc.1355 Bowes Rd, unit C, Elgin, IL 60123(847) 930-5118, www.helukabel.com

Free design guide to servo-hydraulicmotion control

www.deltamotion.com

Popular, practical 64-page guidewith 16 topics by Peter Nachtwey:s�#LOSED LOOP�#ONTROL

s�3IZING�#YLINDERS�AND�6ALVES

s�3ELECTING�!CCUMULATORS

s�4RANSDUCERS�AND�2ESOLUTION

s�4UNING�FOR�/PTIMAL�0ERFORMANCE

Pancake®II Cylinder

Has interchanges with

better performance. Tough

composite barrel is self-

lubricating & impact

resistant. Composite rod

bearing, captive in head,

has higher load capacity,

lower friction, zero slip-stick.

We solve problems. Let

us help!

FABCO-AIR, Inc.Gainesville, Florida

Helical Products Co., Inc.

COUPLINGS, U-JOINTS and MACHINED SPRINGS

Helical’s 28-page catalog features miniature flexible couplings, u-joints, power transmission couplings and machine springs. Quick-reference, product summary chart highlights features and technical data. Easy-to-use part number builders make ordering easy. Visit: www.heli-cal.com

Avago Technologies San Jose, Ca.

The power inverter - from sunlight to power grid

This video discusses

performance

advantages of optical

isolation technology

based isolators and

optocouplers, in terms

of common mode

rejection, EMI

immunity, radiated

emissions and part

degradation over time

in renewable energy

applications.

RS# 251

RS# 260

RS# 263

RS# 254

RS# 256

RS# 259

RS# 262

DATA FILE LITERATURE ADVERTISING


Access our Reader Service

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products and services found

in the pages of MACHINE DESIGN.

RS# 257

RS# 250

RS# 264

RS# 252

RS# 258

RS# 253

MACHINE Design.com 123

Smalley Steel Ring Company

New Smalley Engineering & Parts CatalogSmalley’s new catalog combines existing Spirolox Retaining Ring and Smalley Wave Spring selec-tions with series recently released from Smalley. Now a single catalog includes new: Hoopster Rings, Met-ric Wave Springs, Constant Sec-tion Rings and more. Over 10,000 standard parts in carbon and stain-less steel; free samples available. Specials manufactured with No-Tooling-Costs™ from .200”-120”.

��r�JOGP!TNBMMFZ�DPN�r�XXX�TNBMMFZ�DPN�HFUDBUBMPH

www.masterbond.com

Resists up to 500°F Thermally conductive

One Part B-Stage Epoxy EP36AOOne Part B-Stage Epoxy EP36AO

Available in cookies

Over 15,000 products + everything you need to know about

Order your free copy today at: www.orientalmotor.com

- Stepping Motors- Servo Motors- AC Motors- Brushless Motors / AC Speed Control Motors- Linear & Rotary Actuators- Cooling Fans

RS# 272

RS# 274

814-894-2461 ■ www.symmco.com

Discover Symmco’s PartsConversion Opportunities

Your Key To Quality & Savings

■ Design Support (for Simple to Complex Parts)■ Gears ■ Assembly Solutions ■ Materials Options

Don’t Cast & Machine – Save Time & Money with Powder Metallurgy (P/M)

JUNE 14, 2012

MAINTENANCE AND TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE NOW AVAILABLE!

A newly revised brochure by Martin Sprocket & Gear, Inc. provides helpful tips for routine maintenance as well as insight for troubleshooting common problems and corrective action on power transmission and material handling prod-ucts. Individual sections on chain drives, gear drives, chain couplings, elastomeric couplings, synchronous drives, v-belt drives and screw & drag conveyors as well as heavy duty conveyor pulleys is included. For additional information including which of Martin’s 31 North American plants are located nearest you please contact Martin Sprocket & Gear, Inc. at 817-258-3000. Or visit our web site at www.martinsprocket.com.

RS# 266

RS# 270

RS# 268

High- PerformanceMagnetsNew catalog features h igh performance magnet materialssuch as NdFeB and SmCo,molded magnets, ceramic andaln ico magnets. MCE offersmagnet c ircu i t design, custom fabrication, assembly,and advanced coat ings. Complete traceability is offered. P h o n e : ( 3 1 0 ) 7 8 4 - 3 1 0 0 ,

Fax:(310)784-3192; [email protected];www.mceproducts.com

Magnetic Component Engineering

RS# 275

RS# 273

RS# 271

RS# 269

RS# 265

Trim-Lok Inc., Buena Park, CA

Vinyl & Rubber ExtrusionsTrim-Lok Inc. releases a brand newFREE “Catalog 500” featuring “Howto Order” steps for the first time customer, along with an expanded line of complete trims and seals. FREE samples may be requested. Latest additions include our Flap Seal, Fire Retardanct Trim, adn Hatch Seal. Contact us toll fee at 1-888-874-6565, e-mail us at [email protected] or visit us on-line at www.trimlok.com

Seal Master Corp., Kent, OH

SEALS, ACTUATORS,GRIPPERS AND BAGS

Solve difficult closure prob-lems with custom-built, fab-ric-reinforced, fully molded elastomeric Seal Master® inflatable seals. With close tolerance capability and re-sistance to compression,

they’re ideal for imaginative production and processing applications too. Engineered specialties include fabric-reinforced bags, bladders, plugs and other custom rubber products. Design assistance offered.

Pelican Products

Pelican Products Protects Sensitive InstrumentsThe global leader in the design and manufacture of both high-performance protective case solutions and advanced portable lighting systems.

Sales Contact: Mark Rolfeswww.pelican.com/contactWebsite: www.pelicanoem.com

23215 Early AvenueTorrance, CA 90505Phone: 310-326-4700Toll Free: 800-473-5422Fax: 310-326-3311

Brad® Power Products

Brad power products replace machine hard wiring with easy-to-install, modular, quick-connect systems

comprised of crush resistant, prewired cordsets and factory-molded connectors. They do not require

special tools or labor.

Molexwww.molex.com800.225.7724

Omega introduces its PSW14 series of electronic pressure switches which can feature either a single switch with adjustable hysteresis or a dual switch with fixed hysteresis. This CE compli-ant product has an easy to program on/off set point and its compact

construction makes it ideal for OEM applications in hydraulic and pneumatic systems, the automobile industry, lubricant monitoring and industrial control.

Price Starts at $135

Electronic Pressure Switch PSW14

Omega | Stamford, CT USA | www.omega.com/psw14Email: [email protected] | Twitter: @OmegaEng

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Omega-Engineering/121219014465Phone: 1-800-TC-OMEGA or 203-359-1660

RS# 267

RS# 276

users can

browse video

libraries using

technology-

based

navigation

to focus

on specific

technology

topics. They

can also

browse by

company

brand, trade

show, or by

publication-

specific video

“playlists.”

From tutorials

to trade-show

coverage,

Engineering TV

is the video

site for design-

engineering

professionals.

At

EngineeringTV.com

visit us at

EngineeringTV.com

ADVERTISER INDEX

RS# . . . . . . COMPANY. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .PAGE

205 . . . . . . . .Ace Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

179 . . . . . . . .Advanced Antivibration Components 103

113 . . . . . . . .Aerotech, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14

131 . . . . . . . .Airpot Corp/Airpel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36

132 . . . . . . . .Airpot Corp/Airpel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .37

216 . . . . . . . .All Metric Small Parts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

190 . . . . . . . .Amacoil, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

214 . . . . . . . .Animatics Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

153 . . . . . . . .Associated Spring/Raymond . . . . . . . . . . .67

103 . . . . . . . .Automationdirect.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

105 . . . . . . . .Automationdirect.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

161 . . . . . . . .Avago Technologies U.S. Inc . . . . . . . . . . . .83

164 . . . . . . . .Avago Technologies U.S. Inc . . . . . . . . . . . .89

129 . . . . . . . .Avnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .34

167 . . . . . . . .Avnet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .93

160 . . . . . . . .B & B Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .81

156 . . . . . . . .B&R Industrial Automation . . . . . . . . . . . . .73

157 . . . . . . . .Banner Engineering Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75

147 . . . . . . . .Belden Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .57

197 . . . . . . . .Bellowstech, LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112

217 . . . . . . . .Beswick Engineering Company, Inc. . . 127

220 . . . . . . . .Bimba Manufacturing Company . . . . . . BC

162 . . . . . . . .Bison Gear & Engineering. . . . . . . . . . . . . . .85

165 . . . . . . . .Carlyle Johnson Machine Co. . . . . . . . . . . .90

136 . . . . . . . .Cicoil Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .41

106 . . . . . . . .Clippard Instrument Laboratory, Inc. . . . .7

155 . . . . . . . .Continental Hydraulics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .71

142 . . . . . . . .Contrinex Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .47

192 . . . . . . . .Craftech Industries Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

171 . . . . . . . .Delta Computer Systems Inc. . . . . . . . . . . .99

195 . . . . . . . .Donwell Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

218 . . . . . . . .Dunkermotor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128

108 . . . . . . . .EBM-Papst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

104 . . . . . . . .Exair Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

193 . . . . . . . .Excel Gear, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

169 . . . . . . . .Exlar Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .95

148 . . . . . . . .Fabco Air, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .59

149 . . . . . . . .Festo Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60

199 . . . . . . . .Floyd Bell . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

203 . . . . . . . .Forest City Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

166 . . . . . . . .Galil Motion Control Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91

133 . . . . . . . .Gates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .38

177 . . . . . . . .Gems Sensors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

158 . . . . . . . .Groschopp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77

138 . . . . . . . .Harmonic Drive LLC. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .43

127 . . . . . . . .Helical Products Company, Inc. . . . . . . . . .32

212 . . . . . . . .IAI America Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

206 . . . . . . . .Igarashi Motor Sales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

134 . . . . . . . .Igus, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .39

163 . . . . . . . .IKO International Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .87

139 . . . . . . . .IMS Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .44

170 . . . . . . . .Intech Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .98

118 . . . . . . . .Intelligent Motion Systems, Inc.. . . . . . . . .22

119 . . . . . . . .Intelligent Motion Systems, Inc.. . . . . . . . .23

181 . . . . . . . .ITT - Enidine Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

196 . . . . . . . .Kabelschlepp Of America. . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

211 . . . . . . . .Kepner Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

141 . . . . . . . .Lapp USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .46

172 . . . . . . . .Lee Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

209 . . . . . . . .Linx Technologies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118

110 . . . . . . . .Magnetic Component Engineering, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110

186 . . . . . . . .Martin Sprocket & Gear . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this index, the publisher cannot be

held responsible for any errors or omissions.

194 . . . . . . . .Master Bond, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

204 . . . . . . . .Maxon Motor USA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

144 . . . . . . . .Minalex Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .50

117 . . . . . . . .Minnesota Rubber. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .19

191 . . . . . . . .MITRPAK . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

154 . . . . . . . .Molex. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

215 . . . . . . . .Nammo Composite Solutions Llc. . . . . 125

112 . . . . . . . .National Instruments Corporation. . . . . .13

115 . . . . . . . .Newark / Element 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

174 . . . . . . . .Newport Corporation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100

173 . . . . . . . .Nexen Group Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .99

180 . . . . . . . .Nippon Pulse America Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . 103

109 . . . . . . . .Novotechnik U.S., Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

151 . . . . . . . .Numatics Express . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63

198 . . . . . . . .Ogura Industrial Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113

102 . . . . . . . .Omega Engineering Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

. . . . . . . . . . . .Ondrives.us . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .40

121 . . . . . . . .Oriental Motor USA Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

122 . . . . . . . .Oriental Motor USA Corp . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27

184 . . . . . . . .Peerless Electric. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

146 . . . . . . . .Pelican Products . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .53

150 . . . . . . . .Pittman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61

187 . . . . . . . .Precision Paper Tube Company. . . . . . . 107

219 . . . . . . . .Proto Labs, Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .IBC

189 . . . . . . . .Pyramid Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

207 . . . . . . . .Quality Bearings & Components. . . . . . 117

200 . . . . . . . .Quality Transmission Components . . . 113

182 . . . . . . . .R + W Couplings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104

120 . . . . . . . .Rittal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24-23

208 . . . . . . . .Rotor Clip Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

178 . . . . . . . .SAB Associated Wire Products . . . . . . . . 102

168 . . . . . . . .Santest Co Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .94

101 . . . . . . . .Schmersal LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC

202 . . . . . . . .Seal Master Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115

213 . . . . . . . .Sealeze Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121

188 . . . . . . . .Servometer ® . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107

140 . . . . . . . .SEW Eurodrive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .45

201 . . . . . . . .Shimpo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

145 . . . . . . . .SKF. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .51

111 . . . . . . . .SKF Group Headquarters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

137 . . . . . . . .Smalley Steel Ring Company . . . . . . . . . . .42

107 . . . . . . . .Spirol International Corporation . . . . . . . . .8

128 . . . . . . . .Steinmeyer, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .33

130 . . . . . . . .Steinmeyer, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

183 . . . . . . . .Stock Drive Products. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

143 . . . . . . . .Stratasys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .49

152 . . . . . . . .TDK-Lambda Americas Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . .65

175 . . . . . . . .Techno Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

176 . . . . . . . .Trans-Tek Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101

185 . . . . . . . .Trim-Lok Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105

116 . . . . . . . .Turck Incorporated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

210 . . . . . . . .VIC Controls. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119

123 . . . . . . . .Veljan Hydrair Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

124 . . . . . . . .Veljan Hydrair Ltd. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

125 . . . . . . . .W.L. Gore & Associates Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

126 . . . . . . . .W.L. Gore & Associates Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

159 . . . . . . . .Wittenstein . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79

114 . . . . . . . .ZERO-MAX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

RS# 214

BUSINESS INDEX

This index includes all significant

references to parent companies

mentioned in feature editorial material

within this issue of MACHINE DESIGN. It

doesn’t cite companies listed solely

in the Products and Lit Section. Page

numbers listed refer to the pages where

the articles begin.

Meltric Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

MICO Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Milwaukee Cylinder. . . . . . . . . . . . 90

NASA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8, 20, 54

NVIDIA Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Nuage Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95

Object Management Group. . . . 42

Parker Hannifin, Hose Products

Div. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Pittman Motors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

PolyOne Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Printed Electronics Test Center

Network. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Pryer Technology Group . . . . . . . 78

Purdue University . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Quickparts.com Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 94

Rexnord Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Rexnord Innovation Center . . . . 42

Rexnord Technical Services

(RTS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

SEMI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62

Saes Getters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Salem Design and

Manufacturing LLC . . . . . . . . . 70

Sandia National Laboratory . . . . 33

Sauer-Danfoss . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

Schott Systems GmbH . . . . . . . . . 95

Shepherd Controls & Associates 42

Simrit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Soraa Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

South Pole Neutrino

Observatory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47

Star Thermoplastics. . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Stratasys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

Struktol Company of America . . 96

Symbiosis Foundation . . . . . . . . . 60

Synchro-Mat Equipment Corp. . 40

Syntheon LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

T.A. Grimm & Associates Inc.. . . . 92

TE Connectivity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

TŬV SŬD America. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Tegra Medical . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Teledyne Continental Motors . . 40

Tripoli Rocket Association . . . . . . 54

U. S. Dept. of Energy . . . . . . . . . . . 62

UCIMU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

Workflow Management

Coalition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Xenon Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

AM General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

AMD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Aerospace Corp., The . . . . . . . . . . 48

Agilent Technologies Inc. . . . . . . 42

Air Force Research Lab . . . . . . . . . 54

Altuglas International,

Arkema Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Americhem Inc.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Ansys . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Assiot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Assofluid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

AutomationDirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

AutomationDirect . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Avnet Electronics Marketing . . . 44

Avnet Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

BPM.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Beswick Engineering Co. Inc. . . . 88

Bosch Rexroth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco,

Firearms, and Explosives . . . . 55

Cariboni. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Carroll High School . . . . . . . . . . . . 52

Chrysler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Comatrol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Congress of the Future of

Engineering Software . . . . . . . 48

Cymatix Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Danfoss Power Electronics . . . . . 42

Darpa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Delcam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Delta Computer Systems Inc. . . . 76

Deutsche Messe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Dunkermotor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6, 42

Elastocon TPE Technologies . . . . 96

European Space Agency . . . . . . . 20

Exair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

FAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

Fabco-Air. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88

Fabricating.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68

Federal Highway Administration 26

Federmacchine . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Fiera Milano . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Freudenberg Sealing Technologies

Academy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Freudenberg-NOK Sealing

Technologies . . . . . . . . . . . . 44, 50

Frost & Sullivan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Future Strategies Inc. . . . . . . . . . . 42

Gates Corp.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

Germanischer Lloyd . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Honeywell Sensing and Control 90

Ingersoll Rand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

International Harvester . . . . . . . . 40

Joy Global . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Kraiburg TPE Corp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

Luxology LLC . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94

MSC Nastran . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Mahle Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40


BUSINESS STAFF

1300 E. 9th St., Cleveland, OH 44114-1503, Ph: 216-696-7000 — Fax: 216-696-0177

Mike HancockInternational Sales Director,

[email protected]

Ph: 011-44-1372-824284,

Fax: 011-44-1372-824322

United Kingdom, Scandinavia, France, Spain, Portugal :

Stuart Payne, [email protected]

Ph: +44 (0)1932 564999

Fax: +44 (0)1932 564998

Belgium, Netherlands, Luxemburg:Rodric Leerling, rodric.leerling@

husonmedia.com, Ph:011-31-229-841882 ,

Mobile 31-683-232625,

Germany, Austria, and Switzerland: Christian Hoelscher,

[email protected]

Ph: 011-49-89-95002778,

Fax: 011-49-89-95002779

Italy: Cesare Casiraghi, Casiraghi Pubblicitá Estera,

Ph: 011-390-31-261407,

Fax: 011-390-31-261380

Tokyo, Japan: Yoshinori Ikeda,

Pacific Business, Inc.,

Ph: 011-81-03-3661-6138,

Fax: 011-81-03-3661-6139

Advertising Sales

AZ, CA, ID, OR, NV, UT, WA, British

Columbia: Jim Theriault,

[email protected],

Ph: 408-857-0322, Fax: 925-736-8705

AL, AR, FL, GA, KS, LA, NM, MS, MO, OK,

TX: Franny Singleton,

[email protected],

Ph: 678-947-8563, Fax: 913-514-6884

CO, IA, S. IN, KY, MN, MT, NE, ND,

S. OH, SD, TN, WI, WV, WY:

Dennis Jensen,

[email protected],

Ph: 952-368-0018, Fax: 913-514-6627

IL: Melinda Hurley,

[email protected],

Ph: 847-784-9825, Fax: 847-784-9826

N. IN, N. OH, MI, NY, PA, Ontario:

Bill Rodman,

[email protected],

Ph: 216-931-9636, Fax: 216-621-8469

DE, DC, MD, NJ, NC, SC, VA:

Brandy Bissell,

[email protected],

Ph: 919-773-1875, Fax: 913-514-6357

CT, ME, NH, MA, RI, VT, Quebec:

Liz Stott, [email protected],

Ph: 857-636-9737, Fax: 913-514-6914

Bill Baumann, Vice President/Market Leader

Dennis Jensen, Associate Publisher

Larry Berardinis, Business Development Director

Virginia Goulding, Online Sales & Marketing Manager

Julie Ritchie, Research Manager

Jane Maloney Cooper, Marketing Manager

Debbie Brady, Audience

Development Manager

Carey Sweeten,

Group Production Manager,

913-967-1823

Courtney Denison, Production Coordinator, 913-967-1738

Denise Donaldson, Administrative Manager/Sales Support

216-931-9403

Corporate OfficersBob MacArthur, Senior Vice President

Nicola Allais, CFO


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RS# 217RS# 216JUNE 14, 2012 MACHINE DESIGN.com 127

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Machine Design 14 June 2012

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